Big Audio Dynamite: Higher Power/F-Punk

I have previously covered all the other Big Audio Dynamite albums, but as you can recall from those posts, I couldn't find copies of the band's final two albums. Well, shortly after I wrote that, I went to Zia records and found both CD's, so I'll be covering them in one post today...I'm running super late for work today, so I didn't especially get a chance to edit it so it might come off as a bit choppy, but screw it...Here we go...



Big Audio Dynamite: Higher Power

1994

CBS Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing:  1. Got to Wake Up  2. Harrow Road  3. Looking for a Song  4. Some People  5. Slender Loris  6. Modern Stoneage Blues  7. Melancholy Maybe  8. Over the Rise  9. Why Is It?  10. Moon  11. Lucan  12. Light Up My Life  13. Hope


I can remember buying this on cassette when it was a new release...I remember playing the first four songs over and over and then it sat unplayed for years. One day in 2000, I pulled it out of the ol' tape case and was blown away by "Melancholy Maybe." Then I lost my entire tape collection and never heard the album again until 2013.

This album is ridiculously spotty...Why is the running time so damn long (nearly 70 minutes) when the band had so few good songs this time around. There's no way they could have narrowed this down a bit?  Their mellower house-inspired direction isn't as appealing as their earlier, wordy, dance-punk. What bothers me the most though is the lack of great lyrics. Man, remember how good their lyrics were? Especially those first two albums! Half the appeal of songs like "A Party!", "Battle of All-Saints Road", and "E=MC2" lied in the dense, dazzling lyric sheet. They seemed to have so much to say then and went through such great pains to say it so right...Oh well...

 And again, not much of this actually bad....It just seems a bit dull when compared to their other albums ... The first four tracks definitely still hold up. "Got to Wake Up" is a promising opener, but I think it actually promises a bit too much. The  nagging, "Message from dreamland early in the morning, you gotta wake up and get out of bed" hook is one of the catchiest things they ever wrote, and much respect to anyone who can actually make waking up early in the morning sound like fun. It's 7 am right now and I can tell you, in no uncertain terms, that waking up early in the morning sucks!

"Harrow Road" follows and turns out to be another high-point. At the time I thought it sounded like  it could have come off of "Combat Rock" or "Sandinista!" but looking back I think the rawer, roaring-guitar style foretells "F-Punk" more than anything.  This version is diminished somewhat by the superior ska version that appears on "Planet BAD's Greatest Hits," so I tend to take the album version for granted, but I really shouldn't...



I have already discussed the single, "Looking for a Song" in the "Planet BAD" post I did last year, and I still stand by my assessment. Alright enough song, nothing to write home about. See, I used to write my Mom every weekend to tell her how much I liked the "E=MC2" and "Contact" singles but I didn't feel inspired enough to send her a letter about "Looking For a Song." Maybe I will though...Yea, $0.46 isn't too much to spend for a stamp! I bet she;ll be happy to read about a single that came out 20 years ago! Let me run to the post office real quick!

Wait?!?! $0.49?!?!?!!! Godammit!

 Oh yea, remember earlier when I was talking about how my 2000 re-assessment of the album provided the conclusion that "Melancholy Maybe" was the best song on the album? Well, it turns out I think I overrated it a bit...Definitely a good song, but it doesn't raise my rafters like it used to...The chorus resolution is a little too weak for my tastes now...The chorus starts out like it's going to be a real killer, but the last line sounds kind of like a shoulder-shrug...Out of nowhere, the melody suddenly takes a turn towards an old 1930's type thing...I maintain those verses are freakin' stellar, however. This time around the song that turns out to be the unexpected surprise is "Moon." A sweet ditty that proves there might have been something to this gentler, more-whimsical approach.

And really. outside of the fine "Some People" (which rules here, but would have probably been a middle-of-the-road track on "Megatop Phoenix") that about covers all the worthwhile material on here. The rest of it is either boring or an updated dance version of English music-hall music, that I don't have too much interest in...They should have really cut this monster down a bit. If it was around the 40 minute mark and had a filler-free track-listing I would probably play the hell out of this, but as it stands it's the one I turn to the least...

Here's my edited version (which would still give a good 40 minute running time):

1. Got to Wake Up
2. Harrow Road
3. Looking for a Song
4. Some People
5. Modern Stoneage Blues (I'm not too into this song, but everyone else seems to agree it's a real winner, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, even though I don't particularly agree)
6. Melancholy Maybe
7. Why Is It? (Boy, this one is hanging on by a thread for me...)
8. Moon
9. Lucan (This song doesn't bowl me over just lying there in the middle of the album, but it seems like it'd work as a slow-burn closer)

Nine tracks might have seemed a bit skimpy in the 90's, when every album had to be 70 minutes, but no one seems to have a problem with "This is Big Audio Dynamite"'s 8-song track listing, so I think the less-is-more adage holds up...

But sequence it however, you like...This is just my recommendation...

Here's"Got to Wake Up" by Big Audio...

Big Audio Dynamite:F-Punk

1995

Radioactive Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. I Turned Out a Punk  2. Vitamin C  3. Psycho Wing  4. Push Those Blues Away  5. Gonna Try  6. It's a Jungle Out There  7. Got To Set Her Free  8. Get It All From My TV  9. Singapore  10. I Can't Go On Like This  11. What About Love? 12. Suffragette City (hidden track)


 People tend to single this out as the band's worst album, but I don't think those people have played this back to back with "Higher Power." My God, this album whoops that record's ass! It's still a tad too long (and man, this is a perfect example of an album that would have been much improved if trimmed just a little), but everything about this is superior.

The sound this time around leans more towards straight-up rock, but the dance element is still there, it's just pushed to the back of the mix in favor of cranked guitars on most of the tracks. The sonics are pretty interesting actually, Mick sounds like the microphone is resting on his lips Close, dry, immediate and raw. The lyrics still aren't quite what they were, but the songs pull this through.

Opening track "I Turned Out a Punk" still steals the show. At the time I can remember everyone pointing out that this appeared to be Mick's attempt at realigning himself with punk, since the genre  had suddenly become all the rage again, but this seems utterly unrelated to Green Day. More roaring and garage rocking than pop-punk. His vocal delivery also seems to distance itself with the cartoon snottiness of pop-punk...Instead he uses a numb, monotonous delivery that works perfectly for some reason.

It's also a thrill to hear Mick revisit the "I Can't Explain" riff for the hundredth time on "Psycho Wing." I think a lot of people have a much dimmer view of the recycling than I do, but I say fuck it...The song rocks, the chorus is ultra-catchy and my day is a little brighter for hearing it, which is all I usually ask for in a song...

"Get It All From My TV" finally gets the "Higher Power" music-hall experiments right, and it seems all it took was adding a little more heft in the guitar department and some trashy drumming...Again, hearing Mick singing about his girlfriend's tits is a bit of a let-down after all the brilliant lyrics he had given us in the past, but this chewy bubble-gum is an alright consolation prize...And it's nice to finally get some lyrics extolling the virtues of TV! So many songs knock it, but TV has given us so many wonderful things...

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

                                                                         Exhibit C

Exhibit D

Exhibit E

Exhibit F

I think I've made my point...

The whole album's pretty good. There's only a couple weak tracks: "Push Those Blues Away" is so generic that it hardly even registers as a song in my mind..."Singapore" is also not that great, but at least it triggered memories of a long-forgotten news story involving  an American who got a hot-ass in Singapore for vandalizing a car or something...

 They also trigger another better-suppressed memory in "It's a Jungle Out There." This time it's that irritating "jungle' techno beat that was everywhere in the 90's...Ugh! I hate that beat...It would have actually been an alright track without the jungle beat...

Things close on a high-note with "What About Love?" which is lovely ballad indeedy. Another good example of sampling used as an enhancement to a proper song rather than a means to an end...Oh yea, there's a hidden cover of Bowie's "Suffragtte City," but they don't screw around with the "7 minutes of silence" bullshit...It starts immediately after "What About Love?" so it's alright by me.

"F-Punk" is super out-of-print these days, so chances of finding an affordable copy are pretty slim until someone reissues it, but if you run into a reasonably priced CD, I say go for it...I rank it pretty high in the BAD discography, despite all the hate it gets...

Here's my official ranking from best to worst (subject to change with my next listen to any of these albums)

1. This is Big Audio Dynamite

2. No 10 Upping Street

3. The Globe

4. F-Punk

5. Tighten Up Vol. 88

6. Megatop Phoenix

7. Higher Power

Yay! I got to do a list! All legit blogs have lists...Now I should probably do a political rant or something:

"Blah blah blah (pretend these "blah's" are mad-polarizing political statements) blah blah blabbity  blah! And what about all this liberal blah-blah! Blab blab blooty blah boot-straps blah blah. Remember the immortal words of Thomas Paine:

Sit on that one!!"

Now here's "I Turned Out a Punk" by Big Audio Dynamite...Enjoy...