Reviewed by Jim Coursey
Released: 1980 Rockets (FR) Galaxy Genre: Sci Fi Rock / “We Bought A Vocoder” Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Highlights: Galactica Mecanic Bionic In the Galaxy The live videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI0TzwJB8rY Their older music videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxLMyG_2qJk Sci-fi stadium rock beamed back to 1980s Italy from a distant future, French/Italian Rockets’ fourth album adds more polish and bravado to their “futuristic” sound. You can hear a variety of influences here – Kraftwerk’s vocoder-fueled robot chic, Pink Floyd’s mysticism, prog rock’s pomposity, and often a four-to-the-floor disco beat. It’s the kind of mix that probably went over great in Italy (see that live video) but is too shallow to make a bigger mark. Nothing here rises to the level of Rockets’ 1978 electro blues cover of Canned Heat’s “On The Road Again.” They’ve traded the economical, hypnotic churn of that song for reverb and bombast. It’s hard to tell whether it’s more technophiliac or dystopian, but where bands like Kraftwerk, Devo and Rush use technology to advance vague philosophical ideas, the future world Rockets paints comes off as silly and superficial. Styx would come along and tread similar ground within a year, with better songwriting chops and more commanding vocals. Ultimately no amount of musicianship will save you if your concept is only one rung above Buckner and Garcia. The album is particularly funny to me because it reminds me so much of my college friends’ band Knodel, who claimed to be from “future France” and made heavy use of vocoders in a synth rock context. But they hadn’t heard Rockets, they just had a nose for cliché. While Knodel were equally flimsy conceptually, they were not remotely self-serious and again far catchier songwriters. The only thing the Rockets had on them was 20 years and wicked stage production. (If you’re into the Fall and want a laugh, take a listen to “Mecanic Bionic” and pretend it’s Mark E. Smith’s long lost attempt at synth pop.)
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