I’ve not had this LP for ages and ages, but I feel comfortable enough to write a review. It took me a long time to actually track this down, possibly because it hasn’t seen as wide a release as Wilder or Kilimanjaro? I think it was only released once back in 1990 as well.
The cover artwork isn’t as striking as Kilimanjaro or Wilder, but it does the job. The luminous images definitely reflect the somewhat synthesised music featured heavily on the LP.
This LP is very different to Kilimanjaro and Wilder, but Kilimanjaro and Wilder were nothing alike. The inner sleeve of the LP features a great black and white shot of Julian back in his Teardrop days (looks possibly like the same outfit from the Reward video?). The biggest blow here is that there’s no lyric sheet, just the credits.
The first point to make about this LP is that it has a feeling of a compilation, the songs don’t always follow on. Back in 1982 (when the record was recorded) Dave Balfe was determined to finish and tour this album to pay off the huge debts left from the Teardrop, but Julian was determined to split the band and not continue “past their sell-by-date” Balfe was the organ/piano and synthesizer player, and did a lot of this album himself (the sleeve even states “All songs arranged by Dave Balfe”) and this is shown very clearly as you listen. The album doesn’t appear 100% finished and perfected, it has a rougher feel to it. This works to some extent, but it means the album isn’t perhaps as striking as Kilimanjaro or Wilder, still, it would be hard to top the previous two offerings. The LP saw two single releases — Serious Danger and Count To Ten And Run For Cover. This was probably the best choice, as these feel to be the most polished songs of the album, not counting the previously released tracks (such as You Disappear From View etc.)
Count To Ten And Run For Cover could have been the next Reward, as far as I’m concerned. While the single didn’t see the same success, the trumpets and horns are definitely reminiscent of the track, and make a brilliant song — definitely one of my favourites from the Teardrop — Julian Cope’s lyrics are fantastic and make great cohesion with the music. I’ve played this track loads of times more than the others on the LP
Serious Danger definitely reflects the electro-pop-ish sythesized sound of the LP, but is still a fantastic song and a brilliant single with Gary Dwyer’s heavy drumming kicking the song off to a brilliant start.
Something to make the album familiar to fans is the inclusion of the You Disappear From View tracks and the Reward B‑Side Strange House In The Snow. You Disappear From View, Ouch Monkeys, The In-Psychlopaedia and Soft Enough For you were released in early ’83 as a single/EP (along with Suffocate which doesn’t make an appearance). The choice to include these tracks makes sense as it fills out the album with some classic Teardrop tracks, and they only saw a release in single/EP form in the early 80s. The tracks also fit right at home with the sound Everybody Wants To Shag… gives out. You Disappear From View gets off to a slightly bumpy start, sounding a bit dated and funky, but giving the song its time to start off, the chorus is thick and competant with more grade‑A singing from Julian. Letting it settle and after repeat playings it still remains a brilliant track, but one that will take time. Ouch Monkeys was both a good choice and a strange choice as a starting track. The song is soft and relaxed, which gives an easy break into the LP, but it may have fitted better towards the end of the LP (but when you get there, Strange House was the perfect choice). Very synthesized again, with Julian’s vocals acting more of a backing than a head to the song. This is a nice change but perhaps something I, myself didn’t like as Julian’s singing is my favourite aspect of The Teardrop Explodes. It perhaps sticks out a bit due to the lengthious running time (reminiscent of When I Dream), something short and sweet could have fitted better. (Ha Ha I’m Drowning couldn’t have been better placed in Kilimanjaro) Julian has said on the track “Ouch Monkeys are human beings. It’s about man taking on nature armed with completely the wrong things and fucking everything up. There’s a line that goes, ‘Decorate the dead and try to hide the poor insane’. We pin medals on the dead and people who give their minds for their country aren’t even rewarded.” (taken from screamingsecrets​.com) The darker lyrics help give the song a deeper feeling with more emotion, and despite the quitened manner of Julian’s lyrics, it matches the music well.
In-Psychlopaedia is a perfect track for the album, with excellent drum work from Gary Dwyer, Balfe creating a brilliant atmosphere to thicken the song and Julian putting in another great performance. The feel of this track reminds me of Pure Joy, loud and heavy, but the electric backing isn’t at all out of place.
Soft Enough For You is slow and melodic, creating a brilliant atmosphere. It’s fairly short for such a slow-paced track, but this works as it isn’t spinning out the track which could destroy it’s momentum and have people track-skipping. The fade-out brings a fantastic end to the first side of the LP and wraps it up nicely, with You Disappear From View kicking off the second side.
The Challenger is very brassy and a great effort from the group, with no overshadowing on any aspect. Despite this the song can get quite repetetive in a short time, and I’m not a huge fan of the backing vocals work. The song ends nicely though and doesn’t play out longer than it should. Not My Only Friend (probably due to vocals and obvious lyrics) has a feeling of a slower Passionate Friend, particularly as the line “This friend I have’s not my only friend” follows a similar pattern to “The friend I have is a passionate friend” The chorus is kept afloat by a great drum beat, but the song seems possibly a bit short, like it’s cut off before it gets a chance to fully kick in and develop. Nice track though, and one of my favourites from this LP.
Sex has a great backing beat with the piano and drumming acting wonderful together. The brassy instrumental halfway through is great consistency with Count To Ten And Run For Cover, and further keeps with the sound of the LP. The track appeared on Julian’s first solo LP — World Shut Your Mouth, and so acts as a glimpse into the track during it’s earlier stages.
Terrorist shockingly has no lyrics, something I was quite put off by. It retains the synthesized sound with more brilliant drumming, and despite being a strange track, is a nice instrumental piece to wind down the LP, but isn’t necessarily my thing.
Metranil Vavin illustrates well the reason why The Teardrop Explodes split. Having a “Balfe” version on the LP shows the newer take on the music Balfe wanted, with more electric synthesized beats and a low-key approch to vocals. Putting on Julian’s version (from the World Shut Your Mouth EP) the stringy guitar with a fast drum-beat set the song off to a different start, with a much more prominent emphasis on lyrics, particularly in the chorus which winds down the song to a slower moment before taking off in the faster beat again. The difference in the two tracks shows Dave Balfe and Julian Cope wanted very much different things and it illustrates clearly why there was such conflict. Despite this it’s interesting to see what could have been if Julian kept the Teardrop together.
Strange House In The Snow is one of the best B‑Sides to come from The Teardrop Explodes, and still sounds as brilliant as it did originally. The lyrics at the end bring the album to a wonderful close, in classic Julian Cope style “This is the way we punch and kick, punch and kick. Make the other children sick because we punch and kick”
The album is a LOT different to Kilimanjaro and Wilder. But this doesn’t have to be bad because the aforementioned were world’s apart as well. There are some brilliant tracks on this album that definitely deserve a mention with some great material re-released. I wouldn’t advise this heavily to everyone. If you’re a Teardrop Explodes fan it’s a nice look into what could have been, whether this is something good or bad is entirely down to the listener, but if you’re wanting something close to Kilimanjaro or Wilder, then this isn’t it. If you’re a major fan you’ll probably own it or end up owning it because it’s The Teardrop Explodes. That’s really why I bought it, but hearing tracks like Count To Ten And Run For Cover I will definitely be giving this LP plenty of listens.
Thanks for reading!