Buggles - Age of Plastic (+3 Bonus Tracks)

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Music reviews of Age of Plastic (+3 Bonus Tracks)

Music Review: Plasticated and Oddly Undated
Rating: 4 Stars

There was a fair amount of imagination involved with the making of this album. Horn and Downes obviously, in retrospect, had a lot more ambitions than making cotton candy new wave. If you listen to the lyrics, you'll find fear of the Reagen/Thatcher power mongering of the time ("Clean Clean"), wariness of technology isolating people from humanity ("I Love You Miss Robot"), and the title track's cynical look into a future of replaceable parts and governmental control.

Unfortunately, the album did suffer from the fact that neither Horn nor Downes was much of a singer. While that lends a certain charm to a song like "Elstree," it does suck the power out of "Kid Dynamo," which really would have been more convincing if the vocal had more muscle. (In fact, I remember the shock of many of my friends when it was announced that Horn and Downes had been recruited for Yes...how the heck could the singer on this record possibly stand in Jon Anderson's space?) Regardless of the performance weaknesses, "Living In The Plastic Age" sounds better after the 20 plus years since its release than, say, A Flock Of Seagulls, and as a document of Men Vs Technology, still stands strong.

PS: I also recommend Bruce Wooley and The Camera Club's "English Garden" CD in addition to "Living in The Plastic Age." He was a founding member of the Buggles and cowrote some of their best songs, but broke off before they hit. His versions of "Video Killed the Radio Star" and "Clean Clean" are played as straight ahead power pop and can be found on his album.

Description of Age of Plastic (+3 Bonus Tracks)

Alternative Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop
• Rock