0741157569926. Pre-owned: Good condition. CD. Sigue Sigue Sputnik arrived with all the impact of an atomic bomb filled with pink hair dye, fishnet stockings, and face paint. Their first single, 1985's "Love Missile F-11," is a ridiculous collision of bonkers samples, pulsing robo beats, glitchy sound effects, and stabs of guitar riffing that sound like they were fed through a fax machine. On top are the yelping vocals of Martin Degville sounding like a drugstore Alan Vega as he exhorts the listener to "shoot it up!" The band sound like the feral offspring of the unholy merging of Eddie Cochran, a car salesman, and a Commodore 64, and amazingly the song was a big hit. Thanks to that fact, the Tony James-led group were given free rein -- and the help of legendary producer Giorgio Moroder -- to make one of the most outlandish rock & roll albums yet with Flaunt It! They use every production trick, recycled riff, corny vocal come-on, and mock revolutionary lyrical stance to reflect the over-the-top consumer culture of the mid-'80s as it collided with the threat of nuclear war and ultimate destruction. Not only do the songs sound like revved-up commercials for the idea of rock & roll as something dangerous and wild, they actually splice together real and faux adverts for cosmetics, magazines, real estate, computer games, and their label in between the songs. It makes for a head-spinning listen that's perched somewhere between brilliant and total trash, mostly leaning towards the former. Tracks like "Sex-Bomb-Boogie" and "21st Century Boy" stick closely to the "Love Missile" template with similarly exhilarating results, tricked-out rockers like "She's My Man" and "Rockit Miss U.S.A." add more synths and a heavier sonic approach, and "Massive Retaliation" tackles hip-hop with pleasingly cheesy results that come across like the blueprint for bands like Pop Will Eat Itself. Nestled among the goofy songs that would be perfect fits in a teen exploitation movie of the time is the oddly affecting Suicide-inspired ballad "Atari Baby," which sees Degville turning in an almost heartfelt vocal that sounds great balanced against the cooing backing vocals and the minor-key synth washes. Sure, the song is about video game sex, but it's the most human-sounding track on the record somehow. Not that that was the band's goal; they were looking to be the most flamboyant, over-the-top, glittery band ever, and for just a second Flaunt It! almost made them exactly that. ~ Tim Sendra, Rovi
