Obscure Alternatives

Obscure Alternatives
Studio album by Japan
Released October 1978
Recorded 1978
Length 41:23
Label Hansa
Producer Ray Singer
Japan chronology
Adolescent Sex
(1978)		 Obscure Alternatives
(1978)		 Quiet Life
(1979)
Singles from Obscure Alternatives
  1. "Sometimes I Feel So Low"
  2. "Deviation"

Obscure Alternatives is the second album by English new wave band Japan, released in October 1978 by record label Hansa.[1]

Release

Obscure Alternatives was released only seven months after the band's début album Adolescent Sex. The first album had been unsuccessful on the British charts, and their record company required another album, this time aimed at the lucrative US and European markets where rock was dominating the airwaves. Still working with Ray Singer as producer, singer and songwriter David Sylvian in particular found it difficult to take a back seat and began to demand more control over the eventual presentation of the material. The crucial track concerned was "The Tenant", a very important piece for Japan as it changed their direction and pointed the way ahead as far as Sylvian's solo career. "The Tenant" also marks bassist Mick Karn's recording debut on saxophone.

The tracks "Deviation" and "Sometimes I feel So Low" were released as singles in certain countries, the latter as a double A-side with a re-recorded version of "Adolescent Sex" (the title track of their first album, re-recorded during the sessions for this album). It became Japan's first European hit single, and the re-recorded version of "Adolescent Sex" is featured on the 1981 compilation album Assemblage. Both tracks were mixed together to form "I Can't Wait", which was club hit for L'il Devious in 2003.[2]

Sylvian has gone on record saying that Obscure Alternatives should have been their debut album. The final track, "The Tenant", a piano based instrumental, was the first notable shift towards the direction their later material would take. As with the first album, Obscure Alternatives was commercially unsuccessful in the UK, but garnered moderate success in, ironically, Japan, where it peaked just outside the Top 20.

The album was remastered and re-released in 2004, and included a video for "Sometimes I Feel So Low".

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Trouser Pressunfavourable[3]

Trouser Press' review was unfavourable, writing that the album "adds more keyboards but still relies on Rob Dean's buzzing guitars and David Sylvian's sneery vocals for its sound. (Ill-advised digressions into reggae and funk are strictly dilettante poses.) The songs are fairly unmelodic, the production nondescript. With a quick listen, you might mistake this for a junior-league Stones imitation."[3]

Amy Hanson of AllMusic was more positive, writing that the album "found the band dropping most of their debut's funk fringe in favor of guitar-oriented fuzz and quirk – scooping up the glitter left behind by all the scene's other nascent Siouxies and Adam Ants. Although the set isn't quite up to par with its predecessor, Obscure Alternatives is still a challenging listen. David Sylvian is snotty on "Automatic Gun" – a spit-shined punk shocker backed by bright pop guitar – and ironically playing into all the guises they eschewed. Both the wonderfully atmospheric and slightly menacing title track and "Love Is Infectious" put the band completely into discordant post-punk art house-dom, the latter including a twisted piano solo in the middle of the guitar crunch. "....Rhodesia," on the other hand, brought the funk back and infused it with a Caribbean essence. While there is no doubt that Obscure Alternatives paled in the shadow of Adolescent Sex, Japan had obviously, in their eyes, broken through to find their style, their groove. Still eons away musically from their more commercial Tin Drum heyday, the band were nevertheless cultivating a breathtaking crop of kernels."[1]

Track listing

All songs written by David Sylvian.

Side A

  1. "Automatic Gun" – 4:07
  2. "...Rhodesia" – 6:48
  3. "Love Is Infectious" – 4:10
  4. "Sometimes I Feel So Low" – 3:46

Side B

  1. "Obscure Alternatives" – 6:50
  2. "Deviation" – 3:23
  3. "Suburban Berlin" – 4:59
  4. "The Tenant" – 7:14

Personnel

Japan
Additional personnel

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hanson, Amy (2011). "Obscure Alternatives – Japan | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  2. ↑ Paul Rymer, liner notes, Obscure Alternatives, SONY BMG, 2006
  3. 1 2 Robbins, Ira; Aswad, Jem. "TrouserPress.com :: Japan". Trouser Press. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
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