Word: rhythms
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...biggest danger is not that the Green can ambush the Crimson, but rather that the lowly squad can knock Harvard out of the rhythm it's found of late...
...record itself is permeated with gross misuse and abuse of synthesizers. The fervent pounding of ex-drummer Topper Headon has been replaced on many tracks by ineptly programmed drum machines. The rhythm tracks as a whole are little more than another inept rehash of mainstream British synth-pop. Even Strummer's sharp-edged guitar which figured so prominently on the band's early works, has lost its character, now grinding like a Husker Du album played into a feather pillow. It is generally accepted that Strummer has no vocal talent, and this record provides precious little evidence to the contrary...
Things don't get any better on the last three tracks on side one. "Are You Red...Y" completely drowns out Strummer's vocal in New Order-ripoff rhythm tracks. "Cool Under Heat" opens with a Husker Du guitar lead, and combines inappropriate acoustic guitar with more electronic abuse. "Movers and Shakers" wraps up the side with an interminably long lesson about how to succeed by "working coins from the cold concrete" (just like Strummer is doing), complete with synthesized Mariachi horns...
Sonni certainly shrugs a lot, too. A year ago, he owned a guitar store in Greenwich Village, the only distinction of which was that a certain British rock star used to shop there. Because said star (whose last name happens to be Knopfler) runs through rhythm guitarists like Ex-lax through Ronald Reagan's digestive tract, Sonni joined up and became a juke-box hero and heir apparent and all that good stuff...
...City will add a fresher and far angrier voice to this chorus of conscience. Its heat, its rhythm and its political passion, in fact, set it apart from the congenial charity of other all-star predecessors. Sun City may be one of the year's best singles. Certainly it is the boldest...