The 1982 Listening Post - A Flock of Seagulls - A Flock of Seagulls

 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.

The 1986 Listening Post - A Flock of Seagulls - Dream Come True

A Flock of Seagulls - Dream Come True

#105/1271

March 1986

A Flock of Seagulls

Dream Come True

Genre: SynthPop

1.75 out of 5

Why are they playing violins on the cover? Do they think we will all forget that they are the quintessential representation of 80s synthetic music? 

The world is changing and the Seagulls aren’t able to keep up. Is this dance? Is it New Wave? 

This is insipid and trite and I really want Mike Score to go away.

If you get to the end you’ll hear what’s wrong with these guys. The last song “Whole Lot of Loving” sees them mining the same territory that has already been covered and left in the dust by Wham!. It’s second rate Wham. That’s never good. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/dream-come-true/295497523

The 1984 Listening Post - A Flock of Seagulls - The Story of a Young Heart

A Flock of Seagulls - The Story of a Young Heart

#221

August 1984

A Flock of Seagulls

The Story of a Young Heart

2.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Remember David

The good news is that the songs are boring AND they seem to go forever. Hooray!

Has there ever been a band that has so vastly overstayed their welcome at the party? Mike Score and his buddies should’ve ghosted the music scene a long time before this. YOU CAN’T KEEP SINGING “THIS IS THE STORY OF A YOUNG HEART” OVER AND OVER IF YOU NEVER TELL ANY STORY!!!!

“Remember David” is the closest we get to the “I Ran” version of Seagulls, it’s welcome but it’s the Side Two opener followed by the drivingly retro New Wave “Over My Head”. so it takes forever to get there. The album could’ve used a LOT more of that.

A Flock of Seagulls had their time but they aren’t adding anything to their story.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-story-of-a-young-heart/295506962

The 1983 Listening Post - A Flock of Seagulls - Listen

A Flock of Seagulls - Listen

#91
May 1983
A Flock of Seagulls
Listen
2.5 out of 5

Highlights:
Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)
Is This the Fall

man, this really reminds me of Neon Trees at their most boring. And they seem to have finally given up. I wish Flock had decided to do the same. Sometime in the middle of recording this borefest.