release date: Sep. 20, 1982
format: vinyl / cd (2002 remaster)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]
producer: Iva Davies and Keith Forsey
label: Chrysalis / Diva Records - nationality: Australia
Track highlights: 1. "Great Southern Land" - 2. "Uniform" - 3. "Hey, Little Girl" - 4. "Street Cafe" - 5. "Glam (instrumental)" - 7. "One by One" - 9. "Mysterious Thing" - 10. "Goodnight, Mr. Matthews"
2nd studio album by Australian synthpop and new wave band Icehouse following two years after the bands debut Icehouse (1980) - released under the name of Flowers. This album is quite extraordinary as it's basically a solo-project release as lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and only songwriter of the band, Iva Davies, recorded all songs of the album all on his own only with some help from co-producer Keith Forsey. The album is still released as a band effort, although, credits on the album leave no information about this. Apparently, Davies wrote and composed all songs, supplied backing vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, and drum programming, and then Forsey added percussion to the recordings. After this, the rest of the band then gathered up with Davies to promote the album for a following live tour. And for that, the band presented a new line-up with Iva Davies on vocals, guitar & keyboard, Michael Hoste on keyboards, John Lloyd on drums, and then adding three new members: Bob Kretschmar on guitar, Guy Pratt on bass, and Andy Qunta on keyboards & backing vocals.
Primitive Man was met by critical acclaim and peaked at number #3 on the national chart list, it topped the list in New Zealand, peaked at number #5 in Germany and it was a small hit in most of the Scandinavian countries. The single "Hey, Little Girl" remains the band's best-selling single. It was, however, surpassed by two positions in Australia by the release of the first single "Great Southern Land" peaking at number #5, but it didn't make noteworthy entries except for in New Zealand.
The album was the first I came across by this great Australian band. As I recall, it was quite popular in the Fall of '82 / Spring of '83. Stylistically, it blends various styles of art pop, new wave, and sophisti-pop, which really wasn't a familiar style back then - but the album really was one of the first true sophisti-pop albums leaning on Roxy Music, David Bowie, Japan, and probably influencing upcoming artists like Simple Minds, David Sylvian and The Church. At the time of the release I found it too mainstream sounding, although, in retrospect, it really is a strong and most vital album.
Highly recommended.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ]
