Wilder - THE TEARDROP EXPLODES

The Teardrop Explodes' debut album, 'Kilimanjaro' had set out their stall very nicely, trading in skewed pop and gently swirling psychedelia. Generally accepted as their best work, for me it features a slew of absolute classics ('Reward', 'Treason', 'When I Dream', 'Poppies') but also a handful of tracks which haven't dated terribly well. It's a great album (perhaps even a better starting point?), but still i find myself thinking its darker, and less commercially successful, follow-up a much more accomplished album.

 

You wouldn't necessarily notice this at first, since it would be quite easy to give 'Wilder' a passing listen and file it away in your brain as a perky, diverse period piece of oddball post-punk. Listen closer, though, and you'll discover the murky undercurrents behind Julian Cope's lyrics. He may tend to deliver them in innocent, very English tones, but on closer inspection they're informed by his chaotic life situation at the time (divorce, out-of-control drug use) as well as the bizarre, even disturbing, imagery used by Arthur Lee on Love's finest work.

Musically, this album is more diverse than the mission-statement debut, still recognisable as 'psychedelic pop' but taking in a much greater variety of textures. 'Passionate Friend' sounds like THE great lost sunshine pop single, whilst 'Colours Fly Away' brings a lysergic twist to the brassy formula that dominated the first album. The biggest departures come in the form of the exhilirating, even funky groove of 'The Culture Bunker' (which was sent into the stratosphere when performed live) and the three quieter tracks, 'Tiny Children', '...And The Fighting Takes Over' and 'The Great Dominions' which have a spectral, almost hymnal quality suggesting an 80's equivalent of Scott Walker

Bent Out Of Shape

 

 

 

 

Colours Fly Away

 

 

 

 

Tiny Children

 

 

 

 

The Great Dominions