The Sound - Jeopardy
#433
November 1 1980 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY
The Sound
Jeopardy
Genre: Post-Rock
4.75 out of 5
Highlights:
I Can’t Escape Myself
Heartland
Missiles
Heyday
Resistance
I am ashamed to admit it. I had never heard of The Sound until I started this project. And, why I didn’t go backwards to their debut after loving From the Lion’s Mouth and even their later albums, I have no idea. But this is a band that is simultaneously creating a new sound while using everything available to them at the time. And, dammit if they couldn’t put this record out today and some indie kids would be like, “Did I see them at Shea Stadium Bar in Bushwick?”
The angular New Wave of the first track is nothing compared to the pulsating assault that is “Heartland”, easily one of my favorite discoveries of 1980. In a totally different way that all that Power Pop.
After all the chaos and mayhem I am totally ready for something a bit more droning and contemplative and for that I am rewarded with “Missiles”. But, this plays like a concert album inasmuch as the song is a respite but not a ballad which allows for bathroom breaks. No, it’s intense and you gaze into the light show and are mesmerized.
You needed that break cuz Side Two opens with “Heyday” and it’s a call to (dancing) arms and I am a soldier for The Sound.
This album is like a secret. A really great one. If you saw it in someone’s hands or on their record shelf you would look at them with a knowing wink and both of you would belong to that club.
But you wouldn’t try to convince anyone because you have to discover it. You either give in to The Sound or you reject them and go off in search of…something else.
I think, sometimes, (much of the time) in order to push out music that transcends, one needs to be in pain. I know that all my best songs were written at the lowest points in my life. Either borne of anger or frustration, unrequited lust or self-loathing. But I was never as low as Adrian Borland, who threw himself in front of a train in Wimbledon in 1999 when he was 41.
But I guess there’s still time.
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