The 1982 Listening Post - Asia - Asia

 Reviewed by Stephen Romone Lewis

Released: March 18 1982 Asia Asia Genre: Pop Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5 Stephen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Highlights: Heat Of The Moment Only Time Will Tell One Step Closer Here Comes The Feeling Prog rock is like Taco Bell. People either love it or they hate it. Also, Taco Bell uses only 7 ingredients but has 30,000 menu items and prog rock uses only 7 guys but has 30,000 bands. As of 10/1/21 the 4 original members of Asia have collectively played in 46 of those 30,000 bands. They paid dues with prog-rock powerhouses Yes, ELP and King Crimson, as well as, The Buggles, Roxy Music, and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. If you hate prog rock then you will love Asia’s eponymous debut because this is the “prog” album that nearly killed prog. How? With hits. Legit hits like “Only Time Will Tell” and “Heat of the Moment” and the AOR hit “One Step Closer”. I don’t mind prog bands having hits. Genesis went pop and had a lucrative, and well deserved, post Peter Gabriel career. A year after Asia hit the charts, Yes reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Owner of a Lonely Heart”. I could not be happier about that. My problem with Asia having hits is: hits make money and, sing it with me now, “Money changes everything!” Geffen record executives put many Colombian drug lord’s children through college on the success of “Heat of the Moment”. Non-Geffen record executives like cocaine too. They called all the prog bands on their rosters and demanded hits. “No more 15 part 40 minute songs! No more songs with incomprehensible titles. No more rocking out on classical music. No more songs with gong solos!” Once the industry got it stuck in their pinheads that prog bands could actually make them money and not just earn them a little prestige, things got tough for prog bands. According to Wikipedia’s Timeline of Progressive Rock there were 48 progressive albums released worldwide in 1980. That number dropped to 36 the year after Asia’s debut and then wallowed in the low 30s for a decade. The bean-counters couldn’t take the odd time signatures away from King Crimson, but they could keep prog from reaching the pressing plant. I don’t blame Asia for that. I’ve heard it suggested that John Wetton, Steve Howe, Geoff Downes and Carl Palmer made a calculated effort to go commercial. I doubt it. Except for “Heat of the Moment” all the songs on their debut are longer than four minutes: a pop radio programmer’s no no. And, if they could just conjure up hits by force of will, wouldn’t they have done it again. Asia went on to have the same number of chart toppers as Captain Beefheart and G. G. Allen. I’m thinking the success of the album Asia by Asia was a fluke. So how does Asia’s debut sound? Great! The first side is a collection of poppy tunes tinged with clever musical flourishes like Carl Palmer’s stuttering drums in the fade out to “Heat of the Moment” or Steve Howe’s guitar flourishes throughout. It’s clear the band has chops, and the non-hits nestle themselves in your ear after a second listen. There’s no single on side two, but the tunes rock with the exception of hair-metal ballad “Without You”. It wraps up with the arena-friendly, hold-up-your-lighter-and-sway anthem “Here Comes the Feeling”. I just have to sing-a-long. LONG LIVE ROCK-N-ROCK IN ALL ITS GLORIOUS FORMS!

The 1982 Listening Post - Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel (AKA Peter Gabriel 4, AKA Security)

 Reviewed by Scott Arciniegas

Released: September 6 1982 Peter Gabriel Peter Gabriel (AKA Peter Gabriel 4, AKA Security) Genre: Peter Gabriel Allen's Rating: 4 out of 5 Scott's Rating: 4.75 out of 5 Highlights: The Rhythm Of The Heat I Have The Touch The Family And The Fishing Net Lay Your Hands On Me Wallflower I, like Peter Gabriel, can make things entirely too complicated. I have been sitting on this review for like 2 months: starting it, stopping; abandoning it and starting over; listening and re-listening to the album, as if it has ever gone out of my heavy rotation since I first bought it on vinyl in 1983 (I can listen to it note-for-note in my head and, for the final write-up of this review, actually did); doing research and dredging my memory for conversations between myself and my prog-rock-obsessed older brother (who was more of a Rush fan than a Genesis/Peter Gabriel guy, but still, much love and respect, Dave)… This ain’t that hard. This album was Peter Gabriel’s fourth solo album, and the fourth to be titled “Peter Gabriel”. Geffen Records didn’t like that, so they changed it to Security in the US. Peter Gabriel didn’t like being on Geffen, so once he broke free and started his own label, Real World Records, which he used to shine a spotlight on a whole slew of artists from around the world, hopefully putting some money in their pockets (and his) in the process. On his first four albums, Gabriel evolved, from too-theatrical-to-be-really-listenable prog-rock wunderkind and front man, to a rock artist with a penchant for stories, but also possessed of pop chops that produced the occasional “Salisbury Hill” or “Games Without Frontiers”; he still had a flair for the theatrical, sure, and would dabble in orchestral interludes or almost jazzy pieces, but at his heart he was an English guy who made artsy rock music with a literary and sometimes political bent. With Peter Gabriel [4: Security] (as it’s known I certain circles), he takes a great evolutionary leap forward. The theatrical flourishes become fully cinematic, both in narrative and arrangement, telling stories that paint vivid celluloid scenes in the viewer’s minds’ eyes. There is the opening track, “The Rhythm of the Heat,” apparently an exploration of Jungian something or other. My psychology studies went particularly neuro-based, so if I’m honest I don’t much go in for that Jungian junk. But this song, a journey to the center of the listener’s mind, I can get into: Smash the radio (no outside voices here) Smash the watch (cannot tear the day to shreds) Smash the camera (cannot steal away the spirits) The rhythm has his soul, maaaaan, and when the Ekome Dance company comes in with a pounding Ghanaian rhythm that drives the song into a frenzy and comes crashing down into the stillness before the second track—well, if it didn’t also stir something in you, you might wanna just cleanse your palette with a Power Pop record and do something else with the next 40 minutes. About that second track, “San Jacinto”: it’s a story told by Gabriel of a Native American man going back to the Res and observing the co-opting of his culture by the ever-encroaching White Man and by Capitalism. Is that ironic? Only kinda, as Peter Gabriel is English, not America. So yeah, sure, it is. Is this cultural appropriation? Probably. Is it a good song? Kinda, yeah; paints a really vivid picture and points the listener’s sympathies in the right direction. Would it be okay for a White Man who isn’t Peter Gabriel to release this song today? Probably not. Luckily—or not, depending on your perspective—Peter Gabriel released this song in 1982. Welcome to The Listening Post. “I Have the Touch” is about as close to a regular rock song as you’re going to find on this record, but thanks to this album’s top-notch prog rhythm section of Tony Levin on stick bass—he next-levls every record he appears on—and Jerry Marotta on drum kit, along with the call-and-response between Gabriel’s lead vocals and the backup: it’s a banger. “The Family and the Fishing Net”: at first listen this closer to Side 1 seems another piece of ethnographic exoticism, a recounting of the strange matrimonial rites of some alien tribe. The music, and especially the ever-building and eventually straight-up wailing backup vocals reiterate this sense of the strange and exotic. A close analysis of the lyrics reveals the strange tribe to be us, the curious wedding rituals the same ones we’ve attended many times. We were the strange tribe all along! It’s a little Twilight Zone, sure, but hell, I like the Twilight Zone. Side 2 opens with “Shock the Monkey.” Nobody doesn’t know this track. My only criticism is that I’ve heard it too many times, but one can hardly blame Peter Gabriel for rock radio’s unwillingness to dig deep. I always thought the song was about vivisection, based on the last shot of the music video, I suppose, but a little reading informs me that it’s about jealousy. Huh. That works too. “Lay Your Hands On Me”: Gabriel talks his way through the verses (albeit in a rhythmic talking that is doesn’t feel like he’s trying to rap, thankfully), and sings the refrain; and then, again, there’s that call-and-response chorus that Gabriel does so well. The song structure is an ancestor of the “loud quiet loud” thing that the Pixies would later make famous, and the drama it imparts makes this track feel like the soundtrack to a nonexistent short film, no doubt the winner of an imaginary BAFTA award). On “Wallflower” Gabriel continues the work he began with “Biko” (1980), and that he would continue until he became one of the world’s most famous activists for political prisoners and Amnesty International: Though you may disappear You’re not forgotten here And I will say to you I will do what I can do Well, you gotta hand it to him. He totally did. And made a moving track in the process. The album closer is “Kiss of Life”: it’s a big, rousing rack about … a big woman? Dancing? Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation? Yes, all three. It’s got banging drums, huge synth flourishes (that I’m sure some of this group’s synth haters will take exception to), Tony Levin Tony Levin-ing it up like crazy. When the final note strikes and reverberates and fades to nothing, you’re left wanting for nothing. Does this album take itself seriously? It does. It’s a Peter Gabriel album. Serious is kind of his thing. But it brings serious musicians together, making complex songs, telling vivid tales through visual language that lets the listener see the whole thing in their mind’s and a feel in in their hearts and/or their feet. It is a great record. And that, Listening Post listeners, is the simple version of my album review.

The 1982 Listening Post - The Cure - Pornography

 Reviewed by Jim Coursey

Released: May 4 1982 The Cure Pornography Genre: Psychedelic Goth Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5 Jim’s Rating: 5 out of 5 Highlights: One Hundred Years A Short Term Effect Siamese Twins The Figurehead Allen's Additional Highlights: The Hanging Garden “I know for a fact that we recorded some of the songs in the toilets to get a really horrible feeling, because the toilets were dirty and grim.” - Robert Smith, Rolling Stone, 6/18/04 “It doesn't matter if we all die Ambition in the back of a black car In a high building there is so much to do Going home time, story on the radio.” Over the course of their career, The Cure have covered as many moods and styles as Eve has faces, but “Pornography” establishes itself as their heaviest, most despairing, and most singular album from its outset. If the druggy, whirling guitars, thundering drums, and sinister bassline of “One Hundred Years” isn’t evidence enough, then those opening lyrics Robert Smith wails seal the deal. The third in a progression of albums with hazy, indistinct cover art, the searing red of “Pornography” heralds its sharp tonal shift from the previous albums’ fade to grey. The Cure abandons the minimalism of their previous albums: gone is the tight, sharp pop punk of “Three Imaginary Boys” and the meandering stoicism of “Faith.” “Pornography” is a defining album of the goth canon. Here The Cure amped up its angst to match the dark energy of Bauhaus or The Birthday Party, while running it all through more flanger and delay pedals than Siouxsie could shake a stick at. Only the relatively gentle, measured “Siamese Twins” harkens back to the previous album’s tone. The rest of the disc plays like a tiny mouse casting a towering shadow -- a modest three piece has been transformed into a hulking giant through muscular performances and a cavernous reverb. The darkness of “Pornography” obscures the fact that this is in fact a heavily psychedelic album, made clear in songs like “A Short Term Effect,” which is replete with murky Arabesque guitars and vocals that are so effect-laden the spiral downwards into the abyss. Whether or not this album was a commercial success, it surely was a boon to digital effects manufacturers. Reportedly the band was drunk and tripping for most of the sessions, not to mention overworked, but their state of mind was captured perfectly by producer Phil Thornalley. (Thornalley’s work would help usher in their forthcoming moodswing on the positively buoyant follow-up single “The Lovecats”, which he not only produced but also played its famous stand up bass line.) It’s hard to pick highlights, as for me the entire album is strong. It becomes impenetrably heavy in the final cut (the album’s title track), but the song is nonetheless thematically fulfilling. Beyond that, the album lacks an obvious single. While the band would prove its mettle as a singles act by the time the 1986 compilation “Standing on a Beach” was released, “Faith” and “Pornography” traded artistic vision for viable standout tracks. Neither 81’s “Primary” or 82’s “The Hanging Garden” matches the stunning non-album single “Charlotte Sometimes,” and are to my mind their weakest singles of their first decade. “The Hanging Garden” is a good track, with its martial beat and crisper sound, but I find both “A Short Term Effect” and “A Strange Day” to be catchier. That said, I can’t fault the band for its more daring choice. “Pornography” is perhaps the band’s ugliest album, but if you don’t mind wallowing the horror. it's one of their most distinct and fulfilling. Ask me to name my favorite Cure album and my answer will change with the day, with “Head on the Door” and “Standing on a Beach” (cassette version with the B-Sides) as other contenders. It’s not as forgiving as “Faith” or rich or mature as “Disintegration”, but it hits harder than either the former’s funereal walkabout or the latter’s finely texured soundscapes. The band imploded in the course of making it, which no doubt makes it an uncomfortable listen, but it’s drummer/keyboardist Lol Tolhurst’s favorite Cure album, and I can’t disagree.

The 1982 Listening Post - Dire Straits - Love Over Gold

 Reviewed by Timothy Sprague

Released: September 24 1982 Dire Straits Love Over Gold Genre: Classic Rock Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5 Tim’s Rating: 5 out of 5 Highlights: Telegraph Road Private Investigations Industrial Disease Love Over Gold It Never Rains It’s been too long since I have revisited Mark Knopfler’s simply wonderful guitar playing, which I pretty much took for granted during the 1980s because Dire Straits were such an AOR mainstay. His unmistakable sound really hits the spot when you need a strong dose of masterful git-picking and Love Over Gold does not disappoint. As I started work on this review I was listening to the album on YouTube but that was just not doing it justice, so I purchased a proper copy on the iTunes store. If that can be considered “proper.” Truth be told I am running out of shelf space for records and CDs so have gone digital with a lot of purchases and I’m not a fan of streaming services. Being assigned to review this album was a good excuse to fork over $9.99 for a Dire Straits album for the first time since I purchased Brothers In Arms in high school, one of the first clear cassettes I ever owned. It seemed really futuristic at the time. The magnum opus Telegraph Road gets things underway, clocking in at just over 14 minutes with layered piano and organ creating a sumptuous backdrop for Knopfler’s raspy storytelling. He lets if fly on his Shecter Strat to magnificent effect and the song feels like it ends too soon, despite it’s length. Private Investigations follows and Mark gets a chance to show off his acoustic prowess for a bit before the album’s hit Industrial Disease. This song always put a smile on my face when it would come on the radio and features another signature Dire Straits sound, the whirling organ of Alan Clark. Clark is no slouch as a musician himself and has an extensive list of credits that includes playing on albums by Bob Dylan, Phil Collins, Pet Shop Boys, Al Green, Jon Anderson and Lou Reed, as well as arranging Tina Turner’s smash hit Private Dancer, written by Knopfler for this album but left unused because he thought it needed a woman’s voice instead of his. Knofler’s production throughout this album is top notch with great little touches like the vibes on the title track. Full disclosure … I loves me some vibes! Another long track, It Never Rains, closes out the album and, as it finishes, I get a little sad that it’s only 41 minutes long. They truly do not make ‘em like this any more. Love Over Gold is a testament to the craftsmanship that bands used to put into their albums. Yes, I know I sound like a fossil but is there a young guitarist out there who even comes close to what we hear on this record? It makes me long for the lost days when being good at playing an instrument was more admired than how many tattoos a musician has. The grace. The subtlety. Attenton to detail. Dynamics. Love Over Gold has all of them in spades. I just can’t find anything I don’t like about this one. Damn it! Now I gotta buy the rest of the DS catalog at the iTunes store. At least I don’t have to get in the car to purchase music these days, so there’s that.

The 1982 Listening Post - Bobb Trimble - Harvest of Dreams

 Reviewed by Tom Mott / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: December 16 1982 Bobb Trimble Harvest of Dreams Genre: Obscure Psychedelic Folk! Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5 Tom’s Rating: 5 out of 5 Highlights: (everything!) Bobb Trimble ... ? Huh. Never heard of him. PUT ON THE FIRST TRACK. DO IT! PLEASE! "Premonitions - The Fantasy" . . . Are you listening to it yet? PUT IT ON! . . . I am completely bonkers hooked. Strummy folk guitar, Harmonica, a synth whistling, high vocals. Reverb, echo, weirdness, mesmerizing beauty. It sounds like ... > Russel Mael as a folk singer > Demo tracks for the Millennium's "Begin" (1968) > A second lost album by Ted Lucas ("Ted Lucas" 1975) > A deep cut from T. Rex when they were still Tyrannasaurus Rex > A Big Star obscurity, if Chris Bell sang falsetto > An early Salvation Army/Three O'Clock demo > Klaatu, if Klaatu was a little fucked up > Thunderclap Newman on acid Track 2 "If Words Were All I Had" is a tad too medieval for my taste, but still lovely. Donovan sucking on helium. Track 3 "The World I Left Behind" is 1:18 of silence. On AllMusic, it's not silence but 2:58 of tape hiss. I'm giving him a pass here. Track 4 "Armour of the Shroud" starts with a tape recorder click, a recorded voice telling us if we want to make a call, please hang up and try again, followed by a busy signal. Guitars, layered spooky voices buried way in the background, maracas (an immediate +1 for me), and what sounds like a kids' xylophone. Dreamy. If we stop here, this album gets a 5. ------------------------------------- INTERLUDE/ASIDE #1: The MKL (Most Knowledgable Listeners) of who I am not, will know that Bobb Trimble released two albums in limited editions of 300 apiece, and had a backing band called The Kidds which included kids aged 11-14 years old--until their parents questioned why their kids were spending all their time making "weird" music with this adult. This is one of those holy grails of obscure psychedelic folk collectors. INTERLUDE/ASIDE #2: The OKL (Other Knowledgable Listeners) will connect the dots between this and later artists. Neutral Milk Hotel, Joanna Newsom -- accordingly to AllMusic. I don't know enough here. Elucidate! INTERLUDE/ASIDE #3: Thanks to modern streaming algorithms, I was very recently introduced to Ted Lucas's 1975 psychedelic folk album, and I love it. This is in that same "psychedelic folk" space that I didn't really know existed, but of course it does. Rule 34 applied to music. Too Dead-ish for some, but Lucas writes deceptively simple, pretty songs (think: Moondog as a folkie) and does some lovely self-harmonizing. Check it out! ------------------------------------- Track 4: Album still gets a 5. Track 5: Wait, wha-?? This is Track 1 repeated, but mixed slightly differently. The whistling synth is gone. It's a little less dense. Nearly identical though, like when the Stones give you the Glyn Johns alternate mix of a song. The song is good enough I'm happy to hear it again. Album still gets a 5. Track 6: Some kids talking. His backing band? Album still gets a 5. ------------------------------------- INTERLUDE/ASIDE #4: The album is beautiful. And unsettling. Drug music! ------------------------------------- Track 7: Still a strong song, but like too many Madness songs in a row, I'm slipping a twee bit ... until that whacked-out super-fuzzed guitar appears out of nowhere. Whoa! WTF! Brilliant! Track 8: The first outlier: A 2-minute blast of rough garage rock by his young bandmates. Overlaid with backwards-tracked instruments and backwards kids' voices. And star chimes. Shaggs-like live singing and thudding away at drums. ------------------------------------- INTERLUDE/ASIDE #5: Track 8 reminds me of my old band Legion of Rock Stars. We wore sound-blocking earphones and sang/played along to songs without being able to hear ourselves at all. Always out of key, and always in sync! ------------------------------------- Track 9: Back to the lovely, languid, sleep psychedelia. Track 10: The second outlier: a more agressive, angular song. At least for the first minute! And then back to psychedelic found sounds, maracas, echo, reverb, layered voices, and whistles. The Wrap-Up: I did not know this album existed. It's fantastic. It's going into heavy rotation over here. Accessible Psychedelic Sunshine Pop-Folk!

The 1982 Listening Post - Men Without Hats - Rhythm of Youth

Reviewed by Chris Roberts/Rob Slater Released: March 20 1982 Men Without Hats Rhythm Of Youth Chris' Genre: Anti-Hat, Dancing Rights Imbecile Anthems Rob's Genre: Devo’d Bowie Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5 Chris’ Rating: 3 out of 5 Rob's Rating: 4.25 out of 5 Chris' Highlights: The Great Ones Remember I Got The Message The Safety Dance (original version) I Like Rob's Highlihgts: Ban The Game Living In China The Great Ones Remember I Got The Message The Safety Dance Things In My Life The Great Ones Remember - Reprise [Allen's Note: This has never happened before. I inadvertently assigned a record twice. I really don't know how that happened. But, for you reading pleasure, here are two Listening Poster's takes on Men Without Hats.] Chris Robert's Review: Rhythm of Youth improved over a few listens, but I don’t recommend the album as it appears on the streamers, the CD or 90% of the vinyl versions. The best way to hear this album is the original release, before it was retooled to take advantage of Men Without Hats monster hit, “The Safety Dance.” I won’t say any version of Rhythm of Youth is particularly great. But the original version of Rhythm of Youth at least had a plan. The original song sequence clarifies certain musical themes: the snippet of tinkling piano from “Ban The Game” ties into “Cocoricci (Le Tango Des Voleurs”) at the end of Side A; and brings out the highlights (“The Great Ones Remember,” “I Like,” and “I Got The Message”) that get lost and overwhelmed by the smash dancefloor-awareness hit. These songs taste a little like Depeche Mode’s Speak & Spell bubblegum, or a Telex missive— enough for a couple spins. (The retooled version includes two versions of TSD. The first SD you’ll encounter begins with an unnecessary “unplugged” vocal prelude, and makes the album drag after less than a minute.) On many songs, Ivan Doroschuk’s baritone and lyrics suggest the Hats strived for greater importance—I find them hard to take seriously. Considering that “The Safety Dance” is just a negative Yelp review for the local discotheque: “They were so rude and stupid! They wouldn’t let us Hats flail around like well-dressed, new wave aliens! We would give them ZERO stars if we could!” Meanwhile, they refused to dress appropriately for the Canadian winters. “Wake up sheeple!” they’d say. “A real man doesn’t wear a hat!” In the end, the Hats themselves are just a footnote to “The Safety Dance,” which bafflingly grows in stature over the years. Not only is “The Safety Dance” the new battle cry of the vax nation (Alaska Airlines ad: “if your friends don’t mask, and IF they don’t mask, well they can’t fly this airline”) but no less than indie pop darling Angel Olsen has included her “serious” version of “The Safety Dance” on her latest EP. I prefer the dancefloor grievances of the original SD, but now that this review is over, I’m probably done with any version of this song for a couple decades. *********************** Rob Slater's Review: I was very surprised how much I liked this album. The songs I like best are catchy and not quite as much synthesizer focused: "Ban the Game." I love this intro song, sort of cinematic. Then the gigantic hit, "The Safety Dance." Who does not get this stuck in their head. I think I may have “hated” it when it came out. I was a snob for anything but my musical tastes, which were pretty eclectic. Then "Living in China" sounds like a David Bowie tune. What year did "China Girl" come out?" "The Great Ones Remember" is a Great One, but I've noticed, specifically with this song, that once he starts singing, I immediately like it a lot better. If the intros were only about 10 to 15 seconds it would be fine. This intro was 35 seconds. For some reason I like the intro for "I Got the Message" better. This may be my third favorite song. Kind of Devo with more music and less monotony. It is repetitive, but for some reason I don't mind it as much and I stopped consciously listening about halfway through. Then the French lyrics started and it was more interesting. Yet “Cocoricci” is really meh for me, despite the French.. I really love, "Things in My Life," that again sounds like Bowie. The rest are all meh, until the reprise of "The Great Ones Remember." It’s as great as the actual song. Nice closer.

The 1982 Listening Post - Middle Class - Homeland

 Reviewed by Allen Lulu / Tom Mott & Jim Coursey

Released: 1982 Middle Class Homeland Allen's Genre: Post Rock Tom's Genre: Gothy Post-Punk Jim's Genre: Post-Punk Allen's Rating: 4 out of 5 Tom's Rating: 4.2 out of 5 Jim’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Allen's Highlights: A Skeleton At The Feast Listen Tom & Jim's Highlights: The Call Listen Mosque (minus the lyrics) ********** (Ed. Note: Tom & Jim reviewed this album after Allen had already reviewed it. Shit happens. All reviews are included) ********** Allen's Review: Sometimes, when it comes to the “Housekeeping” albums (the one for which we have no dates, so I do them at my leisure … and your annoyance) I push one down the list because, man I’m just not in the mood for … say … post-rock. Or any genre that isn’t hitting me that day. So, when I saw this categorized as “punk” I just wasn’t up for it. Instead I went into the booth and plugged in and played some really shitty distorted mess of a guitar to a bunch of … punk songs. Partially because I’m trying to write a song and I’m at the chorus and my brain doesn’t want to work and also, to get me in the mood to listen to punk. Then, I relaxed, chewed the callouses off my fret fingers and fired up Middle Class. What? You call this punk? This is only punk in the sense that a band from California that listened to everything The Cure recorded and then went into the studio would be punk. Maybe they had spikey hair? In any case, if you like that throbbing bass and high string guitars with a wailing goth vocal then this is for you. Taking the best of that sensibility and merging with the skittish New Wave of Romeo Void and you’ve got quite a cocktail for this sound. I get a little weary of the same lyrical pattern but the adrenaline makes up for it. I’m gonna shave off a little because a few of these tunes could just be one long track. But I’ll get over it. ************ Tom & Jim's Review: NOTE: We reviewed separately, then swapped, thinking we'd write rebuttals or counterpoints afterwards. Turned out we didn't need to. TOM: Most first wave LA punk bands evolved towards roots, cowpunk, funk, or a mixture of those (ref: Minutemen, Meat Puppets). The MIDDLE CLASS first went louder and faster -- inventing hardcore with their 1979 1-min single "Out of Vogue" -- and then took a hard turn into goth. JIM: Orange County’s Middle Class may or may not have invented hardcore (this is apparently up for debate), but “Homeland” finds them following in the footsteps of various post-punk bands here. Their frequent use of bass as a lead instrument is reminiscent of either Joy Division (on the more plodding, pounding numbers) or The Minutemen (on the more spasmodically peppy funk). TOM: Tight fast drumming, muscular bass lines, and jangly tight rhythm guitar somehow manages to be Joy Division-adjacent and Minutemen-adjacent at the same time. JIM: Meanwhile another set of songs sounds more like Gang of Four, albeit a tad gothier due to the slower tempos and droning vocals. The band is good, so tightly would they keep things moving even in the more dirge-like numbers. TOM: On first listen, I thought I had unearthed a lost goth classic. On subsequent listens, the monotony of the vocals took some of the shine off. JIM: The vocals are the weak link, fine enough for a track or two but the dreary monotone turns tedious pretty quick. Opener “The Call” is the clear highlight for me, with enough changes through the song to keep things fresh. Like other tracks on the album, the downcast vibe of “The Call” is lightened a tad through tasteful use of acoustic guitar and synth. TOM: Still, it's a strong album, and if you like Joy Division, Gang of Four, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Bauhaus, or Electric Peace, give it a listen. Produced by Paul B. Cutler (of 45 Grave, Bpeople, The Dream Syndicate). (After reading each other's reviews) TOM: Jim and I picked the same three highlights! The real discovery for me is their 1979 single "Out of Vogue." JIM: Whoa. Aside from the ratings, almost dead on! What Tom said, though I'll stick with my score of something lower than 4.2.

The 1982 Listening Post - Slow Children - Mad About Town

 Reviewed by Paul J Zickler / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1982 Slow Children Mad About Town Genre: New Wave Rating: 4.1 out of 5 Highlights: One More Trauma (on the original album but super creepy) Unplugging The Vacuum Vanessa Vacillating She’s Like America (apparently not on the original album) Slow Children is a duo: Pal Shazar (the girl) and Andrew Chinich (the guy). She mostly sings, he mostly speaks. I feel like this is a direction new wave could have taken if, say, Romeo Void and the Waitresses had hit number one instead of Duran Duran and the Human League. Instead, it took about 20 years for their influence to really hit, as indie bands like Imperial Teen and Mates of State picked up the new wave bounce and spiky lyrical flow and ran with it. (If you didn’t have hipster kids in your home in the early ‘00’s, you might have missed it, but new wave had a major moment, and I for one was all over it.) Spotify’s album opener, “She’s Like America,” sneaks in slowly with some snakey, clean power chords. There’s some rumbling reverb, a bit of high organ, human vox synth, playful bass. Everything I’ve described so far could be a B-52’s song, but they sound almost nothing like the B-52’s. It’s 3 minutes 30, but you’d swear it’s over in less than 2 minutes. Sinister and wonderful. Further research reveals it wasn’t the album opener after all. The actual first track was “One More Trauma,” a song you will not find on Spotify. “Don’t try to make me laugh / Don’t try to make me cry / Seems an eternity / Since you last entered me / I don’t think anything can erase that / And so you’ll walk away / I won’t remember this.” Yeah, I’m pretty sure this is a band that led off their 2nd album with a catchy number about being raped and blacking out. Not exactly a recipe for success in 1982, but bold as hell. The first single was “Vanessa Vacillating'' – infectious vocals over relentless electronic thrum and echoey snare, with tasteful synth horn bleeps here and there, and a jagged rhythm that invites you to at least nod along. Even produced by Jules Shear, it wasn’t a hit. The second single, “President Am I” got some MTV play on the strength of a cute video heavily featuring cute Pal Shazar wearing a cute hat and RayBans. I don’t remember it, but we didn’t get MTV until ‘83, so maybe it was gone by then. The album is front loaded and begins to go downhill with the slow burning “Suspense.” Still, there’s an electric buzz that runs through tracks like “Skill of a Caveman” and “Missing Missiles” that compensates for the lack of strong hooks. The lyrics are suitably dark, which you’d never know unless you actually listen closely. I get the feeling that’s the effect they were going for here. The closing track is “East Berlin by Rail.” Unfortunately it’s no “Riding on the Metro,” although it’s not for lack of trying. The keening guitar solo is a 15 second highlight. Maybe they were one John Hughes soundtrack away from glory, maybe they were slightly ahead of their time, or maybe they just never quite found the hooks needed to get on the charts and stay there. For me, they’re good enough to be a Listening Post Discovery, but your mileage may vary.

The 1982 Listening Post - S·P·Y·S - S·P·Y·S

 Reviewed by Tom Mott

Released: 1982 S·P·Y·S S·P·Y·S Genre: Synth Rock Rating: 4.1 out of 5 Highlights: Don't Run My Life She Can't Wait Ice Age Don't Say Goodbye First, The Level appeared out of nowhere as the missing anthemic AOR quasi-power-pop band you never knew you needed. Now, in a plot twist nobody could have predicted, Spys appears as their long lost anthemic AOR Wonder twin. It's great! Clean, crisp rock with big drums, soaring vocals, plenty of in-your-face keyboards, and crunchy guitars. This is more "good Journey" than "bad Journey"--and I know you know what I mean. Delicious, soaring Steve Perry stuff with Stygian "The Best of Times" vocal harmonies. Yes, after a while it begins to sound like every song was generated by the Cold-As-Ice-260X-tronic supermusicomputer. But fun fact: The keyboardist and bassist came from Foreigner. Santana begat Journey. Foreigner begat Spys, and the apple did not fall far from that tree. STRONG RECOMMENDATION for fans of Journey Departure.

The 1980 Listening Post - Girl - Sheer Greed

 Reviewed by Allen Lulu

Released: January 1980 Girl Sheer Greed Genre: Rawk Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Requisite 80s cover: “Do You Love Me” by Kiss. The original is better, this sounds like a soundcheck. Before they were in LA Guns and Def Leppard, respectively, Phil Lewis and Phil Collen were members of this British glam rock band. Okay. Remember how great Buckcherry’s first album was? And how much of a disappointment the follow up, Time Bomb, was?? Think of this as that in reverse. What those two guys would go on to is much better than this, and maybe that’s a testament to other songwriters being involved in the process. I think Traci Guns and, well, we all know what the Leppard guys can do. This, on the other hand is just a lot of lead licks and rhythm guitar smacking. “My Number” is okay. Nice, snotty glam, influenced a bit by Boomtown Rats.