Be Bop Deluxe "Modern Music" deluxe (4cd + dvd) - Dec 6, 2019

For reasons not of interest, I had to hold off buying this on release. I did finally order it last week, directly from Cherry Red, and it arrived this morning. Just thought I'd note that despite the Cherry Red site saying the signed Postcard was no longer available, I did get one! It's a promo shot from Axe Victim, with Nelson signing it with a silver pen.

I'll play the album tonight. I already know I love it from days long passed.....

 

FYI that promo shot is from Modern Music. The appearance of Simon, Charlie & Andy should have given that away.

Loving the surround version!

 

Mine arrived today from importCDs. Terrific album which sounds wonderful in glorious 5.1.

 

So agree, the highlight of my W/E listening. Love the packaging as well. Many goodies in there.

 

Got mine last night. All the bottom left corners of the photos are bent!!! WTF!!!!

 

Seriously listened to mine for the first time last night. Modern Muisc was my favorite Be Bop release in the 70s and it’s still my favorite of the three releases (so far) today. In addition to the packaging, remixes and remastered tracks in these box sets the big thing is the reminder of just how good they were and how good we (those of us of a certain age) had it way back when.

Thank you sir. May I have another?

 

Finally got around to listening last night. Totally killer 5.1 mix. LOVE IT! It brings a new perspective to me of this record and now brings it up a little higher on my list of B-BD records.
Great use of the rear speakers for this one.

My B-BD album order is...

Futurama
Sunburst Finish
Modern Music (used to be 4th)
Axe Victim
Drastic Plastic

 

Very close to my tastes as well. I would switch the order of Modern Music & Sunburst though.

 

Modern Music is like in my all-time top 10 albums. I never remotely thought any other Be Bop album was close. But I keep seeing Sunburst and now Futurama ranked higher by people. Really?

 

I love Modern Music and even think it is a "better" album than Futurama - and for someone just looking to explore BBD I would tell them to start with Modern Music probably- but Futurama is one of my favorite albums ever, by anybody. The guitar playing is simply out of this world and transports me to....jeez don't know where but it's beyond planet earth.

I wrote a stream of consciousness review of Futurama in the BBD album by album thread here which should explain where my passion is coming from...so really, yeah, Futurama is above MM for me....

Be-Bop Deluxe Album By Album

 

I definitely rank Futurama a few notches above MM.

 

I like Futurama and Sunburst Finish more than Modern Music, but MM is not very far behind.

MM is a little softer, more acoustic textures, more harmony vocals. More "pop". And it recycles a couple of guitar riffs from the previous albums. Futurama and SB are a bit harder-edged, with stronger psychedelic and progressive rock elements. Futurama most so, SF a bit less so, MM even less so, so it's a logical progression.

They're all excellent.

 

You're all slightly bonkers. Drastic Plastic was their best, and they went out in a blaze of glory.

Their worst was...... Futurama. It's never truly clicked with me.

Modern music.... probably their second best. This remix in this new box set is terrific, and this album is magic, isn't it?

Sunburst Finish is Sunburst Finish. What can you say? 3rd.

That leaves Axe Victim, which was a formative album. I love it for that. Also, Night Creatures ranks up there as one of the top three songs they ever did. Still, tied 3rd.

Of course there's Live in the Air Age. I hope they do that. The thing about that one is, they put out a single slab of Vinyl for a live album, which ensures at least half the music gets tossed out. If they have the original tapes and can expand that to a complete show I think I'll have a heart attack.

 

I consider Drastic Plastic to be a failed experiment.

 

Well, due to it's much lesser emphasis showing off Bill's handy guitar work and it leaning into new wave , I rank Drastic Plastic as my least favorite BBD album. I was not in love with Panic in the World either as a single, which was a nice albeit forgettable track.

1. Futurama
2. Modern Music
3. Axe Victim
4. Sunburst Finish
5. Drastic Plastic

 

It bums me out a little to see how little love Drastic Plastic gets. Maybe that explains why Nelson felt that he needed to make a clean break from Be Bop Deluxe to pursue a new sound. Though I'm not sure if I necessarily consider it to be my favorite, it's a fascinating transitional document, balanced nicely between the classic Be Bop sound (as exemplified by Modern Music and Sunburst Finish) and the edgy punk of Red Noise, diverse and adventurous. I respect the fact that Bill kept following his muse courageously, even if I lost track of his myriad homemade releases over the years.

 

FWIW, I left Bill after BBD. Could not get into his new muses and musical directions.

 

I largely lost interest after the wonderful Chimera EP from 1983. I quite enjoy Red Noise, as well as Quit Dreaming & Get On The Beam and The Love That Whirls, though his solo output is a different beast from Be Bop. To each his own. . .

 

Actually, Drastic Plastic was a hugely successful experiment for Nelson. It clearly leads to Red Noise, and by extension Quit Dreaming. And in fact - something I've been meaning to write more about - there are suggestions of it on Modern Music. So I guess we disagree.

I'm such an outlier. I mentioned earlier that Night Creatures was in my top three Be Bop tracks - Panic in my World is their very best song, imo. I recall hearing it played on John Peel's show, and it was instant love. The lyrics, that simple guitar, and vocally - it's top notch Be Bop and Nelson.

Futurama fails for me because there's too much going on, the sound is too cluttered. It sounds like Nelson was trying too hard to impress. It's a congested album, albeit with some great songs.

I think it's true to say that Nelson was on a set path, and sticking with or leaving Be Bop wasn't going to change that. he actively did not want to be a "guitar God", and he felt that's where he was headed on the early Be Bop albums - he wanted to get away from that. For me it was the correct path.

 

Perhaps you just prefer guitar based rock. Nelson moved on from that.

 

I guess so. I'm not that crazy about Red Noise either, but at least it has a sense of energy and commitment, even if the music is an ugly dead end. DP has neither - it's dull, weak tea with neither the memorable melodies of the previous albums nor the spiky rhythmic drive of Red Noise. It's the least of both worlds. I guess it makes career sense as a transition, but as a listening experience... yawn.

 

That's an accurate assessment. Nelson moved on years ago, I still haven't thank you very much.

 

Okay... I'm gonna give Futurama a bunch of listens. Usually get great advice here.

 

I would not say he "moved on". I haven't heard everything he's done since BBD (how could anybody keep up?!?) but I have a few albums where he comfortably slips back into "guitar hero" mode. It's obviously a place he likes and feels comfortable, even if it's not the only thing he's into.

 

Yup.

Bill had tired of the whole big "rock" thing and the guitar god worship that went into it. Being ripped off by his record label or management didn't exactly help either. He wanted out of the BBD "rock machine".

He decided to move on completely and reinvent himself & play music in drastically plastically different style(s). [puns intended]

However in doing so he lost many of his old axe victim fans who worshipped his playing (like me). And made new ones instead, those not in tune with great guitar playing, jaw dropping solos, classic or hard rock in general, and instead preferred new wave, ambient listening, whatever.

Drastic Plastic was not even supposed to be a BBD album. The label either forced him or convinced him or something like that to release it under the BBD banner (I 4get the story).

I myself hated new wave then (& still do now, with few exceptions). Bill's playing with BBD climbed atop the absolute peaks of amazing guitar playing even reaching Mount Olympus or beyond, with great songs to boot. It was hard to swallow that that just ceased to be. Still I stuck with him over the next 10-15 years buying his solo stuff hoping for glimpses of music I could tolerate yet found very little if anything to my liking. Oh well. He has released a few in recent years closer in style to the type of rock music I dig but still nothing like BBD.

But you (IE: me) have to respect a musician who follows his muse wherever that takes him rather than churns out something sticking to a formula in order to be "commercial" & sell records in a style which no longer moves him. I felt/feel the same way about my favorite guitar player ever (Gary Moore), who detoured into what to me was horribly tedious boring bluesrock that I could barely stand for the remaining 20 or so yet years of his life - and reached his greatest commercial success in doing so (in Europe anyways).

For those like you that like Drastic Plastic (and I don't hate it, it has a few things that I like) or Red Noise or all of the hundreds of other solo albums/projects that Bill has put out I envy you, there is a treasure trove there to dive into. For those of us who do not like that type of music though, well we continue to play Axe Victim, Futurama, Sunburst Finish, Live In the Air Age, the other live albums from those days, and dream wistfully of the parallel dimension that must exist out there somewhere that had Bill continuing to blaze his fretboard in classic rock style for the past 40 years and wish we could hear those albums instead of Red Noise etc etc etc....