Gang of Four - Entertainment

Would be probably easier to pick my least favorite song. I don't really like any of the extra tracks on the reissue and 5.45 and Return the Gift aren't particulary interesting.

Wait, that means you don't like the Yellow EP?

I guess I'm not used to it :P When I first bought Entertainment it was the original 12 track version and then I lost it. I rebought the reissue but the ep songs sounded like an invasion to my idea of a perfect record.

Well yeah, I'm all for albums being presented in their original incarnation... but there's much to love about the Yello EP.

"Natural's Not In It" full stop.

Oh god, this is a tough one. I'm obsessed with the record as well - it hit me like a bolt out of the blue when I belatedly heard it. Often copied, never bested.

Guns Before Butter all the way.
1st half of this album is so much better than the 2nd..

Please send me SBs and weekends

"5.45"

This is one of my favorite albums of all time.

"Natural's Not In It" vs. "Damaged Goods" vs. "Anthrax." Hmmm.

this album is weird for me because when I first heard it (as a high school junior circa '90) I literally could not find one other person who had even heard of it, much less liked it. I got it cuz it was pretty highly placed in Rolling Stones' best albums of the 80s list iirc. Didn't think about it much through the 90s until the very end when we played a show with the Rapture and they covered "I Found That Essence Rare". Then it was the hottest shit in the world for a couple years. I never listen to it now, but I remember it fondly. I imagine my cassette copy is long since dead/lost.

'I Found That Essence Rare' for me , tho the choice indeed is a tough one - would almost take Armalite Rifle over that in an overall favourite Gof4 track poll.

Also, continued LOLs at Rolling Stone - so that's another 70's album that made their best of the 80's list along with London Calling?

After Greil Marcus stopped publishing laudatory essays their critical profile vanished (well, and they started making shit albums too). I bought my reissue copy in 1998, in whose liner notes Michael Stipe, Flea, etc sought to claim Go4 as their own. Then about eight or nine years ago they became fashionable again, too late for me to care again. While I think this album is a classic, it's best heard when you're young. I listened to Solid Gold a couple of weeks ago and turned it off midpoint: I just couldn't stand its crabbiness and insularity.

I got into Go4 for the same reason (that Rolling Stone list), but bought A Brief History... instead. I got baptised in all the original albums at once via a compilation. It was only later when Infinite Zero reissued Entertainment! on cd that I heard the entire first album. I still tend to favor "Tourist," but maybe only because that's the first track on the History comp and the one I most closely associate with the best things Go4 ever had to offer.

(Big fan of Dave Allen's post-Go4 projects too, though.)

A Brief History... is all you need own, I guess.

I think Songs of the Free actually made the Rolling Stone list instead of Entertainment!, but the effect was the same.

Oh no, it was Entertainment! Silly Rolling Stone.

http://rateyourmusic.com/lists/list_view?list_id=60290&show=50&start=50

63! not as high as I remembered.

lolz that list

I own that book. I actually bought quite a few albums thanks to it..

"Ether" holds a special place my memory for wow-factor for being side 1, track 1. I'd never heard anything like that record before, and "Ether" always takes me back to that hole-in-the-wall record store in Tupelo that lasted about 3 months. (I got the first Roches album the same night, 1983.) But the madeleine effect only goes so far with me, so I voted "Anthrax."

Yeah, I was 16 when that Rolling Stone issue came out and I used it as a buyer's guide for a couple years. I remember distinctly wondering how the hell these boring-looking people Richard & Linda Thompson made the list (and I still don't much like Shoot Out the Lights, but I do like the '70s albums they made).

Damaged Goods, mainly for one of the alltime cool guitar riffs.

I also heard this record thanks to the Rolling Stone review. RS was also the first place I heard about Daydream Nation which completely warped my 17 year old brain when it came out.

GO4's other records are more of an acquired taste, but this one is just about perfect. Glass is another one I could hear 1000 times and never get tired of.

continued LOLs at Rolling Stone - so that's another 70's album that made their best of the 80's list

I think Entertainment! was released in the U.K. in 1979 and in the U.S. in 1980.

After Greil Marcus stopped publishing laudatory essays their critical profile vanished (well, and they started making shit albums too). I bought my reissue copy in 1998, in whose liner notes Michael Stipe, Flea, etc sought to claim Go4 as their own. Then about eight or nine years ago they became fashionable again, too late for me to care again. While I think this album is a classic, it's best heard when you're young. I listened to Solid Gold a couple of weeks ago and turned it off midpoint: I just couldn't stand its crabbiness and insularity.
― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, March 2, 2010 12:45 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

^^^^
Perfect

Damaged Goods

Good god, this is tough, but I have to go with "Damaged Goods" (although "Ether" nearly won for me).

i think i have to go with "anthrax"

i voted for tourist, but you can't lose on this one

I Found That Essence Rare.

It's interesting to compare guitar noise strategies on this to Arto Lindsay of DNA (from around the same time). See "At Home He's A Tourist" vs. "You and You."

u guys, this is one of mr. snrub's favorite albums of all time

such a great record

their profile was very high when I was in high school in the early 80's... some of my friends saw them play a show with Black Uhuru!!!

Solid Gold has bad production, I much prefer Songs Of The Free for 2nd best. I also love the EPs, especially Another Day.

gotta go with Anthrax for that guitar sound, but there's another half dozen true greats on here.

I finally listened to this album for the first time yesterday, after years of hearing praise by bands I love (REM, chiefly). It's a pretty good rock record. It doesn't funk as much as I'd thought I'd been led to believe. Predictably I like its poppiest moments best, so I vote for "Damaged Goods". I gather a big part of the appeal of the band is their lyrics, but nothing rubbed off on me the first time. Well, the conceit of "At Home He's A Tourist" is pretty great.

it was more about how the lyrics reacted to the conventions of the time imo, not that the lyrics themselves were superb but that they adopted this dry detached critique of pop music conventions in their words. being lefty in the early 80's was also a plus in terms of critical cachet.

for me, it was mostly about the immense sound they got when they were on, see the live version of "What We All Want" or "Life It's A Shame" for examples, or the intro of "Anthrax".

also "she doesn't think so but she's dressed for the H-bomb" is a great lyric

I have the rerelease and enjoyed the live version of "Sweet Jane", which seemed to start ironically and ended earnestly.

might go with anthrax for the novelty factor - will revisit now

I Found That Essence Rare vs. Guns Before Butter for me.

Have we done a Solid Polled yet?

hmm I think voting for anthrax would be too much of a disservice, as it's got such a different feel than the rest of the album. so it's a toss up between natural's not in it, damaged goods, and return the gift for me. will flip a coin.

Which song do I like best? Tourist or Guns Before Butter. Which song do I find running through my head on a fairly regular basis, nagging me to put it on again? Anthrax (though Tourist does fairly well on this front too).

Think I may give it to Anthrax for that, but it's a tough call.

Solid Polled

Bahahahahaha

What's this idea that this record has to be heard first when you're young? I didn't hear this until I was way out of my teens and it rocked my world. "Solid Gold" is an inevitable step down but it's like going from a 10 to a 9, still great.

I was 23 when I first heard it, and when I play it it's inevitably because I want to, not because it comes up on my iPod. Solid Gold is definitely less than a great thing, and, yes, crabby and cramped – musically, lyrically, and vocally.

Not that they couldn't score post-Entertainment: the Another Day, Another Dollar EP is maybe their most thrilling work, "We Live As We Dream, Alone" is my favorite song of theirs, and I even like "Is This Love."

this thread is about Entertainment, which is an awesome record, no matter how old you are. Solid Gold is a different, lesser ball of wax

voted for Return The Gift

entertainment for solid, bourgy families.

the Another Day, Another Dollar EP is maybe their most thrilling work
otm

"We Live As We Dream, Alone" is my favorite song of theirs
otm

and I even like "Is This Love."
what

Had to vote "Anthrax." Hearing it on acid at 18, I felt the feedback melting my face off. Man.

am i really the only one who thinks Guns And Butter is the best song on this record?!

yes

i'm surprised.

Dammit it seems I already voted and I don't even remember what for. Maybe Damaged Goods... my instinct would probably choose that one.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Damaged Goods"!

There really isn't a duff song on the whole album and it was tight for me to give the vote to "I Found that Essence Rare". That song is really catchy and I always loved the lines about the bikini. My favorite GOF tune is "What We All Want", that one is a heck of a groove.

"Damaged Goods" is my pick but i wish i had time to listen before actually casting my vote.

Natural's Not In It vs. Damaged Goods!!!!!!!!!!

hard!!!!!!

Damaged Goods, always nice when I agree with Alex/NYC, once a year or so. :)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Damaged Goods 18

ILX OTM

She posts her thoughts on Facebook

She tweets her mind on Twitter

Why put your brain on Facebook

You give your self a MIND FUCK

Sometimes this is all about Jon and Andy, and then there's the times when all I can focus on is Dave and Hugo.

....which is why I'm still in two minds whether to go next week as there's no Hugo or Dave.

Not Great Men

It's said that this album was recorded without reverb, overdubs etc - is this true? I found this quote:

We wanted the songs to be authentic and capture a moment in time with no decoration or overdubs or tracking or FX. We argued a lot about not using any outboard effect that might colour the performance in a misleading way so that what we did was real. - Jon King

He doesn't actually say that this album WAS, in the end recorded without overdubs, tracking or FX, just that they wanted it to be and argued about it. Yet there are signs of overdubs and reverb. eg. on Damaged Goods the first iteration of "your sweat so sour" sounds drier that the same line later on - yet supposedly recorded under identical circumstances. Then the same song has multiple vocal lines towards the end which must've been tracked.

Using compression during recording, a vocal phrase closer to the mic will sound drier than one at greater distance, with more room acoustics.

crabbiness ftw

xps that's a very silly notion of authenticity, especially coming from Marxists. However silly notions of authenticity firmly held often produce great records.

i wonder, the deadpan affect is not unlike wire's but without thinking about it any i would classify wire's as an arty affectation and gof's as just the way they are

You mean the speak-sing vocals?

yeah

i know they sound more enthusiastic/shouty at times, but when they're at their more speaky

I'd probably figure it was just staying in what they knew they could do with their voice over those grooves. Devo, PIL Second Edition and Kraftwerk had similar vocals going on too. I think the grooves are so tight wound, you couldn't bust out and do a big vocal melody on it anyway, the beat is stiff.