release date: Oct. 1980
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,54]
producer: The Chameleons
label: Mercury Records - nationality: England, UK
Studio debut album by British band The Teardrop Explodes, initially consisting of lead vocalist and bassist Julian Cope, guitarist Mick Finkler, keyboardist David Balfe and drummer Gary Dwyer. Up until the foundation of the band, Cope had shortly played in the trio Crucial Three together with Ian McCulloch and guitarist Peter Wylie, who should go on to establish the two successful bands Echo & The Bunnymen and The Mighty Wah!, respectively. During the recording sessions Finkler was sacked by the band (Cope) and substituted by Alan Gill, which means that Finkler is credited as guitarist on eight and Gill on three of the first issue's eleven songs. The album was issued in at least two original versions: the first with the UK cover (see below) and a second issue featuring the small hit song "Reward" and five songs featuring Gill and six with Finkler. Two songs are substituted with new compositions for the second issue, which has a rather different running order.
I only came across the album some four years after its release, and long after the great Wilder album. I don't think Kilimanjaro has the same greatness as the follow-up, but it still contains some fine compositions. The style is more new wave-shaped on this one, although horns are ever-present, and the general impression is a style that is too mixed up and pointing in all directions. For some reason the album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
New guitarist Alan Gill left the band by the end of the year and was replaced by Troy Tate.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]
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| UK cover |
