Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Record of the Month - Classic

Another installment of a disk I have enjoyed over the years. I'm trying to keep the Record of the Month posts to be fairly new releases. Classics are going to be ones that are at least 5 years old.

Times have been bad these last few weeks. Between the election, the market, Britney Spears threat of having another album release! It should be time for something fun.

So why not the G0-Go's debut disk?

In 1981, I played the hell out of Beauty and the Beat. And if I never hear "We Got the Beat" or "Our Lips Are Sealed" again, that's ok. They are not bad, just way way way overplayed.

The rest of the disk though is still great. As easy as it is to love songs like "Lust to Love", "This Town" and "Fading Fast", one must go back and revisit "Automatic", "You Can't Walk in Your Sleep (if You Can't Sleep)", and "Can't Stop the World". They are really good in their own right. So are the remaining tracks.

I think part of what drew me to the disk was that it was produced by Richard Gottehrer, as I so liked his work on Blondie's first two disks.

Almost nothing clocks in over three and one-half minutes, just making each one a potential for pop perfection. Belinda Carlisle doesn't exhibit the vibrato that I thought hampered her solo career. The rest of the women are more than adequate musicians and songwriters - not that you'd see that on their follow-up disk.

It's not a throwaway album, but if you're looking for deep and meaningful music, this ain't the disk for you. Just listen to it for what it is: good, fun, energetic and light-hearted.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I played the hell out of that cassette tape in high school! Loved it!