The Adverts - A Cast Of Thousands

Famously recorded with Mike Oldfield associate Tom Newman at the controls, the second Adverts album was never going to be just another punk album. Although the group's live performance remained as fiery as ever, T.V. Smith was opening their sound to all manner of influences, including augmenting the line-up with keyboards; Richard Strange handled synth on what would become the new album's title track, before Newman introduced another Oldfield sideman, Tim Cross. His flourishes and textures would come to dominate the record (he appears on all but two songs), adding to the alien environment that was the new, ambitiously arranged world of the Adverts. It was not an album that was to win the Adverts many friends, but it probably wasn't meant to. A flagrant departure from even the most extreme expectations, Cast of Thousands not only cast the band adrift from the new wave mainstream, but it would also alienate all but the most adaptable of the band's following. Live, the new songs had blended effortlessly into their surroundings; adapting so many of the characteristics of the older numbers that one could almost believe they were seeking defensive camouflage. Once in the studio, however, the Adverts dispensed with every last vestige of familiarity, treating each song as if it were a completely new piece, and not, as in the case of "Male Assault," the oldest song in sight, something which they'd dragged along to every gig they'd done for the past 18 months. And, overall, it worked, although the Adverts themselves would not stick around to reap its rewards. Barely was the album in the stores than the band broke up, leaving Cast of Thousands alone to be battered by the brickbats of misunderstanding critics; not until its Anagram Records CD reissue, a full 19 years later, was the album perceived as the heroic and, in places, precognitive effort that it was, a window opening into the extremes (and, occasionally, excesses) of the 1980s new wave, and doing so with such effectiveness that the bonus tracks, drawn from the band's period singles, sound absolutely old-fashioned by comparison.

The Adverts - Crossing The Red Sea

Crossing the Red Sea With….The Adverts was the summation of a year's worth of gigging, honing a repertoire that (jagged, jarring, and frequently underplayed though it was) nevertheless bristled with hits, both commercial and cultural. "No Time to Be 21," "One Chord Wonders," and "Bored Teenagers" were already established among the most potent rallying cries of the entire new wave, catch phrases for a generation that had no time for anthems; "Bombsite Boy," "Safety in Numbers," and "Great British Mistake" offered salvation to the movement's disaffected hordes; and the whole thing was cut with such numbingly widescreen energy that, even with the volume turned down, it still shakes the foundations.

The band's original vision saw a rerecording of "Gary Gilmore's Eyes," a Top 20 hit during summer 1977, included on the album, being dropped (for space considerations) at the last minute. It's one of the few punk songs that truly deserved to be called a classic. Although excluded from the initial release of the album, the mistake is corrected by this 2002 re-release of the album and it's included no less than three times. Talk about over compensating.

As well as the three version of 'Gary Gilmore's Eyes' this re-release throws in a pile of additional extras including live tracks and some songs that weren't included on the original album. Crossing The Red Sea With….The Adverts, with the addition of the mysteriously excluded 'Gary Gilmore's Eyes', stands up well on its own, the added extras merely seal the deal.

It's time to put away your dubstep albums and your witch house white labels and get an infusion of old school punk into your veins courtesy of the Adverts.

 

TV Smith - Channel Five

I love TV Smith's work, from The Adverts to his later bands and solo stuff, and consider him one of the finest songwriters of the last 40 years. This is the one album of his that I find very hard to listen to. The most obvious problem here is the keyboards and production that together give it a horribly dated 80's feel. Looking back across 40 years, they become cringe-worthy. Given TV's abilities even that wouldn't necessarily be an issue, but his song writing on this is perhaps the weakest of his career. The chord progressions are predictable and uninteresting and musically much of the material doesn't feel like it's going anywhere.
The other problem is the vocals. On more recent releases the strain of many, many passionate gigs show and TV's voice is positively husky. Back in 1983 through, he still had the vocal chords that made his vocals on The Adverts' albums easily the best of the punk era. On Channel Five they never really get a work out though. He fails to use any of the depth and range he had and the passion that has pervaded even his acoustic recordings is simply not here. I can understand in many ways why TV made an album like this - for someone of his talent to have been denied the kind of broader success and record label support he deserved must Have been incredibly frustrating and this album sounds like an attempt to be relevant to the times and break through to a wider audience. The bad news is that it didn't work in various ways and his later successes have been limited mainly to Germany. The good news is that he made much, much better albums after this one.
Just enough of TV's song writing ability shines through to raise this to 2 stars.                   

sproogle77