Anvil [Extra tracks]

Visage | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 26, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Label: One Way Records Inc
• ASIN: B000002R9H
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #428,682 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Damed Don't Cry

2. Anvil (Night Club School)

3. Move Up

4. Night Train

5. The Horseman

6. Look What They've Done

7. Again We Love

8. Wild Life

9. Whispers

10. We Move (Dance Mix)

11. Frequency 7 (Dance Mix)

Editorial Reviews

The long overdue reissue of this classic 1982 album 'The Anvil', by the pioneers of the New Romantic movement, Visage. The album reached No.6 in the UK album charts.This CD reissue features 6 bonus tracks not included on the original 9 track release. These include dance mixes of the hit singles 'Mind Of A Toy' and 'The Damned Don't Cry' and the rare b-sides 'Motivation' and 'I'm Still Searching'. The CD booklet features sleeve notes, discography and all the single sleeves taken from the original album. As the leading lights of the New Romantic movement, Visage's legacy is lasting. The band's reputation for producing quality electronic pop lives on. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Early Eighties, Anyone?, August 12, 2000

By 

N. A. Parry - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anvil (Audio CD)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Music in the mirror? A passion for fashion..., October 7, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Plattsburgh, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anvil (Audio CD)

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.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Visage at their best..., August 11, 2000

By 

Si Wooldridge (Chippenham, Wiltshire England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anvil (Audio CD)

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.