Adam Ant "Vive le Rock" (1985) (single)

Vive le Rock, 7'' single
release date: Jul. 1985
format: vinyl (A 6367)
[single rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,50]
producer: Tony Visconti
label: CBS Records - nationality: England, UK

Tracklist: A) "Vive le Rock" (3 / 5 ) - - B) "Greta X" 

Single release by Adam Ant released prior to his solo album also titled Vive le Rock released in Sep. '85.

Adam and the Ants "Prince Charming" (1981)

Prince Charming
release date: Nov. 2, 1981
format: digital
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,06]
producer: Chris Hughes
label: CBS Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Scorpios" (3 / 5) - 3. "Prince Charming" - 6. "Stand and Deliver" (4 / 5) - 10. "S.E.X."

3rd and final studio album by Adam and the Ants shows a stylistic change that really only made the band more mainstream as new romantic was flourishing everywhere. The band had turned down the more aggressive elements from punk rock and new wave, so this comes out as a more polished pop release. However, the band now appealed to a new audience who perhaps found bands like Duran Duran and ABC more tolerable, and AATA stood by a cross road [and made a wrong turn]. Many fans familiar with the band's first two albums saw this as mainstream pop and a bad decision.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Adam and the Ants "Prince Charming" (1981) (single)

Prince Charming, 7'' single
release date: Sep. 4, 1981
format: vinyl (A1408)
[single rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,55]
producer: Chris Hughes
label: CBS Records - nationality: England, UK

Tracklist: A) "Prince Charming" - - B) "Christian D'Or" (3,5 / 5)

Single release by Adam and the Ants issued to promote the band's third album Prince Charming (Nov. '81). The style is much the same as the second album - perhaps with more focus on new romantic and less on new wave. The single promised a fine new album and went to number #1 on the national singles chart, but when the album came out two months later that really only proved that this was one of only two fine songs from the new album. The B-side is better than most tracks on the forthcoming album but wasn't included. I had already heard the first single, "Stand and Deliver" from the upcoming album, and found that a great tune, so I just bought this.

Adam and the Ants "Kings of the Wild Frontier" (1980)

Kings of the Wild Frontier
release date: Nov. 3, 1980
format: vinyl (CBS 84549) / cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,85]
producer: Chris Hughes
label: CBS Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: A) 1. "Dog Eat Dog" - 2. " 'Antmusic' " (4 / 5) (live) - 5. "Ants Invasion" (live) - - B) 1. "Kings of the Wild Frontier" - 2. "The Magnificent Five" (live) - 5. "Making History"

2nd album by Adam and the Ants released 11 months after the debut but having changed the band line-up completely since then. In Jan. 1980 guitarist Matthew Ashman, bassist Leigh Gorman and drummer Dave Barbe left to form the band Bow Wow Wow with vocalist Annabella Lwin leaving Adam Ant with no other members than himself. He soon teamed up with guitarist Marco Pirroni (aka Marco Francesco Andrea Pirroni, who had played with Siouxsie and the Banshees), bassist Kevin Mooney and two new drummers: Terry Lee Miall and Merrick (aka Chris Hughes, who would later be a rather well-known music producer, and who also produced this album). Instead of writing all songs on his own, Ant has written all songs with guitarist Pirroni as main musical composer and the end result is quite different from the songs on the debut.
This was the album that brought the band its fame and it's also my first acquisition of the band. New guitarist Marco Pirroni, who came into the band after releasing the debut, is put in front with his surf rock inspired guitar sound and then the band utilises two drummers to enable a characteristic Indian chants sound. At the time, Adam and the Ants were most likely seen as making post-punk and new wave music, but in retrospect, it's also evident that they were one of the first bands to initiate the new romantic era despite their slightly "off topic" style. Musically, it doesn't hold very well today, but in music history, there aren't that many popular albums with such an original and defining sound as this. It simply sounds like nothing else.
The album ended up topping the UK albums chart list and was preceded with two hit singles: Kings of the Wild Frontier charting at number #2 on the singles charts, and just prior to the album release, "Dog Eat Dog" peaked at number #4. Following the album release, " 'Antmusic' " peaked at number #2, so Adam and the Ants were really on everyone's lips, and the album was met by critical acclaim. Kings of the Wild Frontier is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Here Before You Die".
Back in the day, it was a great, wild, and a startling album - nowadays, I find it interesting but also a bit of an anachronism.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Adam and the Ants "Dirk Wears White Sox" (1979)

1983 cover

Dirk Wears White Sox [debut]
release date: Nov. 30, 1979
format: vinyl (1983 reissue) / cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,92]
producer: Adam Ant
label: CBS Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Cartrouble (Parts 1 & 2)" - **2. "Kick" - *3. "Nine Plan Failed" - 6. "Cleopatra" - - B) **1. "Zerox" - *3. "Never Trust a Man (With Egg on His Face)" - *4. "Animals and Men" - 5. "The Idea" - **6. "Whip My Valise"
* [different track # on 1983 version], ** [only appear on 1983 version]

Studio debut album by Adam and the Ants originally released on the small independent label, Do It Records. All songs are written, arranged and produced by Adam Ant except tracks #1 & #2, which are produced by Chris Hughes. Adam and the Ants are Adam Ant (aka Stuart Leslie Goddard) as band leader, and he is credited for lead vocals, and for playing acoustic & electric guitars, piano, and harmonica - he has teamed up with Matthew Ashman on guitar and piano, Andrew Warren on bass, and with drummer Dave Barbarossa (credited as Dave Barbe). Fact is, the band always was Adam's project as the line-up before the recordings for the album had seen various incarnations, and just before the release, bassist Andrew Warren was replaced by Leigh Gorman. Shortly after the album release, the band went through another major change.
The band erupted in the post-punk vacuum, where no one seemed to have any idea of where contemporary music was going. The style is a big blend of influences with post-punk at the centre but with obvious links to glam rock, art rock, funk, and punk rock.
I didn't really hear of the band until they released Kings of the Wild Frontier (1980). I remember how we read an article about the band in a teenage music magazine one day in our German class back in 1980. That's actually the only German lesson I recall from that school year. We read about The Ants, their costumes and funny looks as well as other similar artists of new romantics, which i think The Ants were wrongly associated with at the time. I thought it was cool looking and had to check out the music, and that was when I discovered the fine 1980 album. Anyway, this album is different with a more glam rock, new wave, and art rock style to it. I didn't hear this album in its full length until buying the '83 vinyl version of the album, and by then the music already seemed dated.
Apparently, the manager of Sex Pistols, Malcolm McLaren, was involved in the promotional strategies for the band, and he was also the one, who is said to have pulled out most of the line-up for this album to establish the band Bow Wow Wow founded Jan. 1980.
[ allmusic.com4,5 / 5 stars ]

original cover