Album: Beauty & The Beat
Artist: The Go-Go's
Born: Los Angeles, California
Released: July 1981
Genre: Power Pop
Influenced: REM, The Bangles, The Lemonheads, No Doubt, Best Coast
Joe Strummer had some pretty strong words to say about the shallow commercialism of the LA punk scene ("punk rockers in LA / they won't notice anyway / they're all too busy fighting / for a good place under the lighting"), and the fact that the Go-Gos were the most successful act to emerge from it underlines his point. That's not to say this isn't a great pop album, but that it's punk attitude was very much an affectation. Few records have a more "80s sound" to my mind than Beauty & The Beat, with the archetypal 80s keyboard solo in evidence on the lead-off track, Our Lips Are Sealed. More than punk, the hit single taps into the 60s girl group sound pioneered by the Shangri-Las, Martha & Vandellas and others, mixing that feelgood summer atmosphere with elements of new wave acts like Blondie. Richard Gottehrer, who started life as a Brill Bulding songwriter and later produced Blondie's first two albums, was also responsible for the production work on Beauty & The Beat. Belinda Carlisle was the Go-Go's lead singer, but it's bass guitarist Jane Weidlin who stars on Our Lips Are Sealed, taking it to the bridge with her sky high falsetto. Weidlin wrote the song with Specials' lead singer Terry Hall, after they'd had a tour bus romance, giving the song added emotional weight.
The real beauty of this album is that, despite its distinctive 80s sound, it doesn't feel dated. Tracks like Automatic and This Town are a clear deviation from the poppier end of the spectrum, the latter an ode to LA and its dark underbelly ("we're all dreamers / we're all whores / discarded stars / like worn out cars"). Like many good rock bands, it was drugs, alcohol and petty squabbling that saw the Go-Go's disintegrate. Dismiss them as fluff at your peril. There are so many great tracks on this album and apart from the two lead singles, Our Lips Are Sealed and We Got The Beat, I also love Tonite (one of Charlotte Caffey's best bass guitar riffs) and Can't Stop The World (written by the band's talented rhythm guitarist Kathy Valentine). Like fellow Californians, the Runaways, the Go-Go's were proof that rock music wasn't just the sole preserve of men, influencing generations of all-female groups. Belinda Carlisle's voice is one that soundtracked my early childhood, and hearing Heaven Is A Place On Earth, always triggers a Proustian response, taking me right back to the 80s.
Joe Strummer had some pretty strong words to say about the shallow commercialism of the LA punk scene ("punk rockers in LA / they won't notice anyway / they're all too busy fighting / for a good place under the lighting"), and the fact that the Go-Gos were the most successful act to emerge from it underlines his point. That's not to say this isn't a great pop album, but that it's punk attitude was very much an affectation. Few records have a more "80s sound" to my mind than Beauty & The Beat, with the archetypal 80s keyboard solo in evidence on the lead-off track, Our Lips Are Sealed. More than punk, the hit single taps into the 60s girl group sound pioneered by the Shangri-Las, Martha & Vandellas and others, mixing that feelgood summer atmosphere with elements of new wave acts like Blondie. Richard Gottehrer, who started life as a Brill Bulding songwriter and later produced Blondie's first two albums, was also responsible for the production work on Beauty & The Beat. Belinda Carlisle was the Go-Go's lead singer, but it's bass guitarist Jane Weidlin who stars on Our Lips Are Sealed, taking it to the bridge with her sky high falsetto. Weidlin wrote the song with Specials' lead singer Terry Hall, after they'd had a tour bus romance, giving the song added emotional weight.
The real beauty of this album is that, despite its distinctive 80s sound, it doesn't feel dated. Tracks like Automatic and This Town are a clear deviation from the poppier end of the spectrum, the latter an ode to LA and its dark underbelly ("we're all dreamers / we're all whores / discarded stars / like worn out cars"). Like many good rock bands, it was drugs, alcohol and petty squabbling that saw the Go-Go's disintegrate. Dismiss them as fluff at your peril. There are so many great tracks on this album and apart from the two lead singles, Our Lips Are Sealed and We Got The Beat, I also love Tonite (one of Charlotte Caffey's best bass guitar riffs) and Can't Stop The World (written by the band's talented rhythm guitarist Kathy Valentine). Like fellow Californians, the Runaways, the Go-Go's were proof that rock music wasn't just the sole preserve of men, influencing generations of all-female groups. Belinda Carlisle's voice is one that soundtracked my early childhood, and hearing Heaven Is A Place On Earth, always triggers a Proustian response, taking me right back to the 80s.
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