Martha and the Muffins - This is the Ice Age
#487
October 22 1981
Martha and the Muffins
This Is the Ice Age
Genre: New Wave but more…
4.25 out of 5
Highlights:
Swimming
This is the Ice Age
One Day in Paris
Three Hundred Years/Chemistry
Third time’s a damned charm for Martha and her Muffins. And that’s saying something since their first two albums were pretty strong. With Ice Age we are introduced to a new producer b y the name of Daniel Lanois. Know him and love him, this Canadian would push pop music into territories unheard of and bring us some of the most exciting sounds of the 80s. But he gets his start here.
And you can hear it. Pushing the New Wave pop into more and more experimental places each song makes the album richer. This is because of the strength of Lanois. I can hear the more pop elements of the tunes as the skeletons of these songs but they are layered with such delicious arrangements and elements that are evocative without being off-putting. “Casualties of Glass” is playing in that Romeo Void territory which just validates that Iyall and Co. were on to something and it was the future.
We get a taste of the pop M+M in “You Sold the Cottage” but this album is more of a statement than that. It seems to take its inspiration more from Eno and Kate Bush than the pop New Wave tropes of the day.
This album is supposed to wash over you, it’s better to lay on a couch with headphones and let it happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnUDRtPAWsE&list=PLlvn8uktX5LvCZnx2VvWXBvBJSBDzzUZ4
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