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.