Julian Cope and co.'s second is an overlooked classic... The Teardrop Explodes were victims of one of popโs weirdest years. Their leader, Julian Cope, began 1981 as unlikely pop beefcake, vying with Simon Le Bon and David Sylvian for the hearts and wallets of a new glammed-up teen audience after the huge January success of the blaring, brass-driven โRewardโ single. Then, while Cope, guitarist Troy Tate and drummer Gary Dwyer toured America, and entered George Martinโs Air Studios to make their second album, British pop went gloriously nuts. The Specials had hit No.1 with an Arabic reggae protest song that soundtracked the Summerโs riots. What followed was not more of the same, but a lurch into archly synthetic escapism, care of new romantics, synth-poppers, white disco and gender-bending. Meanwhile, U2 and Echo And The Bunnymen, the latter led by Copeโs former bandmate and bitter rival Ian McCulloch, were quickly finding a way to transform post-punkโs anti-macho anxiety into a new kind of arena rock. By the time the Teardrop Explodes released Wilder in November, their record-collector mix of Beatles and Love-quoting โ60s psych, discreet funk and military brass sounded like four bookish hippies on magic mushrooms adrift in a nightclub full of narcissistic peacocks on ecstasy. Wilder bombed spectacularly and The Teardrops Explodes never made another album. Of course, Wilderโs commercial failure never made it a bad record. This is its second reissue โ the first was in 2000 โ and Copeโs long journey from pop eccentric to modern antiquarian and national treasure has only increased the cult cachet of his first magnificent failure of a band. But itโs still some shock to rediscover just how great, brave and strange Wilder sounds now, mercifully free of the desperation to cross over that even post-punk puritans like Scritti Politti and Gang Of Four fell for at the time. Wilderโs melodies sound timeless and deliciously free of conventional logic. Its rhythms, inspired by the returning David Balfeโs love of David Byrne and Brian Eno, reject straight time for adventures in syncopation and globe-trotting experiment. Its lyrics โ packed with in-jokes about the Liverpool scene, Ian McCullochโs sister, and Cope, McCulloch and Pete Wylieโs legendary six-week band The Crucial Three โ are full of dark winks and unlikely connections between Palestinian freedom fighters and characters from David Copperfieldโฆ and thatโs just within the prowling, spooked โLike Leila Khaled Saidโ. โBent Out Of Shapeโ, โPassionate Friendโ and โColours Fly Awayโ are flawed but fabulous attempts to cemulate โRewardโ. โTiny Childrenโ and โThe Great Dominionsโ are the show-stopping ballads, Cope at his man-child best on the latter, somehow making the โMummy, Iโve been fighting againโ refrain poignant rather than pathetic, as Balfeโs Prophet 5 synth percussion throbs ominously beneath him. Conflict and breakdown are the albumโs themes, as Copeโs band, drug-addled brain and first marriage were collapsing simultaneously. But Cope is quintessentially English, so the mood is stoic, playful, self-mocking. In poptastic 1981, Wilder made little sense. In 2013, where the musical landscape is full of well-read Dirty Projectors and Wild Beasts and Vampire Weekends, artily fusing psychedelic mindsets and world music motifs, the Teardrop Explodesโ final album sounds entirely contemporary and reveals itself as way ahead of its time. But the clincher is its embrace of the sadness of ending things, and our knowledge that Cope would leave Liverpool and The Teardrop Explodes far behind and go on to bigger adventures. โI could make a meal/Of this wonderful despair I feelโ, Cope croons, soft and throaty, on โTiny Childrenโ. Wilder does exactly that, and then swallows, belches and looks to the future. Extras: Excellent second disc comprising B-sides, the final, posthumous โYou Disappear From Viewโ EP (most of which also appeared on the 2000 reissue), and BBC sessions. Plus revealing, self-deprecating sleevenotes from Messrs Tate, Balfe and Cope. 7/10 Garry Mulholland Q&A David Balfe Were the Wilder sessions as acid-fried as legend insists? No! Acid was hovering in the background and influencing a certain adventurousness. But you canโt live your life on it. In your sleevenotes for the reissue you state that Wilder isnโt as good as debut album Kilimanjaro. Why? We were trying to fuck about with things and throw funk in with trumpets and cinematic concepts of music, and I donโt know whether we pulled it off. I went on to spend the next twenty years being an A&R man (Balfe mentored Blur and was the subject of โCountry Houseโ) and I look at a song like โBent Out Of Shapeโ in terms of adding this and taking away that and it couldโve been a big hit single. Is it true that you locked Julian Cope and Gary Dwyer out of the sessions for the third album? Or that Dwyer chased you through the grounds of Rockfield Studios with a loaded shotgun? No. One of the things Julian does โ which I admire enormously โ is mythologise everything. Julian has always been adamant that The Teardrop Explodes will never reform. Is this a good thing? I think heโs totally right. The part of me that would love to get onstage and play those songs with me old mates would quite like to do it. But I do admire Julianโs integrity. .
Julian Cope and co.โs second is an overlooked classicโฆ
The Teardrop Explodes were victims of one of popโs weirdest years. Their leader, Julian Cope, began 1981 as unlikely pop beefcake, vying with Simon Le Bon and David Sylvian for the hearts and wallets of a new glammed-up teen audience after the huge January success of the blaring, brass-driven โRewardโ single. Then, while Cope, guitarist Troy Tate and drummer Gary Dwyer toured America, and entered George Martinโs Air Studios to make their second album, British pop went gloriously nuts.
The Specials had hit No.1 with an Arabic reggae protest song that soundtracked the Summerโs riots. What followed was not more of the same, but a lurch into archly synthetic escapism, care of new romantics, synth-poppers, white disco and gender-bending. Meanwhile, U2 and Echo And The Bunnymen, the latter led by Copeโs former bandmate and bitter rival Ian McCulloch, were quickly finding a way to transform post-punkโs anti-macho anxiety into a new kind of arena rock.
By the time the Teardrop Explodes released Wilder in November, their record-collector mix of Beatles and Love-quoting โ60s psych, discreet funk and military brass sounded like four bookish hippies on magic mushrooms adrift in a nightclub full of narcissistic peacocks on ecstasy. Wilder bombed spectacularly and The Teardrops Explodes never made another album.
Of course, Wilderโs commercial failure never made it a bad record. This is its second reissue โ the first was in 2000 โ and Copeโs long journey from pop eccentric to modern antiquarian and national treasure has only increased the cult cachet of his first magnificent failure of a band. But itโs still some shock to rediscover just how great, brave and strange Wilder sounds now, mercifully free of the desperation to cross over that even post-punk puritans like Scritti Politti and Gang Of Four fell for at the time.
Wilderโs melodies sound timeless and deliciously free of conventional logic. Its rhythms, inspired by the returning David Balfeโs love of David Byrne and Brian Eno, reject straight time for adventures in syncopation and globe-trotting experiment. Its lyrics โ packed with in-jokes about the Liverpool scene, Ian McCullochโs sister, and Cope, McCulloch and Pete Wylieโs legendary six-week band The Crucial Three โ are full of dark winks and unlikely connections between Palestinian freedom fighters and characters from David Copperfieldโฆ and thatโs just within the prowling, spooked โLike Leila Khaled Saidโ.
โBent Out Of Shapeโ, โPassionate Friendโ and โColours Fly Awayโ are flawed but fabulous attempts to cemulate โRewardโ. โTiny Childrenโ and โThe Great Dominionsโ are the show-stopping ballads, Cope at his man-child best on the latter, somehow making the โMummy, Iโve been fighting againโ refrain poignant rather than pathetic, as Balfeโs Prophet 5 synth percussion throbs ominously beneath him.
Conflict and breakdown are the albumโs themes, as Copeโs band, drug-addled brain and first marriage were collapsing simultaneously. But Cope is quintessentially English, so the mood is stoic, playful, self-mocking.
In poptastic 1981, Wilder made little sense. In 2013, where the musical landscape is full of well-read Dirty Projectors and Wild Beasts and Vampire Weekends, artily fusing psychedelic mindsets and world music motifs, the Teardrop Explodesโ final album sounds entirely contemporary and reveals itself as way ahead of its time. But the clincher is its embrace of the sadness of ending things, and our knowledge that Cope would leave Liverpool and The Teardrop Explodes far behind and go on to bigger adventures. โI could make a meal/Of this wonderful despair I feelโ, Cope croons, soft and throaty, on โTiny Childrenโ. Wilder does exactly that, and then swallows, belches and looks to the future.
Extras: Excellent second disc comprising B-sides, the final, posthumous โYou Disappear From Viewโ EP (most of which also appeared on the 2000 reissue), and BBC sessions. Plus revealing, self-deprecating sleevenotes from Messrs Tate, Balfe and Cope.
7/10
Garry Mulholland
Q&A
David Balfe
Were the Wilder sessions as acid-fried as legend insists?
No! Acid was hovering in the background and influencing a certain adventurousness. But you canโt live your life on it.
In your sleevenotes for the reissue you state that Wilder isnโt as good as debut album Kilimanjaro. Why?
We were trying to fuck about with things and throw funk in with trumpets and cinematic concepts of music, and I donโt know whether we pulled it off. I went on to spend the next twenty years being an A&R man (Balfe mentored Blur and was the subject of โCountry Houseโ) and I look at a song like โBent Out Of Shapeโ in terms of adding this and taking away that and it couldโve been a big hit single.
Is it true that you locked Julian Cope and Gary Dwyer out of the sessions for the third album? Or that Dwyer chased you through the grounds of Rockfield Studios with a loaded shotgun?
No. One of the things Julian does โ which I admire enormously โ is mythologise everything.
Julian has always been adamant that The Teardrop Explodes will never reform. Is this a good thing?
I think heโs totally right. The part of me that would love to get onstage and play those songs with me old mates would quite like to do it. But I do admire Julianโs integrity.
.