On the Turntable: “See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy!” by Bow Wow Wow, RCA Records, 1981. Rating: 8/10
As chaotic and exuberant as the title would suggest, the debut full length by this post punk concoction of art-fashion-music provocateur-impresario Malcolm McLaren is just ridiculous in all the right ways. The band, stolen from Adam Ant and featuring teenage front-girl Annabella Lwin, play loud, rhythmic, hooky songs, often with chanted choruses.
The sound, driven by Dave Barbarossa’s maximalist “tribal” drumming, has all the retro-campy charm of the B-52’s, the glammy punk attitude of Blondie, and a wild b-movie sensibility, with a dollop of surf rock and a hint of Ennio Morricone. Lwin’s vocals are authoritatively amelodic, flirtatious, reckless, joyous. Honestly she sounds like a Kristen Wiig character sometimes. “Go Wild in the Country” was their first top 10 hit in the UK (they’d go on to hit in the U.S. with a tame-by-comparison cover of the Strangeloves’ “I Want Candy” on their next album) but the whole record’s pretty wonderful. Just go with it.