474. The Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro (1980)
















Track Listing

1. Ha Ha I'm Drowning
2. Sleeping Gas
3. Treason
4. Second Head
5. Poppies In The Field
6. Went Crazy
7. Brave Boys Keep Their Promises
8. Bouncing Babies
9. Books
10. The Thief Of Baghdad
11. When I Dream

Review

This is one of those albums that needs repeated listenings to be good, at first it is quite interesting but some of the horn arrangements do make you cringe a bit in a very out-dated 80s way. After some listen throughs, however it all starts to sound quite good.

The Teardrop Explodes is often put in the same bag as Echo and the Bunny men, they are both from Liverpool, they are contemporary, are post-punk, and have very close relationships, however nothing here is as good as the best of Echo, but it is all still pretty good.

This is an album that you shouldn't feel discouraged when listening to it the first time, it does become really good at about the third time you hear it, if you like Echo and are all of their albums this is definitely the place to go, excellent music which isn't easy... and the lyrics are great as well.

Track Highlights

1. Thief Of Baghdad
2. Poppies
3. Ha Ha I'm Drowning
4. Treason

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The original working title for the album was Everyone Wants To Shag The Teardrop Explodes. This was later used for the CD release of demos for the band's never-finished third album.

The song "Books" was originally a song by Julian Cope's previous band, The Crucial Three, and was also recorded by Echo & the Bunnymen (as "Read it in Books", released on the b-side of their debut single, and featured on some versions of Crocodiles).


Treason: