The Arrows - The Lines Are Open

Sometimes my younger self likes to play games with old me. The games aren't always fun. I'm young enough to remember the things my body used to be able to do. Like the time my buddy Max taught me how to Alley-Oop dunk a basketball. "You just jump to where you want the ball to be ... it'll be there." Nowadays I'm lucky I don't kill myself if I misjudge the curb walking off the sidewalk. 

Anyway, today I pulled out The Arrows album The Lines Are Open, and younger self piped up, "Hey, let's play a game." I shrugged my acceptance. "Tell me what I remember about this one before you play it." Okay, that wasn't too hard, and it wasn't an embarrassing physical challenge like trying to touch your toes.

Fine, I'll play. The Arrows, The Lines Are Open. This one came out in '85 or '86. It had two killer songs, "Heart Of The City" and "Talk Talk." They were very '80s and slick as snot. I don't remember much about the rest of the record. I always thought it was okay. I don't think it was filler. I also remember the lead singer looking kind of goofy. I think it was the haircut that made him look like one of the Talosian Observers. You know, the aliens from Star Trek who kidnapped Captain Christopher Pike? That was the coolest episode ever. "The Menagerie." It was also the only two-part episode in the classic series. "I'm you, of course I get the reference."

The Arrows, man, I'd not thought of these guys in a while. I already have this in the basement. It's one of the records that survived the great flood in the early '90s. Only the record made it ... so when I found a copy cheap, I figured why not? I can at least have a cover again. Best case, it's in better shape than my copy.

True to my memory, the first track out of the gate was a banger. "Heart Of The City." This song was huge. The horns, the backing vocals, and Dean McTaggart's vocals were massive. Goodness me, that guy could belt it out, and not like a blue eyed crooner, like a rock singer. This was followed by "Talk Talk," which was pure '80s AOR in the best way possible. This song was so good. This was as far as my memory would take me.

What was coming next I was genuinely curious about. Like I said, I don't think it was filler, but I also don't remember pulling other songs to add to my stack of mixtapes.

Turns out my younger self didn't take the time to let the album breathe. There were no weak songs on the first side, one banger after another. Side two was more of the same, except I didn't remember any of the songs. Some of the keyboard sounds have not aged well at all - but at the time this was bleeding edge stuff, man. I think I understand why my younger self was more enamoured with the opening one-two punch. The rest of the album fell more into the slick AOR side of the house that, while close to rock, was more akin to commercial music, which to me could be hit and miss. It's too bad I didn't spend a little more time, as there are some great songs on side two.

"Chains" just pushes all the right buttons. This should have had a second life on a cassette in my car stereo. Man, I miss that old Alpine system. Heck, even the sucky mandatory '80s ballad "I Can't Let Go" was good.

The band was tight. Guitarist Douglass Macaskill was tasty, and his flourishes were on point and balanced between crunchy and sparkly. The rhythm section of Glenn Olive on bass and Bobby Economou on drums was solid. Although listening to the record, I'm sure there were times I was hearing machines rather than Bobby. The drums sounded very processed. Maybe it was Bobby, maybe it was a machine, or maybe it was Bobby playing along with a drum machine. Who knows? They sounded great and Bobby got the credit.

Of course it wouldn't be the '80s without keyboard and a saxophone, which were handled by Rob Gusevs and Earl Seymour respectively.

This was a great sounding record. Producer David Tyson really helped craft a cohesive album. The album, with the exception of "Talk Talk," was mixed at Little Mountain Sound by Bob Rock. "Talk Talk" was mixed at The Power Station by Larry Alexander.

David Tyson was nominated for a Juno for his work on The Lines Are Open in '86 as well as The Arrows' first album Stand Back in '84 - he didn't win.

The Arrows are a band where there's not a lot of information out there. The hits certainly seemed big at the time, but whether this in turn generated album sales it's hard to tell. I'm going out on a limb and am going to suggest they didn't sell enough to give the band a third kick at the can. They released two albums before breaking up. Both were on A&M, and if you want to stream their albums, they aren't there. I sometimes wonder if certain labels are vindictive and deliberately want to erase artists from history.

To my younger self, the memory you saddled me with short changed the band. This was really good stuff. What was I thinking?

Hello ... am I still there ... hello?

Yeah, I ghost myself at times. Man, I hate it when I do that. So that's how my friends feel.

Dang, The Lines Are Open but no one is answering. Too bad, I missed out once, but not this time. I'm taking the call.