Customer Reviews

Different Kind of Tension

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...what a great album this is. This is definitive pop punk, sweaty and hard rocking. I call it happy punk, which is a relative term. Though full of angst and confusion of the times The Buzzcocks were not one of those F*-this and F*-that nihilistic type of punk bands. You pogo dance to it, you don't slam dance.

This could possible be one of the 10 best albums of all time.

Usually a band's last album before its members part ways is considered their weakest. That's not the case here: "A Different Kind of Tension" is in my view their best effort by far, even better than their otherwise outstanding and frequently lauded "Singles Going Steady." The album's twelve tracks are an outstanding mix of post-punk standards, like "Mad, Mad Judy," "You Say You Don't Love Me" and "I Don't Know What to do with My Life," and more experimental songs like "Money," "Hollow Inside" and "I Believe" - the type of songs which often earned the Buzzcocks the misleading classification as an `art-rock' group. It's nice that the recording company re-released this CD; it's great to listen to it on something other than the overplayed and now-grainy cassette I used before.

I honestly believed that Pete Shelley would be a a true successor to John Lennon in the annals of Pop when I first heard the Buzzcocks. This is a band that took a rather caustic musical form (punk) and made it beautiful. Along with XTC, (the best band of ALL TIME; I'm not kidding!) Buzzcocks epitomized the feel and sound of the late 70's in a way that no one has before or since. I first heard "A Diffrent Kind of Tension" just a few months after Lennon's murder. When Pete sings "THERE IS NO LOVE IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE" ("I Believe") no disbelief is possible. The emotion is so real and honest it still give s me goosebumps almost 25 years later. The essence of punk was anger but the essence of the Buzzcocks was LOVE. I play a slow accoustic version of "You Say You Don't Love Me" in local clubs people always ask me who wrote it. I tell them "Pete Shelley". When they ask me where he is now I can only shake my head. I'm almost 50 and I've heard it all. BUY THIS ALBUM!

When the needle drops on the furiously-paced opening song "Paradise," you can tell at once that things are both very good and very bad in the Buzzcocks camp. This was a band beginning to splinter, yet they pulled it together in the studio regardless of tensions and runaway drug and alcohol consumption. Fusing their pop chops with a love of hyperactive krautrock grooves hatched songs like "Sitting Round At Home," "Hollow Inside" and the burning seven-minute closer "I Believe." Shelley's songwriting is at once getting more expansive and more opaque -- several songs are populated with opposing phrases and imagery, a critique of existence and its contradictory nature. This reaches its zenith with the title track, where Shelley trades statements like "save money" with a robotic, synthesized counter-voice that replies with "spend money."

"A Different Kind Of Tension" is not the fractured sonic experience that the band's inner turmoil might lead you to believe, if anything they are at the peak of their melodic powers on songs like "You Say You Don't Love Me" and rhythm workouts like "Raison D'etre," which even takes a short trip into bent-note psychedelia with its longer-than-usual guitar solo.

The sound collage "Radio Nine" ends things on a slightly anticlimactic note after this run of fantastic tracks, but that's a small quibble. It also alludes to two of their biggest non-album singles from this time period, "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" and the existential musing of "Why Can't I Touch It?"

Those two songs are included on this deluxe reissue, which also offers up the "Parts 1-3" singles recorded by Martin Hannett, their final recording as the Shelley-Diggle-Maher-Garvey line-up (a song called "I Look Alone," which is a primer on vocal and guitar hooks and is peppered with handclaps and snare-rolls -- would have been another big hit if it hadn't sunk under news of the band's break-up), a bunch of demos including some previously hard-to-find tracks, and several songs from Peel Sessions.

As a catch-all of all these great studio nuggets, "A Different Kind Of Tension" might be the most revelatory of the three reissues. The bandmates were starting to move in different directions and this tug-of-war of ideas provides some of their most unique and compelling work. The headlong punk rush of their debut, the blissful pop confections of their singles, the "maturing" shown on "Love Bites" -- it all arrives here, on the heavily post-punk influenced, melody driven "difficult third album" by one of rock's least difficult bands to like. Even when they didn't necessarily like each other.

Rock solid album from start to finish. This is one piece of work I play over and over again.

The Northern Rock of the late 1970's and early 1980's couldn't have better representation than the Buzzcocks. They came from the same vintage as Joy Division, Magazine, Cabaret Voltaire as well as many other hot bands. Great music, even better lyrics and "MOOD" is what fueled the Manchester scene. This album is "SOLID". Every song is worth checking out. The addition of the bonus tracks only enhances a great album. My favorite tracks are Hollow Inside and of course my own personal anthem, I Believe! This disc is a welcome addition to any party and showcases Pete Shelleys awesome writing talent with Mr. Diggle's cranking guitar work. Steve Garvey is also on this album. (Check out Rema Rema as well for more interesting variations on this theme). YOU SERIOUSLY NEED TO BUY THIS!

It doesn't really matter how you categorize Buzzcocks, what matters is that their music is laden with energy and power. And "A Different Kind of Tension" captures them at their best. There are a handful of songs here that place easily on my all-time party playlist: "You Say You Don't Love Me", "You Know You Can't Help It", "I Don't Know What to Do with My Life", "I Believe". And you almost have to include "Money" and the redundantly-titled "Hollow Inside" just for the transition! Be careful that there is nothing breakable nearby when you put this on at high volume after a few beers...

Product arrived 30 years late! How did I miss this great music for so long? Not the shippers fault - the CDs arrived within a few days of ordering. I agree with the person who said that if you like "Singles going steady" you'll probably want this one too.

It's nice to see this classic album given a deserved re-release, especially as it's (yet another) two-disc deluxe edition. The album has had a welcome remaster and included unreleased demos and live tracks.

This was the original line-ups last album. Released in September 1979, it shows that the band were heading in a new direction.

Although behind the scenes, the band were slowly falling apart, their recorded offerings were still of the highest quality.

Side one is shared between Shelley and Diggle. Pete offers us the catchy "Paradise", the gorgeous "You Say You Don't Love Me" and it's b-side "Raison D'etre". Steve gives us some of his best and strangest material to date, the great "You Know You Can't Help It", complete with dodgy lyrics, "Sitting Round At Home" and the insane "Mad Mad Judy".

This album really comes alive on side two. I've always thought of side two as Pete Shelley's Depression Suite. Pete was obviously starting to go a bit barmy around this time, though his songwriting was going from strength to strength. "I Don't KNow What To Do With My Life" starts the whole proceedings off. Next we get "Money" with it's almost Funky Drummer rhythm. This segues into "Hollow Inside", which if isn't written by a manic depressive then I'll eat my hat! The title track is just, though I don't really mean "just" a list of opposites sung by Shelley. He even goes all Kraftwerk on us at one point with a use of a vocoder, though it's hardly Man Machine, so Ralf and Florian didn't have to worry too much. Next comes the albums Tour De Force, the fantastic "I Believe". A seven minute wonder which includes some of Pete's finest lyrics. His pain clear at the end with a monologue of "there is no love in this world anymore".

Finally, we get the fifty second "Radio Nine", a brief radio transmission where we hear "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" and "Why Can't I Touch It" through the static.

My tip for the day: just don't play it when you're feeling down.

Excepting the bonus cuts, the IRS version is actually superior in clarity though this version has more "bounce". The problem I find with the new remaster is that the treble is muted in the left channel during "Paradise" about 1:30 into the song and stays out for portions of other songs. Can't believe this wasn't noticed. And if the masters have deteriorated surely a combination of the IRS digital version could be merged with the original tapes to make it seamless? shame as it's a real classic.