General Public - All The Rage (1984)

A number of years back, I wrote "I should like General Public because of their connection with The English Beat, The Specials, and The Clash, but I think, at the time, I was so upset the The English Beat had split, I never gave the supergroup a chance. Maybe I should rethink that now. I'm sure I can find All The Rage on the cheap at eBay." It didn't help that the group split following their best album, Special Beat Service (one of my favorite albums of 1982). Nonetheless, someone in my college dorm bought this General Public album and I dubbed a copy to a C-90 tape and listened to it enough that I should rethink the statement that "I never gave the supergroup a chance." (If I recall correctly, I had David Bowie's underrated Tonight album on the other side of that cassette.)

Now that I attempt to listen to this album with an open mind, a few of the songs would have fit right in on Special Beat Service. Others suffer from too much synth/LinnDrum and not enough of Dave Wakeling's guitar. But that was the popular production sound of the time so whatcha gonna do?

Press of the time:

• Smash Hits (6 out of 10): "bland instead of brave"
• Billboard: "danceable pop hybrid"
• Record Mirror (+++½): "some brightly coloured pop-tones"
• Robert Christgau: B-
• Rolling Stone (★★★): "an uneasy mix"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #26
• CashBox: #33
• Rolling Stone: #22

Tracks: Top tracks are Hot You're Cool (which lifts its intro from Thompson Twins' Lies but then I hear the familiar tone of Saxa and all is forgiven), Tenderness, Burning Bright, and Never You Done That. How that last tune wasn't a top forty hit is a mind-boggler. I don't care much for As A Matter Of Fact, Anxious, and General Public.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I'm thinking that the person from whom I borrowed this album was named Tom and lived in the dorm room next to mine in Berry Hall. He was from Buffalo NY and on the golf team, but we had similar tastes in music. We had two residents named Tom on the hall, so to differentiate, I started using the name "Buffalo Tom" for the guy next door, predating the naming of the alt rock band. This quickly became a popular nickname but was eventually shortened to "Buffy" and if I saw him today, that's what I'd call him.