Penthouse and Pavement

At first I thought it was going to be just meh 80's nonsense, but the longer it went on the more I wished it would stop.

easy 4.5. you're all nuts

znači na prvoj strani ovog albuma (na takozvanoj »pločničkoj«) potpuno je razvalio u biti studijski glazbenik (john wilson) na gitari i posebice na basu. toliko da je ta strana, koja mi je glazbeno za jako dobru četvorku (tekstovi su malo krindž, eh), toliko zasjenjuje drugu (tzv. »penthaušku«), na kojoj ga nema. druga strana zvuči kao human league (znam za poveznicu, tj. izvor) za siromašne, malo eksperimentalniji (prvi sam koji voli eksperimentalnu glazbu, ali ovdje to nije baš dobro) i koji ne zaslužuje ni trojku. šteta. pretpostavljam da su ljudi kupovali ovaj album samo radi pločničke strane. ali ne mogu samo zbog tih četiriju pjesama dati četvorku, stoga trojka

[odslušao i napisao 22/10/26]

Toch knap dat je met alle kenmerken van synth-pop een vergeetbare plaat kan maken. Grappig dat het soms al bijna eurodance is. Bijvoorbeeld als de dame tijdens het titelnummer de microfoon krijgt.

To give some credit there’s some good bass playing on here. I hated basically everything else about this though. Especially the vocals. My God I hated the singing on this.

Historically interesting. Music is shite though. 2/5.

It was fine. Catchy in some parts, kinda weird in some others (but not necessarily in a bad way). It's certainly not as awful as some of the reviews here would make you think, but I'm also unsure why it's on the list. I listened to it whilst driving on a road trip, which I admit made most of it fall into the background for me. Perhaps on a second listen my rating would change. I definitely want to pay more attention to the lyrics on a relisten.

Side A of this album is really good! Things take a dip at Geisha Boys and Temple Girls though.

Shocked to see this has such a low rating, I quite enjoyed it. It doesn't really ever live up the the Disco groove of the first track though. It's a bit Disco, bit New Wave, bit of Pop. Just everything that was going on at the time, like watered down Talking Heads. Did it ever move the needle? No. It's just a decent album of its era that is worthwile enough to at least listen to once, if not more times.

І знов британська квота (цікава). Перші десь 4-5 пісень прям класні, фанкові й все таке.

Далі ж починається щось дивнувате, часто в поганому сенсі. Але в цілому не найгірший альбом в цьому списку, це точно.

Standard 80s synth … it was fine, but not the best of the genre.

I’m at a 2.5 that I’ll bump down to a 2. I’m being mean today.

It’s definitely prototype synthpop. A lot of the experimentation here is cool for 1981, but after the initial tones of it wear off, most of these tracks get stuck in an instrumental rut. The rut wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the lack of an additional pulse in the back of most of these melodies, leading to an incredibly sparse soundscape that just doesn’t get the blood pumping. So, so many of these tracks would’ve kept my attention more with just any kind of countermelody to flow with the simplistic beep-boopy style of synthpop here, but they just don’t do it. Lyrically, these are fine to a point, but once you hit the moment where you’re repeating lines, verses & choruses several times in a row without fail, you’ve kind of just given up as songwriters. I did like 5 of the tracks here ((We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang, Play to Win, Soul Warfare (which is at least a minute too long), Let's All Make a Bomb, & Song With No Name), but they all have their own flaws along the way.

These tracks also just don’t have big vocal lifts or anything super memorable past their first 2 minutes, and the longer they go, the less appealing they feel. The last track in particular (“We're Going to Live for a Very Long Time”) is the prime example. It just feels obnoxiously pretentious, so much so that it’s probably the main reason I’m going to bump this album down to a 2 for the ending alone – I understand the subtext that this guy’s overconfidence about getting into heaven will likely be met with a much harsher reality, but not hearing it happen leaves a doubt that I don’t like. Additionally, if you had the vinyl back then, that ending loop of “for a very long time” would’ve literally gone on forever until you lifted the arm up. Clever on paper, yes, but given the lyrical tone & the lack of comeuppance, it’s just… ugh. I don’t like how it ends normally & I really don’t like how it would’ve ended back then.

Ultimately, I just wish it were more compelling. This album has a decent base to work from, but it just needs so much more. If this had come out even a year or two later, it would’ve felt deeply outdated compared to its contemporaries; once Eurythmics dropped “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)”, it practically created the blueprint for compelling synthpop. This is not very compelling synthpop. I’m gonna be mean when I bump this down to a 2, because it probably is much closer to a 3, but if I come out of 40 minutes of music where the only tracks I liked without bigger lingering issues are within just 8 of the first 15 minutes & the other 25 feel littered with them, then I just can’t really justify going up to a 3 in my head. It’s not a *bad* album. It’s just deeply underdeveloped. Perhaps the rest of The Human League were right to kick these guys out (for the record, they were: “Human” is an incredible track), but I guess that’ll be fully answered whenever we get “Dare!”, which came out the same year as this. As far as this goes, I'm just stuck at a 2. Sorry.

Dear me. You can hear the shared heritage with the Human League, but this version is just painful to listen to in comparison.

It was cool and fresh when it arrived, but this album has aged like milk. Awful.

1.5

Anarchist new wave. I kinda dig it.

Meh at best, Pretty bad in general. I didn't like it personally.

'Reagan's president elect / Fascist God in motion.' The opening track, far & away the best here, is still not an all-time great, an anthemic response to fascist tendencies that's neither a vigorous takedown nor a funky, clarifying clap back. The rest is essentially faux soul, a whole lotta of clunkiness, & a bad take on 80s synth-pop that also feels like a mediocre reflection of the turnings & burnings of the emerging hip-hop scene. 'It's all that I can give to be a fugitive.' Incoherence like this evinces the dry & faceless qualities of the album, which is never interesting & approaches terrible on songs like 'Geisha Boys and Temple Girls.' The Mad Men who populate the cover are the real artists here & offer no ironic gesture, i.e., this is beige office music.

Took a minute to get used to. Eventually came around to this leftist synth-pop gem. Thematically a bit like Gang of Four but more early eighties Cold War anxiety. A bit strange with a little Devo influence I think (Are Everything or Height of Fighting). And a lot of Human League influence obviously. Walls the fine line between annoying and fascinating. Height of drum machine mania, a post-punk classic.

FOR A VERY LONG TIME FOR A VERY LONG TIME FOR A VERY LONG TIME FOR A VERY LONG TI

I truly was not expecting to love this album whatsoever. I looked at every single one of the genre tags and not a single one appealed to me. So color me fucking surprised, I loved this front to back!

I enjoyed the fast pace of the first track, and how widely critical its message is, even though it's dated. And even though that's the fastest song on the album, I feel like the intensity never slows down. Every song makes me wanna bob my head constantly, every song is super catchy. Even if the lyrics are...weird. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly is going on in Geisha Boys and Temple Girls. But I LOVED this thing. I was really shocked by it!

What.

Do danas sam samo znala Temptation i bila sam malo skeptična posebno jer sam vidjela ocjenu ovdje ali hejteri nemaju pojma, meni je prejak ovaj funky groovy anti-kapitalistički synth pop iako nije naj naj primjer žanra.