Condition: Used
A Flock Of Seagulls - A Flock Of Seagulls
Label: Jive
Catalog#: HOP 201
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Record: VG+ VG++ (few light scuffs)
Cover: VG++; slight edgewear
foldmark bottom right back cover
Country: UK
Released: Apr 1982
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: New Wave, Synth-pop
Tracklist
A1 Modern Love Is Automatic 3:49
A2 Messages 2:51
A3 I Ran 3:58
A4 Space Age Love Song 3:45
A5 You Can Run 4:28
B1 Telecommunication 2:31
Producer - Bill Nelson
B2 Standing In The Doorway 4:41
B3 Don't Ask Me 2:46
B4 D.N.A. 2:30
B5 Tokyo 2:48
B6 Man Made 5:38
Credits
Artwork By, Design - Pete Watson
Bass, Vocals - F. Maudsley
Drums - A. Score
Engineer - Mike Shipley
Lead Guitar - P. Reynolds
Lead Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards - M. Score
Management - Checkmount Ltd.
Mastered By - BilBo
Photography [Back Cover] - Paul Cox
Producer - Mike Howlett (tracks: A1 to A5, B2 to B6)
Written By [All Tracks] - M. Score/A. Score/F. Maudsley/P. Reynolds
Written-by [All Titles] - A. Score , F. Maudsley, M. Score , P. Reynolds
Notes
Recorded at Battery Studios, London.
℗ © 1982 Zomba Productions Ltd.
Distributed by CBS Records Ltd.
All titles published by Zomba Music Publishers Ltd., except (B1) Bob The Dog Music (MCPS)
Original sound recordings made by Zomba Productions Ltd.
Mastered at Tape One.
The Vs in the runouts are probably meant to be seagulls.
This album, was first released in 1982. They weren't at the forefront of the New Romantics (Ultravox, Depeche Mode, Human League and OMD had already burst onto the scene) but they still made a very impressive entrance.
The thing that set A Flock of Seagulls apart from their rivals is that their music was very upbeat. They very much had a dance edge to them, with some great catchy songs and bright sounding production from Bill Nelson. There is also an element of humour in Mike Score's lyrics, along with many references to sci-fi and futuristic themes.
Their most well known song is the anthemic 'I Ran (so far away)'. This truly is a great song, one which perhaps became so great that it eclipsed most of their later work. The album version is definitely better than the single because it has the atmospheric and lengthy intro, sounding more like an experimental prog rock band than a poppy New Romantic one! It then kicks in with force, a simple underlying synth line and Paul Reynold's echoed guitar riff leading up to the ever building verses and choruses of Mike Score's tale of being kidnapped by aliens. It sounds like no other band, and also shows why this song still stands on its own today.
That this song still gets played showed how unique it was, and even recently it has been given a new lease of life by being used in the video game 'Grand Theft Auto'!
'Space Age Love Song' is beautiful, moving, and once again Paul Reynolds makes his mark with some superb sounding guitar playing. His style is very similar to U2's Edge with his use of delay pedal and 'ringing' harmonics yet he makes it his own. I'd even go as far to say that Paul's guitar sounds are BETTER than the early U2 recordings, though that is more down to the production than the playing ability.
All the other hits are on this album too: 'Telecommunication', 'Modern Love is Automatic', 'Messages' as well as the superb instrumental 'D.N.A'. That the band only seems to be remembered for the hit 'I Ran' is a shame because a listen to these other tracks show just how good they were at writing catchy pop songs.
The album closes with the only slow song, the dark sounding 'Man Made', prophesizing about the future where machines take control of the human race. If anything it showed how the Seagulls songwriting potential could go much further, and in later albums it did though with less success.
There isn't one bad song on this album, nothing that could be considered a filler. Personally I also really like 'Don't Ask Me', though the best thing is that this is very much an album that can be played from start to finish without skipping tracks.
A Flock Of Seagulls - I Ran (So Far Away) [1982]
This is the opening song of the album, which is a concept piece about an alien invasion of earth. The song itself describes a person seeing an attractive female - he becomes anxious and wants to run away from his feelings but he can't forget her. Then they are both abducted by the aliens.
The imaginative (for the time) video broke the band in the US during the early days of MTV. The video showed the lead singer Mike Score sporting a distinctive hairstyle resembling a seagull in flight. He is in a room covered from floor to ceiling with aluminum foil and also floor mirrors in which you can see the reflection of the cameras.This was A Flock Of Seagulls biggest hit in the US, but in the UK they enjoyed a bigger hit with "Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)," which reached #10.
A portion of the song was used as the opening for the cartoon Knights of the Zodiac.
Although considered an 80's New Wave classic, the song experienced somewhat of a revival in 2002 as the signature theme for the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City; being played during the game's television commercials and during gameplay as one of the songs in the playlist for radio station Wave 103.
Some ridicules trivia:
Many people have joked about the way Mike Score was playing keyboard in the video. There are some inconsistencies with the video and how the song was actually played. The keyboard we see in the video is a Roland SH-09 synthesizer. At some points, Score is seen playing chords (more than one key pressed) on the keyboard, when the SH-09 is monophonic (only one key can be played at a time). The RS-09 was not used on this track, despite being in the video. The playing style is just for show. The ridiculous one-finger theatrics that can be seen for most of the video are of course also just for show, but he appears to be pressing some of the correct note(s). The gear Mike Score used in reality were a Korg MS-10 and a Korg Delta. The MS-10 (monophonic) was used for the low, droning sounds in the background, and the Delta was used for the higher, string-like sounds that are heard near the beginning of the song.
A Flock of Seagulls - Space Age Love Song
I heard this on Sym-bionic Titan and had to have it :O
A Flock Of Seagulls - Man Made
Best Guitar work in a Seagulls song! Fantastic!
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