What was the last album you listened to?

Artist: Visage
Album: Visage
Genre: Synthpop
Year: 1980
Standout tracks: Visage, The Dancer and Fade to Grey

Another one of my many impulse purchases back in the day, and one which have mostly been collecting dust for the last 10-12 years or more.
At the time when I picked it up, I only knew of this band/project through their monster hit single Fade to Grey and that their frontman/lead vocalist Steve Strange was one of the key members of the early 1980s New Romantic movement.
Of course reading up on it later, I do take notice of much more familiar names on the CD cover, such as Midge Ure and Billy Currie from the new lineup of Ultravox along with other members from the post-punk group Magazine. 

It seems that many like to put the album and the band under the musical category of New Romantic, but I decided to go with Synthpop as it seems to fit more in with the music, or at least on this 1980 release. 

01. Visage - Not a bad start and it opens up in a very promising way. Beautiful synths and piano and not hard to take notice from the very go of the talents of Midge Ure and Billy Currie. Could very well have fitted in as one of the stronger cuts on Ultravox's 1980 release Vienna.

02. Blocks on Blocks - Visage continues into the next cut, which is a more upbeat and funky number that seems heavily influenced by Giorgio Moroder and which includes some neat bass playing along with a good use of minimalistic synths sounds. Sadly the more hectic lyrics/singing part do get a little annoying and while not a bad song, it is just too uneven for me to really enjoy it as much as the opening act. 

03. The Dancer - Gets things going from the very beginning and makes great use of saxophones, chilling synths is surely one of the albums more edgier and better produced numbers. 

04. Tar - Is like getting a bucket full of ice cold water thrown at me coming up directly after such a catchy and solid cut as The Dancer.
Tar however, is a clumsy and very over produced song which tries too hard and ends up as an very annoying and badly written/played number.

05. Fade to Grey - The big monster hit, and surely a great one that still sounds as impressive as it must have been to first getting to hear it back in 1980.
A cold, minimalistic but still very catchy song that deserved all the praise it got. 

06. Malpaso Man - A guitar driven synth-rocker that feels like it was made for a futuristic western film. Not bad but one which could have been much better. 

07. Mind of a Toy - Starts up in a promising way, but again the vocal and singing parts brings it down and it just won't sit with me at all. Not a bad one but still comes out as yet another forgettable number. A shame as some of the music in it as really good and I think it might have worked better for me as an instrumental piece instead.

08. Moon Over Moscow - Sounds very much like a Yellow Magic Orchestra rip-off, and not a good one. A typical filler.

09. Visa-age - Begins almost in the very same manner as Tar and which is not promising, and then we are back again onto the YMO sound backed by robotic voices and again the annoying hectical vocal parts. 

10. The Steps - Opens up with some "spooky" atmosphere to where it sounds like Steve Strange is almost about to have an orgasm or something, then comes some synth lines which feels not that unfamiliar to the Mission Impossible Theme. This final act never seems to go anywhere and it all closes off in a big over-dramatic yaaaaawn.

I have a serious problem of hearing what is supposed to be so damn "good" about this album, as it comes with at time a terrible production and too many poor and annoying fillers, which have absolutely nothing to do on an album many seem to hail as an "great" and "important" synthpop release.
Sure it might have sounded great when it was first released back in 1980 and where the synthpop movement had not yet been completely commercialized too death by everyone. Yeah, and of course it do help by having such a classic cut as Fade to Grey on it as well, but beside a few other good tracks, this is an album which is far too often dragged down by a very uneven production and songs, which some of them feels like they were just added in the very last minute to make a full length album.

Anyway, it is more or less saved by having three quality tracks on it but still is one I likely never will waste any more time on getting through the entire collection of songs, and instead I will from now on only just focus on the few but positive ones instead.

4/10