ALBUM: Wild Planet (1980)
MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$
So it’s fitting that I finished off the A’s in my quest to review alphabetically my 678 records with the soundtrack to the documentary ‘Athens, Ga. – Inside/Out.’ Because I open up the B’s with ‘Wild Planet’ by the B-52’s, Athens, Ga., legends.
I was never a huge fan. My initial take was, what is this?
Village Voice critic Robert Christgau in reviewing this very album called them “the world’s greatest new-wave kiddie-novelty disco-punk band’ – a bit of a left-handed compliment, though he gave the album a B-plus.
The group’s first ‘hit’ on their first album– ‘Rock Lobster– with its undulating yodel chirps and big twang single string guitar (at least that’s how it sounded) would lend to that feeling this is of the novelty ilk destined for Dr. Demento.
I mean they are chortling over a crustacean for goodness sakes.
But the years and several second listens have softened me on the B-52’s.
They were more than a novelty act. Stripping down the instruments, unloading any trace of the blues, the B-52’s simply made people happy. Many people for a long time.
They were the opposite of the venomous Sex Pistols (not saying venom doesn’t have a place.) They wanted to party out of bounds at the Love Shack. The only bad things in B52ville were when you took to living in your own private Idaho or you lose Quiche Lorraine, that doggie dyed green.
Over the years I’ve come to appreciate, in moderation, their chirpy cheery camp and thift-store chic. This is not a record I’d put on to stretch out on the couch and read the paper, but ‘Party Out of Bounds’ off this record or ‘Love Shack’ coming a decade later, are good anchors for any party mixtape (remember those?).
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.