Record Label: Cooking Vinyl
Genre: Pop/80s
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link
There is something truly special about this 1982 album. There is very little like it for its time. Sure, there were off-kilter pop bands like the Talking Heads, Oingo Boingo, Devo, etc., but unlike those bands, the Bongos never sacrificed poppiness for artiness, nor played up any winking new wave quirkiness.
They were an earnest power pop band through and through, but as wildly creative as they were bright and catchy. And unlike the other bands who are identifiable with the 80s, an unfamiliar listener would have trouble pinning down the Bongos. This album could have been released in the 90s or 00s.
The grossly underrated “Drums Along the Hudson” highlights the immensely likable charm and stunning inventiveness of the band. “The Bulrushes” is jangly guitar pop at its best; “Clay Midgets” is a bouncy pop tune that surprises with jarring shouting; “Video Eyes” is like Devo without the cocky zaniness… And then there’s the wonderfully scratchy/jittery “Glow In The Dark”; the head-on collision between pop and post-punk with “Certain Harbours”; the absolutely wild version of T. Rex’s “Mambo Sun.” And of course, their trademark driving, primal percussiveness best reflected in brilliant tunes like “In The Congo,” “Telephoto Lens,” “Burning Bush,” “Three Wise Men,” “Nuts & Bolts,” and others.
What makes the band doubly interesting isn’t just their oblique approach to pop music, but their smart-yet-obfuscated lyrics and message that give them a wonderfully Wire-like oddness, even ominousness. If the Pixies weren’t influenced by the Bongos, I’ll eat my hat.
This reissue sounds amazing. If you don’t already have the album, I highly recommend picking this special edition up. But don’t get it just for the bonus materials – the live tracks from their first recorded show are decent but raw and don’t add much value outside of historical record. A rerecording of “The Bulrushes,” produced by Moby, doesn’t improve upon the original, but serves to point out the everlasting freshness of the Bongos’ music.
Bottom Line: Ahead-of-its-time guitar pop (and drum-pop?) gem.
Notable Tracks: It’s harder to choose a song that isn’t notable.
Overall Rating: