Zack: Adam and the Ants would seem to provide a
dilemma for me. It’s like the Arnold Palmer of 80s music – half-New Wave,
half-post punk – which means I should need to decide which of my prerecorded
rants against the genre I should go with. Do I do the “ugh, this is so campy
and annoying” spiel I’ve perfected through all the synthy shit we’re listened
to that this damned decade produced, or the “ugh, this is so boring and
repetitive” tirade I’ve so finely crafted through a parade of nearly identical
post punk bullshit. Apparently, the answer here was neither. Somehow, the camp
of New Wave blended with the repetitive guitar riffs of post punk remarkably
well. In some places, the ratio was off and those songs plunged me into a
stupor of rage. But, by and large, this album is built around a strong
foundation of well-balanced songs that all sound like 80s anthems. It
just…works. It’s just a really well-crafted cocktail. Too bad the decade got it
right so early on and then just kept trying to reinvent it.
Favorite Tracks: Ants Invasion; Kings of the Wild Frontier;
Dog Eat Dog
Emily: Especially when it comes to New Wave and post-punk, two early-80s genres that were more popular in England than they were stateside, this list throws up some anomalies. There have been multiple times where an album is featured on this list that barely registered a blip on the US music scene - maybe a one-hit-wonder single, but frequently nothing at all - but was wildly popular and influential across the pond. Maybe the list-writers were British children of the early '80s, accounting for the overinclusion of such bands, or maybe these bands really did have that much notoriety that their selection is warranted over other American-grown gems. After listening to Adam and the Ants, though, I still think the list-writers had it wrong. Not that there was anything bad about Kings of the Wild Frontier; I just found it bland and uninspired. It did generate multiple top-10 hits in the UK, so that's something, but it just doesn't seem like the kind of significant, inspirational album that merits inclusion over thousands and thousands of others.
Favorite Tracks: Antmusic; The Magnificent Five; Dog Eat Dog
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