CBR Record Club #4 "Entertainment!"

[twilight]

Welcome to the fourth in a series I like to call "The CBR Record Club".

The club works thusly:

-Have a record assigned.
-Track a copy down. (legally or illegally, I’m not going to judge you)
-Listen.
-Form an opinion.
-Report back over the course of a fortnight.
-Repeat.

Sound cool?

The fourth assignment is...Entertainment! (1979) by Gang Of Four

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6d/Entertainment%21.jpg

1. "Ether" – 3:52
2. "Natural's Not in It" – 3:09
3. "Not Great Men" – 3:08
4. "Damaged Goods" – 3:29
5. "Return the Gift" – 3:08
6. "Guns Before Butter" – 3:49
7. "I Found That Essence Rare" – 3:09
8. "Glass" – 2:32
9. "Contract" – 2:42
10. "At Home He's a Tourist" – 3:33
11. "5.45" – 3:48
12. "Anthrax" – 4:23

So everyone go find it, either it already has a place in your music library, at your local record store or from your digital downloading program of choice.

Use this thread for your thoughts and feelings about the first assignment.

This assignment goes from October 12th until October 26th at which point a new album will be assigned.

Go!

-Twi

[DrewTheXenocide]

This seems right up my alley. I will try to participate.

[The Confessor]

Cool...another record I don't know from a band that I'd like to listen to. :smile:

Do you happen to know what year this album was released in twilight?

I only ask because Gang Of Four were a big influence on Peter Buck from R.E.M. and I wonder if this album pre-dates R.E.M.'s own releases.

Anyway, I'm off to download it now.

[Cayman]

Good choice, twi!

[zombie]

I've heard most of the songs on it, but never in one sitting. I guess now's a good time to do that.

[david r]

This album is another AWESOME choice! :smile:

[twilight]

Cool...another record I don't know from a band that I'd like to listen to. :smile:

Do you happen to know what year this album was released in twilight?

I only ask because Gang Of Four were a big influence on Peter Buck from R.E.M. and I wonder if this album pre-dates R.E.M.'s own releases.

Anyway, I'm off to download it now.

Whoops!

Every other time I've listed the year of release but this time I forgot.

It was 1979,since you ask.

(I've been moving ahead five years every time).

-Twi

[leonaozaki]

This is one of my favorite records. I'll post more about it later but I friggin' love everything about it.

rob

[Spike-X]

Well, I've had a listen to it.

they were doing a lot of interesting things, and I can certainly see how they've influenced later bands.

Can't say I actually like the record, though.

[twilight]

Well, I've had a listen to it.

they were doing a lot of interesting things, and I can certainly see how they've influenced later bands.

Can't say I actually like the record, though.

Yeah,I can see that.
Thanks for giving it a go though.

As I was driving around listening to it on the car stereo earlier I couldn't help but think what people thought of it 1979.
It's quite funny,the funky rhythm section,the synchopated guitar,the "singing".

That said,I'm a big fan of this record and I'll try and do a more thorough write-up of my feelings before assignment close.

-Twi

[ZombieHavoc]

I bought this CD several years ago, because a lot of bands I like list them as an influence, and also, I am into a lot of the punk and new wave from the late 70s.

I wasn't too into this CD, however. It wasn't bad, but I rarely ever felt like listening to it. My favorite song on it is probably "At Home He's a Tourist."

And I always felt they were kind of similar to Mission of Burma, but I like Burma better.

Gang of Four were definitely interesting for their time, but wasn't something I would ever really feel compelled to listen to again.

[Shellhead]

I’ve been feeling guilty about not keeping up with the CBR record club. I’ve been really busy lately. And to be honest, I had zero interest in the Flying Burrito Brothers, even at the peak of my classic rock listening years. And Bowie comes with so much history and baggage that it seemed impossible to talk about one of his older albums on simply its own merits.

But this time around, I was hooked. Gang of Four was a band that caught but failed to hold my attention back in the day, because my whole awareness of music was exploding at the time, sending my mind racing in every direction. Recently, they’ve been on my short list of back to look back into, when I had the time.

The time is now. I’m listening to Entertainment! as I type this, plus looking over the lyrics online to each song.

Ether: Not a great song, but it does kind of recapture my memories of the ether buzz… short, euphoric, rough and a little paranoid.

Natural’s Not In It: This song shows it age, but again captures a certain spirit of the times, the restless jerky at the end of the ‘70s as that feelgood hippie crap faded before the edgy greed of the early ‘80s. The lyrics heralded a lasting American obsession with entertainment above all else that finally brought us to the current economic disaster.

Not Great Men: Not great song, either, repetitive and also too similar to the previous track, though not completely lacking in charm. The insistent base carries a decent beat, despite the jagged guitar working against it.

Damaged Goods: This is clearly the standout track of the album. It wasn’t Top 40, but it sure as hell should have been. The excellent base carries the song, and this time the stripped down guitar and minimalist vocals all work together to create one edgy wonder of a sound. The lyrics are strange, alternating clever wordplay with sensual imagery, both intertwined with savage cynicism.

Return the Gift: Continues to play with both sex and money as themes. The chorus sounds like an early effort by a teenage garage band, but the spastic rhythm section almost pulls this song off anyway.

Guns Before Butter: I’m no expert on British culture, but this song seems to speak to a waning empire looking to flex some flaccid military muscle, perhaps foreshadowing that conflict in the Falklands just a year or two later. More annoying than musical, though.

I Found That Essence Rare: This one caught me completely off guard, an upbeat breath of fresh air for an album that was getting stuck in a very limited groove. This one seems more playful, almost melodious, like a surf movie in black and white. Though the opening lyrics are an odd comment on the origin of the bikini, the overall theme is one of political idealism. It’s jarring compared to the edgy cynicism of the preceding tracks, but makes sense if you consider all cynics to be disappointed idealists.
Glass: It definitely seems possible that this song may have been an influence on Peter Buck, at least with the jangling guitar sound. The lyrics are about restless boredom, and the song itself eventually inspires restless boredom, overstaying its welcome by about a minute.

Contract: Sounds a little like early Police, like “I Can’t Stand Losing”, only without any pop hooks at all. Nice bass line, but otherwise a throwaway song about an empty relationship.

At Home He’s a Tourist: A harsh commentary on the emptiness of disco culture. Too long.

5-45: Is that a harmonica? Nah, probably a sample of a harmonica. Morbid lyrics about violence in the news at dinnertime. A brooding quality to the music makes this song particularly compelling. One of my favorites, after Damaged Goods.

Anthrax: On the surface, this seems to be a bitter analogy about love and illness. But there is a more subversive about how pop love songs leave us wanting love for the sake of love. Too bad these lyrics are buried in a mix, with the usual chanting vocals mixed in with another audio track of someone babbling. The opening guitar chords remind me of Hendrix torturing his guitar at Woodstock, then painfully dies off in the background as the vocals fade in and the bass guides us into the default Gang of Four edgy sound.

The lyrics on most songs are usually chanted instead of sung, which works well on specific songs, but becomes tiresome over the course of the entire album. As an album, Entertainment! doesn’t really hold up to the test of time. Instead, it is very rooted in a specific time, one that it shares with U2’s album Boy, the early Police albums, and a little hit called Der Kommissar, by Falco. One decade was ending and a strange new decade was about to begin, and lost masses seemed to face disillusionment. In America, Watergate and Vietnam stole our innocence, leaving little but naked self-interest. Judging by this album, similar forces were at work in the U.K. Still, this seems like an important album, one that inspired later bands like the Pixies and Gorillaz and maybe Sonic Youth.

[DrewTheXenocide]

This may be off topic, but I'm trying to figure out what album I should get off Amazon along with this, so I can qualify for free shipping. Any recommendations?

[twilight]

This may be off topic, but I'm trying to figure out what album I should get off Amazon along with this, so I can qualify for free shipping. Any recommendations?

Just looking at Amazon's "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section for Entertainment! I'd recommend Marquee Moon,Loveless or Daydream Nation if you haven't got them.

-Twi

[Jonathan Bogart]

Instead, it is very rooted in a specific time, one that it shares with U2’s album Boy, the early Police albums, and a little hit called Der Kommissar, by Falco.
"Der Komissar" was by After the Fire. Falco did "Rock Me Amadeus."

(Yeah, I even keep track of 80s German one-hit wonders.)

[Shellhead]

As soon as I saw the name, After the Fire, I knew that you were right. The memory clicked into place. Last night, I couldn't remember which band played Der Kommissar, so I looked it up online, and got the (wrong) answer, that it was Falco.

So just now, I went looking again, to see where I went wrong. According to Wikipedia, Falco did record Der Kommissar in 1981, and then After the Fire did a more popular cover version in 1983. The only version that I've ever heard was the After the Fire cover.

[Cayman]

I think I find the album easier to admire than to like. It's a little wearying to listen to as a whole, but most of the individual tracks are quite good.

[Pixie_Solanas]

One of the top-five greatest albums I have ever heard.

Slap-bass funk, staccato shrill guitar, left of centre lyrics, it's a post-punk masterpiece.

Needless to say, it's on top rotation on my iPod, and nary a few days go by without me listening to a track or several.

[The Confessor]

OK, I'm not impressed with this record at all. I've only listened to it once and I can say pretty confidently that I'm not likely to listen to it a second time. While it's certainly an interesting record that's bursting with ideas, the songs just didn't connect with me at all.

I think part of the problem is that post-punk is not really a genre that I tend to gravitate towards. Of course, there are bands from that genre that I love, like the The Cure, The Police and Echo & The Bunnymen for example, but generally speaking, it's a scene that I tend to shy away from.

I can really hear the influence that this band had on R.E.M.'s very early work though, with all those "challenging" chord progressions and I'm certain that 90's indie bands like Blur and Menswear took a lot from this band's sound too.

Ultimately though, this album just doesn't float my boat.

[howyadoin]

Just listening to it now, for the first time. "Ether" has some pretty cool guitar stuff goin' on.

[howyadoin]

Up to the 4th song now. So far I'm really diggin' this. I wonder how I managed not to hear it back when it was new; this woulda been right up my alley.

[Shellhead]

Up to the 4th song now. So far I'm really diggin' this. I wonder how I managed not to hear it back when it was new; this woulda been right up my alley.

No radio airplay, at least none in the Midwest. I only encountered Gang of Four at college, and then only as part of an almost overwhelming amount of new music.

[howyadoin]

No radio airplay, at least none in the Midwest. I only encountered Gang of Four at college, and then only as part of an almost overwhelming amount of new music.I could see that. But I had a lot of friends who were into punk and new wave at the time, and we bought tons of albums that never got played on the radio. Plus I did a couple stints as a college radio DJ.



That one definitely slipped through the cracks, so my thanks to twilight for pickin' it this time around.

[twilight]

Sorry for my lateness.
Real life strikes again.

CBR Record Club #4 draws to a close.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

New assignment up shortly.

-Twi

[rick]

"Der Komissar" was by After the Fire. Falco did "Rock Me Amadeus."

(Yeah, I even keep track of 80s German one-hit wonders.)


Au contare mon frere.....

Falco: Der Kommissar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGEEBUupVAw)


Falco is like a God to me. :tongue: