Big Audio Dynamite: Megatop Phoenix

Big Audio Dynamite: Megatop Phoenix

1989

CBS Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Start  2. Rewind  3. All Mink & No Manners  4. Union, Jack  5. Contact  6. Dragon Town  7. Baby, Don't Apologise  8. Is Yours Working Yet?  9. Around the Girl in 80 Ways  10. James Brown  11. Everybody Needs a Holiday  12. Mick's a Hippie Burning  13. House Arrest  14. The Green Lady  15. London Bridge  16. Stalag 123  17. End

B.A.D's fourth full-length album, and the last with the original line-up. Again, I think I originally owned this on cassette (which I think was the case with every B.AD album)...

...I can remember listening to it in my walkman everyday on the way to school...

(-

(Thinking back, every walkman I owned in the 80's was gray and every walkman I owned in the 90's was black... I don't think  it was any personal choice on my part...I kind of remember they were the only colors available...I think if you wanted to get all fancy-Dan you might be able to find a yellow one if you tried hard enough...It's odd though...I'm used to the endless color variations that electronics seem to come in now...)

Big Audio Dynamite also dramatically update their sound this time around...Now, I'm not too crazy about the "acid house" sound they adopt here, but I have to give them credit that the experiment is largely  successful..Now there's almost  nothing on Earth that I would want to hear less than late 80's acid house, but they get some really great songs using this format...

 I've never  been able to get into dance music so much...It's a little too utilitarian for me...I don't go out dancing, I mostly listen to music sitting at home...So listening to some blinkity  sequencers and a tuneless bass drum pounding for an hour doesn't work for me...I like songs, dammit...Now, take the track "Everybody Needs a Holiday"...Instrumentally speaking, it's a  pretty unremarkable piece of house music that normally there would be no way I'd ever enjoy...but  once Mick's imperfect croon comes in, suddenly they have something...It's calming, reassuring and catchy...It's easy to overlook how dated the techno elements may sound, because emotional content and a hummable melody never go out of style...But really, the song is quintessentially late 80's acid house...So apparently it's a genre I'm capable of getting into in the right hands...I wish I could say the rest of the album worked as well...

I can recall the first time putting on this album and hearing the hyperactive sequencer on "Rewind" and then hearing Don and Mick singing, in a mock battle-hymn style:

"The troop was weak and weary
Rations running low
Mission seemed impossible
We had to save the show..."

...and then the guitars and drums kicking in...It's a great moment...And they actually keep up the momentum for the first quarter of the album, but things start to sag a bit in the middle and end...Just a few too many songs with nonexistent hooks...

(The cover for the "contact 12" single...Woah, look in the upper right hand corner... the B-side has a great title! "If I Were John Carpenter." Man, I wanna hear that! Let me check out youtube real quick...(spends 8 minutes listening)...Eh, it's a super long instrumental, but it does have that cool "Don't dig there, dig it elsewhere..." sample they also use on "Mick's a Hippie Burning.")

 I honestly believe if they could shorten the running time a good 15 minutes, maybe lose 3 or 4  of these tracks, they would have a great album on their hands...but it's easy to take some of this for granted, because there's so damn much of it...and as you're balls-deep into something as forgettable as "Around the Girl in 80 Ways" it becomes hard to remember just how awesome "Contact" 'was, oh, 4 songs ago...

So here's how I usually sequence the album when I play it at my Friday Night Record Party...

1. Start
2. Rewind
3. All Mink & No Manners
4. Union, Jack
5. Contact
6. Dragon Town
7.  James Brown
8. Baby, Don't Apologise
9. House Arrest
10. The Green Lady
11. Everybody Needs a Holiday
12.. End

See?  Still longer than "This Is Big Audio Dynamite." Not too long...not too short...and it suddenly sounds like a minor triumph to me... I could honestly give or take "Baby, Don't Apologise, " but I kind of like the guitar playing on it, and the record might seem a bit short without it...I also like the idea of the quiet closer on "Stalag 123" but the song itself is kind of bland, so I chose "Everybody Needs a Holiday" as the proper closer, since it serves a similar function, but is a superior song...

If I've cut out some of your favorite tracks, don't worry...You can  work out your own edit of "Megatop Phoenix" at your Friday Night Record Party! I'm dying to hear it...
 
Sorry if I came off as a little overly critical, because I really do enjoy this album...Hell, I must have listened to it on that old black walkman at least 500 times...So that should speak volumes...
Let's check out "Everybody Needs A Holiday" by Big Audio Dynamite...Enjoy...