Timbuk 3 - Greetings from TIMBUK3

I bought this when it came out for one song, "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" and by golly it was a dang good song. There was something really cool about the song with the sterile drum programming and the wicked harmonica. I always thought this was a huge hit, and the one time I watched Head of the Class, the song was featured on the episode. Apparently it was a moderate hit, but it certainly stuck with me.

Oddly this album has been joined at the hip with Georgia Satellites debut album as I remember picking them both up the same day, and I remember being disappointed with both albums after harvesting the shiny songs for my mix tapes.

I was probably harder on this one though. The album charged out with the two best songs on the album the aforementioned sunglasses song, and "Life is Hard" ( a song that felt to me like a companion piece to David & David's "Boomtown") and after that I just ran out of steam. I just didn't put the effort into actually listening to the songs. It didn't take long for this one to get shelved, and over the years "The Future's So Bright" got woven into the fabric of the '80s as another in a long line of great one hit wonders who made the decade so awesome.

It's been decades since I've listened to this, and probably the first time I've actually really listened to the songs. The first side still got me right away, those first two songs had the added emotional weight of nostalgia. They're still the best songs as far as I'm concerned, but the other songs on the first side were enjoyable. Pat MacDonald had something to say and he had a way with a phrase. Even the seemingly innocuous "Facts About Cats" was more fable than anything. After all, "Cats will be cats & cats eat birds."

It was the second side that felt like I was making fresh tracks in the snow. I probably only listened to it a couple of times, and it was likely a cursory review as I looked for something with a hook that sounded like an earworm. In other words here be dragons.

Oddly as I trying to read the lyrics and listen I find myself listening to this like I'm still 23 and I'm having to concentrate a little harder to get through this. Which makes it sound like I'm shitting on it. The opening track "Just Another Movie" is really cool, but I also know that it won't stick with me. "Shame on You" is a song that stood out but not because it was good. It was a weird hip hop rap thing, that felt like the extended break in "Rapture" by Blondie, where Barbara K does her best Deborah Harry. I suppose there are people who loved this, but for me it was a misfire that took me out of an album I was trying desperately to give a second change.

The album closes with "I Love You in the Strangest Way" an acoustic duet with Pat and Barbara singing in unison, it's an interesting song with a mandolin picking out a counter melody. It's a sparse and almost melancholy song. It was a fitting closer.

I'm not sure I've changed my opinion all that much. The songs I liked then, I like as much now. I'll admit I got more from the experience now than I did then, but it was superficial and I'll end up filing the album and remembering fondly the album for what it had more than I will for what it was lacking. It's unfair to say the songs were filler. They were dark and moody and if that was your thing this probably resonated with you. For me it was a trip down memory lane that included stops to a number of songs I'd forgotten and likely won't remember.