The Modern Lovers | Loppylugs

Submitted by Glyn Lewis on 14 February 2013 - 10:51pm

Cover:

Artist:

The Modern Lovers

album-ID:

a_37

Nationality:

USA

Year:

1 976

Release-year:

0000

Num-of-tracks:

Track-listing:

Roadrunner*Astral Plane*Old World*Pablo Picasso*She Cracked*Hospital*Someone I Care About*Girlfriend*Modern World*Dignified And Old*I'm Straight*Government Center*I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms*Dance With Me*Someone I Care About (Alt Version)*Modern World (Alt Version)*Roadrunner (Alt Version)

Length-in-mins:

Nominator:

Bean

meeting-ID:

m_15

Now-num:

Spotify-URL:

5BPCP7WSGBG4br2o4WRmd8

Grooveshark-URL:

The+Modern+Lovers/272608

Short-title:

modernLovers

nominator-ID:

u_1

Meeting-date:

Thursday, 23 October 2008

MusicBrainz-URL:

91e1f88a-f081-3639-9972-0d46b3d3b616

Wikipedia-URL:

The_Modern_Lovers_(album)

Spotify-link-type:

album

Discogs-URL:

Modern-Lovers-The-Modern-Lovers/master/6689

Allmusic-URL:

the-modern-lovers-mw0000654368

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reviewers-IDs data

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86

reviewed by

Glyn Lewis

Put down your cigarette and share the modern world with me

8-9-10-11-12

3-5

This is an interesting album, in terms of its approach in its historical setting, but more than that this is a great album - songs like I'm Straight, Government Centre and Girlfriend really don’t need anyone to defend or explain them, still I'll give it a go anyway.

Although released in 1976 these songs were mostly recorded in 1973, it is amazing to realise how far ahead of the game they were, in the heyday of Yes, Simon and Garfunkel, CSNY etc this is thoroughly modern music. This is very much the precursor to the late 70s New York new wave sound of Television, Talking Heads, Patti Smith et al and also the missing link between that and the Velvet Underground sound of the late 60s.

But more than all that, the fiercely independent personal elements to it are what make it great. It is full of great unusual lyrics, railing against the rock cliches which from this point in time look to have only just been established. Coming on stage in suits singing "I’m certainly not stoned" to a hippy filled audience. Singing "I go to bakeries all day long", "They gotta lotta lotta lotta great desks and chairs at the government centre". Great stuff.

This is not a one-paced album, it picks it up, drops back - it's full of dynamics, emotion and pioneering originality. In these days days of obsessive retrospective recycling it's very refreshing to hear such a forward looking album, even if it is well over 30 years old.
85

reviewed by

Neil Hornsey

3-4-11

This is truly wonderful. It's taken me several months to form this opinion, but I can be excused as the record has been around for decades.

The wonderfully seedy sound is perfect in a small dingy club, but equally so flying along the motorway in the summer with the windows down. A great selection of tracks with humour and subtlety.

Also, it took a while to click, but this band were a massive influence to the Flying Nun scene, with obvious similarities to bands like The Clean, The Bats, and The Verlaines - which gets it an extra point.
78

reviewed by

Richard Norbury