Retro Spins: Thomas Dolby - The Flat Earth

When writing about Thompson Twin's 1982 album, Set, I made note of the synthesizer contributions of one Thomas Dolby. It was in writing this that it dawned on me that while I have his three albums from the 80's, I've only ever listened to his debut, The Golden Age Of Wireless. During my playthrough of the aforementioned, I came away unimpressed, and not a fan. Though, admittedly, I wrote that post a long time ago, and my ears have grown, I feel, to appreciate music more. As such, my initial response may have been overly critical.

Dolby is often associated with pioneering the new wave movement of the 80's, but his music doesn't seem to stay encompassed to just that genre. In general, he seems to always be experimenting with sounds and styles, making it difficult to pinpoint just what direction he's going.

It's this uniqueness that makes his music both appealing, and unappealing at the same time. Basically, it's hit or miss. When it's good, it's great, but when it's bad, it's really forgettable.

Sadly, while I wanted to approach The Flat Earth with a more open and mature mindset, much like The Golden Age Of Wireless, it was just kind of blah.

Mind you, it wasn't a complete bust. The title track really caught me off guard for how good it was. However, this was more so for its groovy bass, and doo wop style backing vocals, which kept drawing me in. I was also quite happy with the song, Hyperactive, which is the tune I bought the album for. Ironically, while it's a song that has grown on me, my original interest in it was because of "Weird Al" Yankovic's Slime Creatures From Outer Space, which "borrows" heavily from the musical style of the tune.

Disappointingly, I really wanted to come away from this one a bit more impressed than I ultimately was. I wanted to say, "Oh, that's what I missed last time," and potentially be inspired enough to go back to his debut and give it another shot. Sadly, that's just not where I'm at. Instead, my mindset is, "Ugh, there's still another album from him to get through," which I'll be doing tomorrow.

Maybe, hopefully, Dolby smashes it out of the park for his final album of the 80's. I mean, it's possible. I didn't expect to like Thompson Twins as much as I did, so stranger things have happened.

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