Reviewed by Chris Roberts
Released: April 30 1982 A Flock Of Seagulls A Flock Of Seagulls (U.S. version) Genre: Tweets Against The Machine Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Chris’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Highlights: I Ran (So Far Away) Space Age Love Song Telecommunication Modern Love Is Automatic D.N.A. Previous to hearing A Flock of Seagulls self-titled debut, everything I knew about the band was based on their video for “I Ran (So Far Away).” I’d pinned the whole of their success on their weird band name and vocalist Mike Score’s even weirder Hawkman-styled hair. Jules Winnfield (Samuel Jackson) cemented my assessment in Pulp Fiction. And watching the video again? Wow, it’s low budget. Even for 1982, it looks cheap. But A Flock of Seagulls, the album, does not feel cheap, and the weirdness is more than welcome. The album is great fun and sounds fantastic. I read online that Phil Spector was a fan, and some critics compared the album’s sonics to the Wall of Sound. I don’t know about that, but for me, it worked. A Flock of Seagull’s multi-layered synth effects (you’ve heard them on “I Ran”… that freaky alien opening!) provide the lush foundation for a science-fiction synth pop masterpiece of 80’s technophobia: loaded with AI romance, femme-bots, flying saucers hiding in the clouds, alien codes, assimilation and annihilation. My favorite track is the lovely and disarming “A Space Age Love Song” (which made the US charts as a single, and still pops up on New Wave playlists). It follows opener “I Ran.” Gorgeous, sweet, and hiding the science-fiction in plain sight (the title). I could try to convince you that the lines, “I saw your eyes/And you touched my mind,” are not about falling in love at all; the girl in THIS “love” song has brain-powers, and “she” (it’s the same girl on the avenue with auburn hair and tawny eyes of “I Ran”) is not to be trusted—she’s not even human! But it’s too late for that. By the third song, “You Can Run,” we’re in full Battlestar Galactica mode, wondering if Mike Score might even be a Cylon. It would perhaps explain the hair. I also loved the 1-2 punch of Side B. First, there’s “Telecommúnication,” which opens like Depeche Mode played on a broken Fisher-Price piano, but transforms into a propulsive, snappy dance single. That’s followed by the harrowing first minutes of “Modern Love Is Automatic.” A lost classic from AFOS’ 1981 debut EP, it’s about the forbidden love between a robot (the “automatics”) and an alien, of course. A “science fiction” concept album might seem too scary, don’t worry—there’s no twenty-minute “it’s full of stars” prog wanking. AFOS is 100% soylent green with no bi-products. Even the ninth track instrumental, “DNA,” is a showcase for AFOS talents (so much so that it won them a Grammy). The longest song is the closing dirge, “Man Made,” which clocks in under six minutes. It’s pretty much the opening scrawl from The Terminator set to music. Album cover digression. Brightly colored and oddly rendered (plus a little dated), at first glance, I found it off putting. I now see it’s tied into the concept, and it keeps me looking. I sort of wondered if the four seagulls were added at the record company’s request, but I noticed they’re also on the band’s latest work, Ascension. [1] I was hoping to get my hands on a vinyl copy, mostly to check out the back cover and sleeve and search for additional alien/robot secrets. In an even greater digression (and as some of you may already know), my favorite album from 2019 was Blood Incantation’s “Hidden History of the Human Race,” also a science-fiction themed masterpiece, but caution—it’s death metal instead of new wave. The Blood Incantation vinyl package is insane—50s vintage cover (by Bruce Pennington, no less) but also a faux xeroxed leaflet/zine that would convince even Agent Scully that the truth is out there. I imagine the Seagulls would approve. ********** 1. A 2018 album, where the original four bandmates play their biggest hits (including all the highlights listed above) along with Prague Philharmonic. I enjoyed the grandiose performance as a momentary distraction, if you like AFOS it’s worth at least one listen.
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