Punk and New Wave Miscellany

These punk and new wave artists are covered briefly below:

The B-52’s

Time Capsule: Songs for a Future Generation

1998, 7/10
Despite ubiquitous songs like ‘Love Shack’ and ‘Roam’, The B-52’s are an acquired taste. I blame it on Aqua; the Swedish pop band had their five minutes of fame by mimicking The B-52’s distinctive style of contrasting shrill female vocals with a campy semi-spoken male voice, and desecrated it with heinous novelty compositions such as ‘Barbie’. In contrast, Time Capsule presents a respectable case for musical legitimacy. As legend has it, The B-52’s went out to dinner, got drunk and vowed to pool their limited musical expertise to form a band. Keith Strickland and Ricky Wilson, who only appears on the early tracks as he passed away from AIDS in 1985, backed the flamboyant vocals of Fred Schneider, Cindy Wilson, and Kate Pierson. While their material is quirky, they rarely resort to novelty songs; the only offender on Time Capsule is the inane ‘Song for a Future Generation’.

‘Private Idaho’, from 1980’s Wild Planet, stands out as the highlight of The B-52s’ career, but generally their early material is weird and often jarring. I prefer their later singles, which are more straightforward but still too offbeat to be dismissed as commercial pap for the masses. The sweetly harmonised ‘Deadbeat Club’ and ‘Roam’ are particularly enjoyable. Although The B-52’s embody a lot of qualities that I find difficult to like, including kitsch, camp, and lyrical inanity, I still enjoy Time Capsule. It’s probably all The B-52’s I’ll even need, although their self-titled debut, Wild Planet, and 1989’s comeback Cosmic Thing are generally their most highly regarded efforts.

Buzzcocks

Singles Going Steady

1979 (2001 edition), 10/10
It’s difficult to find a compilation with a better critical reputation than the Buzzcocks’ Singles Going Steady. There are mixed opinions about the quality of the Buzzcock’s studio albums. But it is virtually unanimous that the collection of singles and b-sides, originally assembled to support their 1979 US tour, is one of the most accomplished records from the punk movement.

I have the remastered edition, which bookends the material from the group’s 1980 singles. The Buzzcocks’ playing is aggressive and energetic, placing them solidly within the English punk spectrum. But their songs also have a poppy sheen and romantic themes that feel like throwbacks to the sixties. However, the Buzzcocks’ romantic themes are far from nauseating; surely no rock star has been jilted as constantly as Pete Shelley, as the irony laced ‘Everybody’s Happy Nowadays’ and ‘Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)?’ demonstrate. The Buzzcocks created a wonderful mixture of punk aggression, catchy melodies and appealingly underdog lyrics, and injected it into a fantastic series of singles.

The most controversial songs are arguably the most memorable; the hilarious ‘Orgasm Addict’ is actually surprisingly moralistic, but ‘Oh Shit!’ is possibly the definitive song for the curse word. The catchy b-side ‘Why Can’t I Touch It?’ rides an infectious groove, the only song on the compilation that noticeably extends past the three minute barrier.

The Buzzcocks’ 1980 singles aren’t the same calibre as their earlier work. They retain the energy, but expanding their sound palette from the simple guitar, bass, and drums formula doesn’t necessarily help this band. It’s difficult to penalise Singles Going Steady when the 1980 material is listed as bonus tracks, while ‘Are Everything’ and the synth-laced ‘Running Free’ are appealing regardless.

It’s difficult to view Singles Going Steady as anything other than an indispensable blast of pure musical adrenaline.

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