Customer Reviews

Script of the Bridge (25th Anniversary Edition)

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Twenty-five years after its original release, The Chameleons' "Script of the Bridge" album is still a testament to the timeless nature of the music the lads from Madchester penned so long ago. Bands today are still name (and riff!) dropping The Chameleons. Honestly, if you played this to the uninitiated, chances are they'd think it was released recently.

To listen to this album is to take a trip down the rabbit hole. A strange and incredible journey that leads you to lands bleak and hopeless and heights dizzying and hopeful. In this package, you're offered balm for the Big Sad and hope that "this roaring silence won't devour us all".

An album most certainly for artists, by artists.

Welcome home.

If you are a fan of 80's rock/punk then this is a must have album. Almost every song is single-quality. Beginning with the rollicking 'Don't Fall' and concluding with the understated 'View from a Hill', each song has its own character and appeal. The lyrics, instrumentation and arrangements blend together seamlessly.
These guys played with U2 and other major bands back in the early 80's. Unfortunately, just when the band was coming to tour the US in 1987, they abruptly disbanded following the sudden death of band manager Tony Fletcher who died in a car accident in New York. There have been subsequent attempts to resurrect the band notably the 2002 release 'Why Call It Anything?'.

This album is for fans of the post-punk sound, but I'm a big one. It's based on cold, echoing, reverberating guitars, much like its contemporaries by The Cure, New Order, and The Comsat Angels. But even though I'd heard these ideas many times before, Script Of The Bridge still offered me enough to warrant close attention. As in all the best post-punk, those echoing guitar chords are often arranged into hypnotic riffs that make effective use of pauses and changes in volume, such as the confident, weary stride of "Less Than Human." Even when the riff itself is pretty simple, there is some interesting detail in the execution. The hook in "Second Skin" is the same drawn-out four-note rise/fall sequence that appears in countless new wave and ambient songs, but here, each long note is actually split up into many repetitions of the same note, played in a fast drone. In other words, they're creating a slow sound by playing fast, creating a strange contrast: a slow, majestic advance, but with a feeling of energetic motion.

"Second Skin" seems much shorter than its actual seven-minute length. It flies by so easily and gracefully that one might even miss how complex it is. The opening on keyboards is heavenly, as impeccably produced as music could get before electronica came along. It then breaks into the main body, with its slow/fast contrast, but then it slows down a bit for a dreamy, echoing outro, where singer Mark Burgess first marvels, "No wonder it feels like I'm walking on air," and then is overtaken by layers of overdubbed voices, worriedly muttering, "Something's banging on my door." The stuff dreams are made of, indeed.

"View From A Hill" is the album's other dreamy soundscape, more keyboard-oriented, with a much longer instrumental section. At the other end of the spectrum are a few up-tempo numbers, like the first track "Don't Fall" and the indignant "Paper Tigers." "Don't Fall" clearly shows the punk roots of post-punk with a simple driving rhythm and the muddiest production on the album. "Paper Tigers," on the other hand, is much more refined, with a galloping drone-riff, possibly the best of the whole album, plus a sorrowful, grieving chant-chorus.

It's impressive that this was The Chameleons' debut -- it's much more fully realized than Three Imaginary Boys, Movement, or Waiting For A Miracle. It does have some filler songs: it seems to me that "Monkeyland" is a bit slow to start, and breaks up the energetic standard set by "Don't Fall" and "Here Today." Still, the music never really sounds bad, it consistently ranges from OK to great. The only problem is Mark Burgess' voice, as in, he doesn't have much of one. He has his theatrics down, with the right dramatic intonation and high-class diction, but his acting is dead set on "desperate soliloquy" mode. This serves him well on "Second Skin" and "Paper Tigers," but his voice has little range, and sounds flat, without the commanding authority of Ian Curtis, the flexibility of Robert Smith, or the warmth of Ian McCulloch or Paul Simpson. I was somewhat reminded of the guy from Wire, if the latter had taken one theatre course.

Burgess wrote a set of lyrics to match. Every song is a grandiose display of angst, expressed in hyper-dramatic but totally unsubtle ways, e.g. "I surmise I'm less than human in God's eyes." On one hand, there's the ornate vocabulary ("surmise"!); on the other, there's the simple chant-like song structure. And yes, "Monkeyland" even features the line, "is there anyone here who understands me, anyone at all?" It's fortunate that the music is there to tip the scales. The droning power of the guitars often overwhelms the vocals, so that they are only half-discernible. I think it's for the better, allowing the album to create a mournful atmosphere, a wintry landscape that only occasionally comes into focus around the singer, who is unfortunately not strong enough to carry the album by himself.

This is a seasonal album, best suited for wintertime. If you're able to appreciate droning, ringing guitars and melancholy atmosphere, it's for you. In fact, it may help if you're already a connoisseur of post-punk, since you'll be better able to discern the ways in which Script Of The Bridge stands out from the rest. This particular style of music is able to create a faraway, dreamlike mood better than any other.

I've just listened to this album for the first time though, I had heard of the Chameleons from friends and also through limited radio play. This their first album is for me still ahead of its time by a good ten years. It pokes fun at later cure albums and of course runs parallel with new order for darkness and sublime lyrics. "View from a hill" is the standout track for me written about Tandle Hill a place special for me from Sunday visits wth my mum and dad.Later also with my first daughter and my wife.
The rest of the album is cracking and is well worth the price. I must admit to not being a fan of live tracks however, the ones included on the second disc are quite revealing and provide an insight into the bands sound and cohesiveness.All in all its top!!

Popular media would have you believe that the 80's were all about third-rate synth pop, overproduced flat-top soul, big hair and Madonna. But while the fledgling MTV was busy handing music back to the rich and pretty a subversive indie scene was quietly blossoming all over the UK, Europe and North America. Back in '83 and '84 The Chameleons were uniquely poised to win the hearts and minds of listeners who wanted the sound of guitars and REAL drums (as opposed to overly syncopated click tracks or trash can lids drenched in reverb) but weren't yet ready for hardcore and needed something more satisfying than pre-punk 70's poodle rock and hair metal. So why weren't they HUGE??? Because they weren't rich, pretty and videogenic? This is a GREAT album, as are 'What Does Anything Mean...' and 'Return of the Roughnecks...' ('Is it Any Wonder' is a personal all-time favorite). Don't let the media make up your mind for you: there was A LOT of great music released in the post-punk years ca '78-'84, and this is but one example. It's great to have some more live tracks I suppose, but this edition has little else to recommend it over the original Statik or (better sounding) Dead-Dead Good versions from some years back, if you can find them...

The Chameleons, from Manchester, England, were nearly in the same league as Echo & the Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes, from nearby Liverpool.
"Script of the Bridge" is, perhaps, The Chameleons best album. If you like it, be sure to check out "Crocodiles" and "Heaven Up Here" by Echo & the Bunnymen, as those albums have a similar neo-psychedelic sound.

...and this fact makes it all the more special. Don't Fall, Thursday's Child, Second Skin are some of the best progressive rock songs ever written. "When you fail to make the connection, you know how precious it is." Chameleons never sold out, never became a corporation, stayed true to the music from on high, channelled with a wall of sound, transcendental but can nail you to the floor. Chameleons could never be found in a Pop Mart or defined by a suitcase. Heavy for those who can lift.