That impression is made even stronger by “Space Age Love Song”, A Flock of Seagulls’ true masterpiece. It still sounds like something out of another world. The “longer” version of “I Ran” captures the band’s underappreciated knack for dynamics as well as undeniable hooks. Then it gives you several other versions of those hits in various lengths, live cuts, alternate edits of b-sides, and then some really inessential stuff, such as an instrumental mix of “Who’s That Girl”, from their 1986 nadir.Įven so, there’s enough to salvage a more-than-respectable impression of the band. Therefore, it gives you the essential hits, but mostly in inferior 7″ edits. Remixes & Rarities collects nearly all the non-album material from the band’s Jive Records days. So a moderately-priced, two-disc compilation highlighting the band’s glory days would sound like a great find. Several of the singles from those albums were excellent, and have since become classics.
In the ’80s A Flock of Seagulls released three albums whose quality varied between respectable and really quite good. Of course, it hasn’t helped that frontman Mike Score has spent the last three decades touring with a revolving cast of long-haired, would-be metalheads under the Flock of Seagulls name, doing the nostalgia/state fair/dive bar circuit, releasing precious little new music in the process. Yet in becoming an iconic symbol (both sincere and sarcastic) of the ’80s, it has defined the band’s legacy at the expense of its music. Something of a paradox, it certainly garnered AFOS a lot of attention in its early days. There was the guitar player with the oversized Elizabeth Taylor shades and the singer who ’80s-danced behind a synthesizer while he sang.Īnd there was that hair. There was the name, daff but somehow fitting, which derived either from Richard Bach’s new-agey Jonathan Livingston Seagull album or, more rock-respectable, from a Stranglers lyric. There was the self-titled debut in 1982, which, like its smash hit “I Ran”, was centered around alien abduction. For example, during that decade A Flock of Seagulls came on the scene, released some era-defining singles, made an indelible impression on the culture, jumped the shark, and disbanded within the time it now takes between Depeche Mode albums.Įven at the time, the Liverpool quartet were seen as a bit strange at best and kitschy at worst. In the 1980s, pop music was a lot more efficient than it is today.
0 kommentar(er)
