In Praise of Learning

Recorded at Virgin's Manor studios in February and March 1975 and released in May, it was made after Slapp Happy and Henry Cow had worked together on Desperate Straights. Moore and Blegvad left once it was done. It is Henry Cow's most overtly political album. The back cover carries filmmaker John Grierson's line that art is not a mirror but a hammer, and the title comes from a Brecht poem.

Krause sings Tim Hodgkinson's Living in the Heart of the Beast, Moore and Blegvad's War and Cutler and Frith's Beautiful as the Moon, Terrible as an Army with Banners. Lake of Melody Maker called it the album of the year. Ian MacDonald of the NME wrote that it was the group's most extreme and most accessible album so far. Robert Christgau said that Krause's abrasively arty, Weill-derived singing found a context for the words. The sleeve is by Ray Smith, who was left off the credits of the original LP.