Customer Reviews

Hard/Solid Gold

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I got into Gang of Four when I was in college in 1996. I found a vinyl copy of "Entertainment!" for $5 at a now defunct record store in New Brunswick, NJ and soon afterwards, bought as much stuff as I could get my hands on. Among others, I bought "Songs of the Free" and "Hard" on vinyl, though I couldn't find a copy of "Solid Gold" at the time, so I contented myself by copying my college's radio station's Lp copy. At the time, I thought it was a good album, but nowhere near on the level of "Entertainment!". In the same radio station's record library, I came upon a copy of "Hard". At that point, the record was 12 years old or so and someone had written "wimpy" on it. After purchasing "Hard", I agreed. In general, I really like their 1st 3 Lps, but "Hard" was just abominable.

Which brings me to this reissue. When I bought it a few years ago, I was psyched to finally see "Solid Gold" issued on CD here in the U.S. and I bought it despite having no desire at all to re-purchase "Hard". What I found even weirder about this reissue was that the packaging (the lyrics and insert) is all for "Hard" and "Solid Gold", the far superior album, is there almost as an afterthought. Regardless, the sound is great and while "Hard" is as execrable as I remembered it being many years before, "Solid Gold" is much better than I remember it being and while still not being as great as "Entertainment!", is still a great early '80s post-punk Lp that's alternately challenging, yet catchy and listenable as well (and not to mention, very influential to many current new-new wave or post-post punk bands). If you don't believe me, try "Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time", "If I Could Keep It For Myself", "Hole in the Wallet" or "In the Ditch" and see for yourself!

So, to sum up, I would've given this 4.5 stars if it was "Solid Gold" alone and if the packaging was a bit better, but I had to knock it down for the inclusion of "Hard" and for the careless packaging. Oh and it's too bad that they couldn't have included the "Another Day, Another Dollar" ep as well, but that's included on the UK reissue of "Solid Gold", which I actually recommend instead of this one.

I find the reviews here to be somewhat revisionist in their take on this double lp CD. Hard WAS commercially viable, scoring a fairly big pop hit with "Is it Love". It is really a fun album with lots or classic ironic GO4 lyrics and a fair sprinkling of the now fully developed lacerating guitar sound (Gill took his guitar sound to the logical extreme on Songs of the Free). Nearly every british post-punk band went in this basic direction, Captain Sensible scored big pop hits with his funk-rap and pure pop, 999 was a seminal punk band that went farther into disco with "13th Floor madness", Japan began their career with the most unstoppable mix of disco and snarl perhaps ever in the late 70's. The list goes on and not all went to funk/soul, some just went pop. Take American bands like Bad Religion (Into the Unknown is folk pop) and TSOL (not sure what Beneath the Shadows is but I think they may have been trying to copy the Damned's Strawberries). By 1983 there was no where to go with post-punk in England and not much of an audience. With the rise of Hardcore and bands like Discharge and GBH, you would have to get harder to try to fit in and the kids would have laughed at it, seeing GO4 as posuer old men, like they did the Stranglers.

Let's remember that Solid Gold was probably the reason they turned more pop for Songs of the Free. It was not very successful and I did not know many folks that liked it back then. I find the Yellow EP to be the best of their early "darker" sound. Solid Gold almost has none of the melody and hooks that all 3 of their other lps have, including Entertainment. It was a tough listen in the early 80's with all that was coming out at the same time. Sure, now that the Ramone are considered heroes instead of the zeroes they were seen as at the time by the masses, Solid Gold deserves a listen. But when people say GO4 was a huge influence etc, they are usually talking about Entertainment and Songs of the Free, even though they may not admit it now. Why do you think it took so long to put it on CD in the US? It didn't sell! It was the truly failed experiment, sadly.

All in all, this is a great CD from start to end and worth having. Songs of the Free is an absolute must as well as the US pressing of Entertainment (if only for the 4 song Yellow EP included which has different recordings of the 2 songs that made it onto Solid Gold).

Gang of Four's Hard and Solid Gold chronicle a cool little corner of musical history. Solid Gold is a long-forgotten and underappreciated cornerstone of the ground floor of New Wave, while Hard helped set the standard for 808-inspired 80s eurotrash. The music may not be all that great, but you'll be way hipper if you own it.

The Solid Gold half of this compilation is the real gem. The songs are droning, sinister, sparse but driving, and obviously incredibly influencial. "What We All Want" could take credit for the band Clinic's body of work as well as Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade." The Rapture's "out of the races and onto the tracks" is a thinly veiled cover of "Outside the Trains Don't Run On Time." "A Hole in the Wallet" has some of the Chemical Brothers block rockin' beats, and Fugazi ought to just send a thank you note. But as "important" as this album clearly is, it isn't as listenable as some of its contemporaries, such as Gang of Four's "Entertainment!," early works by the Talking Heads, and the Clash. It still kind of kicks ass, though, so if you like the harder side of the indie movement and you're curious where it all came from, this album is probably worth purchasing just for the Solid Gold half.

Hard, on the other hand, captures Gang of Four riding the New Wave caboose into well-deserved obscurity. Like its better known contemporaries, Gang of Four succumbed to the temptation to add keyboards, drum machines and overproduced nasally vocals. Hard is listenable, but it could easily be a lost album by Erasure or Depeche Mode. The change experienced by Gang of Four is evident even in its song titles ("In The Ditch" from Solid Gold vs. "Silver Lining" from Hard). While Hard is pretty good (Andrew Gill's guitar riffing keeps things fresh, at least), it hardly compares to the raw vitality of Solid Gold. Let's just hope history is not destined to repeat itself...

If you have respect for your elders, you'll go pick this one up. Of course, if you like your medicine with a spoonful of sugar, you might want to try the album Entertainment! instead. Gang of Four sounds a little more like their contemporaries on Entertainment!, which is to say, a little more palatable. Solid Gold has a little more energy and creative fuel, but Entertainment! is probably more fun for the whole family.

solid gold is basically entertainment's unsociable brother. the same elements that made entertainment! great are still there, but they're hidden behind walls of reverb, dischord, and an overall darker approach. those qualities combine to make solid gold a sometimes uncomfortable listen, but an intriguing one when you're in the right mood. gill's guitar playing is more colorful than it ever was, the allen/burnham rhythm section is powerful & tight, and king sings with passion throughout. music like this can only come from the type of self analyzation where you realize that you don't like the world you're in, but there's not a thing you can do to change it...and then managing to find humor in the situation. a rewarding album that deserves as much attention as entertainment. (note:...i've never listened to hard & nothing i've heard from it on compilations would ever compel me to do so.)

Without the intricate hard hitting rhythms and grooves of Sold Gold by Gang of Four the music world would be a different place ... Let's think of all the bands that were influened by Gof4: Fugazi, the Rapture, Rage Against the Machine, Helmut, and much much more ....

As far as I'm concerned, this gets 5 stars just for the re-release of "Why Theory", a song that, criminally, the Young have yet to hear, and one that redefined my then-teenie-bop idea of syncopation. "He'd Send in the Army" and "Is It Love" come in close behind as old faves.

And if you're new to them, you must get their "History of the 20th Century" for the classic "Anthrax"!

I bought this CD a little over a year ago and, having already been a huge fan of the Entertainment! album, I was eager to hear what other sounds this band had in store for me. As I drove out of the Amoeba parking lot, I chose Hard/Solid Gold as the first of the many purchases I had made that night to listen to first. Words can't describe my disappointment--rather than hearing a band even similar to the one I heard on Entertainment!, I instead got some cheesy post-disco 80's pop that clearly had the same singers as the Gang of Four that I knew and loved, maybe even some similar guitar work, but all in all left me feeling flat and empty with it's faux Motown backup singers and drum machine beats. If I wanted a GOOD version of this sound, I would have purchased a New Order album.
Rather than attempting to return this CD (it was a used purchase) and let some other poor sap pick it up and continue the cycle of disappointment, I threw it in the back of my car, where it fell under the seat and remained for over a year. I knew that the quality of a band's output has some ebb and flow, but I didn't want this sound to taint my love of the Entertainment! album.
Although I realized at the time that the CD had two albums on it, I naively figured that whoever put the package together would have put the better album first. Thus, if Hard was placed at the beginning, then I didn't even want to bear witness to the horrors that would have been lying in wait for me on Solid Gold . . . what a foolish mistake.
Last week, I found that CD under the seat in my car and decided to give it another try. Sure enough, the first few tracks of Hard sounded just as miserable as I remembered, but when I skipped ahead to track 10, "Paralysed," the first track on the Solid Gold album, I found the Gang of Four I knew and loved. Here was the next logical progression after entertainment. Even artier and weirder than its predeccessor, Solid Gold had everything I wanted from this band, pushing the formula to newer and greater places. Taking cues more from Entertainment! tracks like "Anthrax" and "Not Great Men" as oppossed to more melodic numbers like "Return the Gift" (great song), "I Found that Essence Rare," and "Glass," Solid Gold is what a sophomore release from a band should be.
Describing why I like Solid Gold is a bit of a challenge . . . it's somewhat of an indescribable aesthetic, but if you listen to the way Andy Gill scrapes his guitar strings at the end of "Cheeseburger," the stuttered beats on songs like "What We All Want," the unbridled energy of "Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time," John King's direct, often staccato vocals and liberal use of the melodica, the interplay between the bass and drums, or the way each song picks you up, then you'll get it. If you liked aspects of Entertainment! that pushed the envelope a bit, you should get it too.
Also, the lyrics are still great, continuing to touch on themes like urban alienation, the slavery of work, social politics, gender issues, and a general confusion/obsession with the inner workings and failings of human social interaction.
As many others have stated, there's a whole slew of contemporary bands that owe a debt of gratitude and maybe even a few royalties to the sound that Gang of Four forged on Entertainment! and Solid Gold. The earlier (and better) Rapture albums certainly borrow a bit from G.o.4., and Q and Not U's sound bears many similarities as well, especially when they use the melodica.
My only question is: who played drums and bass on this album? The lineup it lists on the CD was certainly for the Hard album, but the music on Solid Gold sounds as if Hugo Burnham and Dave Allen were still filling these spots. I'd be interested to know if anyone has that information.

Anyways, what are you still reading this for? Get out there, pick up a copy of Hard/Solid Gold, immediately skip to track 10, and enjoy!

i have yet to understand why solid gold has been over looked as gang of fours best. yes the critics go on about entertainment, and yes its a great debut. but this the one were it all comes together. the two records are in the same style-disjointed rhythms, great bass work, atonal guitar. the first one is little poppier and on this one they got weirder(the sign of a great band)and the songs are just stronger. the filler songs work. unlike on the first one(entertainment)with bores like 5.45,guns before butter, and glass.the songs here are solid gold! now who knows why somebody put this together with hard(to listen to). i think most people will be buying this for one of the two but not both. so ignore hard and get solid gold if you like unique music,or if you dig entertainment. get this its better!

As other reviewers have noted, this is an odd pairing of albums to put together on one CD. Whereas the songs on Solid Gold are even more discordant than those on Gang of Four's first CD, Entertainment, all of the rough edges have been smoothed out on Hard, which has a very pop sensibility to it. Neither of these albums stands up to Entertainment. In contrast to most of the other reviewers, however, I actually prefer the mellow groove of Hard to the cacophony of Solid Gold. One criticism of this package is that except for a picture of the album cover on the front there is nothing about Solid Gold in the booklet. The only songs listed are from Hard. Obviously, not a lot of thought was put into this compilation. I'm glad that I got it, but this package probably is only for die hard Gang of Four fans.

At the time of "Hard" & "Songs of The Free" most fans of the Gang of Four's new direction as a descent into trite pop/new wave fare. However, I enjoyed both albums, as I was not one of those teenage males too caught up in the punk masculinity mystique to venture out into other musical genres. Many other groups (The Stranglers, The Damned...) were doing the same thing, after punk seemed to have exhausted its possibilities. The Gang of Four did it quite well, even if they didn't reach pop stardom like Billy Idol in their attempt.

I like both albums, my quibble with this release is that they are mismatched. "Hard" is better of coupled with "Songs of The Free" than "Solic Gold", not to mention that it is completely unavailable on CD. Whoever put this together did a poor job. Why didn't Rhino release this? No extras to the album tracks (live, non-lp stuff), hence the deduction of 1 star.