Kings of Wild Frontier [Original recording]

Adam & The Ants, Adam And the Ants | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording
• Label: CBS Records
• Run Time: 41 minutes
• ASIN: B000W4AIH4
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #363,379 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

LP VINYL

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic album, less than perfect CD, September 10, 2004

By 

Dario M. Zagar "drziggles" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kings of the Wild Frontier (Audio CD)

I was a huge fan of Adam Ant back in the day, and this was one of my favorite albums at the time. After the mid-80's, though, I lost interest and became even a bit embarrassed about having liked his music so much!

With the hindsight that time provides, I can now attest that there was absolutely NOTHING to be ashamed of. Kings of the Wild Frontier, his best work, was way ahead of its time, and holds up incredibly well as a complete album and a statement of purpose. The mixture of punk attitude and guitar feedback, glam posturing, tribal rhythms, and spaghetti western and Native American themes was something completely fresh, and remains exciting to this day. Bottom line: the songs rock, and if you aren't moved by songs like Dog Eat Dog and Ants Invasion, it's time to pack it up for the nursing home. Moreover, the influence of the Ants (both musically and aesthetically) on artists like Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails (who covered Adam's "Physical"--more about that later) was huge.

Ok, now to this reissue. The plusses: the sound is as good as could be expected from a relatively raw album, production-wise. Several demos are included for the songs Antmusic (there's also an alternative mix for this one), Feed Me to the Lions, the Human Beings, Omelette from Outer Space (to be renamed Ants Invasion), and S.E.X. (from the Prince Charming album). Full lyrics are included, and the photos in the booklet are great.

Minuses: the track listing for the album is the original British release [N.B.: the track listing above is INCORRECT!], and as follows:

1. Dog Eat Dog 2. Antmusic 3. Feed Me to the Lions 4. Los Rancheros 5. Ants Invasion 6. Killer in the Home 7. Kings of the Wild Frontier 8. The Magnificent Five 9. Don't Be Square (Be There) 10. Jolly Roger 11. Making History 12. The Human Beings (followed by bonus tracks).

If you're a fan of the album, you'll be shaking your head at the omission of two great tracks, Press Darlings and Physical (You're So)! That's right folks, not on the CD. You'd think that with all the bonus tracks, they'd include ones actually on the album (albeit the US release)! True, you do get Making History, never released in the US, but frankly, it's a pretty lousy song that was better left on the cutting room floor. Oddly enough, a demo version of Physical is on the Dirk Wears White Sox reissue, but neither official track is on any of the reissues. Big BIG mistake. Another problem with the cd is the lack of any liner notes whatsoever. You'd think that this would be the chance to talk about the influence of the album, a bit of the inspiration behind it, etc. But nope, BUBKES!

So, a great album and a must have, but this ain't the perfect CD release we've been waiting for... I would hope that a US reissue would fix the problems above, but i'm not holding my breath.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Antmusic for antpeople, April 23, 2001

By 

Si Wooldridge (Chippenham, Wiltshire England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kings of the Wild Frontier (Audio CD)

In the aftermath of punk and just before new romanticism finally broke cover, a man called Adam appeared on the UK music scene wearing a old military cavalry jacket and white stripe across his nose. Adam and his band of merry men seemed to be amongst the first to realise the importance of image (Gary Numan was the other real pioneer in this area, although it eventually worked against him...).

The song-writing team of Adam and Marco Pirroni was superb on this album (less so on it's follow-up Prince Charming) and most of the tracks here still stand up to the best of them today. The use of two drummers also gave the band a distinct sound missing from most of their contemporaries.

The famed English sense of humour (yeah, I know I'm biased...) is also evident on here, listen to the western-themed Los Rancheros and the piratical Jolly Roger. There was a serious side too as evidenced at least on Making History. Mostly, though, it was about fun and this comes through loud and clear (shown in particular on The Magnificent Five, Don't Be Square (Be There) and Antmusic).

For a while this group could no wrong. They were unique then, and there has been no-one like it since - miss out at your peril...

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazon.com's tracklisting is wrong!, March 11, 2005

By 

Scott Gibbons (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kings of the Wild Frontier (Audio CD)

Hopefully Amazon will post a correction soon, but as of 11 March '05, the tracklisting here is incorrect. The correct tracklisting is:

1. Dog Eat Dog

2. 'Antmusic'

3. Feed Me To The Lions

4. Los Rancheros

5. Ants Invasion

6. Killer In The Home

7. Kings Of The Wild Frontier

8. The Magnificent Five

9. Don't Be Square (Be There)

10. Jolly Roger

11. Making History

12. The Human Beings

13. Antmusic (Demo)

14. Antmusic (Demo)

15. Feed Me To The Lions (Demo)

16. The Human Beings (Demo)

17. S.E.X. (Demo)

18. The Omlette From Outerspace (Early Version Of Ants Invasion - Unreleased Song Demo)

Amazon's UK site has the correct info.

Note that the alternate tracks from the original US release are not included on this CD (?!): Press Darlings and Physical. (The version of Physical on the Dirk remaster is the earlier Do It version.) Seems like a really weird decision, especially since the 1998 Sony remaster includes both of these tracks...