From what I've read the origins of Flash and Pan go back to the later '70s, where they had released a couple of singles, starting with "Hey St. Peter" in 1977 and "Down Among the Dead Men" in 1978. They would release their self title album at the end of 1978, and then in 1979 the album would be released in North America on Epic.
While I don't really remember the album, I remembered the name. The album did better in Canada than it did in their home country, although it did even better in Sweden. The cover, at least here, was a really cool new wave looking thing. I think I also confused them with another band, but for the life of me am coming up empty. Whatever, it's not going to cost me any sleep. I can say unequivocally that I had no idea who Vanda and Young were at the time and I had no idea they were the duo behind the album. I just remembered Flash and the Pan as being a cool new wave band, but have no idea why.
Musically this is really a lot of fun. It's got that talk / singing new wave vocal thing going on and reminds me a little bit of M, and the songs are pretty catchy, and even the clunky almost cringe worthy "The African Shuffle" gets better with repeated plays. There's also a moodiness to many of the songs that creates a real atmosphere of tension. There really was something pretty cool about the first generation of new wave. You really did feel like you were on the edge of tipping into the future. The blending of technology with music was yielding some great tunes.
Vanda and Young were studio rats, and like Frank Farian (the brains behind Milli Vanilli and Boney M.) seemed more at home playing with 24 tracks than they did going on the road playing live. Except unlike Frank, Vanda and Young took credit for their creations.
The two early singles are among the stronger cuts on the album. The album wisely opens with "Hey St. Peter" which sets the tone for the album. As I listened to "Down Among the Dead Men" I kept thinking to myself, "Good Lord, Jim Steinman and Dean Pitchford borrowed pretty heavily from this to craft their '84 hit with Bonnie Tyler "Holding Out for a Hero" when I looked to see if anyone else had noticed I came up with ... nothing. Maybe it's just me.
It usually is.
As the album closes out with George singing the new wave anthem "First and Last" I'm left thinking to myself, "Man, that was cool. I'm going to play this again." So I did, and then I did it again, and then once more for good measure.
This was really quirky and fun, and the duo wasn't above mixing disco with new wave. A song like "Man in the Middle" shouldn't have worked ... but it did.
Sort of describes the album.
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