[ED: This regular column appeared in the “Oredigger” student newspaper at the Colorado School of Mines, 30 October 1979. neoscenes started a music review column “Obscure Alternatives” (borrowing the title of British new wave band Japan‘s second album).]
GOLDEN — Talking Heads Fear Of Music (Sire Records); Robert Palmer Secrets (Island/Warner Bros.)
Fortunately for Obscure Alternatives, being a lazy columnist, the Talking Heads new album, Fear of Music, and Robert Palmer’s release, Secrets, cover the complete spectrum of today’s New Wave crazed world: and so it goes. Claiming to be beyond the CBGB’s-Mudd-Club-hype syndrome, the Heads have embarked on another vapid meander into the noumenal world. Songs with titles such as “Air,” “Heaven,” and “Drugs” deceive one into thinking this is just another Heads wave at society through a frosted window pane.
Light as this album may seem upon casual tracking, there is meat on the musical platter for those willing to look and listen. Recorded under the auspices of electronic wizard Brian Eno, with a Record Plant Remote Truck at Heads’ Chris and Tina’s loft in Long Island City, N.Y., the album is without a doubt, a tasty morsel. There is the feeling of stopping, looking, and absorbing lyrically a most detailed photograph of the dirty side of every life around. In a fascinating song, “Life During Wartime,” the Heads cry out that “This ain’t no party. This ain’t no disco. This ain’t no fooling around.”, recognizing the less observed side of music production — the slogging, the grit and the grind. On one cut. “I Zimbawa,” Robert Fripp cameos with some interesting guitar work. With lyrics that echo and laugh at the void of New York’s chic society, there is a terminal aura of world-weariness that pervades both the vocals and the instrumentals. All considered, the album is a modern version of “The Wasteland.” by T.S. Eliot; both musically and lyrically a vivid, detailed personal glimpse of the world-that-is.
Displaying the recently developed New York/Los Angeles music schism, the step from the Heads to Palmer is unsettling. Coming from an optimized transformation of thought to music, and going to a minimized transmutation of feeling to commerciality can leave one, yes, feeling heady and nauseous. Palmer’s work is merely a warmup for the coming generation of pop-rock debutantes. Despite a tight, hard-working backup band, Palmer never comes up with anything better than the average 3.2 bar band. Musically the most attractive song on the album is the aptly chosen single. “Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor).” Replete with Top-40 love hooks, the release, Palmer’s first with Island, has one interesting song, “Jealous,” a very simple, but catchy tune wrapped around equally simple lyrics. Obscure Alternatives hopes that this album does not reflect the minds of the music consumer—fun to be around, but no substance—else the Rock of the 80s could be a real letdown. Albums courtesy Independent Records, Washington Avenue in downtown Golden.