[…continued from last post]

Pinned to a lurching backbeat the band obviously loved [there are backbeats galore on this album], the solemn “Youth” showed the young slip of a 24 year old Marc Almond already looking backward at the ash end of the cigarette of life. The anxious pulse of the song began a curdling of the album side which would reach its ludicrous apotheosis with the next, infamous, track.

I had to admit, when I bought the album and saw a song entitled “Sex Dwarf” I was wondering what I would be letting in my skull. It’s the loaded title of all loaded titles. The potential for my disgust was fairly wide open. Imagine my relief when last chord of “Youth” rose up in the mix to segue into the first chord of “Sex Dwarf.” Then the lewdly grinding synths accompanied Marc Almond on the very first beat as he sang the immortal words…

And with that I knew the intent was not to be taken seriously. This played to my ears like a lurid burlesque of decadence rather than the deeply serious real thing. The lead synth line played like a rubbery flute patch and contrasted mightily with the hellbent backing track, for maximum contrast. Jose Warden of backing vocalists Vicious Pink Phenomena whispered the title binaurally into our ears as [reputedly] her partner Brian Moss intoned the title in a posh, nasally voice that flat out challenged me not to laugh.

I appreciated the motor drive foley effects when Almond began invoking taking pretty pictures with his camera as he began to free associate lyrical images of mute chauffeurs and luxury rides of the decadent upper classes. Then Moss joined in with Almond on the chorus in his character voice. It was all anyone could do to stifle the laughs.

By the time that all three vocalists were squealing and panting to the already overamped music, the appearance of a synth that sounded like a slide whistle could not have been more intentionally ludicrous. At the five minute mark, the whole thing collapsed into Jose Warden having the last laugh. Looking back it’s hard to imagine the uproar that accompanied the song. The band’s US label, Sire Records, felt it had single potential and released the promo 12″ in a bid for club play. Offensive? Hardly! I’ll reserve that judgement for a song like “Bring On The Nubiles.” This was obviously a spoof.

After the climax of side one, the second half of the album began with the Gilbert + Sullivan leanings of “Entertain Me” with the audacity to do it a capella for a full half minute. Then cowbells, noisemakers, and what sounded like a roomful of party goers joined the singer as he bemoaned the joyless ennui of it all. It relentlessly cascaded from one frayed nerve to the next as Almond reminded us here that the album was indeed called “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret.”

The very title promised a mechanical treadmill of mindless hedonism, and set the listener up for the inevitable panic attack which this song readily attained as the frenzy of the crowd and the brittle tempo came to the fore as the track made another segue into the brittle Moroderism of “Chips On My Shoulder.”

The manic party out of bounds vibe was maintained on this song as well to create a diptych of ironic feelbad disco where the emotional tone is completely belied by the frantic “party on wax” environment for the songs. The crowd noise foley effects carried through and the jittery sequencer perfectly mirrors the nerves on edge by this time as the inevitable crash manifests in the cold ending.

Next: The Morning After The Night Before…