The 1984 Listening Post - Rod Stewart - Camouflage

Rod Stewart - Camouflage

#156
June 18 1984
Rod Stewart
Camouflage
2.5 out of 5

Highlights:
Some Guys Have All The Luck

I can not begin to describe my enmity toward Rod’s new wave techno interpretation of Free’s “All Right Now”. He seems determined to turn it into Robert Palmer, circa “Looking for Clues” and it just doesn’t work. But, hey, at least there’s horns.
His version of “Some Guys Have All the Luck” is less a testament to DiscoWave Rod than it is to Jeff Fortgang, who wrote it a decade before. It’s just a good song. Almost wrecked by Rod.
I have less and less to say about Rod Stewart with each passing album.

‎Album · 1984 · 8 Songs

The 1984 Listening Post - The Lords of the New Church - The Method to Our Madness

The Lords of the New Church - The Method to Our Madness

#377

January 1984

The Lords of the New Church

The Method to Our Madness

Genre: Goth Rock

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Method to Our Madness

Kiss of Death

How did we miss this?

Oh well. I managed to not hear any Lords during the early days of this project. I liked Dead Boys album enough. But this, this sounds like what happens if Motley Crue went psycho billy. 

This is glam. But it’s ugly glam cuz Bators is not a genuinely charismatic guy. He’s a punk. There’s nothing wrong with that. But they sound like they want hits and that’s something a Vince Neil could pull off regardless of vocal abilities. 

This album feels longer than it is by half. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-method-to-our-madness/1100975413

The 1984 Listening Post - Haircut 100 - Paint and Paint

Haircut 100 - Paint and Paint

#376
1984 Houskeeping
Haircut 100
Paint and Paint
4.25 out of 5

Highlights:
Fish in a Bowl
Immaterial
Too Up, Too Down


I can't believe we forgot to do this one. After a whole discussion about Nick Heyward and Haircut 100.
So, I thought Pelican West was "okay" and, if you recall, we really enjoyed the "better than Wham!" stylings of Nick Heyward's debut.
Then he left. And I be there was much drama. And I don't care about it.
Hey! You know what this is?!? Bananarama but with guys!
The one-two opening of "Fish in a Bowl" and "Immaterial" have great hooks and pull me right in. Marc Fox's vocals are just fine and I don't miss Nick at all, really.
While a LOT of this sounds like what would become the sound of Miami Sound Machine, Side One is not offensive.
On that note, we will NOT be covering bands like Miami Sound Machine. I know there will be some debate and some rejoicing and some disdain but ya gotta draw the line somewhere. We are trying to stay within the "Rock" idiom and there are bridges that are just too far.
That said, Haircut 100 is a great example of that line being blurred. During the early New Wave 80s they were on all the radio stations and MTV and all that and yet all this seems to prove the throughline from, say, Adam and the Ants to Kid Creole to Malcolm McLaren to H100 to Paul Simon to the incorporation of world music. And that's were we get off.
I could do without the ballad near the end but "Infatuation" is a splendid recovery.

I know this is a much lamented album but I dare say...I liked this more than Pelican West.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9HOlJCr97Q

The 1984 Listening Post - Jacobites - Jacobites

Jacobites - Jacobites

#374
1984 Housekeeping
Jacobites
Jacobites
1.75 out of 5

Highlights:
Kings and Queens

Opening with "Big Store", an 8 minute piece that seems to be an interpolation of Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", Jacobites are a fitting way for us to end 84. Obscure, toes in the 60s, trying to bring relevance to a combo platter of Garage Rock & Jangle Pop, tired and bored subway busking. For busking I prefer Violent Femmes or Marine Girls.
I never heard of Jacobites. They don't surprise. And they've drifted into ephemera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC6ZVTDLEdk

The 1984 Listening Post - Cold Chisel - Twentieth Century

Cold Chisel - Twentieth Century

#375
1984 Housekeeping
Cold Chisel
Twentieth Century
4.75 out of 5

Highlights:
Twentieth Century
Saturday Night
No Sense
Hold Me Tight
The Game
Temptation

I regret that Cold Chisel is one of those bands that I know nothing about. Not that this album makes me want to go back into their catalog, just that their name kept popping up on Soulseek and other boards.
So, naturally, when I read up on this, being called their "best" I was excited.
Umm....this is...disco. If a disco band was fronted by Danko Jones. Why they opened with 3rd rate Kiss makes no sense to me since the album rips right after that. So much so, that the gentle throb of "Saturday Night" is earned as part of this hodgepodge coda as it builds into a Foreigner arena rock epic.
The whole first side is an exercise in "What happened?" or, rather, "What didn't happen?" because based on this Cold Chisel could have been the right band at the end of the right time to hit it big.
It's a little bit Aerosmith, Foreigner and Journey.
It's a whole lot of extraordinary. What a great way to end 1984!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGZHiGEu-Zs&list=PLBJ7ztNazTVDjnmCbsMFZ9yKIAD0E9BWm

The 1984 Listening Post - Saracen - Change of Heart

Saracen - Change of Heart

#373
1984 Housekeeping
Saracen
Change of Heart
2 out of 5


Prog-metal that really doesn't fit in any one category but that doesn't elevate it, just means that it's sort of got it's toes in all sorts of genres.
Allmusic summed it up perfectly: "Derbyshire's Saracen were a hard, verging on progressive, rock ensemble that became wrongly associated with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal -- as much due to the timing (1981) of their self-released debut album, Heroes, Saints & Fools, as for their leather jackets and handlebar mustaches. "
There's more synthesizers than guitars and that's what softens it. It's like Kansas with a shitty singer and less talented musicians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0QYs_9EYgo

The 1984 Listening Post - Spartan Warrior - Spartan Warrior

Spartan Warrior - Spartan Warrior

#372
1984 Housekeeping
Spartan Warrior
Spartan Warrior
1.5 out of 5


What we have here is another generic entry into the chukka-chukka Saxon/Venom/metal category. (Should we add categories to the next year's reviews?)
The singer can't get to the high notes, so he settles for mid-voice growls. The band is phoning in pretty much every Priestly chords change.
It's a slog of mediocrity. Even the lead solos, trading off each other, are uninteresting noodles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iDgTiJivZM

The 1984 Listening Post - Underground Zer0 - Never Reach for the Stars

Underground Zer0 - Never Reach for the Stars

#371
1984 Housekeeping
Underground Zero
Never Reach the Stars
3.75 out of 5

Highlights:
Seven Light Years (Track 1)
Never Reach the Stars (Track 6)

This one, we thought, was a 90 minute prog rock epic. When I fired it up and looked up the Discogs entry I learned that the actual LP, if it were available to purchase, was 6 tracks.
This link includes a LOT of live stuff at the end.
I decided to play on and, damn, that first track, "Seven Light Years" is unlike a lot of what I heard or was expecting. From what I've read, it's supposed to be like Space Rock version of Hawkwind.
Not to me. That first track reminds me more of Epoxies than anything else. It's New Wave Synth Metal Space Prog and I am down with it.
In fact, if Roger Taylor's Fun in Space was fronted by a woman and had a guitarist's sense of song it might sound a bit like this.
But it does descend into BBC television soundtrack on the second side with the nadir coming on "The Elite", returning at the end with "Never Reach the Stars" which calls to mind the opener. It all works as a whole in that regard.
Full Disclosure: I stopped after 6 tracks, since that is what the actual release is.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZuISoiL9oU

The 1984 Listening Post - The Nomads - Outburst!

The Nomads - Outburst!

#370
1984 Housekeeping
The Nomads
Outburst!
4 out of 5

Highlights:
Real Gone Lover
Rat Fink a Boo Boo
Stranger Blues

I have a sweet spot for a lot of Swedish rock. I've talked about Hellacopters, Flaming Sideburns, Thunder Express, Gluecifer, before. Swedes have a way of appropriating American pop and rock and turning into ear candy.
The Nomads are in that Zombies/Radio Birdman category.
But it's a little more Cramps than Rawk. It works on "Real Gone Lover" but not on others. I want them to commit to psychobilly or lean into classic rock but they straddle both so hard that they get props.
And here's the thing: They have a song called "Rat Fink a Boo Boo". Which could be a cover of the theme song of the movie of the same(ish) name but is freaking awesome. Not just that it's a good song but that they know Ray Dennis Steckler's movie Rat Pfink a Boo Boo. It's a terrible movie but it exists in the pantheon of terrible and should be part of everyone's musical lexicon.
From what I've read, The Nomads were at the forefront of the aforementioned movement and they get points for that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlzXyCVXE74

The 1984 Listening Post - Flies - Get Wise

Flies - Get Wise

#369
1984 Housekeeping
Flies
Get Wise
3 out of 5

Highlights:
Put All that Behind Me Now

This is a reallllly obscure Boston band that exists only in the deep blogs and dust bins of local record stores. We are including it for completion sake.
Flies are a lo-fi roots garage rock band with a lead singer that sounds like a Dylan impersonator. They fit in nicely with that revival sound that was burbling around this time.
I wish this was better recorded, or even just mastered.
It won't bug you, but it didn't do much for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpikQdwAkU0

The 1984 Listening Post - Black 'N Blue - Black 'N Blue

Black 'N Blue - Black 'N Blue

#368
February 2 1984
Black 'N Blue
Black 'N Blue
2.5 out of 5

Highlights:
The Strong Will Rock

The opening track, "The Strong Will Rock" sets the stage. This is a Brian May inspired rocker (I venture to say Brian heard it before he wrote "I Want it All"), a mid tempo Arena rocker with doubled vocals harmonizing with each other and noodley guitar licks.
The band alternates between sounding like Kiss (School of Hard Knocks") Ratt ("Autoblast", "One for the Money") and, well, every other wanna-be Van Halen band of the era.
It speaks volumes that the best track here is the cover of Sweet's "Action". You can't go wrong covering Sweet. ;)
An ok discovery, nothing to write home about. I mean, they are no Kick Axe.
The lead guitarist, Tommy Thayer, would go on to be the lead guitaris in Kiss...after he worked for them in a whole host of regards, from songwriting & archival book research to gutter cleaning. Honestly.
Just as honestly, Thayer seems like a really good guy.

https://open.spotify.com/album/36VYrDxC6NcJ69PGRabPud?si=7c_VWdOzTxq9U0E4BFqIWQ

The 1984 Listening Post - Shriekback - Oil & Gold

Shriekback - Oil & Gold

January 1985
Shriekback
Oil & Gold


Highlights:
Nemesis

As much as I enjoyed the disco-synth of their last record...I love O&G more.
They are unabashed and unapologetic about their love of this sound.
When it’s big like “everything that rises must come down” and “Nemesis” it’s a blast, when it shifts gears like it does on the haunting “The Big Hush” and “Faded Flowers” and “The Only Thing That Shines” it’s so assured and hypnotic that I buy in.
And the double shot ending of “Hammerheads” and “Coelocanth” elevate this record in unexpected ways.
Oil & Gold is more assured than ______, and because of that it also sounds like an album they are making for themselves. It almost works the entire time.

The 1984 Listening Post - Friends Again - Trapped and Unwrapped

Friends Again - Trapped and Unwrapped

#367
1984 Housekeeping
Friends Again
Trapped and Unwrapped
3.75 out of 5

Highlights:
Lucky Star
Lullaby No. 2

You got Jangle Rock in my New Wave Pop!
You got New Wave Pop in my Jangle Rock!
It's two two two great sounds that sound great together!
I know nothing of this band, save that they are Scottish, they had one album and seem to have not been heard from again.
They remind me of The Bluebells in a way. Here, the lead singer's voice is like a more inviting and able David Bowie, the band is more like The Style Council, but instead of a Cafe Bleu it's more like Cafe Orange & Yellow.
Gentle & approachable (see: "South of Love"). I can see how, if you owned this in 84, you might want to play it for friends. I can also see those friends saying, "umm...can we listen to that REM now?".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2J-j10STME&list=PLBJ7ztNazTVC3FrHl9sqpvlczGyO78r5f&index=9

The 1984 Listening Post - Telex - Wonderful World

Telex - Wonderful World

#366
1984 Housekeeping
Telex
Wonderful World
2.5 out of 5

Here's the thing about Telex. They do nothing that could cause anyone to say, "I fucking hate Telex!". They are precious, yes, but harmless. More than anything it's as thought Kraftwerk decided to rework themselves into a pop band. And took a bunch of Ecstasy to do it.
If I had to recommend one track, maybe it would be "Vertigo" just to get a sense of what they are: Music for a trip to Disneyland. But on a day when no one is there so you can get a good montage of rides.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuzr0OFg61A

The 1984 Listening Post- Heaven 17 - How Men Are

Heaven 17 - How Men Are

#365
September 1984
Heaven 17
How Men Are
1.75 out of 5


Oh, wow, is this a dated sound. It's kind of amazing how fast this sound played itself out. And here's the thing about H17: They are shitty at it. Their songs are bad, the presentation is like if ABC got sick, lost all their water, had to go on fluids and then recorded whilst in the hospital.
This is garbage.
But, Heaven 17 is always garbage. To me, at least. I know there are people who think this is a high point. To me, it sounds like third rate Wham!. But, not good Wham!. First album Wham!.
This is lounge music that was kicked out of the lounge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d18_5sYjBJU&list=PLjIuADMrDKIZCN8-hcSFsVQNmSfrAGy7J&index=1

The 1984 Listening Post - Toxic Reasons - Kill By Remote Control

Toxic Reasons - Kill By Remote Control

#364
1984 Housekeeping
Toxic Reasons
Kill By Remote Control
2.2.5 out of 5


It's 1984 and that means that there are still bands slagging out the classic punk sound. Are Toxic Reasons doing anything that the granddaddys of the movement haven't already moved on from?
No.
But they are gamely trying.
I have no use for anti-Reagan music in my 2019 life.
The shelf life for this stuff was always very short.
Skip it, you've heard this shit before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwXDxcCg27Y&list=PL8E5F54499D6FC5E0

The 1984 Listening Post - Tom Verlaine - Cover

Tom Verlaine - Cover

#363
1984 Housekeeping
Tom Verlaine
Cover
2.75 out of 5

Highlights:
Five Miles of You

So, I've never really thought much of the mood-rock of Television or Tom Verlaine. It's just not my cuppatee.
That said, I think of him as the lesser acclaimed, lesser known, slightly more accomplished, slightly better version of Lou Reed.
And I'm proven right on Cover.
God damn, he's boring. Even when he shows signs of life ("Five Miles of You"...co-written with someone and "Emily", he's still such a precious dullard that I can't wait to move on.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSxGpwKz0K0