There's a scene in High Fidelity when two young punks try to shoplift from Rob's record store. One of them drops their skateboard and Rob chases after them. They eventually drop their stash, which at a glance includes the Minutemen's Double Nickles on the Dime and Brian Eno's Music for Films.
"Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Breakbeats, Serge Gainsbourg. What are you guys, stealing for other people?" "No, those are for us." "You guys slamming to Joni Mitchell now?"
I should've followed up on those reference earlier, as I undoubtedly would've gotten to Yellow Magic Orchestra sooner than just last year. But here I am, just now getting to Sigue Sigue Sputnik.
Their album Flaunt It--which is essentially the extent of their career--is pretty wild. The sound is somewhere between Suicide and a glammed-up Devo with Max Headroom as the frontman. Not knowing much, I would've placed this as late 70s or early 80s, so I was surprised to find this didn't come out until 1986.
As much as I find it enjoyable, I don't think Flaunt It is really that mind-blowing. It's got a lot of energy and it's fun to listen to but man is it a handful. The song below is one of the few comedowns on the album, "Atari Baby."
I rarely make blind buys but both these albums fall into that category. I knew Ellen Foley's Spirit of St Louis was considered like a spin-off Clash album, and I was also familiar with X-Ray Spex's Germ-Free Adolescents, so I suppose they weren't entirely blind. Both are pretty good albums but not superb enough to make me feel more adventurous about not trying before buying.
Ellen Foley was dating Clash guitarist Mick Jones, which apparently also meant not only would Mick produce the album but he'd get some of his bandmates to play on the album and even write a few songs for it, too. Any gaps left by the Clash were filled in by members of Ian Dury's band the Blockheads, so there's pretty good pedigree here. But Ellen's singing isn't too grand and these songs end up sounding like Sandinista! B-sides (if you can imagine what B-sides of a triple album would sound like). So even though Sandinista! is probably my favorite album, the association doesn't quite help boost Foley's album as much as she probably hoped.
As for Poly Styrene's album Translucence, I expected something like the awesomeness of X-Ray Spex but this is quite different. Instead of X-Ray's bombast, Translucence is muted and often unexpectedly pretty. There's the kind of instrumentation (mainly the use of horns) that I associate with Sandinista!-era punk copping Lovers' Rock, so that's all good. A few songs suffer from the 'repeat the title way too often' curse but otherwise this is an interesting enough album.
I don't think about albums in this way as much as I used to, but if I were to list my favorite albums Of All Time and compare that to what the list might've been a year or two ago, two albums would've moved up into the top tier: Nilsson's Schmilsson and Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom.
Nilsson was someone I only discovered this year, but I've been listening to Wyatt / Soft Machine for over a decade. I'd be doing pretty well if each year I found one or two more top-tier albums.
So after taking the month of January off, you'd think I'd be able to clear some of this out:
Subtle - A New White Buzzcocks - Another Music in a Different Kitchen Michael Rother - Flammende Herzen Why / Odd Nosdam - Split EP John Fahey - The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death Mark Hollis - Mark Hollis Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Flaunt It Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo Yellow Magic Orchestra - Solid State Survivor Gas - Pop M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming Pisces - A Lovely Sight Polystyrene - Translucence Television Personalities - Privilege
I'll at least single out a couple of dead ends: Gas's Pop is something I may never find interesting, ever. The Why / Odd Nosdam Split EP is the definition of throwaway.
