Customer Reviews

Anvil (Reis)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was the second of three albums by Steve Strange's Visage. After this, Midge Ure departed and so did the band's success. Perhaps the two events are linked. Whatever; this is a fine slice of early eighties New Romanticism, it captures perfectly the fusion between robotic electronics and the outrageous 'clubby' scene of the time, when boys were girls and we were all a lot younger. The classic 'Damned Don't Cry' single is the best of the bunch, a haunting tune with a strange melancholy to it, but 'The Horseman', with it's funky guitar work comes a close second. The least successful track might well be 'Night Train', which doesn't have the ethereal quality to it that the others possess. After this, came the 'Beat Boy' album and obscurity for Steve Strange. Looking at the charts today, he is greatly missed.

Close your eyes for just a moment. You're wearing rather martial black leather trousers, coat and hat; your jackboots are shined to a spit-polish. You're sitting in a dark, high-ceilinged parlor with a group of classical friends and statues...the men and women are beautiful in powder and rouge. Somewhere, a lone piano echoes a plaintive song - and dissolves into the pounding throb of machine music. It's 1982, and few bands crystallized the New Romantic trend as well as Visage did. Vocalist/model (or was it model/vocalist?) Steve Strange added his effete talents to the band (which at times included Dave Formula and Ultravox's Midge Ure and Billy Currie). Look past Strange's dated and extreme couture and you'll find strong electronic musicianship that deserves a second, third, and fourth listen. Just listen...with the lights out.

Don't even think about it, just buy it. This is Visage at their very best. A more mature and diverse album than their debut, Visage were no strangers to controvesy at the time of this album. It seemed to revolve around the the song Anvil (Night Club School) which was hawked in the UK press a number of times as a notorious Gay club. I don't know if it really was or what real relevance that has to the music but the world was a rather more homphobic place in those days.

There are the dancey tracks that follow the same general pattern as the debut (no duffers in there at all), but the after Night Train we get to side 2 of the vinyl which slows up and loses the danceability for real atmosphere. It starts with my all-time fav Visage song The Horseman and winds along seductively until the close with Whispers. Definately a game of two halves but neither disappopints.

The additional tracks are welcome, We Move is a fantastic track while Frequency 7 is very much an experimental track, quite strange but worringly addictive.

Huh. Am I glad I worked in a music store in 1997 and bought this CD. And it was so easy to get then, we stocked it at the time. In 1983 I recall only liking Side A. Years later it's still far better than Side B, but the rest of the cuts have grown respectable with distance, possibly due to nostalgia for the synthesized music of that era. This CD edition towers super-hard over the original LP simply for including "We Move (Dance Mix)" (Right On...) and "Frequency 7 (Dance Mix)", the latter being a particularly amazing analog-synth instrumental freak-fest. I always imagine Midge Ure ditching decorum for these five minutes to help invent the future of electronic music.

I love "Frequency 7". And "The Damned Don't Cry".

Darkness at its finest, still fresh after all these years. I have the antique original tape! Unfortunately, the additional dance remixes on the CD are no good. But what a treat that this is finally available. The reissue of "Fade to Grey" is wonderful too.

1982: Imagine listening to "The Damned Don't Cry" or "Wild Life," flying through the night in a very fast car under a full moon on a remote Rocky Moutain road winding to a horizon shimmering with stars. Takes me right back to sweet mountain air surging through my veins, hair pulled in streamers by the wind, the mystery in the vast space above. The hot springs wait, mists rising. In the blue light, hidden, historic gravestones of drifters are lost to time and memory, the sharp scent of sage blows down the valley. Death and life dance in the balance. "Sisters of Mercy" is about the only other group to get this sharp beauty. This is a classic, vintage, yet new, due to pure creative genius.

The deep vocals and darkness of "Sisters of Mercy" must be heard:
A Slight Case Of Overbombing (Greatest Hits Vol. 1)
First and Last and Always
First and Last and Always
Vision Thing

I would say that this is the ultimately best Visage album. I am so happy to see it has been reissued. The first time I looked on this site for this album it was 400.00! I was really getting close to buying it(that's how bad I wanted it). Well I am sure glad I waited, because now it's price has dropped dramatically! I am so excited! I love the new romantic music(even though Steve Strange doesn't think his music was that genre). It has that sound I adore, the synths, the riff of the guitars(this is the best of the best electronic music even to this day). I wish I were to have grown up when this band and many other synthpop bands were playing at clubs then(I was only a baby), I would have loved to see them perform live; but I am glad I can still be able to purchase their music, I just wish that you guys were selling more of their records. Anyway, I can't complain I am glad this cd is cheaper now because I love "The Horseman" one of my favorites on this disc along "What Have They Done" ,"Move Up" and "Wild Life", very well worth it for these songs alone. The other songs you can find on other Visage cds. So thankyou for my Visage! Love 'em!!! I have one more thing to say... if you're a fan get this it's a rare item!
Jenash

Although Amazon as of the time of this writing has an incorrect track listing, be assured that the Cherry Pop reissue of this CD includes 15 tracks, the original 9 track LP plus the bonus tracks:

10. we move (dance mix)
11. frequency 7(dance mix)
12. the damned don't cry (dance mix)
13. motivation (b-side)
14. i'm still searching (b-side)
15. mind of a toy (dance mix)

So glad I can finally get a bunch of these 12" versions and b-sides on CD and get rid of my old vinyl. The only noticeable omission is the dance mix of the title track, "The Anvil"!

Perhaps Cherry Pop will reissue The first album "Visage" and again add bonus tracks to beef up the One Way Records release, which only had the dance mix of Fade to Grey as a bonus track. But what REALLY needs to be reissued with bonus dance mixes is the band's final LP, Beat Boy, which has never been on CD, and is basically the most sought after LP of the three, despite having been the least popular.

This album begins with the anthemic "The Damned Don't Cry" (which by the way was the title of a Joan Crawford film noir flick, just one gay reference that this album conjures up). This is definitely late night gay prowling music if I ever heard it. "The Anvil" indeed was a hardcore gay club in New York. I especially like "Again We Love" and the closing "Whispers", a really lovely instrumental with, you guessed it, whispers in the mix. Visage - The Anvil is an unabashedly glamorous trip through the underground gay subculture as well as being an atmospheric early '80s snapshot of synthpop at its peak. In other words, this is perfect club music.

I cannot believe this cd was only [...] DOLLARS. POLYDOR NEEDS TO REISSUE THIS CD BECAUSE IT IS A GREAT ALBUM I MEAN ULTRAVOX IS ON CD. WHY NOT PUT ALL OF VISAGES ALBUMS ON CD. THE MUSIC INDUSTRY NEEDS TO WAKE UP AND STOP PUTTING [...]ON CD. START ISSUING OLD GOOD ALBUMS LIKE THIS...............

I know this is supposed to be a serious review, but I have nothin' else to say, than that the songs are PERFECT, GREAT, WONDERFUL, but my point is - it is nothin' short of impossible to get this album, so someone, anyone, who reads this GET THAT ALBUM BACK IN THE SHOPS, it's silly, but I have to get it out, I love those songs, but I don't have the album, *cries*