Thompson Twins

[GuitarGeek]

Well, since the Gary Moore CD's I was expecting to arrive today, didn't, I have to delay my planned my Moore marathon (hey, that's alliterative!). In the meantime, I'm instead having a Thompson Twins marathon.

I've only just lately got the 2008 double CD reissue of their first two albums, A Product Of...(Participation) and Set. I always knew that their first Stateside album, In The Name Of Love, was actually a compilation of tracks from the above two named albums, and as such, I've been holding out for 35 years (!!!!) until I could hear the albums as they were released in the UK. Well, the wait is finally over!

I should say, I'm a big fan of their third and fourth albums, Quick Step And Side Kick (released Stateside as Sidekicks) and Into The Gap. To me, those are two of the definitive synth pop records. So, it's slightly surprising to hear A Product Of..., which I'm listening to for the very first time right now. This has a very different sound, with live drums, lots of guitar, a little bit of wailing sax, and very little synth.

I'm actually digging this quite a bit. Like I said, it sounds different from what I'm used to from this band, but it's actually very good. Sounds like they spent some time listening Afro-pop music, and maybe it's just my imagination, but it sounds like Tom Bailey's approach to bass lines on this record is very similar to what one hears on the later, more famous records.

Looking forward to listening to Set later.

Edit: Prog rock relevance: Gong bassist Mike Howlett produced two of the songs on A Product Of...

[Sean]

This first tune reeks of XTC, and that's a good thing! First track from their first album.

[GuitarGeek]

So I listened to Set this morning, and Quick Step And Side Kick this afternoon. Both fine albums. As mentioned in the OP, I'd never heard Set before. Still very guitar based sound on that, with just a little bit of synth here and there, except for the opening track, In The Name Of Love. Apparently, it was the success of that song in Stateside dance clubs that made Tom Bailey rethink the band's sound.

Quick Step And Side Kick I'm actually very familiar with, though I probably haven't listened to the full album in over 20 years. I've got the old cassette edition, which had the album on one side, and a bunch of remixes of some of the songs on the other side. That's basically recreated in the first CD of the deluxe double CD edition (albeit with the original album in the UK track running order, versus the slightly different US running order on the cassette I had).

Quick Step And Side Kick (or simply Side Kicks as it was known Stateside) is one of my favorite synth pop records. Lots of Oberheim OB-Xa and Prophet-5 all over this album. There's so many good songs on this record, it's not even funny.

[the winter tree]

I just finished listening to the 2 CD remastered version of "Into The Gap", which has been playing in my car over the last few days. This is a synth pop masterpiece.

[GuitarGeek]

I just finished listening to the 2 CD remastered version of "Into The Gap", which has been playing in my car over the last few days. This is a synth pop masterpiece.

Yeah, that one, unfortunately, is going for $168 bucks on Amazon. Why didn't I know about these back in 2008. But yes, Into The Gap was another great album. Would love to have the concert videos they did from the Quick Step And Side Kick and Into The Gap tours.