The Passage - Pindrop
#459
November 1980
The Passage
Pindrop
Genre: Meandering and Dull Experimental Post Rock
2 out of 5
Like a cousin to Joy Division, The Passage’s debut is immersive and difficult and a swirling adventure of building rhythms which border on being occasionally atonal and are almost almost fighting with each other in contrapuntal dynamism.
And I have succeeded in writing my most pretentious review ever.
This sounds like a one man project built on indulgence.
Fist - Turn the Hell On
#458
November 1980
Fist
Turn the Hell On
Genre: Unheralded NWOBHM
4.25 out of 5
Highlights:
Axeman
One Percenter
This is not Fist, the Canadian band who put out that terrific album the same year and rebranded themselves the awful sounding MyoFist.
This is a Thin Lizzy sounding crunchy, groovy, stadium metal record that had me, but not at first. I thought it started off cloyingly desperate to be liked but really poured on who they were with track two, “The Watcher” and after.
There isn’t as much screaming ala Maiden, or noodling like Metallica/Megadeth. It’s all power chords and solos and pounding rhythms and, for the most part, it works. This is in service of the sound without the needless imagery of the Saxons or Witch/Wytch bands.
Songs like “Axeman” sound less like Sabbath and more like Brian May circa the first Queen album or his return to that sound on “Hitman” from Innuendo.
How many metal fans in the group know this band?
REO Speedwagon - High Infidelity
#457
By Paul Zickler
November 21 1980
REO Speedwagon
Hi Infidelity
Genre: Asshole Rock for Jerkface Preppy Guys & Cheerleaders Who Love Them
Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Paul’s Rating
(Note: This review consists of two reviews. The first is written by my imaginary 15 year old self in early 1981. The second is written by the actual 54 year old me in 2020.)
REO Speedwagon - Hi Infidelity (Review #1)
Rating: 0
Highlights:
Don’t Let Him Go
Keep On Loving You
Take It On The Run
Tough Guys
Genre: Asshole Rock for Jerkface Preppy Guys & Cheerleaders Who Love Them
Review:
Pretty much everybody I know who likes this album is a jerk. Just listen to the first song, “Don’t Let Him Go.” It’s about some preppy asshole jock who drives a Benz. And the singer is like, “Oh, you should stay with him, girl. He’s not so bad! He’ll get better!” Meanwhile you know this guy is off banging her best friend. Who the hell would like a song like this? Jerks, that’s who. This is an album for jerks.
Like half these songs have been hits already. You can’t go anywhere without hearing this sappy “Keep On Loving You” song on the radio. And it’s another song about a jerk! “You should’ve seen” what a cool guy I am, baby, “but you didn’t listen.” But I’m gonna keep on lovin’ you cuz I’m such a stud. It sounds like his girlfriend cheated on him, but he’s gonna love her “furevvvver.” She probably got sick of him driving around in his Benz having sex with cheerleaders. Stupid jerk.
Then there’s the other one, “Take It On The Run,” the “heard it from a friend” song. “They say you got a boyfriend, you’re out late every weekend. They’re talkin’ about you and it’s bringing me down…But I don’t think it’s true babe.” I know you really love me, not that new boyfriend of yours. But I’m going to say “I don’t want you around.” Yeah, sour grapes, loser. She doesn’t love you, so you’re pouting about it. Get over yourself!
Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, they stole a bit from Spanky and Our Gang for maybe the most annoying song of all: “Tough Guys.” This is the “oh, I really actually love women” song. My baby “doesn’t like the tough guys. She says that they’ve got brains all where they sit... She thinks they’re full of shiiiii--eet.” OK, so tell me this, dude. If she doesn’t like those guys, why would she like you? Mr. “Oh, I’m so awesome I drive a Camaro and wear popped collar Izod shirts. Love me, baby! I’m so sensitive!” This album makes me so mad, I’m not even going to listen to the rest of it. Zero stars!
REO Speedwagon - Hi Infidelity (Review #2)
Rating: 4.5
Highlights:
In Your Letter
Out of Season
Someone Tonight
I Wish You Were There
Genre: Pop Rock for the Masses
Review:
Hi Infidelity sold 10 million copies and stayed in the charts for 65 weeks. Its sound represents a nearly perfect blend of crunchy guitar rock and radio-friendly pop. The production seems ready made for car stereos: bass heavy, but clear enough on the high end to resonate. Sing along choruses are featured on virtually every track, and the songs run the gamut from almost-hard rock to almost-schlocky ballad to almost-‘50’s doo wop and beyond. All the guitars are either Marshall stack distorted or Boss CE-2 chorus pedaled. There’s just enough piano to be poppy without being soft. It’s like a template of what the 12 to 25 year old demographic wanted to listen to in the early ‘80’s.
Kevin Cronin’s famously midwestern twangy voice seems like it would be an acquired taste, but he sings with such earnest energy and the vocals fit so snugly into the arrangements, he becomes a kind of everyman. Sure, Steve Perry could hit the high notes with more verve, but ya gotta root for an underdog like Kevin, right? Besides, the “corn dog in the nighyeet” song was still a few years off, and nothing here is that twangy.
The band? Really, on this album, they sound like studio pros. No wasted notes, the ability to play credible imitations of Van Halen, Toto, Foreigner - you name it. Competent is the word. These guys are ultra-competent. They are exactly what they need to be.
Which brings us to the songs. I do have to admit that my 15 year old self had a point about the misogyny and lameness of the lyrics, but damn. There are 10 songs on this album, and it’s really easy to imagine at least 7 or 8 of them as FM hits. I don’t really get why “In Your Letter” was a single on an album that includes “Out of Season” and “Someone Tonight,” but that just reinforces the point. Even the fairly boring last track, “I Wish You Were There,” arguably the only misstep, still isn’t terrible by any means. It’s an attempt at epic grandeur from a band that was just better at mundane flash. And when the “epic” clocks in at 4:27, it’s tough to complain too much.
I still don’t think there was any way I could have liked this album at 15. I was definitely not the intended audience. But I’ve come to recognize that the demographic I dwell in represents a tiny fraction of the music listening public. There’s more than enough room in my world for bands like REO. And sure enough, 1987’s “In My Dreams” ended up being one of my favorite songs ever. People can change I guess, even people who can’t stand jerkface preppy guys.
https://open.spotify.com/album/0X4ZNTZw7SYgrp5rlBQC3N?si=Yv2vmBwlQpe57RCwU_u8Ig
Bow Wow Wow - Your Cassette Pet
#456
November 1980
Bow Wow Wow
Your Cassette Pet
Genre: McLaren Impresario
4.75 out of 5
Highlights:
Louis Quatorz
Gold He Said
Uomo Sex Apache
Sexy Eiffel Tower
Giant Sized Baby Thing
Requisite 80s Cover: “Fools Rush In” which bears no similarity to the original and is rendered some Bow Wow Wowian piece of art. Ashman and Gorman and the truly amazing Dave Barbarossa turn this into something that the B-52s WISH they could come close to.
The story has been told so often that I barely wanna mention but, in the shadow of Adam and the Ants brilliant debut I feel we have to.
Adam hires Malcolm.
Malcolm fires Adam.
Keeps the band, lets Adam have the name.
Finds a teenager to front his post-Sex Pistols Afro-Pop band.
Adam makes a mint.
BWW puts out Your Cassette Pet.
A lot of these songs end up on various collections. And you can still find them. But, putting out a record on Cassette was a revelatory act of genius, before the explosion of the Walkman.
This is different than Kings of the Wild Frontier. For one thing, it drips in sex in a way that Adam wants to but doesn’t. And that makes this a dangerous record. Adam declared his music “Antmusic for Sex People!” but it isn’t sexy. On the other hand, Bow Wow Wow wants you to lust after…a 14 year old. And she is terrifyingly sexual. I know that, as a 15 year old Anabella Lwin terrified/tantalized me.
As an adult…I’m conflicted. “Sexy Eiffel Towers” is…the New Wave “Love to Love You, Baby”, except that the singer is 14. Ugh. I feel old.
This gets rereleased with a bunch of other tracks in 1982, and I imagine we’ll cover it then as well. But this isn’t an EP, either.
It’s your cassette pet.
Like I said…conflicted.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d230Bx9sQSk&list=PLlvn8uktX5LtmGTaGSylIh8XCQVHDxfKj (Missing 1 track - Bow Wow Wow)
The Mo-dettes - The Story So Far
#455
1980 Housekeeping
The Mo-Dettes
The Story So Far
Genre: Post-Punk
2.25 out of 5
Requisite 80s cover: “Paint It Black”. A bass heavy, Raincoat-y rhythm indulgence that adds nothing to that ominous track except to just exist.
Ok. I’ll admit it right here. I am not a fan of The Raincoats. I know they are critics darlings and I loved their first self-titled album, but oh man, I hated everything about Odyshape. Couldn’t wait for that self-indulgence to end. And I’ve never been much of a fan of The Slits, at least not what I’ve heard.
So, here we have a poppier project by an ex-member of those bands. And it falls flat all over the place. You can take the girl out of the post-punk experimental art rock band but you can’t take the post-punk experimental art rock out of the girl.
Damn shame, cuz I am always looking for all-girl bands to add to a certain playlist. But instead of an All Girl Summer Fun Band we get the All Girl Autumn No-Fun Band. Don’t be fooled by that cartoon cover. This isn’t Josie and the Pussycats.
Steely Dan - Gaucho
#454
by Paul Zickler
November 21 1980
Steely Dan
Gaucho
Genre: Not Rock, Not Jazz Enough
Allen’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Paul’s Rating: 3.5
Highlights:
Babylon Sisters
Hey Nineteen
Gaucho
Time Out of Mind
Are we still doing the whole “let’s pretend Steely Dan was terrible” thing? I figured once Walter Becker died, people would give up that “I’m so punk rock I hate Steely Dan for being good at playing their instruments” garbage. Have they given it up? They have. Oh good.
Steely Dan released some excellent albums. Sadly, this is not one of them. Yes, there is outstanding musicianship on display. There certainly should be, since 42 different musicians played on the record, which only has seven songs on it. Did you know that Prince played and sang every note on his first album? Now, I’m not saying For You is better than Gaucho, but Gaucho is definitely not 42 times better than For You.
I guess the problem with Steely Dan is that, no matter how beautiful all those layers of sound are, if they’re not built around an interesting song, they don’t accomplish much. “Babylon Sisters” starts out as an interesting song, but by the 3:00 mark, it’s pretty much lost its way, and there’s another 2:38 to go. Same with “Hey Nineteen,” which I remember liking quite a bit when it came out as a single. I’m thinking the single version probably ran about 3:30 because the last minute and a half of the album version goes nowhere and does nothing. Compare either of these to earlier Steely Dan songs like “Aja” and “Deacon Blues,” both of which were over 7 minutes long. There’s not a moment in either of those songs where I’m just waiting for it to end the way I am with most of the songs on Gaucho.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a bad album. I really dig the title track, which it turns out they kinda stole from Keith Jarrett (he threatened to sue). It works because it’s actually jazz fusion, and Donald Fagen actually sounds invested in the vocals, not just trying to be smooth. Plus, it ends when it should end, right after the last chorus. I’m also fond of “Time Out of Mind,” an almost funky tune (emphasis on “almost” - Bootsy Collins got nothin’ to fear from these guys) with some tasty Mark Knopfler guitar work and a bridge that could’ve been lifted from the Doobie Brothers’ Minute By Minute album. (I loved that album when I was 13. Sue me.)
The other songs are just kinda there.
Steely Dan split up for more than a decade after this was released. During that time, Donald Fagen released The Nightfly, a stone cold classic in my humble opinion, mostly because the songs are tighter, and the jazz influences are more pronounced. Unlike Gaucho, half the songs are under 4:30, and all of them are actually fun to listen to.
https://open.spotify.com/album/5fIBtKHWGjbjK9C4i1Z11L?si=j5sL3I_BRBuh8397_GIXwg
Pointed Sticks - Perfect Youth
LISTENING POST DISCOVERY
#453
November 1980
Pointed Sticks
Perfect Youth
Genre: Power PoPunk
4.75 out of 5
Highlights:
Marching Song
Perfect Youth
No Use for You
True Love
The Real Thing
Out of Luck
One part snarl and spit and another part early Costello (which, to be honest, was also snarl and spit, right?) is this remarkable little spinner by a band that broke up before anyone could really know anything about them.
Why does this sound so good?
Um…duh.
Canada.
This is another BC punk(ish) band and I can only imagine what double bills of Pointed Sticks and NoMeansNo might have been. But Pointed Sticks are more melodic. As I said, they are more along the Costello mold. “When She’s Alone is a perfect example of this. And the skittish “True Love” are on par with Joe Jackson’s “Baby Stick Around “ or “Got the Time”.
This album is excellent. I’m surprised that I never heard it.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/perfect-youth-bonus-track-version/322274033
M - The Official Secrets Act
#452
November 1980
M
The Official Secrets Act
Genre: Pop Numan
2.75 out of 5
Highlights:
Relax
That really could be the entire review. It’s all there. The distaff, disassociated non-human voice. The synthetic instruments behind the synthetic vox. But this is a more happy go luck dystopia. Robin is perfectly happy to live in an Orwellian society.
I wish there was a “Pop Muzik” on this but I’ll take that Antmusical African Rhythm driven “Mayday” in it’s place.
I am not sure we talk about how pervasive that sound was. It was all over the place, huh? I thought it was just Adam and Luwin via McLaren. Boy was I wrong.
Without that single, though, it’s all 3rd rate Falco.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-official-secrets-act/1208864665
Blondie - Autoamerican
#451
by Daniel Irwin
November 1980
Blondie Autoamerican
Genre: New Wave
Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Daniel’s Rating: 4 out of 5
Allen’s Highlights:
Europa
Here’s Looking At You
The Tide is High
Rapture
I never went to see a show at CBGB when I lived in New York City from 1988-1991. I admit that I was not adventurous enough to venture that far east of Broadway. Guess it didn’t hold much intrigue for me since there was no chance of the recently-disbanded Talking Heads making an appearance.
Blondie used to perform there, too, but I had pretty much written them off as that band that did “Call Me”, a song which (back in to 80’s) I would find either entertaining or annoying.
Until I listened to “Autoamerican”, I thought I didn’t know any of their other songs from their catalog. How wrong I was. With 40 years of hindsight, I was surprised to not only recognize more than one track, but to also enjoy this album way more than I anticipated. Enough to listen through it a few times before this review.
I kept to the original 12 tracks as originally released, by the way.
“Europa”: The orchestral intro reminds me of Queen, until the electronic instruments trickle in and the confident voice of Debbie Harry. I can’t figure out what she’s talking about, though. Trying to be Laurie Anderson? (stop snarking, Dan!)
“Live It Up”: My first moment of “I know this one”. It has the Disco conventions of four-on-the-floor beat and synth high notes, but there’s something else there. Maybe I’m just fascinated by Debbie’s vocal quality (and her backing vocals).
“Here’s Looking At You”: A change of genre into Swing Jazz style of the 40’s? It makes me smile listening to it, and I’m starting to get understand what everyone saw back at CBGB.
“The Tide Is High”: One of 2 cover songs on the album. 50’s slow dance melody but to a Latin/Reggae flavor? Pretty cool that Blondie is changing it up every track.
“Angels On The Balcony”: Sweet early 80’s New Wave. I’m really enjoying the fact that I can hear the guitar clearly, the percussion without being drenched with reverb. Now I have a crush on Debbie Harry’s voice.
“Go Through It”: Nothing to say about this one. Kind of forgot it once it was over.
“Do The Dark”: Disco time! Again, Debbie mood changes are very entertaining.
“Rapture”: Very recognizable. Best bass guitar line on the album so far. Wistful, lilting vocals. I’m not sure about the bells, but it’s part of the song’s fabric. Whoa! Old school hip-hop, Debbie? I’m imagining that she’d a huge amount fun of to fun to hang with at a bar, if she didn’t your head off when you approached.
“Faces”: back to 40’s-style slow dancing. Love it… could be a James Bond anthem.
I’m an asshole; I haven’t given nearly as much credit to the rest of the band. Chris Stein and Clem Burke, Jimmy Destri, Frank Infante, and Nigel Harrison are responsible for playing the bulk of the instrumentations. Ray Brown on “Faces and Tom Scott on “Rapture”. Ollie Brown, Emil Richards, and Alex Acuna pitching in on Percussion.
“Walk Like Me”: Surfer style guitar work. Punk with surf music.
“Follow Me”: 2nd Cover song on the album. A quote from an interview of Debbie:
“It was a push towards a story about American life to a certain extent. The last song (“Follow Me”), the Lerner and Loewe song, is from Camelot. At the time, I was thinking about JFK, because they called his administration Camelot.” (https://americansongwriter.com/blondie-autoamerican-anniversary-feature-debbie-harry-chris-stein-clem-burke/)
… I cheated by listening to the extended version of “Call Me”. It wasn’t on this album’s original release, but is the first of three add-ons on iTunes or Spotify.
I will buy this album. Maybe on vinyl if I buy another turntable.
https://open.spotify.com/album/1VuNXmZV6eIfUwglRlM9Ya?si=AbifRITYTBiYzr7HyK3Ixw
Bad Manners - Loonee Tunes!
#450
November 1980
Bad Manners
Loonee Tunes!
Genre: 2-Tone
2.75 out of 5
Highlights:
Lorraine
Requisite 80s cover: A perfectly tepid, nearly Esquival version of “Tequila”. Meh.
Didn’t these guys JUST put out a record? Why another one so fast??
In 1980 there’s quite a bit of Two-Tone stuff going on, with Bad Manners, Specials and Madness. And none of it really sends me to the moon. Of all of them, I hew closer to Madness because, where Bad Manners wants to appear “Loonee”, Madness really pulls it off.
There are a few fun dance hall moments, like “Back in 60”, but, all in all it’s sort of listless and uninteresting.
