The 1981 Listening Post - Tom Tom Club - Tom Tom Club

 Tom Tom Club - Tom Tom Club

#503

By Tom Mott

October 1981

Tom Tom Club

Tom Tom Club

GENRE post-disco new wave

Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5

Tom’s Rating: 4.6 out of 5

Highlights:

Wordy Rappinghood

Genius of Love

L'éléphant

I love this album. I've had it for years--exept that initially, I had it on cassette, so it included Under the Boardwalk instead of Booming and Zooming.

The sounds of GENIUS OF LOVE blasting out of giant boom boxes in 1981-82 was astonishing. Those sounds! Those weird Fat Albert cartoon voices! (Double Dutch Bus had the same effect on me.) These are the sounds that I followed into the 90s. Drums, syncopation, percussion, grooves. I'll take this over *later* Talking Heads (Little Creatures, True Stories) any day. When grunge hit big, I went in the opposite direction into funk, disco, hip-hop, dance music, French pop, and oldies.

This is half of the Talking Heads, along with some members of their touring band (Adrian Belew!), and Tina Weymouth's sisters, heading to the Bahamas for a breath of fresh air and the chance to have fun making music together. And that's exactly what it sounds like. It was recorded at the same Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas that Grace Jones's 80 & 81 albums were recorded, and it has a similar vibe -- that funky, sexy, slinky, spacey mashup of funk, new wave, reggae, and polyrhythms. The main difference is that Grace Jones's albums are more mannered and have more space. This one just sounds like they're relaxing and enjoying making music together. Steven Stanley--the co-producer, engineer & mixer--gets a co-writing credit on half the songs, which feels like a very generous, deserved move. (Not something David Byrne would've done.)

Under the Boardwalk vs Booming and Zooming: Under the Boardwalk sounds like Grace Jones hooked up with Bananarama. It's infectious and sweet. Booming and Zooming is far weirder: radio transmissions from a space cowboy over a new wave beat. It sounds like they heard "Spaced Cowboy" by Sly Stone and had a kooky idea that almost works. 

I didn't know what "Bohannon Bohannon Bohannon Bohannon" meant, and then 10 years later, I was in Tower Records on Sunset and came across Bohannon's Greatest Hits and it clicked. What a thrill! (And yeah--I hit the jackpot. That's a killer album.) Thank you, Tom Tom Club!

Also, I didn't list Lorelei as a highlight, but check it out if you don't know it. If the Jetson's maid Rosie had a band, it would've sounded like this. Those sounds! ❤

https://open.spotify.com/album/5WKUL88usO5Y8cfbh2EQdu?si=vjs2TjgGRVK21yGv-jbS8w