"Flat Earth."
The album version of "Hyperactive" loses because of the fade out--if any song demands to come to a screeching halt (like it does in the video/remix), it's this one.
― Hideous Lump, Saturday, 7 June 2008 22:56 (fifteen years ago) link
"i scare myself"
― drone/a/sore, Monday, 9 June 2008 05:54 (fifteen years ago) link
"I Scare Myself". This album is by no means as good as the debut.
― Geir Hongro, Monday, 9 June 2008 08:17 (fifteen years ago) link
too many genuine shiver up the spine moments on this album. i'm having to really think as to where i place my vote.
― mark e, Monday, 9 June 2008 10:54 (fifteen years ago) link
when i was finishing my dissertation last summer, i put this album on after being awake for god knows how long and just started straight BAWLING when "the flat earth" began. everything about that song is perfect.
― r1o natsume, Monday, 9 June 2008 12:45 (fifteen years ago) link
great recent footage of td performing "the flat earth"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNIQrIXlrNw
― r1o natsume, Monday, 9 June 2008 12:47 (fifteen years ago) link
thats from the new(ish) DVD/CD which was recorded at the Martyrs/chicago gig i went to. t'was a great night.
― mark e, Monday, 9 June 2008 13:35 (fifteen years ago) link
"The Flat Earth" gets my vote, even though there are a few underdogs I'm tempted to boost (Mulu, Dissidents). Not fond of I Scare Myself -- for me, it seems like the beginning of TD's dabbling in genres to which he doesn't have much new to bring (see also "The Ability to Swing.")
― Paul in Santa Cruz, Monday, 9 June 2008 17:18 (fifteen years ago) link
i saw this at a record fair for 1 euro yesterday and am now kicking myself for not picking it up...
― Jack Battery-Pack, Monday, 9 June 2008 19:07 (fifteen years ago) link
i'll bloody kick you as well if you do that again. good grief. if i ever see if one euro, i'll buy it and send it to you. this album, like the debut, so needs a proper reissue treatment. (as we've discussed elsewhere it looks like this will never happen)
― mark e, Monday, 9 June 2008 19:31 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― ILX System, Friday, 13 June 2008 23:01 (fifteen years ago) link
mulu is sick. somebody vote mulu. this album is balearic as hell.
― r1o natsume, Friday, 13 June 2008 23:51 (fifteen years ago) link
"The Flat Earth", but might just as easily have gone with "Screen Kiss". Positively Hockneyesque, that one.
― whalemusic, Saturday, 14 June 2008 11:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― ILX System, Saturday, 14 June 2008 23:01 (fifteen years ago) link
I dig these results! Flat Earth just barely edges out Screen Kiss...and that's how I voted, too.
― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Sunday, 15 June 2008 05:58 (fifteen years ago) link
I got this album for a couple of bucks thinking I would just take a punt...and it's great! What else is like this?
― /\ /\ Delete post (admrl), Friday, 7 September 2012 00:00 (eleven years ago) link
Or...what else is like "The Flat Earth" and "Screen Kiss". I guess it is kind of an "Avalon"/David Sylvian vibe
he's kind of a babe in the 'dissidents' video
― TOP FEMALE LAWYER & CARTOONIST FOR 2011: (donna rouge), Friday, 7 September 2012 00:15 (eleven years ago) link
as to your qn: try it's immaterial's 'song' lp
― TOP FEMALE LAWYER & CARTOONIST FOR 2011: (donna rouge), Friday, 7 September 2012 00:17 (eleven years ago) link
for real
― ms fotheringham (Crabbits), Friday, 7 September 2012 04:09 (eleven years ago) link
What a very lovely album...Perfect for a balmy summers night...hate the 80's music press for being so snide against him...
― The Pastiche Liberation Front (sonnyboy), Sunday, 7 July 2013 22:28 (ten years ago) link
Born 1958, with The Flat Earth out in 1984, amazing to me that he wrote "Screen Kiss" at 25 or 26.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Friday, 16 April 2021 15:02 (three years ago) link
Unreal. That song is a whole damn movie
― J. Sam, Friday, 16 April 2021 15:21 (three years ago) link
I've had this conversation a couple of times:
"This is great, what is it?"
"The Flat Earth by Thomas Dolby"
"wait...its not *that* Thomas Dolby is it?"
― frogbs, Friday, 16 April 2021 15:29 (three years ago) link
i love this album
― building a hole (NickB), Friday, 16 April 2021 15:34 (three years ago) link
i'm glad i found it a few years back.
now when i think of t dolby, the first thing that pops into my head is:
LIKE AN IRON FIST!
that has replaced:
SCIENCE!
i feel like that's a good upgrade to the quality of my brain content
― building a hole (NickB), Friday, 16 April 2021 15:39 (three years ago) link
those two songs on Flat Earth are probably his best but Golden Age of Wireless is still my go-to. I remember hearing the ending part of "Windpower" for the first time and thinking "shit, another one-hit wonder whose entire catalogue I need to explore"
― frogbs, Friday, 16 April 2021 15:58 (three years ago) link
Appreciate how "She Blinded Me with Science" might have led to uninformed dismissal, yet he continued to mix in the oddball songs: Hyperactive!, Airhead, The Toad Lickers, etc. I wonder if his output would have been different with wider appreciation? He seems like he's happily marched to his own interests, and it wouldn't have mattered.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Friday, 16 April 2021 16:03 (three years ago) link
"flying north" is my go-to dolby, the only one of his i've heard that reaches the swoonworthiness of his buddy paddy mcaloon's songs
i appreciate "swoon-worthy" isn't always or even usually what he's going for, but still
― voodoo chili, Friday, 16 April 2021 16:15 (three years ago) link
What do you think of "Budapest by Blimp"? That's definitely Sprout-tinged.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Friday, 16 April 2021 16:20 (three years ago) link
oh btw anyone who loves "Screen Kiss" should at least check out "17 Hills" on his latest album
― frogbs, Friday, 16 April 2021 16:29 (three years ago) link
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Friday, April 16, 2021 11:20 AM (thirty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
oh yeah, definitely has echoes but the vibe is slightly undermined by the slap bass lol
― voodoo chili, Friday, 16 April 2021 16:58 (three years ago) link
the crowd singalong section always sends shivers all over.absolutely love this song.
― mark e, Friday, 16 April 2021 17:00 (three years ago) link
Budapest By Blimp fucking rules including the slap bass
― eisimpleir (crüt), Friday, 16 April 2021 17:07 (three years ago) link
Thanks for this - Spotifying _Map of the Floating City_ now, and enjoying it after a few years of not playing it.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Friday, 16 April 2021 17:10 (three years ago) link
xp i dig the slap bass, was specifically saying that those kinds of dancefloor-friendly touches are part of what distinguishes him from mcaloon
― voodoo chili, Friday, 16 April 2021 17:11 (three years ago) link
i am so used to the proper version of this so had a definite raised eyebrows moment when this remix was included on the recent(ish!) compilation.had never heard of this remix being available, but i love it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VnGCkF7YPk
― mark e, Friday, 16 April 2021 18:02 (three years ago) link
Love this track, although it’s nearly 30 years later feels like it would fit right in to The Flat Earth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7STUTxwdC5A
― Dan Worsley, Friday, 16 April 2021 18:16 (three years ago) link
Wrong album, I know, but man I had such a crush on Adele Bertei after seeing this go out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAEiCA8dN_8
― Maresn3st, Friday, 16 April 2021 18:18 (three years ago) link
yeah, thats a really good track.did you get the 25+ minute megamix of the Oceana stuff with remixes etc, 'Return To Oceana' ?he announced it via the forum/website as part of a big online treasure hunt thing.its rather lovely.
xpost.
― mark e, Friday, 16 April 2021 18:20 (three years ago) link
No, will need to see if it’s on YouTube.
― Dan Worsley, Friday, 16 April 2021 19:04 (three years ago) link
"Hyperactive" always reminds me of this song, in retrospect the similarities were definitely intentional. it even uses some of the same sounds!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LBUEYGfisQ
― frogbs, Friday, 16 April 2021 19:06 (three years ago) link
His book ‘Speed of Sound’ is a good read, not least his encounter with Michael Jackson. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/inside-michael-jacksons-mansion-thomas-dolby-recalls-surreal-visit-192458/
― Dan Worsley, Friday, 16 April 2021 19:14 (three years ago) link
And of course, Dolby specifically wrote 'Hyperactive' to order for Jackson, sent him a demo, and then never heard anything back. He presumably brought Adele Bertei in on his own version to provide the MJ vocal stylings that he had heard in his imagination.
― I Advance Masked (Vast Halo), Friday, 16 April 2021 21:23 (three years ago) link
I listened to this for the first time only a couple months ago. The first three tracks on this are so great that the second half can't help but pale. I also don't get the inclusion of "Hyperactive" at the end, it clashes with the vibe of the album imo
― Vinnie, Saturday, 17 April 2021 00:52 (three years ago) link