4 Out Of 5 Stars
This nifty little record slipped under the radar in 1979. It is
composed of tightly wound, keyboard driven new wave and an edgy
sounding vocalist, just the kind of thing that everyone expected of the
period's next charge of the British invasion. What set "English Garden" (the UK version of this album) apart was the pedigree. Woolley was a founder of The Buggles
and a co-writer of two of their best known songs. The band also included a little known but inventive keyboardist named Thomas Dolby
Most of the songs here are pretty good, and Woolley takes those two
signature songs and works them out in a way that suggest why he split
from Horn and Downes...he rocks them instead of machinates them. With
the exception of "You Are The Circus," the songs are a cut above most
of drivel that was being released as "new wave" about as fast as
companies could sign them. Unfortunately, Woolley didn't catch on, the
band broke up, Dolby discovered science, and this record fell into the
ranks of cult classics.
No comments:
Post a Comment