Customer Reviews

Revisited

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I first heard this album sometime around 1979/1980. I bought it because Ken Lockie - the main force behind Cowboys International - was associated with Public Image LTD. - and at the time I was totally obsessed with PIL.

When I bought this album I was surprised by the popness (is there such a word?) of the material. It was both dreamy, beautiful, dance, and had a strong relationship with David Bowie - with respect to "Low," "Heroes," & "Lodger." Like those records it used something old to advance to a new world.

I recently bought the album after so many years of not hearing it - and it still sounds fresh and inticing as when I first heard it.

Now if they release the Ken Lockie solo album - that would be something!

Buy Cowboys International because it's totally underrated and really, it's a pop masterpiece!

The Original Sin was undoubtedly one of the great discs of 79-80--powerful, visionary, inspiring, memorable. It shared the turntable with groups like 999, Ultravox (John Foxx version), the Skids, Black Randy and the Metrosquad, X-Ray Specs, Pere Ubu, and the usual assortment of Bowie, U2, Elvis Costello, Blondie, and so many other great bands in those halcyon days!!! This one never made it to CD, though, and there was just the one record and a few singles, and then these guys broke up five minutes later and were gone, so no one was around to preseve the legacy.

Well, here it is nearly 30 years later and they get the shot to put it out and what to they do? They release it in some random order that destroys the powerful architecture of the Original Sin album!?!?!? It is not like they had seven albums and so could shuffle the greatest hits around. No, they had ONE record, that was it, so why mix it all up? The first song,the hypnotic and transcendant Pointy Shoes, one of THE GREAT opening songs of any record, is actually the LAST song here. It is like re-releasing Ziggy Stardust with Rock 'n Roll Suicide first, then Lady Stardust, It Ain't Easy etc and then Five Years last....well you get the picture I am sure. What a butcher job!! The deal was to put out Original Sin and add on anything else you want--probably everything they did, there was not that much. I've only seen one other CD transfer botched this badly, the Duke Ellington jazz trio album, Money Jungle. On that one they released it in the order they recorded it, rather than in the dramatic original structure--kind of like releasing a movie in the order they shot it, rather than in the actual narrative sequence. Dumb...

Wow, maybe I should just be grateful they put anything out on CD at all, but I can't help it--THIS WAS SO DUMB!!! On Money Jungle, the Blue Note label eventually put out the CD in the right order. Let's hope that when the big bongload wears off, Ken Lockie and the others will do the same for Original Sin, one of the great unheralded rock albums. It deserves better, mate....

ADDENDUM (3/5/10): Having just gotten my first iPod, I am now baptized into the world of the "playlist". Since all of the songs from the LP are on this complilation, I can very easily re-order the songs into an Original Sin playlist and--it's back to 1979 for me , Bay-bee!!! Problem solved...

I see why this unknown group has been noted as being pioneers in the new wave scene. I bought this disc for "thrash", which was played on my local new wave station years ago. But the entire album features smart use of keyboards and guitars to create wonderfully melodic new wave. Many artists from 1979 to 1980 had a habit of making one good new wave song with keyboards, but when you bought their entire album, they didn't sustain that pop sensibility, but instead gave us a bunch of experimental noise. Cowboys International blends the best sounds of Split Enz, Gary Numan, Psychedelic Furs, and even hints at the guitar/synth marriage of groups like a Flock of Seagulls two years later. As his been claimed for this group, they definitely bridge the gap between the punk era and the new romantic era.

If you're into early 80's new wave type music then you should definitely check this out. Cowboys International is hard to categorize but they kind of remind me of XTC and Bauhaus. Kind of. It's too bad The Original Sin hasn't been re-released. I'd like to hear it.

What an amazing record! I remember hearing "Thrash" as a minor radio hit in New York, but this entire album is superb. Great guitar work by Keith Levene, especially on Many Times and Wish. His style and sound is easily identifiable. Terry Chimes' drumming is expert throughout. And Ken Lockie has a great voice. They really do sound like a cross of Tubeway Army meets PIL meets Depeche Mode's evil twin. If you like post-punk progressive pop, pick this one up.

Catchy tunes with neat hooks. Hard to pin this one down. Like Public Image Ltd.? Sort of... But I just don't know. I like this album alot. I waited years to see it come out on CD. These songs stayed with me for over 25 years. It kinda haunted me. From one song to the next their sound seems to change.

or the best record ever that features PIL guitarist Keith Levine on "aquarium" guitar. I've been looking for this on CD for twenty years. Hooray...today is a good day...

This album, released in the last days of vinyl that preceded the launching of the CD, got lost in that shuffle (thank you, Ronzo, for turning me on to it). Buy it now, it is top-notch English "prog-pop" or new wave/punk hybrid, whatever you want to call it. The song "Wish" (nothing, I'd give up nothing) is the best. Keith Levene (Public Image Ltd.) is the guitarist here. It sounds Bowie-like in the vocal department. This band kicks! Great stuff. One of my "little gems" in the collection.