The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge
August 8, 1983
The Chameleons
Script of the Bridge
4.25 out of 5
Highlights:
Don’t Fall
Monkeyland
Up the Down Escalator
Thursday’s Child
A Person isn’t Safe Anywhere These Days
View from a Hill
Well, this is a new one for me. I’ve never even heard of The Chameleons. Is this The Cure? Are they Joy Division?
This is dark and moody and fits so perfectly into the time it was made. I’m listening to it in my dining room, in the dark and reminiscing
about so many college girls I knew personally or peripherally, who were bedecked in dark flowing blouses, black and white stockings, severe makeup and jet black, perfectly tousled hair.
Going back to The Cure and Joy Division comment. Weird that I typed that and went back to Wikipedia and saw that there is a reference to those two bands…but, this album takes the elements I loved from each, dark, percussive, moody soundscapes and builds on them to create a soundtrack to the gothiest prom that never was.
If you ask me why they never reached the heights of either of the aforementioned? I couldn’t fully answer. But I would start with, hey, guys, pushing 60 minutes on your debut?? Come on. Don’t wear me out. You could’ve held back 3 songs for a future EP and probably had a bit more success. But, also, that you sound like you would be no fun to hang out with or date could also be the problem. As a friend, you might depress me and as a suitor I can imagine that I would grow weary of trying to fix you.
It’s the excess that prevents me from giving this record a higher grade.
