General Public - Hand To Mouth (1986)

Picked this one out of a used bin after seeing Dave Wakeling in concert. (My only complaint about that fantastic live show was the fact he didn't play anything from the Special Beat Service album.) I either completely missed this release back in 1986 or I was still upset at The English Beat for breaking up and took out my hurt feelings by ignoring General Public. All that said, this isn't a bad album, it's just not very memorable. The songwriting is okay, but it seems the band was trying to update their sound for 1986 and it's just a bit too slick. For the most part, the ska-lite tendencies of the past give way to synthpop tendencies: synthesizers, drum machines, and sterile studio sheen straight out of the A&R department. All filler, no killer.

Sidenote: There's no barcode to be found on the CD packaging. I guess maybe there was a barcode on the longbox?

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone: "pop that's thought provoking but never pedantic."
• Smash Hits (6 out of 10): "rather tawdry and unoriginal"
• CashBox: "a spicy little provocative stew"
• Billboard: "Fans of band will find plenty to cheer about" [sic]
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Eighties Music (1997): ★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #83
• CashBox: #66

Tracks: Four singles were released and none charted in the US or the UK: Come Again, Faults And All, Too Much Or Nothing, and In Conversations. Of those four, the best are Come Again and Too Much Or Nothing, while my least favorite is In Coversation (I would have released Never All There instead of In Conversation but I wasn't consulted). It's fun to hear Saxa make a guest appearance on a couple of tunes including Forward As One, making that track the most Beat-ish on the album.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Rub It Better (1995)
All The Rage (1984)

General Public - Rub It Better (1995)

I had no idea this album even existed until I saw this CD sitting in the used bin. Sure, it was marked down from $4.99 to $3.99 then $2.99 and finally $1.99 but I threw caution to the wind (I didn't even pay $1.99 as I got it in a 3-for-$5 deal). If Dave Wakeling is involved in the songwriting there should be a fair share of hooks here. Let's spin this thing.


Produced by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads. Hmmm. I wouldn't have put them together but who knows? It just might work.

CashBox, June 17, 1995, p. 9

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: It's more of a Ranking Roger album than a Dave Wakeling album and I gotta admit that I enjoy almost all of Roger's contributions. Plus it's nice to hear the tones of Saxa again. I like Rainy Days (#93 pop, #40 modern rock), Handgun, and Warm Love. I also dig Friends Again, It's Weird, and Never Not Alone although none of those three sound like anything General Public or The English Beat had ever done before. Kinda-reggae-ish cuts like Big Bed simply come off like UB40 filler. Skip that one and the one-chord Punk.

Overall, it exceeded my (admittedly low) initial expectations. And even though it is "scattered" as written in the above review, this album will getting more listens.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
All The Rage (1984)

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.