Revolutionary Suicide is the twenty-ninth solo album by Julian Cope, released on 20 May 2013, on Cope's own Head Heritage label.
The album shows a strong folk influence, continuing and expanding on the musical style of Cope's side project Black Sheep, as well as earlier solo albums such as Skellington (1989) and Autogeddon (1994). Retaining the acoustic guitars and large marching bass drum of the Black Sheep material, the sound on Revolutionary Suicide is supplemented by analogue monosynths, Mellotrons, synthesized strings and horns, and programmed rhythms.
Revolutionary Suicide is split between two CDs despite having a total running time that would fit on one disc.
Themes and musical style
The album is named after Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton’s autobiography. Explaining the album title, Cope told Uncut magazine, "What is revolutionary suicide? For me, it’s Hunter S. Thompson, a practitioner of Western thought to the max, who did all he could and quit honourably [i.e. committed suicide]. It’s the idea of ultimate freedom. In a secular country, where we’re all supposed to be our own Pope, surely we can also be our own hangman if it gets too much?"
