Huh? Get a job? What for?!?

Continuing my trip back through the 1990 album charts.

03/06/90 : Cosmic Thing : The B-52s

I like The B-52s' general vibe and I also like "Love Shack" and the title track of this album, but I have a quiet dread that a whole album of them is just going to be TOO MUCH (so no, we've never owned it - 7/31).

I started off by thinking how I'd forgotten about "Dry County" and "Roam" and it was nice to be reminded of them but as the album continued, I was surprised because I recognised quite a lot of this album including non-single tracks, which makes me think someone I know must have had a copy of it - and, let's face it, it could have been me, but generally I remember these things!  This was the summer I did my uni finals so there was quite a lot of sitting around afterwards listening to music and I probably just picked it up there - but I guess we'll never know.  All in all, this was a surprising and enjoyable re-listen and not TOO MUCH at all.

We're at #9 in the charts this week on their twelfth week of a 26 week run, with it having peaked at #8 in its second week of the run.  Interestingly, this wasn't its first run in the chart with it having spent one week at #75 in July '89, before it had a proper go at things in March '90 - unsurprisingly, "Love Shack" was responsible for its success the second time around.  The top five this week were Soul II Soul, Jason Donovan (a new entry), Madonna, Talk Talk (another new entry) and Phil Collins and the next highest new entry was The Bangles (#11).

Wikipedia tells us this is their fifth album, but their first since the death of guitarist and songwriter Ricky Wilson and its creation was a healing process for the band at a time when they weren't that sure whether they would continue at all.  It's the second album recently to feature Nile Rodgers - he produced half the tracks, with Don Was taking the other half (there are far worse producers out there they could have picked!).  

The critics were nice enough about it without going overboard - our old friend Robert Christgau gets it about right when he says the band were "trying to be seriously silly".  Retrospective reviews are, of course, much more positive given the album's commercial success - #1 in Australia and NZ and #4 in the US with over five million copies sold globally.  I also don't think I ever knew The B-52s came from Athens, Georgia which feels like something I should have noted previously.

"Customers also listened to" The Go-Go's, Bow Wow Wow, Bette Midler and Oingo Boingo - which is quite the mix even without having the faintest idea who Oingo Boingo are.  I really enjoyed this album though - doubly so because obviously knew it from some time in my dim and distant past which has since escaped me.

27/05/90 - Just no
10/06/90 - 1500 not out with a decent album

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