a critical review of Fad Gadget: GAG

 When it comes to one of my favorite albums of all time, it is hard to be critical.  but..  I will. 

Ideal World- there is an element of this song that always reminded me of Rocky Horror's Time Warp for whatever reason.  The backing vocal on this and many earlier FadGadget recordings seem off key at times, and are off key (which is weird considering Alison Moyet

Collapsing New People

Even though this is one of the "memorable club hits" and undoubtedly the most popular track from this album, there is a drab and dragging repetition of this track that seems uninspired.  Knowing that its was a looped sound recording of a factory near the studio that they recorded this with Gareth Jones at makes it somewhat more interesting.  My favorite thing overall about this track, though, has always been the title and lyrics - though I love Einsturzende Neubatten, it does seem a bit of a friendly jab at the experimental noise scene.

Sleep

I have always adored the violin/viola sound in this track.  I could however do without the child noise.

Stand Up

 no comment

Speak to Me

I love this song so much.  This song has so many moments though, that I just think to myself 'what the hell is going on here?!?'  backing vocals saying "boom shalalala" or "boom shakalaka" or "boom shananana" - whatever they say -  is one detail that I don't quite understand why they thought it was a good idea.  The vocal level and level between verse, chorus, and bridge always felt really strange to me - especially when the bridge is like twice as loud as the rest of the song.  It seems like a mistake or a rush mix job or everybody was high that day.

One Man's Meat

Probably my least favorite track on this album.  I could totally do without the beat, vocals, lyrics, and title.  It is especially disappointing that this was chosen for one of the singles from this album. 

Ring

 I played a piano/vocal cover of this at a coffee shop back around 1996 or so and some elderly lady told me that it was a beautiful song.   The song is a beautive, no doubt.  It also informed me that Fad Gadget had songs for all ages.

Jump

How this is not a global hit in every sense of the world, I will never know.  It seems that this song should have been covered at least a couple dozen times by now, as it not only has a catchy melody and chord progression, but it also plays into the egocentricity of modern society.  The ending to this song is perhaps one of the greatest moments in modern recording where the vocals are actually mixed with scraping metal to give it a harsher quality.  As the vocal fades away and it is just left with the gated metal, it really becomes apparent how innovative and ingenious this track was and still is. 

Ad Nauseam 

The background for my Music Snobbery

I grew up in the 80's.  The 80's were a time for styles and experimentation.  Equipment was coming out that allowed budget bands to make some really interesting music.  Synthesizers had become cheap and easily obtained.  Guitar was often disguised with effects of different sorts.  Drums were heavily reverbed and gated.  Bass was often played slap style.  Personally, I believe that slap bass ruined the 80's.  My friend Dave claims that gated reverb on drums ruined the 80's.  Whichever is the truth, the 80's were probably more ruined by Spandau Ballet, Gloria Estefan, Footloose, and Animotion.

Despite all of the pop drab that was charting (for some unknown reason) in the 80's, there was quite a lot of great music made in this era as well.

When I was young, the first record I bought was "back in black" by ACDC.  I bought it from a cousin.  I didn't know any better.  I was in first grade.  I thought it was "cool". It wasn't.

Soon I graduated from Hall and Oats to the New Wave/ post Punk sound of the 80s.  Moving through Howard Jones, Human League, Thompson Twins, The Cure, The Smiths, and Depeche Mode, to Laibach, Einsturzende Neubatten, Fad Gadget, Tear Garden, And Also the Trees, etc. 

and more modern to These New Puritans, Linea Aspera, Trentemoller, Washed Out, Grizzly Bear, Ulrich Schnauss, etc, etc.  

I will write individual reviews later.

Much of my favorite music to this day still stems from that era. 

Play it again, Sam... or don't.

Musicians are some of the most fickle, temperamental, schizophrenic, and opinionated listeners that exist.  I have been known to quit shopping and leave stores because of the music that was being played over the speakers.  I remember being at a friend's birthday party and asking if I could skip to the next song because I found Rick Astley sonically offensive. 

 

I realize that hearing a bad song doesn't justify rudeness - at least I realize that now.  It is similar to a situation where someone is at a friends' house for dinner or at a restaurant and gets something on his or her plate that they really don't like to eat.  There are polite ways to moving past this and there are rude ways.  I have done both.  There are some things (bands like Sublime or Red Hot Chili Peppers or Rick Astley) that  call for immediate action.  Other times, you just have to ignore the mess of chords, melodies, lyrics, etc, that somebody considered a "song".

 

Most people don't have the same objections to sound though.  Most people can "tune things out" and go on with the task at hand.  I relate to this sometimes...

 

Here is a good breakdown of the music that I hear:

 

 

What I would like to do in the blog is focus on the "I like this" and "I love this" categories.  You may or may not agree with some of my selections - after all, music IS subjective.  This is the very reason that I can't take my opinions of music too seriously and must give others the credit for being intelligent to make up their own categories, ratios, and breakdowns of what they listen to.