Customer Reviews

Gentlemen Take Polaroids

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been a fan of Japan and Sylvian for the last 30 years and have to say that this album is undoubtedly the Zenith of all their output .The early albums were not that bad, it is just that they were not that good either , Quiet Life was a mish mash of post Obscure Alternatives pseudo 'Glam / Punk' and their Donna Summer Disco collabrative work with Moroder so it naturally felt somewhat disjointed at times .

Tin Drum although outstanding for it's time not to mention still sounding fresh today already had the feel of a man ready to move on and strike out for pastures new , which ultimately Mr.Sylvian duly did.

So that leaves this body of excellence, what GTP gives you is the resounding beauty of a band that had eventually found it's place and time , gone are the rough edges , the uncertanties and doubts . Instead what we have here is a collection of finely crafted songs which evoke pure pleasure , Sylvian was at his best and the whole album sits with a comfortable air .

Stand out songs and probably the ones that get the least recognition - 'Swing ' and 'My New Career' - these finally bring together Karn's superb Bass mastery with Barbieri's sublime Synthmanship all glued together by Sylvian and his treacle coated vocals.

My one complaint was the replacement of ' Some Kind of Fool ' with ' Burning Bridges ' , not sure what Sylvian was thinking about but SKoF was far more suited to the overall feel of the album .Anyway do not let this deter you from listening or even better purchasing this great piece of work , if you have never listened to Japan before this album delivers the absolute essence of their time together as a band - enjoy - JW

I bought this album on Lp many years ago when it was first released. I enjoyed it then. Some of the tracks never made a big impression on me, but I generally liked the entire album. GTP is a development from "Quiet Life" and probably represents, for some, Japan's finest album - "Tin Drum", several years later, saw Japan going in quite a different direction.

The good tracks far outweigh the "filler" here and some of the music is sublime - "Swing" and "Taking Islands in Africa" still intrigue me. The use of the Roland Compu-rhythm drum machine with Steve Jansen's drumming is very effective. Jansen is a very fine musician indeed. The synthesizer playing is imaginative and very impressive.

The measure of this album is that much of it still sounds fresh today and it still suggests pathways of music and ideas that may be explored.

Swing and nightporter are shimmering 80's treasures. Like nothing else, swing is an uptempo rain of colours, nightporter a soft-vamp ballad, the only true pierrot-song i've ever heard. Outstanding and very original.

With a sleek, sultry sound cleverly derived from the early Roxy Music, though here even more simmering, Japan reached a creative peak with Gentlemen Take Polaroids. Its affect is almost siren-like, beckoning the listener to descend into whirlpools of serpentine fretless bass, dreamy, evocative synthesizers, and thumping ethnic-influenced drums (both acoustic and electronic). Throw in a penchant for oriental scales, de rigeur vocal histrionics, general arty pretentiousness, and superior production values, and you've got one of the most potent mixtures ever concocted during the post-punk era, albeit with questionable taste in make-up and men's fashions. The highlights are the title track, "Taking Islands in Africa," "Methods of Dance," and the chic, angst-ridden New Romantic ballad "Nightporter."

I, like a lot of people probably fell on Japan by accident. They were not that big in the UK when their album Quiet Life was released prior to GTP. I found the single "Quiet Life" sitting in a bargain bin in red vinyl for 10p which at the time was a perfect price for a student of limited means. After listening to that song I was totally hooked. I knew nothing of them before and indeed unlike other reviewers, I never got to grips with anything before this single/album. However, what came after was like a Roman Candle compared to a sparkler! The album Quiet Life garnered enough attention for listeners to wonder what was coming next, I know I did. When GTP came out I think I remember Sylvian had already been crowned with the "most beautiful man alive" tag once, which no doubt helped bring attention to the band but which I think Sylvian has suffered from personally himself ever since. I remember itching to buy this album the day it came out after being hooked hearing the previous album Quiet Life though I believe it never sold that well before this album. As with most other reviewers I was not disappointed. Where Quiet Life had channelled Roxy Music in its hey day this album actually took strides to be something new. The long opening eponymous track began the climb into new territory, slow but on an even pace. This album I think cemented Japan's ability to make its own music in the world of music criticism and while it garnered quite a few hard critiques most people acknowledged by then that a new music entity had emerged. This was helped no end by a sumptuous review of a live Japan concert by Paul Morley a revered UK music critic of the time. This album put in the context of the time of its release was a new path for electronic and New Romantic music. Though largely overlooked by the mainstream fan for the more adventurous musical passenger this album was warmly received. It brilliantly brought back a scintillating brand of introspection that Roxy Music had lost while adding a new level of incandescent electronic vibes matched with a sense of heartbreak unknown to electro New Wave fans. From the languishing, almost suicidal sweeping lush forms of Nightporter to the explosive joy of Methods of Dance, this album was pushing the limits of what music listeners knew of the electro 80s. It's not a perfect album but then no Japan album is; that they strove to push their own limits of musicianship as much as the envelope of what we knew as the New Romantics back then is a testament to their genius. I don't think they actually saw themselves as part of any movement back then but we all loved to pigeon hole. I agree with another reviewer that Burning Bridges was a terrible blight on the album when Some Kind of Fool was so redolent of the soundscape that they had fashioned with this album. Maybe Sylvian thought it would undermine the outstanding luscious tones of Nightporter as they are quite similar in expression. Nor am I sure about the accusation that there would be no Duran Duran without Japan but I would be the first to put their hand up and join the throng who agreed that whatever glory Duran had in record sales they would have pawned their last synthesizer and no doubt their wives to have written any Japan track. If you are a fan of multi-layered soundscapes, of bearing your soul to a song or just want to be taken to a different sonic world then this is an album for you. If you just want to try a few songs before you get there try Nightporter, Methods of Dance or the sublime Swing. If you were not around when Japan was making this music I really feel for you. This was an album for all lost souls at a time when music the UK music world had a pedantic message to express and rather than shout to anyone in the streets who was passing, Japan gave us the emotional electro conduit to scream silently but beautifully at the whole insane world outside.

This is a group in full swing, not only exploring new directions but really showing their well developed skills as individuals but their ability as a group. Swing here typifies their power. Burning Bridges the next track goes in a totally different direction as the mood completely changes, their use of synths here to introduce the song you know something good will follow; one of the moodiest sax solos. My New Career follows what a great song. A very strong album. Very well done.

this album balanced japans experimental side ('burning bridges', 'taking islands in africa') pop side ("pop" for japan anyway) ('gentlemen take polaroids', 'ain't that peculiar') and the amazingly sombre 'nightporter'. as a long-standing definitive japan album the inclusion here of once-rare b-side 'the experience of swimming' makes this is an absolutely must-have japan opus.

Many think Tin Drum is this band's crowning achievement but this is the album that really put them on the map, and was such an influence on other bands that it is indirectly responsible for the whole "new wave" musical movement of the 80s.

Regarded by many as the best album Japan ever did, "Gentlemen Take Polaroids was no doubt revolutionary, excitng, and quite different from anything Japan had done before. David Sylvian had developed as a songwriter, finally finishing the shedding of the overt glam/David Bowie influence that so heavily dominated the early Japan work, and moving into a dance/synth pop/proto ambient direction. Equally important is the development of Steve Jansen as a drummer who knows when not to play as well as when to play (Jansen today in my assessment is a master of economy in drumming, managing a simple one beat fill that often surprasses what others would do), Richard Barbieri developing an extensive vocabulary, not just as a keyboardist, but as a synthesizer driver, and Mick Karn coalescing his style into a fully mature form. When the material works, it's brilliant, but in general, I find the album a bit inconsistent.

But again, the great cuts are great-- certainly little in Japan or anyone else's catalog compares to "Nightporter". Starting as a piano ballad and eventually building into an orchestral (albeit synth-driven) arrangement, the piece is brilliant and melancholy, with Sylvian's vocal being effecting and powerful. It's really what Japan had been building towards (Japan would in my assessment surprass this on "Tin Drum" with the stunning "Ghosts"). While nothing else on the album is quite this powerful, the unusual "My New Career" (an off-kilter pop song with a bizarre beat and some great bass work from Mick Karn) and hte building "Burning Bridges", which starts as kind of a lifeless synth number but eventually builds to a powerful climax, both take note.

Still, there's enough material that doesn't cut it for me-- several pieces are somewhat dull synth pop/dance pieces, usually filled with irritating samples/synth sounds and far too long ("Gentlemen Take Polaroids", "Methods of Dance", "Taking Islands in Africa"). This remaster, with extraordinarily crisp sound, also adds three bonus tracks-- two b-side instrumentals that really don't contribute much ("The Width of a Room" is decent, but somewhat unnecessary) and a remix of "Taking Islands in Africa".

With it's flaws, 'Polaroids' is an unbalanced album, but it has a number of important and powerful songs on it that make it worth digging up.

Well, first let's get my bias out into the open. The two best tracks on this Japan CD are "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" and "Taking Islands In Africa", although neither compares to my favorite Japan track of all time, "In Vogue" from the "Quiet Life" CD.

The "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" CD is more moody New Romanticism from one of the true pioneers of the genre. Mick Karn's fretless bass playing got/gets a lot of press, but Japan's true genius is in David Sylvain's voice and lyrics.

Any fan of New Wave should own this album.