User Profile
Spike Hyzer
A big fan of Post Punk, Punk, Goth, New Wave, and Electronic music, the more British or Euro the better (though I am from the US and love much of our own as well).
Reviews
556
Lists
0
Collection
0
Spike Hyzer's Album Reviews
It's incredibly rare when an artist hits it out of the park on a debut--copies of Burning Blue Soul, a solo record, were incredibly hard to find when this dropped, and it now sounds like juvenilia, a languid effort to master the recording process, and as such seems in retrospect almost like a demo presented to a record company--but Johnson has done just that with his real debut.
It's easily the most experimental and interesting of all of his works. The composition is wonderful, the instrumentation is varied, the lyrics are great, the cover art is magnificent, and the emotional impact is that of a gut punch.
His work would immediately move toward the mainstream and become far less interesting and experimental--down to the cover art--but for one brief moment in 1983, however, Johnson was the most important musician on earth to those punk/new wave/electronica fans seeking something that digs deep and satisfies musically. None of his work would ever come close to this masterpiece.
It's easily the most experimental and interesting of all of his works. The composition is wonderful, the instrumentation is varied, the lyrics are great, the cover art is magnificent, and the emotional impact is that of a gut punch.
His work would immediately move toward the mainstream and become far less interesting and experimental--down to the cover art--but for one brief moment in 1983, however, Johnson was the most important musician on earth to those punk/new wave/electronica fans seeking something that digs deep and satisfies musically. None of his work would ever come close to this masterpiece.
Was this review helpful?