One of the many genres given for this album is “neo-psychedelia”, but apart from a bit of organ and a bit of backwards guitar (Poppies In The Field), there’s not a lot here that calls to mind the “archaeo-psychedelia”. Except, perhaps, the descent into guitar sounds that happens at the end of the album-closer When I Dream. It’s also an album that, although I can recall what it sounds like overall, I can’t bring to mind any particular tracks. The only Teardrop Explodes song I can think of offhand is Reward, which was a single released after this album and added to it on re-release. That kind of slightly ska, slightly New Wave feel is more or less the sound that you get on this album, which veers into the very pop-music end of the New Wave spectrum.
Julian Cope has a much more mellifluous voice with greater range than the likes of Ian Curtis that many post-punk/New Wave artists around this time seem to want to emulate. He goes there too, into that almost droning baritone, but also lifts into more traditional melodies as well. At times (say, on Second Head) he reminded me a little of Sting.
Drummer Gary Dwyer continues the New Wave emphasis on the lower end of the kit, but not completely avoiding cymbals and snares like the other contemporary music. David Balfe’s keyboards add a novel element, like Ray Manzarek of The Doors at times (on e.g. Sleeping Gas).
More than anything, I think this album prefigures a lot of the other early Eighties bands, like Duran Duran, for example, which don’t really do much for me musically and reminded me why I tend to have a bit of a lacuna in my musical taste that last through the early-mid Eighties. That said, there are some times when the style of music really works. The frenetic Went Crazy, for example. So although the album didn't grab me, neither was a it a slog to get through.
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