New Wave Music Review

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am totally into the eighties, TOTALLY! It's almost sad because even my musical tastes have remained in the eighties. Sure, I like some new bands out there like Jet, The Futureheads, Southland, The Thrills as well as new stuff from older artists like U2, Depeche Mode and Billy Idol. So, keeping in the theme of being musically out of touch I have now begun to review my album stash from my absolute favorite Genre, New Wave.

It is agreed by most music experts that New Wave started somewhere around the middle of the Punk era near 1978 and ended around 1987. New Wave began as a classification of bands that didn't really fit in the punk mold or necessarily into the rock mold either. Bands like Adam & The Ants, Talking Heads, The Cars as well as The Fixx, Men Without Hats, Real Life and The Red Rockers were embraced by MTV and given heavy rotation. There were many styles that fell under the New Wave banner including Ska (Madness, English Beat, The Specials,) New Romantics (Ultravox, Roxy Music), Synthpop (Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Yaz), as well as Rockabilly and Goth. Powered by the Video age these bands were able to bring to life visually their sounds that previously had only been done by bands like The Grateful Dead, The Monkees, The Beach Boys and Devo. It was during this time in the late seventies and early eighties that I found New Wave and I've been with it ever since.

I hope you enjoy my reviews in a really tubular kind of way.

1/15/2006 - Modern English - After The Snow

I originally picked up this album in 1985 for the hit "I Melt With You," in hopes that the rest of the album if not as good would at least have a few gems on it. I was very quick to judge and after one quick listen gave it up as crap. A purist at heart I have never been able to get rid of the disk and still have the original that I bought in 85. After another more thourough listening twenty years later I have to say that in my youth I was too quick to judge and missed out on a classic album that I believe will get a little more regular airplay on my system.

Released in 1983, Modern English blessed the world with one of the most popular and recognizable songs to be released in the eighties. The single "I Melt With You," was made popular when it was used in the movie "Valley Girl." MTV gave heavy rotation to the video and it bacame very popular despite never making the Top 40. Since the album "After The Snow" was realesed it has sold over 500,000 copies in the U.S.

Modern English fits perfectly into the New Wave genre in that they started out in England as a punk band called The Lepers. They later experimented with goth sounds on the album 'Mesh & Lace", but dropped the dark attitude for the more upbeat yet spooky sound heard on "After The Snow." The opening track, "Someone's Calling" begins with a haunting guitar riff and deep tom tom beat that counters the upbeat measure of the whole song. Remeniscint of one of their contemporaries of the time, hailing from San Francisco the Red Rockers had a very similar sound. The synth noises accompanied by the crisp guitar and vocals make this a great intro track. More heavy drums and synth sounds open the haunting tune "Life In The Gladhouse." A bit dark for the most part except for the chorus "Oh me, oh my" that lifts it up somewhat. The heavy beat that reminds me of Adam & The Ants carries on throughout the song. Next we hear nearly an entire minute of a synth slowly building until the opening screech of the guitar again offsets the eventual soothing sound of the overall mood that will be set throughout the track. "Face Of Wood" is a pleasant romp through a garden of sounds that is only disturbed by the screeching guitar that seems a mosquito in the ear to everything else that is going on. The peaceful track "Dawn Chorus" with its reverb filled guitar and transcendant bassline seems a far trip from a band that had so recently emerged from punk and noisy goth. The sparing keyboards, busy percussion and echoy vocals help to guide us through this moody journey that leads us into the next tune that we all know so well. From the start "I Melt With You" is like no other song on this album. Its bright acoustic guitar, snappy drums and poppy keyboards grab us staright off and the hopelessly romantic vocals only tighten the grip. This is truly one of the top 10 eighties songs, need I say more. Following this classic track is the starkingly bare intro for "After The Snow." The drums, guitar, bass, keybards and vocals work up to another guitar screeching crescendo that this time is better placed. Even with the quinticential eighties "hand claps" on this tune it still comes across as a true gem. "Carry Me Down" is another departure from anything else on the album. A more standard rock tune accompanied by someone named Faith on the flute. The tune sort of goes for a while until the beat kicks up for a more enjoyable ride but that's when the lyrics hit a snag and keep repeating. Not nearly as good as the rest of the album but endurable. The last tune "Turning Tables" has a great beat, with fast, screeching guitars and spacey keyboards that make a very moody upbeat sound. Here again though is the uncanny resemblance to not only the Red Rockers but also to their song "Burning Bridges." The drums and vocals are a little too close to not convince me that these bands weren't aware of each other.

Over all this album deserved more scrutininzing by me when it was current and considering how much I like the Red Rockers I'm surprised that it didn't get it. After listening more in depth to this album I believe that I will be inclined to search out other Modern English music and see what else I missed out on.

 

1/14/06 - The Tubes - Completion Backwards Principle

Here's an album that I was only aware of in the sense that I had friends who were into the Tubes. I also knew of the video for 'Talk To Ya Later" from MTV airplay. Recently my buddy Sean sent me a bunch of music from San Jose and this album was bunched up inside of it so I had to give a listen to. This is another instance of regretting not having listened to an album at the time that it was in wide circulation.

Originally released in 1981, the Completion Backward Principle was the Tubes continuation of the backwards concept that began with their previous album Remote Control which was produced by Todd Rundgren. Really more of a commentary of music itself and the Tubes themselves as a marketing tool, CPB brought the band into a more acceptable light and the songs were strong enough so that the band didn't have to depend on their thatrical stage show. Topping out on the U.S. charts at number 36, CPB brought the Tubes into the main steram.In true geek fashion I have listened to the album both forwards and backwards... or backwards and forwards, whichever you prefer. I feel that it actually flows better when you begin with song 10 but I suppose that's part of the priciple.

The album begins (or ends) with a spokesman stating the album's concept and asking us to listen to the entire album at one sitting, if we can "possibly manage the time."