B-52's - Wild Planet

I randomly pulled this LP out last night - think the red just caught my eye and I hadn't listened to this for quite a while and I had forgotten how consistent and solid this record was, which makes sense as it was just their second album, with the original lineup and with a number of songs that they had been playing for years.

While maybe sounding a little fuller and more "professional" than the terrifically sparse first album, all of their trademark sounds are here - surfy guitar, shrieks'n'yelps, quirky keys, wacky themes and plenty of vocal interaction. "Party Out Of Bounds" in a fun-filled ode to party-crashing, "Dirty Back Road" is more subdued and concentrating on Kate and Cindy's harmony vocals, then back for another upbeat dance number in "Running Around" with plenty of cool guitar/keys and vocal interactions and wild starts'n'stops. One of my faves follows, "Give Me Back My Man" - super strong writing on this one - driving beat, great, minimalistic instrumental performances and a surreal but catchy as hell chorus of "I'll give you fish, I'll give you candy, I'll give you everything I have in my hand" - great stuff! 

There's another dance number in "Private Idaho" with Fred taking the lead but with plenty of help from Kate'n'Cindy, showing they had a great command of harmonies'n'melody despite their lyrical wackiness. The fun'n'spirit continues in "Devil in my Car", "Quiche Lorraine" is another of Fred's leads with a slower groove and continues to show that they simply like the sound of certain syllables and they don't feel the need for any type of coherence, but they're back in the fast lane with some quirky starts'n'stops in "Strobe Light" (I could imagine this being effective with this type of lighting) and who could resist the ladies singing "I want to make love to you under a strobe light"! For the ending they stretch out a little bit in "53 Miles West of Venus", which harkens back a bit to the instrumental likes of "Rock Lobster", in that they take their time and interact with each other while still keeping a real song with melodies and harmonies. 

Pure weird'n'wooly fun, silly and memorable as can be with hip 60's sounds blending into futuristic concepts. Always a good time!