Search - Rough Trade :: For Those Who Think Young (IMPORT)

Carole Pope & Rough Trade's True Classic!

gassy goon | 08/21/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rough Trade is captured at their peak on this release. The band plays very tight rock accentuated with a heavy bass line & synthesizers, and of course, Carole Pope's unique voice & lyrics. She may have been a bit obsessed in her lyrics with sex, but they certainly speak to this century well.



Many great songs here with catchy lyrics & the band's funky mix of rock , new wave & that bass! Their hit ALL TOUCH still has me singing it in my head, ATTITUDE is absolutely one of the best tell-someone-off songs I've ever heard, BAPTISM OF FIRE is Pope at her best lyrically with tales of ex-lovers & the refrain " I'm nobody's bimbo " that is the nadir of her persona, and the new wave rock of BODIES IN COLLISON is a song that surely highlights the band at their most concise & tighest. It clocks in at under 3 minutes, reminds me of people in a mosh pit & is one of the great 80's songs that should have been a monster hit! PRISONER OF MY SKIN is a pre-cursor to the song TRANSFORMATION that Carole Pope and Kevan Staples would write with Nona Hendryx on her 1983 album " NONA ". FAKIN' IT is another concise, tight, new wave'ish song with personal insight that fits the running themes of psycho/sexual lyrics throughout this masterful album. The centerpieces of the album are THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE , with dramatic and humorous lyrics about the dichotomy between the two. It blends into the bar room confessional cabaret of BAPTISM OF FIRE , a song so perfect for Pope to emote on that she's " nobody's bimbo " , that it feels like it should have been stretched out to a longer epic than the 3:22 time that it was given. It's comparable to The Doors " ALABAMA SONG " in atmosphere and humor. Every song on here is strong, and definitely the band's masterwork.



The whole album fits together like rock cabaret, with the lyrics being both confessional biography, as well as story-telling. This album should have been huge, it is very unique lyrically, and musically combines many genres - rock, funk, cabaret and new wave. It is ROUGH TRADE at it's apex, and for me, one of the great albums of the 80's. Their label in the US, Boardwalk soon folded, and the band didn't get signed to another US label. This whole album is an underrated classic, and is waiting to be discovered anew for many people. It is one of my favorite albums, one of Toronto's best rock bands & illustrates Carole Pope as a defiant woman in rock breaking new ground ."