Chrome – Red Exposure (1980)
Look at that attractive cover! Trent Reznor went back in time to participate in a T. Rex cover band, visited a disco, and left with a child rapist who apparently hasn’t slept for six days. Pretty enticing.
It seems that the most loved album by Chrome fans (all 79 of them) is “Half Machine Lip Moves,” which may very well be the best introduction, seeing as it rocks the hardest, but it’s hard to say- despite having the similarities of weird electronics, heavy drug use, and generally being creepy, they all sound pretty different. “Red Exposure” is my favorite, which is funny because it seems like it’s the one people mention the least (save the albums that only have Damon Edge- the sleepy rapist- and not Helios Creed).
“Red Exposure” comes right before “Blood on the Moon,” which basically sounded like a punk album in which the guitars were recorded inside of a UFO. It contains some of that, but attempts to insert some sort of dance influence into the songs- and fails. Herein lies the appeal for me- almost every song is a mix of a catchy vocal melody and/or dance beat with some weird, creepy fucking sounds that make it completely inaccessible to a dance audience at all. Most of the music sounds like those tubular plastic children’s toys that make a laser-y space sound whenever you turn them upside down (shut up, you know exactly what I’m talking about).
Several examples of possibly catchy tunes absolutely ruined in a perfect way by production include: the vocals being gargled instead of sung on the opener, “New Age,” a super catchy chorus being overly sleazed up and covered by an effects-heavy guitar on “Animal,” and the wonderfully bouncy Devo rip-off, “Electric Chair,” having a totally garbled chorus with what sounds like the Dr. Mario soundtrack playing in the background (I realize this game was not released at this point). Even though all of this sounds like a recipe for the worst thing ever (Eggplant! I hate it!), it somehow all blends together to be thoroughly entertaining, which is certainly helped by the dancey percussion running throughout most of the songs. Then, let me negate myself yet again and say that it never comes off as sounding like a dance album. Who knows. To sum it all up- if you’re trying to win someone’s affection, do not include any of this on a mix- that person will think you are a drug addicted sexual predator. However, you don’t get addicted to things that aren’t a good time, so give it a listen!
P.S. Damon Edge isn’t a rapist. He is dead though.
Forget what that kids’ toy sounds like, you mindless idiot? Download “Red Exposure” here:
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