Crossing the Red Sea with The Adverts

solid 70s punk!

Listened before? No

Familiar with the artist? No

Thoughts:
- This was fine, but I don't feel like I've missed out by not hearing it before.
- I want to like punk more than I actually do... I tend to like the lyrics when I can make them out, but I wish the production was better.

Świetne, to tyle, dziękuję.

I don't think I recognize this artist or any of the tracks by title. So I'm going into this blind.

I'm kind of enjoying this, and I'm not sure how to rate it though. On the one hand, it's a lot like other British Punk of this era, but on the other hand, I wasn't aware of this group at all, so there's at least some newness to it. It's like they're an answer to the question: "What if the Sex Pistols were just better?" I think I'll add it to my list of albums to listen to again, though.

Якийсь дефолтний панк альбом з 70х. Сподобалась пісня Gary Gilmore's Eyes.

I love some good 70s punk. This is a good album, not a great one. It is a little more varied maybe than some of the other records at the time. For not exactly being well versed in all the chords needed to make an album, they did a great job putting this together. One Chord Wonders is a hilarious play. This record isn't as angry or angsty as a lot of the other punk from this time and I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But the songs are actually built really well and played well. And kudos to Gaye Advert for being (one of?) the first female punk star. I would imagine she's the reason this album is on the list so thanks again to her for that. Overall a good album I would totally buy at the record shop, not the best punk record out there but it'll do. 4/5

Seems like pretty standard punk of the era. Enjoyed it, but no strong feelings either way, just a good punk album.

Solid punk album. I like it, but it's not revolutionary.

Landfill punk but I enjoyed it

Standard issue UK rock

There's a lot of 70s UK punk on this list. Admittedly, I had never heard of The Adverts. This is fine but I feel like it's on the list because someone listened to this when it came out or was part of that scene. It's not bad per se but it's not a standout album in any respect. It's fun and in my wheelhouse, making it 3 stars. But the lyrics are really basic even for punk, the songs all sound kind of the same and it's definitely not best in show for 70s UK punk.

Fulfillingness’ First Finale is another album with that unmistakable Stevie Wonder sound. It’s warm, soulful, beautifully produced and full of great musicianship. I enjoyed listening to it, although of the Stevie Wonder albums I’ve heard during this challenge, I think this is probably the weakest.

One of the great things this challenge has done is properly introduce me to the absolute brilliance of Stevie Wonder. Before starting it, I knew the obvious hits, but listening to the albums has made me appreciate just how fantastic a songwriter and musician he is.

There are some excellent songs here. “Boogie On Reggae Woman” is wonderfully funky and was probably the highlight for me, while “You Haven’t Done Nothin’” has a bit of that brilliant “Superstition” feel to it. “Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away” is another standout and shows the more thoughtful side of his songwriting.

The slower tracks don’t always have the same immediacy, and there are moments where the album drifts a little. But even when it does, the quality of the musicianship means there’s always something worth listening to. It’s a good album rather than a great Stevie Wonder album.

Again, I like Fulfillingness’ First Finale, and there’s nothing here I particularly disliked, but it’s never going to be my Stevie Wonder album of choice. When you’ve made albums as good as Songs in the Key of Life, the competition is pretty tough!

Favourite tracks: I really enjoyed “Boogie On Reggae Woman”, “Too Shy to Say” and “Please Don’t Go”.

Least favourite tracks: Nothing really. Everything on the album is worth a listen.

Album artwork: Classic Stevie Wonder album cover. Simple, colourful and instantly memorable.

Some good ol' classic punk, good fun 3.5

Didn't mind this initially, but rapidly tired of it as the first 6 or 7 songs were all pretty similar. A bit more light and shade towards the end of the album, but by that stage I was a bit over it. Not terrible, but not great either

3.5/5

Very simple punk music. Simple isn't automatically bad, but here I find very little that engages me. Or in other words: I was bored pretty fast. I could listen to 1, 2 or 3 of these songs and even enjoy it a little. But a whole album... no thanks.
2/5 - below average

I’ve heard individual tracks off this album on the radio, but never the whole thing before. This is excellent early punk rock - some of it’s like the Clash, some a bit like Pere Ubu, some just sui generis. I love stuff like this. It isn’t just a solid mass of speedy yelling - I mean it’s speedy, and he’s yelling, but is varied enough to keep my attention; makes me want to jump around and yell too.

Yeah, I will always give records like this a 5 star review. While I love prog and some of the other things that this stuff was created somewhat as a reaction to, I’m grateful to punk for giving rock music a bit of a reset in the late 70s.

Their big song “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” wasn’t on the original release, but I listened to it anyway, so there. It’s a great song.

5 stars

Fine, that era of punk music where the song is just pick a title and then scream the title over and over as a chorus for every song

2

The punk movement in the '70s was such a fruitful scene, that developed so quickly that it seems like the inception of the genre, establishment of it, commercialization of it, and ensuing mutation of it all happened at, more or less, the same time. So while the timeline is challenging to assemble, I can pretty confidently say that Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts is kind of the moment in time when punk started reacting to it's own commercialization. In this regard, Crossing The Red Sea has a little in common with something like Derek Jarman's Jubilee, although, The Adverts feel, perhaps, *slightly* less cutting. But this is one of the first times when punks were singing about the paradoxes of being teenage rebels and outsiders, who also happened to be some of the most popular musicians in their country. The finger is also turned to society at large, but hearing such an early example of "punk about punk" is so interesting, given how common it is now. This note aside, it's perhaps more important that this is *really* good. Any time anyone significantly changed punk at this time, it feels like it became a new genre of music; be it post-punk, new wave, hardcore or no wave. But here, The Adverts bring some more dynamism and poise to the punk sound, while really maintaining that class of '77 feel. The result is honestly one of the better punk albums of the era (in the UK). Most days of the week, I honestly think I'd take this over Never Mind The Bollocks..., it's *that* good. And this may make Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts one of the more underrated punk albums ever, at least in a modern context. I don't even know how *I* went this long without hearing this, but I'm very glad I did.

Robert.... Please, I beg you.... that's enough teenage British punk rock bands......