Back With A Set…

Once again, the Thompson Twins released this album with the same creative flames burning as the first. It's a quite similar, though perhaps stronger album. On Set, Thompson Twins swelled to seven members with bassist Matthew Seligman (Soft Boys) joining the fracas in addition to Steve Lillywhite and Thomas Dolby lending their talents in the studio. The excellent “Living In Europe” and “Bouncing” are tightly wound post-punk gems but the shift towards synths with “In the Name of Love” opened a new door for the band. ‘’In The Name Of Love’’ is Tom Bailey casting off the shackles of the guitar and embracing the cold harsh synth. The lilting reggae vibe of “Runaway” and steel drums on “Good Gosh” reveal a young band with a wide field of vision that would gradually narrow following in the footsteps of Human League, the band would soon establish a clear-cut aesthetic and drop a couple hundred band members (well, a few anyway) and condensed to the core threesome of Tom Bailey, Allanah Currie, and Joe Leeway.

In The Name Of Love

The fourth single from the Thompson Twins sees them in territory that would become more the norm in the future. The first of 12 singles on the US dance music chart "In the Name of Love" went to number one and promptly stayed there for five weeks. The band was still a respectable septet back then with no real aspirations of becoming a chart band, but this single changed them irreparably into a bubbly trio of useless fuckwits.

A Product Of…The Thompson Twins

A Product Of … (Participation) is the 1981 studio album by the Thompson Twins. It was released on the T Records imprint, a label created by the band and distributed through Fame/EMI. At the time of its release, the band was a six-piece group that (thankfully) did not include Alannah Currie (although she is thanked in the credits for "playing and singing" ??? on the record). In comparison to the chart status of their later years, the group had a more street image during this period, because they were communing in London squats. The self-produced album has a post-punk sound and feel to it that was heavily influenced by African rhythms and chants. The band had already built a strong reputation for themselves through their live shows, where often members of the audience were encouraged to join the band onstage and pound along with them on makeshift percussion such as hubcaps and pieces of metal (I think I threw up a little there). All of the songs on the album were written by the band, except for two traditional scores, both re-arranged by Tom Bailey. [Wikipedia anyone?]