What was the last album you listened to?

Artist: A Flock of Seagulls
Album: Listen
Genre: Synthpop and New Wave
Year: 1983
Standout tracks: Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You), Nightmares and Transfer Affection

I was very glad when Cherry Red Records decided to hand out a remastered CD version that have added some bonus material as well, back in 2010.
However, I was mostly paying my attention to the fantastic extended version of Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You) and that one pretty much made me forget about the rest. However, having just recently enjoyed their 1982 debut, I was wondering if this follow up might do it any justice.

The album starts up with the hit single Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You) which features a dreamy and very romantic, futuristic melody and is surely among the very best songs they ever made. However, such a strong opening act is never an easy task to follow up on. 

Nightmares is a more downbeat and atmospheric number and is not a bad one but I am slowly realizing that the successful formula that I enjoyed so much on their debut have "drowned" away in a much more pop friendlier sound and sadly that means Paul Reynolds wild guitar playing is now almost unrecognizable.
The obivous turn to a far more light hearted musical approach continues with Transfer Affection which again is not bad either but still sounds very far away of what the band did only a year earlier.

What Am I Supposed to Do? begins with some fantastic bass lines by Frank Maudsley and later is backed up by the now more recognizable guitar style that of Reynolds, but as a whole it ends up sounds like a half finished song with some interesting and good stuff thrown in here and there.
Electrics is nothing more than a very poor filler (at best) and it does not get much better with The Traveller either, as it continues on delivering yet another forgettable sleeper.

2:30 features some mild thunder noises and "spooky" sounds which last less than a minute before heading into Over The Border, which is to my ears once again another poor track that goes absolutely nowwhere. 

The Fall and (It's Not Me) Talking gives me not much either to cheer about, and I think it is safe to say that this was surely a letdown coming directly after such a fun and enjoyable debut as their self titled release turned out to be. 

The big mistake was not just by heading down into the studio to make a follow up as soon as possible after their debut less than a year earlier, but I think the most obvious and one which really hurt the band was the ridiculously poor decision to turn down the heavy and melodic guitar riffs which dominated their first record and here Paul Reynolds is barely noticable and when he gets a few moments spread out here and there, it is played so damn "nice" and quietly that it just cannot do much to bring along som much needed energry and unpredictability, instead they seem to play the "safe" pop star routine, which could have worked well if they actually had a few more good and memorable songs available.

Take away the classic opener, and the next two cuts and all you have left with Listen is sadly a very dull sounding and poorly made collection of songs which at best tries the unbeatable task of following up the first song with a bunch of half decent and below average fillers and where the fun filled and melodic sound from their debut album is now more or less gone.

I sadly had to realize that they lost their plot already on their second album, which is very disappointing as they delivered such a solid job on their first release but now it sounded like they are almost trying their very best to put the listener to sleep and the biggest crime was done the very moment when someone thought it was a "great" idea to ditch Paul Reynolds guitar and instead move towards a far more pop friendlier theme by playing it safe.

All in all, Listen sounds and feels like a very rushed product, one which comes with 1 great classic, a few decent ones and then the rest is more or less made up of poor and very uneven fillers which feels like they were just thrown in at the very last minute to make another album and cash in on the success as fast as possible.

The only reason to why I end up with such a "kind" rating is because of this 2010 CD release which includes the stunning extended version of Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You).
An album I think the die hard fans of A Flock of Seagulls might love, but for those hoping for more of the 1982 debut this is really not much to bother with, instead look up on one of their many Best Of releases instead as they seem to mostly include the better songs from this album and also the extended cut of the one I have mentioned above a few time earlier.

4/10