Mike76

No Wave descendant group, especially since guitarist Pat Place came from the Contortions. This compilation is truly commendable; perhaps the only limitation of the group was in the songwriting, which was good but never produced immortal underground hits like their peers Liquid Liquid and ESG did with "Cavern" and "Moody." However, the sound is absolutely perfect in every component and exudes apathy and boredom from every pore, despite being danceable music. Moreover, given the punk-funk revival in the 2000s, this record feels like it was released just yesterday. A must-have.

Little is said about this album, and when it is, it's usually negative. So I was quite surprised when, after listening to it, I realized it was an incredibly solid work, with no weak points. While it doesn't stray too far from the two previous masterpieces, it also makes bold (and successful) forays into unexplored territories (just listen to the noise of the long "Glass And Smoke" to believe it) and an unsuspected use of electronics that, while remaining in the background, peeks out in several tracks (like the title track). However, the masterpiece is the perfect pop of "Party Of My Mind." The underrated album of an underrated band.

I got the deluxe version, perhaps excessive because the second CD full of demos, while enjoyable, is quite superfluous. However, the first one has everything needed to understand why these ladies have entered the history of punk and new wave: two Peel Sessions with a scrappy and abrasive style that hints at "siouxsiane" influences, and the album "Cut" where more or less the same tracks take on a new form, becoming spaced-out dub that, although losing the incisiveness of punk, don’t lose its vitality, expressing a mix of mischievousness with a slight sense of alienation. Even though the atmospheres are different, there's the same naive and childish air as some of the Raincoats' works. I must admit that I underestimated and snubbed the "fessure" for a long time, and I’m glad to have rediscovered and reevaluated them.

For me as well, the triggering reaction does not come from the defense of the wife and the home; the protagonist reacts as a "paladin of justice" to protect the village fool from a lynching by the peasants after a death has already occurred (the sheriff, if I'm not mistaken). If he were to hand over the fugitive, the yokels would leave him in peace, but out of principle, feeling morally and civilly superior, he opposes them. The confusion surrounding the film's interpretation is also because Peckinpah scatters improbable reactions and scenes without resolution throughout the film. A confusing film indeed; I didn't really like it much.

Indeed, like the reviewer, I was a bit taken aback by this album; I think I'll need to listen to it at least a dozen times to make sense of it, or maybe set it aside to start with something else that's simpler and more conventional.

Many American artists from the 70s and 80s shared a nervous, jittery expressive style (the discomfort manifesting as hysteria while, to simplify, in the UK it tended to be expressed as depression), so it's not wrong to find this common ground between Devo and Talking Heads, even though it could be extended to many others (B52's, Polyrock, etc.). So, if it wasn't clear, I defend the comparison made by the good Jdv666.

A record that doesn't excite me as much as the first two did, but I still find enjoyable and fun, much like "New Traditionalist" and "Oh, No! It's Devo." I have no doubt that Devo didn’t abandon the satire and ideology behind their early work with this FoC. However, the courage to experiment seems to have diminished (probably due to the commercial flop of "Duty Now For The Future"), and the quality of the music suffers because of it. My favorite track is "Turn Around" (which was also brilliantly covered by Nirvana), ironically not even part of the original tracklist.

A smooth and well-written book, I enjoyed it a lot even though it did not change my opinion of the character in the slightest. Some omissions were strange (like the early major tournaments won in 1990) and some contradictions were glaring (him getting angry with journalists who write that he doesn't love tennis and only uses it to make money when, according to his own account, that's exactly the case; or when he preaches to the students in his school about the importance of rules and respect while he, among other things, has lost a couple of matches due to expulsion). I also didn’t like the moralizing aimed at Sampras regarding his supposed stinginess, almost as if, unable to prove himself superior from a tennis perspective, he wanted to present himself as superior from a human perspective. Nonetheless, the book is recommended for the vivid portrayal of life it describes, especially in the first part.

Perhaps Clock Dva have never made the perfect album, but their works are always incredibly disorienting and interesting. Unlike the previous two albums, which felt somewhat like out-of-time, genre-defying oddities, this "Advantage" has a sound that is typically 80s and therefore a product of its time. Yet, the result is extremely original despite some pop temptations; perhaps it's due to the boldness of certain arrangements, or perhaps it's Newton's voice that curbs any melodic emphasis right from the start, or maybe it's the stylistic choices that break every mold ("Poem"), but the album manages to be accessible without seeming easy. Perhaps the delicate balance only breaks in the single "Breakdown," marred by clumsy synthetic brass; for the rest, it’s a superb work, perhaps their best.