The Double Doghouse

hello folks! the weekly record this week is from New Musik, released in 1980: From A to B. this is fully new to me, so im p interested in seeing what it has in store!

Straight Lines has an incredibly cool sound – really love the percussive beats here, and the hook and melodies are extremelt catchy. phenomenal intro track and got me very excited for the record. Sanctuary has some solid moments (especially the “still looking” in the pre-chorus) but didnt blow me away in the same way. def feels like its ahead of the 80s music curve though. A Map of You is nice but not really my style. Science is a bit closer for me, but still a bit more mellowed than id like them to do on a track like this. On Islands goes for a floaty, dreamy sound. p nice. it took me a sec to see how i felt about This World of Water, with that odd processed layered vocal track in the chorus, but in the end i really really like it. the rest of the track has a fantastic sound, and the squeaky lyrics in the chorus are offputting but in a way i kinda dig. Living By Numbers was the big single from this record – def feels the most approachable as a pop hit, even if its not the strongest song here. plus its a pretty straightforward track about the digitization of the modern era. neat song. Dead Fish (Don’t Swim Home) is another really cool song – i think i connect a bit more with the anxieties expressed here than in Living By Numbers, personally. Adventures called my name early in my listens but i think i mellowed on the track – the vocal performance and lyrics dont quite land for me and i dont think the hook is as effective as they pull off elsewhere on the record. The Safe Side was the original closing track when this was released – pulls in the themes of the rest of the original B side for a track about sacrificing freedom for safety and mistrusting authority and control. very cool song.

when the record was released on CD in 1994, it included 3 extra tracks – Missing Persons has a fun chorus to it for sure (plus it gets a neat solo!), and the outro is p nice, though im not as big a fan of the long synth outro. She’s a Magazine’s another very solid track – these B-Side are very strong, haha. Sad Films is a very fun proper closer for the CD release, if a bit ironically contextualizing some of the earlier moments of the record, haha.

likes – Straight Lines, This World of Water, Dead Fish (Don’t Swim Home)
dislikes –

its wild to me that this came out in 1980, since i just did a discography review of Video Age, and i would not be surprised to see a tracks line Straight Lines all over their inspirations, and i heard tons of what i mentally think of as “80s music sounds” on this record, released at the top of the decade. i dont think this’ll become a new listening staple for me but i really adored some of the tracks here and its a very cool listen.

From A to B – 7/10

for the next Weekly Album Review, i’ll be listening to Spiritualized’s Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. i’ll be back for the first Weekly Review of 2024 on Friday, January 5th with that review and to pick another weekly record, and in the meantime, let me know what album you’d like me to review! (i pool all suggestions in one place, and draw a person, then one pick from that person, so feel free to drop as many as you’d like! if you leave an email or username i’ll contact you when i’ve gotten through all your suggestions.)