Customer Reviews

Mondo Bongo

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

 

 

I've waited a long time for Mondo Bongo to be re-released on CD only to find this is far less enjoyable a listen than my vinyl copy.

This new running order simply doesn't flow well, no matter what explanation Bob Geldof gives in the new liner notes. There's just no need to tamper this much with an album. In addition, upon closer inspection fans of the original album will note the 10 second long dramatic pause is now missing in the final song proper, Cheerio. It simply goes from the ultimatum "well you'd better hurry up and say something or else I'm gonna go..." straight into the response "okay that's fine by me, cheerio". Amazing how the omission of a mere 10 seconds of silence can turn a once clever gem into a pointless ditty. (Oh well, at least they included the "cheerio" lyrics as opposed to the 1981 CD release which leaves those words out altogether, chopping the song before it can really end!)

The Boomtown Rats released a great album in the early-80s which they deserve to be remembered for. However, this new drastically altered remaster isn't that album. I'm no vinyl purist, but looks like you're going to have to hunt down the vinyl (and possibly a turntable) if you want to hear what really went down when this album came out...in a time when New Wave bands thought ska, reggae, and BONGOS were cool and put them right up front to kick off an album (hence the album title).

The only really great feature of this remastered version of Mondo Bongo is the lovingly-designed packaging complete with a full-color foldout mini poster. Too bad it's wasted on the crummy CD inside.

Possilbly the Boomtown Rats' 5-star album, but this release is another failure to get it right.

Cheerio.

Far more satisfying than the newer edition (also now out of print). It just makes more sense this way. For those who loved it exactly as it was this is it.

13 tracks:

Mood Mambo
Straight Up
This is My Room
Another Piece of Red
Go Man Go
Under Their Thumb... Is Under My Thumb
Please Don't Go
The Elephants Graveyard
Banana Republic
Don't Talk to Me
Hurt Hurts
Up All Night
Cheerio

I've always thought that "Mondo Bongo" was where Bob Geldolf and The Boomtown Rats started to slip, but the years have been kind to The Rats' fourth album. They were trying to grow out of the scene that originally spawned them, and I also began to wonder if their inability to crack the American market (after becoming superstars everywhere else) was wearing on them. It would explain the thoroughly sour tone of many of the album's best songs.

Both The Rats' native island and their commercial nemesis took it on the chin on "Mondo Bongo," with the "septic isle" of "Banana Republic" drawing the popular vote - the mix of reggae and Geldolf's angry lyrics was another huge melding of styles for the band and a number one single. As for America, the broadside of "it's Disneyland under martial law" in "Elephant's Graveyard" took a dour look at Florida's disintegration as a retirement paradise.

This is also where the eccentricities began to get into the way of the songs. "Please Don't Go" and the re-writing of "Under My Thumb" weren't really all that great to start with and haven't improved. "Fall Down" is almost Pink Floyd in temperament (and odd that a cover of Floyd's "Arnold Layne" is included). Scat singing on "Please Don't Go?" Yikes. There's something else I miss from all these CD's (since it was on the American LP) is The Rats' re-recording of "Up All Night." (Not the version on "V Deep" - the version I speak of is only available on an out-of-print American best of or Rhino Records "Just Can't Get Enough Volume 4.") But unlike others here, I don't have too much issue with the revised running order. "Mondo Bongo" was such an eclectic album that Geldolf's reorganizing the song sequence doesn't seem to really mangle the album's original mood.

Like on my review of "The Fine Art Of Surfacing," my main gripe about the new version of "Mondo Bongo" is the re-mastering seems to be too "hot." The drums on several of the songs compress out and distort to the point that, like on "Please Don't Go," the song clips off. Not a good thing.

I've beeen waiting over twenty years to get this album on CD. Not quite as good as The Fine Art of Surfacing, but definitely the second best Rats album in my opinion, though I know many fans disagree. The one disappointment is the re-arranging of the tracks for the CD. It just didn't sound right not having Mood Mambo start the album, but I'm already getting used to the new order.

Made in EU in 2005, Serial# 982-677-6, Playing Time 53:53

Most of lyrics enclosed...

If you're like me, you've been waiting to "retire" your vinyl pressing of this as soon as a CD version was made available.

Like all 6 re-releases of their albums, the remastering job is excellent! If you're reading this, you probably don't need a description of the genre of music (and talent) included.

Instead, I'll focus this somewhat brief review on the differences in content between the North American vinyl pressing and this CD issue:

a) the running order is completely different!
b) track 7 ("Fall Down") wasn't on LP (but was released on the "Rat Tracks" EP)
c) "Up All Night" has been omitted but will re-surface on the "V Deep" CD re-issue!
d) track 11 ("Whitehall 1212") was originally released on the "Rat Tracks" EP)
e) track 15 ("Arnold Layne") is a "real" bonus track and is indeed a PINK FLOYD original
f) track 16 is the live version of the album track, recorded in Portsmouth

The re-sequencing of the tracks makes this re-issue more eclectic than it originally was.