Customer Reviews

Business As Usual

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'd just like to say that Business As Usual was one of the formative influences in my life when I was growing up. I loved Men at Work then and still do. This album never fails to conjure up the nostalgia for my early adolescence with great tunes, quirky lyrics, and Colin Hay's incredible vocals. Overall, it's a tremendous album, which deserves much respect.

Naturally, then, I was excited to see it remastered with bonus tracks from the band's "Golden Era", and snatched up a copy right away. The new remastering is excellent and it is superior in sound quality in many ways to the original CD that has occupied my player for so long. The liner notes are helpful and give a nice retrospective for fans of the band, along with a lot of unique pix of the lads.

Which brings me to the extra stuff. The bonus cuts are a very cool and welcome addition. I loved Crazy and F-19 (an experimental ditty if there ever was one), but was frankly puzzled by the addition of the live tracks from the "Brazil" album. Why? I was hoping to get live performances from the "Business as Usual" era, but was instead confronted with two tracks that I already have on another disc! This was somewhat disappointing to me. Why not include live performances from 1981 or thereabouts instead of the reunion concert tracks? Another glaring omission is the b-side "Anyone for Tennis?" which should be on this disc but is sorely lacking.

All that aside, the two 1980s-era b-sides and the remastering make this a must-have for any MAW fan. Enjoy!

The phenomenal ascent of Men At Work had to be seen to be believed. I was present at their Universal Amphitheater concert during one of the first weeks this album was number one, and I saw a group of guys completely taken aback, but genuinely appreciative towards our applause and enthusiasm.
In retrospect, their first album is world-class pop music. It had a definable, unique sound...borrowed from a few sources, sure, but gelling into a wholly original package. The singles were marvelous radio singalongs, but the rest of the album has variety, depth and some impressive musicianship!
The remastering has resulted in the crisp sonic reproduction of a sound that will take you back twenty years, in the time span of a sax break. If the name "Men At Work" gives you any sort of fond recollections, this will be a most worthwhile purchase.

I give this five stars for the performance--I still enjoy listening to MAW after more than 25 years. The original band had great chemistry and "Down Under" has joined "Waltzing Matilda" as an unofficial Australian national anthem. I give the programming 3 1/2 due to the omission of the B-side "Anyone for Tennis" (I had to rip it from my old 45--check it out on YouTube) and the inclusion of live tracks from the still available "Brazil" album. Contemporaneous live tracks would have been much more enjoyable, and there were a few live songs that never made it to record.

Contrary to the notes, "F 19" was released in the US--just barely. It was originally the B-side of "Be Good Johnny," the band's third single for CBS Australia. That single was never released in the US, but "F 19" finally appeared stateside in 1983 on a 12" with "It's a Mistake" and a remix of "Who Can It Be Now?" I know because I have one. Justice was done here, because "F 19" was a staple of MAW's stage act and is easily their best instrumental.

And whoever mastered this overmodulated it to hell--it just about blew me out of my chair when I first played it. Once I ran it through an MP3 editor and cut the gain a bit, it was fine.

I'm a hard-core Men at Work fan. I grew up in the 80s and saw the new version of the group twice in concert. This is a good pick-up. Digitally remastered...sounds great! You will hear the difference!...especially in the drumming on 'Down Under.' 'Crazy' is a great bonus track...a very fun song. 'F-19' is an instrumental. The other 'bonus tracks' were previously released on the 'Brazil' concert cd. The liner notes add a lot to this cd.

"The band from down under", "Who Can it Be Now", "Down Under"........those were the tags given to this incredibly successful early 80's album by Men at Work. In my experience, I haven't run into 5 people who actually know the name of this album. In a unique way, that tells you how successful this album was. People were so into the songs that they forgot the name of the album. Where does time go? I listened to this album during 7th grade wood shop like it was yesterday!!! I also remember DOWN UNDER being the #1 song for several weeks in the top 40 countdown. I must say that the flute took a little getting used to, but it was something new and unique. All in all, this album is a smash hit, and should be in every person's early 80's section of their CD collection. 9/10

I am going through some of my old CD's that have been collecting dust, and when I found my Men at Work CD, I decided to give it a long overdue play in the Stereo. What still fasicnates me is how well this record is done, for being a flash in the pan 80's one hit wonder band. Believe it or not, this is a really good album, with almost every song (with the exception of 2) being really solid. The last 3 songs on the CD are fantastic. Touching the Untouchables, Catch a Star, and Down by the Sea are worth getting the CD alone. This is a classic from a band who only released 3 CD's (in a period of 2yrs) so Enjoy this...If you are a fan of the Police (even though not as talented) this will be right up your alley.

Most people know Men At Work for their hit single "Down Under" (and for good reason) and possibly for their other top 100 singles "Who Can It Be Now" and "Be Good Johnny" . These 3 songs are great 80's rock tunes that alone make the album worthy of a purchase (they at least help its appeal), but the album does contain several other good tracks too. Unfortunately it's all kind of a guilty pleasure which hurts its possibility of being a classic. It's also pretty uneven so chances are you'll skip several tracks. The lyrics aren't that great, but like their singles they're simple and catchy enough to have fun singing along with. The singer I think is sort of love-it-or-hate-it for most of the songs. Its three hits move it up from a 4 to a 4.5 (it's also a kind of unique album musically - it's mostly jazz/blues influenced rock but it has a little new wave thrown in). Overall a very good debut that 80's rock fans and those with an open mind will probably like (and its relatively cheap price certainly helps). Recommended!

Highlights include:
"Who Can It Be Now?
"I Can See It In Your Eyes"
"Down Under"
"Underground"
"Helpless Automaton"
"People Just Love To Play With Words" (kind of)
"Be Good Johnny"
"Down By The Sea" (kind of)

Yep,this album was a huge seller back in the early 80's.I remember Who Can It Be Now being such a big hit.Downunder was a hit as well,but when Australia won the Americas cup back in 1983,a race at the time i hadn't even heard of,it became massive.It's a bit of a shame to hear of copyright arguements so many years later,and i think the modern music industry suffers alot because of so many songs written.I had actually thought some songs i heard sound like others,but i decided never to put that in my reviews.I just couldn't stand it if i upset one of my favorite singers,i just couldn't live with myself.
This album has alot of great tunes.

Business As Usual is probably one of my favorite 80s albums made. Colin Hay's vocals are fantastic and the music is wonderful, I have always loved Men At Work. If you haven't already bought this album go ahead and pick it up you wont be disappointed.

This is a great album. Got it for "Down Under" and was pleased to find the rest of the album was as good, if not better. This is a classic 80s band. They were a complete package of songs and performance. Colin Hay is a great writer and singer. If you're like me and liked "Down Under" or their singles, you will like the rest of this album. Great pop music that sounds as good today as it did 20+ years ago.