THE SEASIDE

I'm not ashamed to confess that I liked the punk and I still buy bands like the Offspring, as well as in the 80s I didn't dislike the DEVO. I have discovered the CARDIACS only recently, even if I have found that I already knew some of their songs without knowing who was the artist, and the first impression that I had was of a post-punk or post-modern band in the vein of DEVO, specially with songs like "It's A Lovely Day" and "A Wooden Fish On Wheels" on which they really seem the DEVO, specially thanks to Tim Smith's vocals.

I have also to say that the opener "Jibber And Twitch" sounds Avant enough to justify why this band is on PA and the yellow guys are not.

Another remark is about the funny "Gena Lollabridgida", an Italian movie-star of the 60s whose name is wrongly written but it may be a way to avoid lawsuits. The actress is "Gina Lollobrigida". The spelling is almost right instead.

Said so, I haven't payed much attention to the lyrics, but the music is fun, sometimes crazy, very often uptime and energetic. The imprinting of the 80s is evident as well as the punk/new wave origins, but they are on the right side of the fence. Their music is fun and sometimes easy, but never trivial and very far from the boring 80s stuff, like the DEVO were.

The difference? there's a lot prog in "Hope Day", as probably you won't find in any DEVO's song (apart maybe "Too Much Paranoias").

Another band that songs like the mentioned Gena Lollabridgida and "Ice Spot And A Dot On The Dog" can remind is TALKING HEADS. Probably a reason is in Tim's voice that can also sound similar to DAVID BYRNE.

I have missed this band and this album in 1984 when it was released. It could have made me change my opinion about the poorness of these years.

I know that the Cardiacs have become more avantgarde during the years. This is a post- modern post-punk album, and I like it for this.

An excellent addition to my personal collection that includes "Are We Not Men?", I hope it's the same for yours.