Gang Of Four - Entertainment!

I really rated Gang Of Four when I was college, around the time this was released. They were brilliant live. I thought this was very good at the time, but not perfect* - I thought some of the tracks, such as "Natural Is Not In It" and "Return The Gift", were a bit monotonous. Then, when Go4 did a reunion tour about 6 years ago, this seemed to be elevated into the pantheon of all time great albums. I was prompted to listen to it again by hearing the aforesaid anti-consumerism anthem "Natural Is Not In It" on, irony of ironies, a television advert. (I'm surprised it didn't become a hit single and make Messrs King, Gill, Allen and Burnham very rich, which would have been even more ironic).

I'm still not sure if it deserves to be up there with the likes of Sergeant Pepper (or whatever the greatest Beatles album is these days), Pet Sounds (which I'm ashamed to say I still haven't heard all the way through) and Forever Changes, but it's certainly stood the test of time, and I think it's even better than I thought it was 30 years ago. Music taut and electrifying - Gill's scratchy guitar is unique, and intelligent and incisive lyrics. The high point is "At Home He's A Tourist".

However, the inclusion of the subsequent single "Outside The Trains Don't Run On Time", with its B-side "He'd Send In The Army", shows rather mercilessly that Go4 were great, but not for very long. (Spot, in "He'd Send In The Army", the reference to the now mercifully forgotten National Service sitcom "Get Some In".) Still, a great record.

*I rated Entertainment! number 3 best album of 1979, behind The Fall's first two LPs, Live At The Witch Trials and Dragnet. (I'd heard a couple of tracks off The Clash's London Calling but I wasn't keen. I changed my mind some time into 1980.)