The Sound – Jeopardy
There are no shortages to be found rummaging through the piles of post-punk reissues these days and certainly, if you can’t find some Discogs originals, then there are some corners of your collection that can be fleshed out. The Sound’s debut is one of those albums that, once you hear it, seems like it’s been omitted from far too many necessities lists. The album was picked up on the strength of their first EP and Korova’s impressions of the demos. Dark in all the right ways and textured nicely with liberal washes of synth and a chugging debt to Krautrock, it explodes halfway through opener “I Can’t Escape Myself” and never really lets go. Even when the band isn’t tearing paint from the walls with guitar fury, the mid-tempo smolders are in line with the best of the decade and should appeal to Echo fans thinking they’ve reached the end of the line.
The album was critically lauded by NME, Sounds and Melody Maker but somehow failed to connect with audiences and despite a thoroughly excellent follow-up, From The Lion’s Mouth, the band never caught a foothold. In a story that’s far too common, the album wasn’t even released in the States at the time, only selling respectably at home and so it would languish on critics’ shelves alone. They’d soldier on though, a more forgiving time for bands to grow, and they would make five albums in total. The album serves as a nice jumping off point between punk and the burgeoning post-punk development. Sadly the band drifted out of music eventually, with exception of songwriter Adrian Borland, who worked as a producer until he took his own life in 1999. Sadder still, this was just before a campaign of reissues would have brought the band back into the light and love they sorely deserved.
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