Album Review # 24 The Teardop Explodes - Wilder

 

More of a case of an album reviewing itself with its own lyrics and music. I thought about dividing this post equally between lyrics from The Teardrop Explodes two albums Kilimanjaro and Wilder. When I came to it though I felt Cope's lyrics improved immeasurably on the second record so thought I'd dedicate it solely to that. A wonderful, 'lost' album. It's beautifully textured and inventive musically too for which I imagine David Balfe deserves as much credit as Cope. The older I get, the better it sounds. It's Julian Cope easing into Scott Walker's slippers. It's about loss and loneliness, childhood and dreams. Kilimanjaro, poppy and urgent and infectious as it is seems to be about nothing so much as youth itself. Wilder of course bombed, released in November 1981 and buried in the Christmas rush. Pretty soon the Teardrop Explodes were no more. It was probably an album that was destined to fail. It's too introverted and thoughtful to appeal to a mass audience. But it's just great. Rising all the time amongst my favourite albums because there's so much rich feeling here. Here's a line or so from each song.

1. Bent Out of Shape

 

'These are dreams that I never had. See the lines around my eyes'

 

2. Colours Fly Away

 

 

''This is where I score. Wise up to my tricks. Colour in my face and yell 'extremist'.

 

3. Seven Views of Jerusalem

 

 

'I wish my father was here. people are stumbling and blind.
I can climb mountains to fall down again. I can forge any rivers without feeling pain
I cut off my nose to spite my face. Look at all mess around the place.'

 

4. Pure Joy

 

'Red man's sack bursting at the seams. Here comes Daddy to tread on my dreams again.'

 

5. Falling Down Around Me

 

 

'The passage of time. Is it not my own? Is it actuality? A phase I go through. Out of phase with regularity.'

 

6. The Culture Bunker

 

 

'Oh take me to the moon. It's safe and I want to lie down. Oh take me to your heart. There must be a soft spot somewhere.'

 

7. Passionate Friend

 

 

'A sound that`s drifting out from you. When the love has boiled away.
Colours shape and there are things that need.  A beating heart's not a cheating heart.
But a cheating heart, is still a beating heart. Believe in you today.'

 

8.  Tiny Children

 

'Oh no, I'm not sure about.  Those things that I cared about.
Oh no, I'm not sure.  Not anymore.'

 

9. Like Leila Khaled Said

 

 

'You can smother me with kisses. You can smother me with dreams

You can always be the mistress of my schemes.'

 

10. And the Fighting Takes Over

 

 

'And where on earth is all the joy in laughter. That's taken far away.'

 

11. The Great Dominions

 

 

'I should have known you'd seek my opinion
 From all over the country and out to the great dominions
 Careful,  some of the blunders of history
have been made that way
I'm still stuck in this  pickle jar on a paper carpet.'

 

 

   

All lyrics courtesy of Cope 1981.