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B 52 Cosmic Thing Rar5/6/2021
Like their contemporaries Devo, the band were the comic relief of the new wave movement, though less deep dish and with less darkness on the edge of their town.While they cultivated an image of frilly insouciance, the music itself was carefully crafted, from unusual guitar tunings to the piercing female harmonies that seemed to prepare American ears for the otherworldly keening of Le Mystre Des Voix Bulgares.For an extended moment, it seemed every college party would eventually succumb at some point and dancers would lower themselves to the floor when Schneider commanded Down Down Down in their surrealistic hit Rock Lobster.With Cosmic Thing, though, the group launched into the big time, shooting up the national album and singles charts with Channel Z, followed by Love Shack and Roam.
In 1985, their original guitarist and a key architect of their distinctive sound, Ricky Wilson, died after contracting AIDS and hiding his condition from the members so as not to worry them. Wilson was the brother of one of their two female singers, Cindy, who dropped out of the band for a time afterward. After his death, the band went on hiatus, with drummer Keith Strickland eventually moving over to play guitar. Roam showed a different facet of their girl-group sound, with a bit of an achy-breaky tone coming from the narrator as she talks to a wandering man. Love Shack is arguably their most defining song, as the singers tell the story of folks heading out to a backwoods place to let go of any Channel Z worries and dance. ![]() The addition of the live cuts in effect makes the set somewhat of a greatest hits album for those curious to add the group to their collection. At the live shows, they cover early hits such as Rock Lobster, 52 Girls, Mesopotamia, and Quiche Lorraine. The live versions are not substantially different from the originals save for some deadpan stage patter from Schneider and some improvised lines in the songs, most notably some commentary on pollution in Rock Lobster. Schneiders emotion-less sing-talking delivers some classic lines of absurdist humor, and the songs are unrelentingly compelling. ![]()
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