Cat update – Vizzini’s blood pressure is still high but down out of the danger area. However, his vision has regressed again, and he is once again functionally blind. This plus work has made for a very long week, and I’ve had to focus a bit on lowering my own blood pressure. Finally rolling a good record to review helped. Here it is.
Disc 1588 is…. The Age of Plastic
Artist: The Buggles
Year of Release: 1980
What’s up with the Cover? This cover speaks of the future! Behold that digital font and the way that ‘buggle’ has been plugged into the network like some kind of replicant or cyborg.
Interesting that the Buggles predicted man/machine interface for the future, but not high-resolution imaging. Predicting the future is tough. That’s why in mythology it usually takes a three-woman team to get it done right.
How I Came To Know It: Like everyone not living in a cave in the eighties, I knew the hit “Video Killed the Radio Star”. Like 99% of the population, I never thought to look into the record until I saw a reference to it on a list of some sort or other (albums from 1980, New Wave albums…I forget). Anyway, I decided to give it a listen and liked what I heard.
Then it became devilishly hard to find on CD, as some of this early eighties stuff is. Once again good ole Japan came through for me, with this re-issue.
How It Stacks Up: The Buggles released two albums but I only have this one. I have listened to the other but it is not my cup of tea and won’t be getting a review. Since the one album on its own can’t stack …on to the review.
Ratings: 4 stars
The Buggles will be remembered for one of pop music’s greatest songs, and for little else. This is unfair, but as Sheila remarked to me earlier this week, “Video may have killed the radio star, but you know what else does that? Only having one hit single.” True words, but since we’re here, let’s give that one hit the love it receives, and then get into the rest of the record, for the love it is denied.
First, the song. “Video Killed the Radio Star” was the first song ever played on MTV, and while the song’s subject made it a natural choice, you can bet the producers also picked it because it is so damned good. It is a perfect pop song in all respects.
It has all the hallmarks of what makes a pop hit great. First, the hook is exceptional; an anthemic sing-a-long of the song title that is easy to keep up with, and with an arrangement that keys up even the most amateurish among us to locate the timing. On top of that, we put that cutsey “oh-wah, oh-wah” that is delightful to hear, and better still to coo alongside. In essence, the song has not one, but two irresistible hooks.
Even the arrangement is amazing. The song ends with the dreaded fade-out, but mid-fade the Buggles insert an additional off-time refrain of “radio sta-a-ar…” that literally makes you want to listen until the very last note.
OK, so that’s the hit, but what about the rest of the record? Can you count on a similar experience? The answer is both yes and no.
Yes, the record has some cool melodies, but it will take you a few listens to sink in, as the Buggles double down on their love of futuristic synthy sounds. This record is meant to sound like the future, and the robotic, metallic quality of a lot of the tunes takes some getting used to. However, it is well worth the effort.
This effort ranges from the relatively straightforward “Ellstree” which has a fairly standard structure, and some lovely piano, but with vocals on the verses that have a metallic filter which makes you wonder if there is some robot love involved. The chorus reassures you, it is good old fashioned human love, albeit in the New Wave disconnected kind of way that was a burgeoning scene in 1980.
Later, songs like “I Love You (Miss Robot)” throw off any vestiges of accessibility. This is a song for reclining on plastic furniture, or maybe taking futuristic pills while being taxied about in a flying car. The first listen this song was decidedly weird, but on future listens it gets better and better as your ear adjusts to the weird and wonderful soundscapes the Buggles create.
That is a microcosm for the record. When you first hear it, you’re not sure what to make of it, but the longer you listen the more you appreciate its brilliance. The way the band mixes in traditional instruments (piano, violin, bass) alongside synthesizer and voice modulation is inspired. “Living in the Plastic Age” and “Johnny on the Monorail” are two standouts. “Johnny on the Monorail” in particular will give you the breathless joy of what it must feel like when you take on of those Tron motorcycles through a tight curve, laying a beam of solid neon light behind you.
In short, this record is a hidden treasure that deserves the same kind of love that its hit single receives. All you have to do is let it in. Like a neural shunt, it feels a bit weird at first, but once you’re plugged in, it is pure immersive joy.
Best tracks: Living in the Plastic Age, Video Killed the Radio Star, Kid Dynamo, I Love You (Miss Robot), Elstree, Johnny on the Monorail
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