Kings of the Wild Frontier

Couple of decent songs but generally I found it quite annoying

I don't know. It's not bad, but this seems to have been _really_ highly rated when it came out. It just doesn't really seem like anything special.

This is the 80's that I don't miss not even a bit of it :-(

It could be something back in the day but it certainly didn't aged well. Total waste of my time

The Good: I guess we are going on a safari!
The Bad: That our guides seem to be ants…
The Ugly: Finding out that the ends are freaking red ants… because of all the face painting… what?

I recall Adam and his ants being on MTV, and me wondering exactly what it was I was supposed to like about them.
So, when his face popped up this morning, I got a little exited, because I figured that I would not understand all about Adam and his ants…

I guess that I am no fan of Adam and his ants… The album, thankfully, only lasted so long, so there was no need to hurt myself.
There’s really nothing to mention about this album aside from the fact that I did not like it and started getting annoyed with the stupid chants here and there.

2* because it isn’t total shit, but be warned that you probably will want to punch something if you listen to this album twice in a row...

2.0

Reading the Wikipedia entry this album was a big hit in the UK, which must be why it is on the list. Being from the US I have no nostalgia about this album, and therefore have no sadness in saying it isn’t very good.

What is this? An album for ants?

I’m at a 3.5 that I’ll bump down to a 3.

I do wish I could leave it at a 3.5 though, because this is a pretty enjoyable album, for the most part. Whenever it’s not *that* enjoyable though… boy, it’s just kinda dry. That dryness looms over a bit too much of the album for me to give it a bump up to a 4 – there’s just too many tracks that have sections that didn’t really grab me like that. In those drier moments, something just looms in the soundscape for a bit too long, whether it’s a sort of mediocre guitar solo, a vocal performance that doesn’t have the right level of conviction, or just a drum pattern that doesn’t really have the right kick to it.

Even when none of those are present, sometimes the tracks just didn’t really click for me, despite their best efforts, due to a general lack of presence from the band themselves. Take “The Human Beings” as an example – fun concept, good looping vocals, but when the instrumentation isn’t there to evolve the track and give it a sense of progression, it makes the track fall a bit short. Same goes for “The Magnificent Five”; totally fine track, but the soundscape hits a high point at the intro, and just sort of stabilizes afterward. Even on the best tracks on this album, there’s moments that feel a little weird, like “Antmusic” using its chorus as a bit of a crutch, “Ants Invasion” having some noisy guitar at the end, or “Jolly Roger” abruptly ending without any fun pirate-y guitar solo stuff.

Whenever it’s not dry, I like it, but I especially like it when these guys sort of bite Talking Heads a bit, which is making me realize that… maybe I just really want to listen to some Talking Heads, you know? Ultimately, this feels like a weird in-between of post-punk & new wave, leaning a little more towards post-punk’s vocals / structure while trying to integrate new wave soundscapes, but it’s not doing the most effective blend job, at least to my ears. I hear all the potential in the world though, and there are some great tracks here. Had these guys not broken up within a few years, I think they would’ve been able to ride the wave of a new wave a bit longer. As far as this album goes, it’s just not quite there for me. It could totally go up to a 4 someday if some of this clicks a little better, but for now, I’ll stay at a 3.5 bumped down to a 3.

Lots of nostalgia but it hasn’t stood the test of time too well

More irritating than eccentric

Not convinced of the songwriting, but pretty cool sound nonetheless.

3.5/5

Only ever heard the (excellent) Adam Ant singles, not the full albums. More post-punk and abrasive than I'd anticipated (Ants Invasion seems to rip off Black Sabbath?!), doesn't always work but at the time I'd have loved this for it's charisma and zest - definitely got a vibe of it's own

Love when people push punk into new weird directions. The drums are a particular highlight on this album

Buff, qué pereza nada más ver la portada. Voy allá. Excepto la última, The human beings, más post-punk y oscura no me ha convencido nada. Poner otra estrella seguida me sabe mal, le voy a poner 2 por yo que sé.

Feels like a lot of shitty wailing. Just another brit album included despite not being anything special. 1*

Een duidelijke punk-uitstraling toont de hoes mij. En toch ben ik erg geïnteresseerd. Hoe kan dat?

Eind jaren '90 trok ik de verbanden met The Prodigy. Toendertijd eerst Ants Invasion (met max. 10 kb/s) gedownload. Want ik was toch benieuwd naar die Prodigy-original. Dat nummer stelde mij, ondanks niet mijn muzieksmaak, niet teleur. The Prodigy had inmiddels het logo aangepast naar de mier en op internet werd de term Ant-Music gebruikt over muziek van The Prodigy (niet lang geleden had The Prodigy nog een Army of the Ants tour). Iets later zag ik plaatjes van Adam (deze hoes) en trok ik toch een parallel met Flint van The Prodigy. Bijvoorbeeld voor de kledingstijl. Dat komt natuurlijk vanuit de punk hoek, maar tja ook daarbinnen vind je variatie. Ik ontdekte door de gewekte interesse de nummers Kings of the Wild Frontier met een soort power-drum die mij wel beviel en Antmusic, dat iets vrolijker klonk. Die laatste trof ik ook weer aan op We Control van Hyper (een onderschat album). Voor de cover-versie was samengewerkt met Leroy, van...The Prodigy.

Mogelijk allemaal in mijn hoofd ontstaan, maar voor mij voelde het als de wortels van The Prodigy. Dus laat de rest maar horen. Daarbij hoop ik in tegenstelling tot anders op een creatieve punk plaat.

Wat dat betreft wordt ik wel op mijn wenken bediend. Tegelijkertijd is het soms wel erg speels (met Jolly Roger als toppunt). De punk-uitstraling is wat minder rauw en meer gericht op de uitstraling dat deze band gewoon plezier maakt en zijn eigen ding doet. De ongelikte (samen)zang blijft wel nadrukkelijk aanwezig. Het blijkt toch dat ik de beste drie nummers kende. De rest heeft weinig meerwaarde en is soms echt storend.

Geen idee of ik nu sterren geef aan nostalgie of muziek.

No thanks. This really did nothing for me.

This is a really interesting album to get immediately after Talking Heads' Fear of Music, especially since I couldn't stand that album. This album feels a lot like that Talking Heads album, with the repetitive rhythm based music, some songs lacking in catchiness, really cheesy instrumentation here and there.

All things considered, I should hate this album same as Fear of Music, but I don't. I think it's just due to how sincere and *fun* Adam sounds like he's having on this album whereas the Talking Heads' album didn't sound fun at all and felt way too up its own ass, I guess? Like they're doing all that weird experimental stuff because it's "true art", whereas Adam and the Ants are just fucking around and having fun. It may not work all the time for me, but at least it's fun.

There's some good stuff here, interspersed with a fair bit of filler material. Ant Music is great, and I liked Killer In The Home with its Link Wray sample. The whole thing is pretty camp, but for the most part that's fun. A low three.

A few good tunes. I bet they’re fun to watch live.