Idle Eyes - Idle Eyes

Idles Eyes released their debut in 1985, and there were two songs that got a fair bit of airplay back in the day. "Tokyo Rose" was pure '80s awesomeness, and "All Day" a song that at the time I didn't really think was all that special. However, those songs helped earn the band a Most Promising Group Juno Award in 1985, beating out Rational Youth and The Arrows among others. The award is a bit of a curse as much as anything, as generally it was like getting a kiss from Judas.

I bought the album for "Tokyo Rose" and gave the album a couple of cursory spins then filed it. My general recollection when thinking about this album was that it was one killer and the rest filler. Yeah, I was pretty merciless back in the day. I used to have a pretty long commute and I often tapes entire albums for the car ride, but most of the time it was mix tapes. I don't think I ever taped the album - once I passed judgment I moved on pretty quickly to the next shiny thing. "Tokyo Rose" though never got old. Several years ago I found the album on iTunes, and I just bought the one song.

I was rummaging through the discount bin recently seeing what there was to see, and lo and behold there was a really nice looking copy of Idle Eyes and I figured maybe it was time to revisit the past and see whether or not young me was full of shit or if I had called the ball back then and listening to it now would just be a waste of time, not to mention a few bucks.

The album leads of with their classic "Tokyo Rose" and it was like meeting up with an old friend. However the next song "Two Rivers" caught me off guard, I sort of remembered it, but this was a really good tune and then it was followed by the band's other hit "All Day" a song that if much better than I remembered, and now I'm struggling to re-evaluate my long held belief that the album was basically shit. All of the songs on the first side were really good. I'm trying to think like a young me and figure out what didn't work for me at the time and why I was so dismissive.

Side two opens with "Danger" another really solid song, and now I'm really wondering what I was thinking. There really hasn't been a dud or misstep so far. It's interesting to hear the new wave elements mixed with bits of reggae. At times it brings to mind some of the stuff by The Payolas. Considering Cliff Jones was managing both bands at the time I wonder if this was a coincidence.

The band here was comprised of

Tad Campbell: lead vocals and guitar synth
Glenn R. Smith: guitars
Miles Foxx Hill: bass
Phil Robertson: drums
John Webster: keyboards

Tad Campbell who also wrote the songs on the album, at times sounded very much like Colin Hay which actually kind of surprised me, as I don't remember making the comparison before. I'm not implying the band sounded like Men at Work. This was a very '80s record, and the despite some of the dated effects I'm actually kind of surprised at how well most of the songs here have held up.

John Webster got his first blush of success with Stonebolt, and would then play with Red Rider on their underrated Breaking Curfew album in 1984, and after Idle Eyes would go on to pretty much play for every act that would record in Vancouver for many years.

While this would be the only album I had back in the day, and although the band would release more albums, their follow up a year later wouldn't garner a lot of attention and the band would be dropped from WEA and then the band would go the indie route.

After playing this a few times, and totally having to rethink my opinion on this album, I looked up the band, and found out that Tad Campbell was convicted of sexually assaulting a minor in the mid '90s. It really makes a song like "Danger" that was already borderline creepy with lines like "I stare a little longer at the highschool girl" when you consider Tad was in his late '20s when the album came out.

I wouldn't say this ruined my childhood, as when this came out I had so much music to choose from that I generally cherry picked the best bits and pieces. But I will say that the first few times through again prior to reading up on the band was really exciting and it made me happy to rediscover a lost gem. After reading up on Tad the experience is now tainted. That makes me sad.

6 Cylinder

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Old Enough to Forget

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