The 1982 Listening Post - Colin Newman - Not To

 Colin Newman - Not To

1982 Housekeeping

Colin Newman

Not To

Genre: New Wave

2.75 out of 5

Requisite 80s Cover: an ugly version of “Blue Jay Way”. Blech. 

In the early 80s two groups has as much influence as others would on the prevailing sound of the day: Joy Division and Gary Numan. Their listeners and acolytes created as many records as those who said they started a band after hearing Sex Pistols for the first time. 

I add Wire to that list but I never cared for them, so it’s hard for me to etch them into that lineup. And Newman feels like he picked up the baton from Joy and Gary and not from his own group, for which these songs were originally intended. But Joy Division had self-destructive sexiness at their forefront and Numan had that robotic disaffection working for him. 

And both of those groups songs are more attractive, even when they are trying to repel you, than Colin’s. 

Somewhere in the middle Colin fancies himself a garage poet and I can’t help but feel like he would have fit in well with the Velvets. 

As on A to Z, I like this more than Wire, but, sorry, Colin, I shan’t be returning to your world. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/7gr3eJg9WYylqyPr75N8Rm?si=hjxFhOeZRKC1HzsKGkLbQA&dl_branch=1

The 1980 Listening Post - Colin Newman - A-Z

Colin Newman - A-Z 

#395

October 1980

Colin Newmann

A-Z

Genre: Post-Punk

3.5 out of 5

Highlights:

& Jury

Order for Order 

How is that I really don’t like Wire and yet, I like Newmann’s solo material? “& Jury” finds him appropriating The Clash’s motifs and creating something downright…accessible?

Not for long, however. No, not Colin. I think his soul fights against people liking him or his work. 

Is “Order for Order” so named because it calls to mind New Order’s incessant percussion but matches it to PiL if fronted by David Bowie? Whatever, it works. 

I’m reminded of Pere Ubu but the good album not that other one. 

You can’t fully beat the experimentation out of the experimenter but, if you did who would create the soundtrack to us weirdos’s lives? 

This is a challenging piece and, to be honest, it often sounds like a basement theater’s attempt at ironic theater and for that I prefer to defer to Nick Cave. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/a-z-remastered/1214402815

The 1986 Listening Post - Colin Newman

Colin Newman - Commercial Suicide

#459/2109

October 1986

Colin Newman

Commercial Suicide

Genre: Experi-Dream

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Their Terrain

Commercial Suicide

Hey, look! It’s another solo record by a Wire Guy. Only this time…it doesn’t suck. 

It’s lush and inviting and downright delightful for a while. But, eventually, like all the WireGuys, it mires itself in self-indulgent experimentation and I can’t wait for it to be over. Dammit. The Chamber Pop of the title track is delicious, though and is a harbinger of what’s coming from Britain in about 10 years. This album really teeters for me. Between the bells of self-indulgence and beauty.

This is somebody’s favorite album and I would very much like to meet that person.

https://music.apple.com/us/album/commercial-suicide/44342442