LP reviewed in Sounds, 16th January, 1982
The Times | Pop Goes Art! | (Whaam! LP01) 1982 | **1/2 THE TIMES were the group that once gave us lucky people a single called ‘I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape’.
From its ‘Keep On Running’ intro riff (a filching that gave rise to macho high finance wheeling and dealing between record companies) onwards, it unravelled the tale of Number Six making his real life getaway to the United States where he now resides, according to Times legend, in a dwelling next door to the Man In A Suitcase.
This gem is included here. Passing months have not tarnished its splendour. I hoped the rest would be as good. ‘Pop Goes Art’ starts with the invigorating clipped power chords of the very Who-ish (circa ‘Sell Out’) ‘Picture Gallery’.
Following swiftly comes the Batman punch of ‘Biff! Bang! Pow!, a tasteful ballad of a bank robber whose demands for the stored ackers are voiced with the tone of a mincing nancy boy.
The Times | Pop Goes Art! | (Whaam!) 1982
The track sports a bass drum thwack so low and thudding to be easily mistaken for my noise paranoid neighbour venting spleen on the wall. A fine enough beginning. Onto a winner here, methinks.
But virtually the whole of the remainder trots along at a pedestrian pace and the lyrics become so twee that they’re unlistenable.
The cheapo guitar scratchings and biscuit tin drum sounds do little to help matters. A welcome addition of synth (I think) into the mixture works fairly well but the possibilities are not investigated to a satisfactory extend. Backing vocals are shoddy and the arrangements unimaginative.
That The Times are sixties obsessed is never in doubt. Each individually spray painted sleeve credits Warhol, Malcolm McDowell, Joe Orton and Syd B.
This period worship need not be a bad thing in itself, but when influence starts to outweigh originality you’re in trouble. Much of ‘PGA!’ smells of people having listened to too many Herman’s Hermits b-sides and become trivialised for life.
The Times would have benefitted from a bigger budget or less vinyl to fill. Perhaps an EP would have been a wiser move. (Mick Sinclair)
LP reviewed in Sounds, 24th July, 1982
THE TIMES ‘Pop Goes Art’ (Wham Records WHAAM LP 01) ***** | ANOTHER MUSIC in a different kitchen; another convert from a different culture. The name connected immediately, something to do with that New Psychedelia business. Cultism, revivalism, all highly dubious stuff and if we’re going to have a Sixties revival, then let’s have a nice uncomplicated Mod one.
And then I put the record on. Forty minutes later, I was sitting there, stunned. So I put it on again. And again. Now, it’s only occasionally that I listen to albums three times in a row when I first get them. It happened with the infamous Infa-Riot album, and it’ll doubtless happen again when I get my claws on the new Dexys effort.
But this . . . I couldn’t believe it. ‘Pop Goes Art’ is fantastic. In its own twangy, trebly Sixties way, it’s an album of the year, or the last twenty.
Much better than the current efforts of old dinosaurs like the Who, and before you all start writing in and saying how dare I, you ought to get a copy and listen to it.
I’ve got a recommendation to make: Start by putting on ‘Miss London’, because this is the summer song for 1982. On a hot day, with the windows wide open, it’s the final touch for a perfect atmosphere.
The dreadful thing is, though, that in its own field this album is totally faultless. In the week I have had it in my possession, I would estimate that I have played it about three times a day. Even if I tire of it, the impression will remain indelible.
Every song is a classic, with a catchy chorus and clever instrumentation. Melodies all the way from the opener ‘Picture Gallery’ through ‘New Arrangement’ and the weird ‘I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape’ to the Shadowy instrumental title track, the magnificent ‘Miss London’:, the terminal twang of ‘The Sun Never Sets’ and the surrealistic closer, ‘This Is Tomorrow’. Marvellous stuff!
I don’t know much about New Psychedelia and I don’t know anything about the Times (can anyone help me?). But what I do know is that I love this album. I used to have a puzzling, sleeveless pop LP by someone called Vaughan Thomas(?) which I bought for ten pence in a jumble sale, loved, and played till it broke (very sad). ‘Pop Goes Art’ is better than that.
Of course, you can’t compare it with Infa Riot, Dexys etc — like comparing chalk with cheese — but in its own way, it stands alone. (John Opposition)
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