The 1981 Listening Post - Eyeless in Gaza - Photographs as Memories

 Eyeless in Gaza - Photographs as Memories

#21

January 30 1981

Eyeless in Gaza

Photographs as Memories

Genre: Eyeless in Gaza

1.5 out of 5

This is as tortured and obnoxious as their other release this year. I am gobsmacked that anyone put up with these guys. They are musically inept and very hard to listen to. 

Think PiL without John Lydon’s sense of snark or even humor. And there’s no Joh Wobble to bring anything interesting to the proceedings. 

Awful. 

Well, I will say that the weird U2, Joe Jackson omg acid piece “Knives Replace Air” is perhaps the best thing here. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/photographs-as-memories/204338925

The 1981 Listening Post - Eyeless in Gaza - Caught in the Flux

 Eyeless in Gaza - Caught in the Flux

#1

January 1 1981

Eyeless in Gaza

Caught in the Flux

Genre: What a terrible way to start off the year

1.25 out of 5

If 1980 was the year of power pop and New Wave and the harbinger of that was Pam Windo, I am terrified for what is in store for 1981.

Whatever Eyeless in Gaza will become is not evidenced here where it seems that Martyn Bates and Peter Webber got their hands on a high end 4-track and were left alone in the basement of their dorm rooms to do whatever they wanted. That’s fine. I did that. We wrote some weird shit. But! We didn’t put it out into the world, accompanied by a 5 song EP.

This is hubris. Made terrible by how ugly it is. 

Every bad instinct of all the New Wave bands + obnoxious and horrible vocals are here in this hourlong epic of terrible. 

The album proper is garbage. 

The EP is a lot more moody and ambient and I can see where they might be headed but, ugh, it’s not worth it. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/caught-in-the-flux/997860014

The 1986 Listening Post - Eyeless in Gaza - Back From the Rains

Eyeless in Gaza - Back From the Rains

#246/1371

June 27 1986

Eyeless in Gaza

Back From the Rains

Genre: Big 80s Rock

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Back From the Rains

Catch Me

New Love Here

Want some simile?

Tears for Fears meets The Alarm meets Duran Duran meets…4AD moody bands? 

This is lush and confident and feels like a swan song to an entire musical genre. 

I might not have cared for this when it came out, there really isn’t anything catchy or hummable but, lo these many years later, I am caught up in it’s spell. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/back-from-the-rains/204102665

The 1983 Listening Post - Eyeless in Gaza - Red Rust September

Eyeless in Gaza - Red Rust September

#247

1983

Eyeless in Gaza

Red Rust September

4 out of 5

There’s no paucity of emotionally driven epic synth-rock in 1983. Seems like everyone bought a keyboard and a microphone and started making music. Which is a good thing. Radiohead said “Anyone can play guitar”. In Eyeless in Gaza, anyone can play keyboards, too. And, if you are of the mind, you can make some perfectly good music. With one foot in the 60s and psychedelia and another trying really hard to understand catchy song construction, Eyeless in Gaza has chops but their songs don’t go anywhere special. 

Every 80s brit band is in here. I hear som Joe Jackson from his Body + Soul era. There’s a dash of Difford and Tilbrook. A host of everybody and that renders a lot of this anonymous. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/red-rust-september/202900960