These Scottish mope-rockers' sordid, seductively bleak studio albums make Morrissey seem as giddy as The Monkees. So when it comes to a live album, well, let's put it this way, Mad for Sadness isn't exactly KISS Alive. But the lack of drum solos, explosions and banal between-song patter doesn't make this 1998 performance from singer Aidan Moffat, guitarist Malcolm Middleton and a backing trio any less transfixing than the biggest rock spectacle. If anything, quite the opposite. Moffat's embarrassingly frank tales of drunken longing, unsatisfying sex and romantic dysfunction -- delivered in a heavily accented deadpan somewhere between a hungover confession and a depressed monologue -- are as captivating as a car wreck, especially when set against the rippling waves of sparsely beautiful melody woven by the band. Unlike most live discs, where you can hear the punters yakking and hooting below the music, this London crowd sounds as cowed as if Moffat had a gun on them. Come to think, that might be less intimidating.

Track Listing 1.Intro/My Favourite Muse
  02.Packs Of Three
  03.New Birds
  04.Toy Fights
  05.Here We Go
  06.Phone Me Tomorrow
  07.Girls Of Summer
  08.Piglet
  09.Blood
  10.Afterwards