Customer Reviews

F-Punk

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

 

 

This is one of BAD's best releases--comparable to the first album and The Globe in quality and inventiveness. BAD fans shouldn't be disappointed in this record. The songs are a bit more complex and challenging than most pop and hip-hop--but remember, THAT'S WHY WE LIKE THIS BAND. "Vitamin C", "Psycho Wing", and "Push Those Blues Away" rate among Mick Jones' best songs--and that's saying a lot. The disc hangs together well and has enough going on to reward each new listening.

This is BAD's last album and has the some great feel that their earlier albums had. Mick Jones is a true punk legend and though nothing like his earlier band The Clash, this is still classic punk. Some songs are a bit long, but the music is really cool. Favorites include I Turned Out a Punk, Vitamin C, Push Those Blues Away, Got To Set Her Free, Get It All From My TV, and I Can't Go On Like This. Recommended.

I don't understand how anyone who likes Big Audio Dynamite cannot like this album. F-Punk features the best features of Mick Jones' early 80's Clash work and the style that made early Big Audio Dynamite work so fun, except that it's not nearly as sample heavy. That's it, it's not sample heavy, but it's great Mick Jones work.

The lead off track "I Turned Out A Punk" was the only track considered good enough to show up on Big Audio Dynamite's "Planet BAD - Greatest Hits" (although this album was only 3 months old at the time), but "Push Those Blues Away" and "Gonna Try" are probably my two favorites here, and they're worth the price of admission. The last track on the album entitled "What About Love?" also gives way to a hidden track, which is an excellent cover of David Bowie's "Suffragette City". (Not listed on the album description.) Really, there isn't a bad track on the album in my opinion.

F-Punk is out of print and incredibly hard to find in record shops, so I wholeheartedly recommend purchasing this one online here at Amazon. Take it from someone who owns every Clash album and has listened to a lot of Big Audio Dynamite, this one is much better than its low availability would suggest.

I remember when this album first came out and I was disappointed. I didn't give it too much of a chance. Then over the years, I lost or sold this CD.

Recently I saw them at Lollapalooza and decided to find the BAD cds that I no longer had and picked up a copy of this one. Gave it another chance and cannot believe that I didn't like this more at the time. I really think those that are rating this low need to give it a few more listens. It does retread some of the ground of their earlier releases, but this is still great music.

I HAVE OVER 2000 CDS IN MY COLLECTION.. I WOULD EASILY PUT THIS ONE
IN MY TOP 10 LIST OF ALL TIME GREAT CDS..FIRST STONES EXILE ON MAIN ST..NO.2 SEX PISTOLS NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS 3RD BEATLES SGT.PEPPER
4TH BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE F-PUNK..THIS CD IS B.A.D MEETS THE CLASH..
BEST SONGS "I TURNED OUT A PUNK"-"VITAMIN C"-"PSYCHO WING"-AND
"GET IT ALL FROM MY TV" I NOT SURE WHAT SOME PEOPLE WHO WROTE BAD
REVIEWS ARE LISTENING TOO..BUT MAYBE THEY SHOULD GIVE THIS ONE ANOTHER LISTEN..

I listened to this disc (my wife's) for the first time(s) today (after sampling THE GLOBE). One thing is apparent here...the samplefest of THE GLOBE is over. This record is more basic rock with just a sprinkling of samples. It's also less immediately hooky than THE GLOBE.

The problem with it is that it seems Jones and company are rudderless here. They can't decide if this is back to basics rock...or still "cutting edge" keyboard infused alterna-jams.

HIGHLIGHTS:
"Singapore" was B.A.D.'s comment on the caning of Michael Fay (Fay was an American college student who was caned by Singapore authorities after being convicted for vandalizing cars while he was visiting that country.) which made world news at the time. There's a slightly cheesy element to "Push Those Blues Away" (sorta like an early 90s "Steal my Sunshine") but it's fairly catchy. A hidden track cover of David Bowie's "Suffragette City" (after "What About Love?") is decent though it won't replace Bowie's. "Gonna Try" is a pretty basic alt-love song. "It's a Jungle Out There" has an off-kilter hookiness that settles in a bit over time.

LOWS:
"What About Love?" is a horrible lyric. It looks like it wanted to be a song about the vacuum inside modern youth but it just had too many insipid lines like "I'm schizophrenic manic depressive/Kids of today surely are aggressive/An alca/shoppa/workaholic/Most the music's really chronic". "I Turned Out a Punk" is as removed from the stripped raw energy that is punk music as, say, Mantovani. It's aggressively bland. "Vitamin C" is a pretty witty broadside against the culture that tries to synthetically replace the essential nutrients we fail to put in our diet ("Didn't used to eat so I'd take these...Guess I must be unhealthy..Have you got the time release please?") but the "gimme 'nother hit of Vitamin C" is so relentless that you begin to hope someone will lace Mick's pills with cyanide. "Got to Set Her Free" almost sounds like a lost Smokey Robinson track (without the falsetto vocal). But what could have been a nice soulful track is saddled with piffle like "My preoccupation was selfish extreme/It all comes down to a low self esteem".

BOTTOM LINE:
Too much lyrical tripe, too little catchy hooks, too much indulgence. Skip this one...

The only other album I have by BAD is Phoenix Megatop, and F-Punk is actually the first one I got by these guys, and I was blown away. Coming from a Clash background, this was a great progression. Basically, if you love the Clash, this will fit in well, and their older stuff won't. "Vitamin C" and "I Turned Out a Punk"? CLASSICS! Wonderful tunes. "Chase Those Blues Away," too, ranks as upbeat a tune as Monty Python's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." How anyone can give this a bad review is beyond me.

B.A.D. saved one of its best releases for last on this aptly titled F-Punk. Gone are the annoying samples and pseudo funk riffs from earlier mediocre releases like Megatop Phoenix and No 10 Upping St. This has the Clash sound back in almost full swing. The CD starts with a bang, with I Turned Out a Punk blasting away all the other songs. Psycho Wing is a truly personal, wrenching song with a One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest theme. Some later tracks get weak, but all in all this is one of B.A.D.'s better releases.

If you've never heard of BAD, this album will leave you wondering what the fuss was about. If you knew BAD back in the day, you're probably wondering `What the heck happened to BAD?' It's inexplicable, perhaps Mick Jones is simply too old to rock and roll. The album is summed up well by the track `I Turned Out A Punk', which is as unpunk a track as you can imagine, although it purports to be a statement of purpose. If I didn't know better, I'd think it was a joke, sadly, it is not. BAD were cool once, however, if you doubt, check out the superb THIS IS BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE which was, in fact, audio dynamite, and still is. As for this album, well, BAD has become a has been.

Listen you limey wankers, this was a good album! Psycho wing speaks from the heart, you souless swine! Give Mick a chance, he has tread upon ground you Brittany Spears fans wouldn't understand. Don't trash him because you don't understand one of his experiments.