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Fad Gadget
"The Best of Fad Gadget I"
Format:
CD/Collection
Online date:
22/9 2001
Label:
Mute
Genre:
electropop
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So Frank Tovey is back, shaving foam and all. For those of you who don't know, Frank was Fad Gadget from 1979, when his first single "Back To Nature" was released, to 1985 when his first album under the name Frank Tovey was released. The next year a single compilation was released including all the Fad Gadget singles as do this CD. The difference between the two is that all the B-sides are included, so you could see this as an extended version of the 1986 compilation. Fad Gadget is one of the most influential electronic bands ever, inspiring bands like Depeche Mode who in the early '80's, ironically enough played as opening band for Fad Gadget. Other bands that have been inspired are The Klinik, Psyche, Skinny Puppy and many, many more. Some of the people he's been working with are Einstürzende Neubauten, Boyd Rice (Non) and Anton Corbijn.
The songs on this CD come in chronological order starting of with the aforementioned "Back To Nature", a song that's been hailed as one of, if not the best electropop track ever. It's a mid tempo song, cold but not unemotional, melodies that stick with harsh, soft and noisy sounds in perfect balance, and that's something that could be said about most of Fad Gadget's songs, disharmony walking hand in hand with harmony, equal but different. The lyrics are often about the absurdities of human society and the, often not so pleasant sides of humanity, it's ideas and the societies we create. For example, how we claim to go "back to nature" but bring with us all the comforts of home, not even realising that it's an artificial nature we visit, a nature created by us, for us. He writes good lyrics with observations described in words ranging from social realism to surrealism and the absurd, often with a touch of black humour.
This album contains some of the best electropop songs ever made. Like the song about the girl who after having looked through too many magazines, finds that she doesn't fit the beauty standard and kills herself with the blade she uses to shave of all of that "unfeminine" hair, "Ladyshave" a statement about the "social disease" called standards and norm. Here's also the club hit "Ricky's Hand", perhaps Fad Gadget's biggest hit ever, about Ricky and the things he does with his hand. Other tracks deserving your attention are the danceable "Love Parasite", "Insecticide" and "One Mans Meat", or the folk pop song "Saturday Night Special" where we go from death to life to death again in a never-ending circle. Maybe the jazzy "I Discover Love" is you're cup of tea. One of the best things with Fad Gadget is his unpredictability and versatility. To be honest there's not a bad track on this CD, ok a couple of the B-sides aren't that interesting but they're quite fun. If you're to buy just one CD this year, I suggest you buy this one.
/Magnus Nilsson
Check CDDB tracklists for this record:
Fad Gadget"The Best of Fad Gadget I"
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