Thomas Dolby - Aliens Ate My Buick (1988)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette tape (twice), later replaced by a CD.

A 4 year wait followed the release of 1984's so-so Dolby album, The Flat Earth. That doesn't do much to help build a fan base, but I don't think Dolby was ever particularly interested in that. This album has better songs than that The Flat Earth, but they are all over the place in terms of style. In other words, this is not a very consistent release, but it has moments of great songwriting. As you might guess, technopop from the late '80s is overproduced, but to his credit, Dolby uses real drums, guitar, and bass instead of the synth versions of those instruments, so that the music doesn't sound dated especially when compared to other pop music of the time. Not Dolby's best effort, but far from his worse.

Smash Hits, April 20, 1988, p. 73

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #70 (July 2, 1988)
• Rolling Stone: #38
• Billboard Pop CD: #17
• CashBox Top CD: #20

Tracks: The good tunes are The Key To Her Ferrari, Airhead, My Brain Is Like A Sieve, and Budapest By Blimp. While I like Dolby's version of George Clinton's Hot Sauce, no one would accuse Dolby of being particularly funky. Best skipped are Pulp Culture and May The Cube Be With You.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Another "summer" album - this one reminds me of the "Lost Summer Of Mark" in 1988. I remember buying the cassette at a Sound Warehouse in Mesquite. Because I forgot to lock my car one evening, that cassette was stolen out of my '85 Olds. I was bummed, but my girlfriend at the time took pity on me and bought me another copy. Dolby is an acquired taste so I would have loved to have seen the look on the thief's face when he first gave this cassette a listen.

I always tell my sons that "Hot Sauce" was my nickname in college (it wasn't) and sing the first few lines of that song for them.

For more information on the brief life of the CD longbox,
go visit The Legend of the Longbox.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Retrospectacle: The Best Of (1994)