|
| Walhello -> Knowledge Base -> CDs -> W -> Wall Of Voodoo Call Of The West |
| Wall of Voodoo - Call of the West Band: Wall of Voodoo Tracks: - Tomorrow - Lost Weekend - Factory - Look at Their Way - Hands of Love - Mexican Radio - Spy World - They Don't Want Me - On Interstate 15 - Call of the West What Exactly Is This? Can this album be defined or even placed into a certain genre? Wall Of Voodoo came out in the early 1980s playing music with the "pop"-ish sound that was filling the airwaves at the time. Although they never became all that famous in the Unites States, The Band had one hit that was spawned from this album. That song was Mexican Radio. After one listen to this album, you can instantly tell that this is from the 80s time period. It has everything: simple rhythm, odd guitar work, an array of sound effects scattered throughout and strangely sung vocals. Providing the simple but catchy beats as well as some vocal effects was Joe Nanini while Chas T. Gray played the bass and synthesizer. Using 6 and 12 string guitars, Marc Moreland (R.I.P.- March 13, 2002) added to the oddity of the music with an array of guitar skills and Stan Ridgway sang the lyrics in a style much like other singers of the 80s while also maintaining a level of originality. It's extremely hard to describe the music because it's just different from what I usually listen to. The album starts off with Tomorrow. Ridgway plays the keyboards for the intro and the rest of The Band follows soon after. The song is mid-tempo and very odd but extremely catchy. Lost Weekend is a very slow and quiet song, played mostly with keyboards and guitar. The vocals are done in the same tone as other of the other songs, despite the slowness of the song, and the instrumentation is nice and soothing. Factory is one of my favorites on the album. It begins with a harmonica and drums and builds up when keyboards, guitar and bass join in. The lyrics and Ridgway's vocals are very interesting here because the lyrics are about working at a job but a bunch of obscure and irrelevant things are thrown in and Ridgway almost "raps" during the verses. Like most of the songs on this album, it is an extremely catchy song once it picks up. Look At Their Way is kind of a haunting track. The keyboards and drums are playing simple, repetitive notes while Ridgway sings like a robot. The lyrics are again interesting and hard to understand but the music is the main Focus of the song. Hands Of Love is a bit happier and more upbeat than Look At Their Way. The usual use of the 80s style rhythm, guitar and keyboards but the chorus is pretty nice. Mexican Radio is next. What good things about this song haven't been said already (By the fans, at least)? It's simply a great song. The keyboards are really cool, the guitar is in perfect tune with the bass and drums and the vocals are just perfect. This song is a classic 80s song whether anyone likes it or not. Spy World is a lot different from the rest because it is faster, more upbeat and the music hits more a range than anything else. It's very catchy with cool vocals and ly Fan-tastic album!!! Needs a sixth star !!!! I remember screaming along to "Mexican Radio" with a carload of fellow teenagers in early 1987 listening to the shortlived WXXP in Pittsburgh. I bought the album for the "...barbequed iguana!!" but soon found that every song on the album became a favorite. I can quote every word to every song even now twelve years later. The feeling of alienation and being lost in a sickening depraved West that barely had anything in common with TV matched my own feelings about life at the time. I was nineteen and seriously ******* up. Wall of Voodoo was a bitter cynical comfort that helped leech the pain of the world's snakebite on my soul. Oh yeah, it was funny too. One of the best albums I ever owned. The cassette tape didn't leave my car 'till the early '90's when it wore out... Great Songwriting Like most everyone, I bought the album for Mexican Radio. And few can deny that this was a wonderful hit. But after listening to the album in detail it dawned on me that the songwriting is especially Strong in some of the lesser-known hits. The harmonica on Lost Weekend is especially atmospheric -- you can feel the hot air passing through open windows of a car driven by a couple after losing their life savings gambling. Factory also hits on the "dead-end life" theme, telling the story of a factory worker whose life has lurched into the mundane, yet is too complacent to even realize it. Call of the West continues the theme, describing how, despite dreams of grandeur, most are destined to sell appliances at the local ... The loser is a common theme in rock, especially when losing is romanticized into a blue-collar, down-on-your-luck, falling-off-your-barstool theme, a la Bruce Springsteena and most Southern Rock. But Wall of Voodoo sang about a different kind of loser, whose circumstances are neither tragic nor newsworthy. There are no suicides, drinking binges, drug busts, or Love triangles in these songs. Just sad existences by those that will never amount to anything and are too caught up in their own petty existence to realize it. Buy Wall Of Voodoo Call Of The West at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.comJamster - the latest ringtones for your phone! |
