Title: Citizen Zombie
Artiste: The Pop Group
Genre: Post-Punk
Familiarity: Zero, though I've heard Frownland enthuse about them (this does not fill me with hope...
)
Note: The first album from this band in thirty years! That has to be some sort of record!
1. Citizen zombie: I'm not mad about the sort of mechanised voice, but oddly I'm getting used to it. Not too bad really.
2. Mad truth: Weirdly kind of dancy with a Laurie Anderson edge. Again, not bad. Love the funky guitar. And the keys. Yeah! Baby!
3. Nowhere girl: Slower track, reminds me in places of Talking Heads but gets heavy enough at times to almost qualify as metal. Hmm. Again, I like this. Great ambience.
4. Shadow child: Yeah, don't like this one at all. Get nothing from it.
5. The immaculate deception: Bagpipes? Nah, I think it's just a guitar. Good though. Song's a little repetitive, but not bad.
6. S.O.P.H.I.A: This one is good fun.
7. Box 9: Not mad about this one, bit basic.
8. Nations: Like the kind of new-wavey feel to this, plus the ringing guitar. Ah, don't really like the spoken vocal, though something like accordion is interesting. Hmm. Actually I think I do like the spoken vocal now. Kind of a cross between Hawkwind's “Sonic attack” and Scott-Heron's “The revolution will not be televised”.
9. St. Outrageous: Not mad about this: too Talking Heads I feel.
10. Age of miracles: This is much nicer. Prefab kind of piano then it goes into a sort of funky/r&B style before throwing in some dashes of new wave electronica. I think this might be an instrumental? No.
11. Echelon: Drunken feel about this that reminds me of --- anyone? --- yeah. Waits. Sort of a carnivally organ or something. Slow song, not bad at all.
End result: Considering I had expected to have a harder time with it, quite a surprise. I'm not going to become a fan of The Pop Group anytime soon, but this was a decent album. Definitely a strong sense of Talking Heads, though who came first I don't know. OK now I do: David Byrne's crowd were two years ahead of TPG.
So, Love or Hate? Well, I didn't hate it and I kind of thought I would, so I guess it's a
Love.