Adam and the Ants - Kings of the Wild Frontier
#435
November 3 1980
Adam & the Ants
Kings of the Wild Frontier
Genre: The game changer
5 out of 5
Highlights:
Dog Eat Dog
Antmusic
Press Darlings
Kings of the Wild Frontier
Jolly Roger
Physical (You’re So)
I took this one for myself.
I just couldn’t hand it to anyone else.
There are records that capture you. That capture time. That are of a time while being out of time. They can transport. They can ground you. Sometimes these are shared experiences, albums that almost everyone you know love.
And then there are the discoveries. The albums that make you feel like you are even more alone in the world because they aren’t popular. Here, at least. Across the pond the record is a revelation. It’s explosive. It’s a new world and the music is the ship you ride to crash into that shore of self-expression.
The music defines you.
You define yourself through the music.
And it’s an experience that the artist can never repeat. Should never repeat. And yet, you will follow that artist to the end of time chasing the dragon of that first drag.
There is no record like this. it’s cheeky and self-aggrandizing. It’s a product of the studio but also of digesting popular tropes for 20 years. Its punk only if punk is an attitude. It’s lush but it’s also stupid as all get out. (“Jolly Roger” at once a declaration of Adam’s faux persona but also one of the most attractive tracks on the record).
Think about this: This bizarro pastiche of a blender of styles came together to take over the music scene. It’s bubblegum but also art. It’s 100% undefinable. And it comes just 25 years after “Rock Around the Clock”. This album is 40 years old. The US’s involvement in World War II wasn’t even 40 years old when this record came out. It doesn’t sound like the 80s and yet it’s the absolute definition OF the 80s.
“Dog Eat Dog” is an aural assault. Spaghetti Western Morricone guitars layered over African Burundi drumbeats while Adam (who gets NO love for his vocal gymnastics) yelps and howls like a savage warrior. It goes on a bit too long but that’s because they are having so much fun and before you know it…
Drum sticks clack like insects to announce the new sound. A bouncy, goofy anthem. A declaration that the music of yesterday is over and it’s time for something new. “Antmusic” isn’t about a style of music. It’s about a new generation taking their place on the stage. Again, Adam’s vocals are elastic like a pop music Ziggy Stardust. There is no song like “Antmusic”. There couldn’t be.
“Los Rancheros” is Marco Pirroni’s turn to shine. A New Wave ode to…Clint Eastwood movies? Yes. I’ll take this sample of Spaghetti Westerns over Big Audio Dynamite’s and I LOVE “Medicine Show”. I don’t know if it’s Miall or Hughes on that kick ass Parade Snare but, yowza, it gives X a run for it’s money.
“Feed Me to the Lions” is the first real time that we get to Adam’s ego. He’ll do this a lot. This is him reacting to how the public sees him but he’s also talking to himself. It’s piffle. But it’s also delightful.
“Press Darlings” is another reaction to how Adam and his band is being responded to, the lyrics a mouthful of razors spit at his detractors. It’s also the song that sounds most like it belongs on Dirk Wears White Sox but has the benefit of Pirroni and Hughes to elevate the whole things.
It’s a time of paranoia, the 80s. Menace. Fear. All wrapped up in a terror show of “Ants Invasion”. That ends with…the sounds a goddamned invasion of ants. Brilliant, guys.
But if you aren’t filled with enough fear yet, let’s toss some guilt in as well. After all, we started off as cowboys, but what are cowboys without Indians? The warrior that’s inside has apparently been let out after that damned ant invasion. There are scratchy insect sounds, tribal drums, western guitars, apache yelping and a shit ton of paranoia and yet, ultimately “Killer in the Home” is actually a prelude to the second act. Adam is letting out the inner Indian Warrior who arrives on Side Two.
Side Two
The masterpiece of this album is the Side Two opener. We never talk about Kings’ obsession with the oppression of Native Americans. But, that’s….that’s what a LOT of this record is about. The souls of the Native Americans resurrected through tribal drumming and “ant music”. Ants are hard working soldiers of the earth. They aren’t lone soldiers. They work together. They have a Queen, sure but they are all in service to her. And to their community. Adam’s downfall will be that he will become the Queen of his destiny and he really needs all the drones.
And fuck me, the drumming on “Kings of the Wild Frontier” is legendary.
“The Magnificent Five” is the preening Adam we’ve all come to know and love. It’s the “bouncy” song that declares who and what the Ants are, while paying homage to Joe Orton. With a terrific fuzz tone rockabilly solo by Pironni.
And then…disco? Like Chic disco?!? “Don’t Be Square (Be There”) is one of the dumbest and most fun Ant tracks. Like they decided they liked this whole “Antmusic” idea and decided to write another song about it. And they came up with “Antmusic for Sexpeople. Sexmusic for Ant People” and I have that on a shirt and I am there for it. The least sexy music ever written declaring itself the epitome of sexiness is the most Adam thing ever.
Um…pirates??? Wait! I thought we were doing Cowboys and Indians! Adam! What the fuck are you do—yes. This works. Omg, this completely works. The pirates are whistling! They’re clinking chains and “arrrgh-ing” and it’s fucking hysterical. There’s never been a bubblegum song like this in ever.
“Physical (You’re So)” with it’s sludge metal and snarl is the most metal thing Adam has ever done and I bet you didn’t know he rocked this hard. (The “eat your heart out, Do It”, nod to his ex record label is delicious). Live this is where Adam puts the naysayers and dismissers to bed. it’s brutal and brilliant. He closed with this at the Fonda in 2017 and the Vogue in Vancouver and it was cathartic both times.
“The Human Beings” is his final statement on the whole Indian thing. And it’s just a listing of various tribes amid the chorus of yelling “The Human Beings!!!” as if it was a wail of despair.
Put this fucking thing in a time machine.
I watched Adam perform this album in it’s entirety recently. He has about as much ability to connect to the audience as he did on the back cover. He’s protected. There’s a layer between him and the audience. He’s not real. He’s an image. Nonetheless, the songs hold up. In fact, without the deep production the punk roots show through.
Adam Ant is the artist I’ve seen in concert more than anyone else. It doesn’t matter that he’s not a warm communicator or even that great a performer. I keep chasing that dragon and you know what? He stands and delivers each time.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/kings-of-the-wild-frontier-deluxe-edition-remastered/1108061200
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