“Massive Reductions”: The introduction is rather interesting, w/a sax making it’s way on a Kinks song after about 6 years, but it’s OK song at best, not a total embarrassment, but not a classic either. Thank you for those Creem excerpts, Avid ThereOnceWasANote (your name reminds me of my favorite post Tommy Who songs). Somehow I missed getting that particular issue, as I used to scour the magazine racks for anything about the Kinks back then, but I was in college in Boston then and I was otherwise preoccupied. Speaking of the ads in those Creem excerpts, how about that Fortune Records one offering original copies of “The Wind” by Diablo Strong as well as others that would probably worth a fortune. Some of those other ads give off that That 70s Show vibe of a long gone teenage world.
Same here. I think one of the reasons they got the U2 copycat label was because (something I read which I could probably never find again) The Edge was friendly with them and was teaching the guitarist from the Alarm how to play electric guitar. I would say there fourth album (shooting from the hip here because I’m going by memory, I believe it was called the eye of the storm) did dispense with the mostly acoustic guitar backing and sound a lot more U2ish. Nonetheless they had great songs and although they had some low level radio play and some rock radio charts success, they are sadly a band that appears to be largely forgotten by time . Wondergirl, perhaps we should cohost a album by album thread on the alarm. Others on this thread have several times mentioned big country, and it’s worth noting that after big country’s lead singer died, Mike peters has also been subbing in as their lead singer.
The Alarm are on the cards one day too. I have the Peters' box set in a nifty case from his website, and a couple of the ones released afterwards. I think the U2 tag was just lazy and ignorant. Think of the bands that got that label... U2 - Irish Big Country - Scottish Simple Minds - Scottish The Alarm - Welsh..... Throw all the Celts in one bag, and that way we don't have to deal with all of them lol
There were two promos issued at the same time. This one and another with Ray being interviewed with song extracts.
Massive Reductions I love how, after the intriguing intro, the keyboard, guitar and drums blast off the pulsating beat in unison - a euphoric burst of 80’s optimism - only for us to immediately discover, in quintessential “Kinksian irony" - as one of the excellent Creem writers put it - that this poor fellow has just been sacked! Massive Reductions ... HEY! This is the kind of winking absurdity I absolutely adore in the Kinks. As a bonus, Ray produces some unusually tight but appropriately efficient lyrics to match (two clean AABBA stanzas, suitable for mass production and assembly lines) - no judgement, just observation, just how I like it. Finally the ending: the imperious pulsing beat finally starts to lose steam and putter out, landing on a final, ominous THUD - it's like the inevitable end to a manic phase, and now the depression has set in! Massive Reductions, for me, is one of the highlights of Word of Mouth.
Massive Reductions I admit this one is one of my guilty (to use that word a day early) pleasures from this first album I ever owned by the band. It would be years before I heard the earlier UK B-side version. The remake here on the album dispenses with the bridge that was in the earlier recording and the song and arrangement are the better for it. I do like the later synths sounds on this one and love the low G note on the keys that gets hit on the downbeat right at the start of each chorus "we're making..."). I play air keyboards on that note every time I listen this track. Plus the chorus stays in the up tempo fours instead of going to the half time feel the earlier recording goes to and Dave's high backing vocals are a highlight. This album version is the definitive recording of this track.
Massive Reductions The guy from ‘Do it Again’ loses his new house, new car, and new job, but presumably holds on to his new nose. I suppose the oxymoronic title is clever, but then some people get a kick out of ‘jumbo shrimp.’ This seems like the definition of a nondescript song, Dave’s tasty solo notwithstanding. I like the jazz warmup intro, and wish it could have been incorporated into the song proper, but once Henrit closes the door, I’m not looking back.
That kind of reminds me of one of my favourite Mark Prindle (erstwhile Web 1.0 rock critic and lo fi musician)song titles: ‘I’m Gonna Get Laid (off from my job due to the downturn in the economy)’
Loved his reviews! Speaking of Web 1.0 rock critics, though completely different in style and tone, George Starosin was another reviewer I enjoyed as well.
Me too. Their reviews were some of the first things I read voraciously online circa the late 90s. That said, I disagree with both of them on the subject of The Kinks, as they both subscribed to/propagated the tired old ‘they fell down a pit after 1972’ theory. Kinks wise Brian Burks (who was like the 3rd man of Web 1.0 rock reviews behind the ‘big two’ ) was more my kinda guy.
I was reading some of Prindle's Kinks reviews the other day! He really hates pretty much everything they did after the early 70s but he says it in such a hilariously over the top way he's forgiven.
"Massive Reductions" - Yes, it sounds like a theme song from an 80s movie and it borrows from "Summertime Blues," but I won't hold that against it. The lyrics have for the most part remained relevant in the corporate world since this came out (with an exception for our current environment, when employees for once have some power). I like the energy and the un-Kinks-like jazzy intro, and I appreciate @Luckless Pedestrian's take on the ending: The earlier version didn't make much impression but this one has grown on me. I'm bumping it up to 4/5 (extra point for not wearing out its welcome at 3:13). I'll add my thanks to @ThereOnceWasANote for the Creem articles...it's always interesting to read contemporaneous reviews and interviews.
Massive Reductions: I loved the b-side version, it was a little more new wave I thought. This version is great as well. I like the beginning (not on the b-side), with the jazzy horns noodling about, then, suddenly, wham, Dave (or Ray?) hits you with that pounding riff at the 30 second mark (or, at least to me, it sounds like a guitar and keys together?). Great lyrics, as a late teen in the mid 80s, I recall the impact and fears generated by inflation and layoffs. Still, although it sounds like a dry subject to make a rock song out of, from my viewpoint, it just rocks along. Dave rips out a nice little solo, great backing vox. I might look like a fool, but I'd be right there punching the air and screaming "Massive Reductions" right along with them. Not many bands could pull this song off and make it ROCK (can you imagine G'n'R playing this?). Between the two versions, I like them both but the one I have of the b-side is poor sound quality. That's not a good reason I suppose to pick the album version between the two, but there you go. I haven't reviewed anyone else's thoughts yet, so I will be interested to see if people feel strongly between the two. I like it and I think its good enough that it deserved to be revisited and placed on an album proper, but I suspect Ray just needed another song to fill out what sounds like a hedge lodge of an album (a great hodge podge though thus far in my book).
Massive Reductions An ode (lament) to '80s corporate downsizing with typically clever '80s Davies sarcasm and very typically '80s production.... kind of this album's Young Conservatives. While maybe not quite as clever as the former, and maybe lacking the same level of charm, nevertheless this one still comes together nicely and is a most appropriate and welcome inclusion on this album. I like both versions.
"Massive Reductions" I don't remember much about the earlier version because I didn't give it much of a chance. We are deep in 80s territory with this one. It just makes me want to go back a couple decades and listen to Eddie Cochran instead. After a solid A side, this is the first fumble and tomorrow's song is also "Guilty" of dropping the ball. I would say "Massive Reductions" has slightly grown on me since my first listen, but this is not a song I need to revisit often. It's some weird blend of "Summertime Blues" and 80s Van Halen. The synthesizer reminds me of "Jump" and Dave gets in a little Eddie style guitar solo. I don't hear Jim Kerr on this song, but there is a song on the next album where Ray really sounds like he aping the Simple Minds frontman. I also was reading Prindle reviews recently. I go back to his page fairly often. I don't always agree with many of his reviews, but he is entertaining. It's also fun to read all the comments. I was bummed when he quit writing reviews.
Massive Reductions I do really like the beginning, everything sort of coalescing and threatening to fall apart at the same time. And I guess it's been long enough since the 80s that the punchy synths work for me rather than sending me running. Still, "they're laying me off because of inflation" doesn't quite live up to "telling tales of drunkenness and cruelty." Not to be that guy but there does seem to be a drop off in the observational specificity of RD's lyrics here. I love GS's old wild teenage Russian reviews. He got organized and grown up later & a bit staid but I still go back to his "original" reviews for their intuitive, sloppy, mega-fan writing and spontaneous witty asides.
Ooooh, perhaps we can do that. I'm by no means an Alarm obsessive but I've been a fan forever. I think part of the reason the Alarm get lumped in with U2 is that some of the Alarm's songs can sound rather anthemic like much of U2's (earlier?) stuff. So they looked like they were knockin' off U2. I just think the two bands just happened to arrive at the similar sound around the same time.
Yep, anthem rock exactly. It was the era-big drums, big guitars (electric and acoustic), heart on sleeve vox, big hair, lots of reverb, big singalong fist in the air choruses, some or lots of religious overtones in lyrics plus being from the British Isles and/or having Steve Lillywhite produce was also a plus. U2-Big Country-Icicle Works-the Alarm-Simple Minds (somewhat)-early Waterboys all were lumped together as anthem rock . I'm sure I'm missing a few. It was so big that even the Stones tabbed Lillywhite for Dirty Work which was their half-hearted stab at going for that Big Rock sound. Another example of Mick's trend hopping. Although I was excited about the pairing at the time because of the rawness in those first three U2 albums as well as Psych Furs Talk, Talk, Talk. This sound while fresh and inspiring for a while ran its course and once groups like Duran Duran (I'm looking at you Wild Boys) and *shiver* even Loverboy (Lovin' Every Minute of It) started mining the sub-genre for gold it reached its nadir then the whole thing was traded to 80's glam rock for a melody to be named later. I suppose bands like Slade and the great Sweet were the forefathers to that big rock sound. Which makes sense since all those band members were rockin' out to that sound as early teens a decade or so earlier. A lot of great music came from that big 80s anthem rock sound. I suppose the sound of GTPWTW album was the closest the Kinks came to it. An Alarm thread would be awesome. Oh, and I've always really liked Massive Reductions. It kicked off side 2 of the vinyl quite nicely.
Thanks for the heads up as it's no surprise Ray did one also and who knows, if they weren't getting on i wouldn't be surprised if they were recorded on different days!
YES George Starosin was particularly verbose but interesting and with his heart in the right place though his use of 2 dual album grading scales i still don't fully understand to this day.
