Review Summary: An underrated gem that shows no mercy in being great.
Over the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, the band has been rather set on just being the wackiest new wave band out there, while also somehow managing to make each album as musically focused as can be, making for some classics. While the bands overall style always showed them dabbling into a fun new wave route mixed with post punk since day one, that wasn’t as prominent until “The Raven” released in 1979. At this point, the band seemed less like a regular punk/new wave band, and instead, their own thing entirely, and to say it worked with flying colors is an understatement, as “The Raven” is, in most, if not all aspects, a classic that’s one of the years consistently awesome—and wonderfully weird. The band seemed to have aged gracefully afterwards, as the likes of “The Gospel According to the Meninblack” afterwards was a bit of a mess where the pros just barely outweighed the cons (still okay, though), whereas “La folie” that would release afterwards was really good, even if a touch more subdued than “The Raven”. “Feline” was just alright. Overall, there has yet to be an album to be quite as, or at the very least, almost as enjoyable as “The Raven”
That was, until, 1984, when the band accomplished the latter with the very underrated (and surprisingly divisive, from what I have seen) “Aural Sculpture”. I wouldn’t say it’s QUITE as good as “The Raven” (I’d give that a 4.7/5, whereas I’d give this a 4.3/5–CURSE this websites lack of infinite decimal rating!), but I’d say it’s a step up from every album in between—even the aforementioned “La folie”, which I still deem “great” (I’d give it a 4.1/5). That’s because this album is packed with diversity and just fun writing from start to finish. In other words, with the exception of “The Raven”, the ambition is a fair bit higher than most others I’ve heard from the band. And the way they go about it is very effective. It’s a bit more upbeat than “La folie” while also being more sentimental and almost contemporary than “The Raven”, and I think the balance really works, making for a record that just works. It’s a bit more mature this time around, but it’s still the wacky and awesome band we grew to love over the years.
Though, with all of that said, the album does suffer a fair bit from structuring and, just like the last few albums after “The Raven”, the direction. It seems that after floundering for a few years, the band seemed to have incorporated a more pop sound into their style, seemingly to try and appeal to more people. Thankfully, they made the overall music more fun and memorable this time around than a few of their previous albums, as well, so the poppier sound doesn’t necessarily ruin the album by any means. It’s just a fair bit different than what we’re used to, and one could argue this wasn’t the best direction the band could’ve taken. But what is something the album should have done better with is the overall structure. It’s not terrible, but the album is a fair bit choppier than most of the bands other works, as it, despite having diversity out the wazoo, struggles a bit quantifying it all, if that makes any sense. And because of this, the album can feel a bit too small, even though it has 11 tracks. There’s just so much to it, that when “Mad Hatter” finishes, you almost wanna stay, because even though the album is finished, it doesn’t quite feel that way. It’s a bit hard to explain, because the album definitely has enough meat on its bones to be a complete package. I guess it could’ve come together a lot better.
But aside from that, the album is excellent. Really, the only problem with it is that it’s a bit sloppy, which, considering the band at that point in time, kind of makes sense. Still an impressive feat though, because regardless if you listen to the eerie and almost haunting “Ice Queen”, the bouncy and sweeping “Skin Deep”, the atmospheric and mellow “Let Me Down Easy”, the classic, bouncy, and almost islandy “No Mercy”, the beautiful, thought-provoking and mature “North Winds Blowing”, the in-your-face, yet wonderfully charming and rockin’ “Uptown”, the story-driven, groovy, and very memorable “Punch and Judy”, the celebratory, funky, and hooky “Spain”, the slow, poignant, and ironic “Laughing”, the off-putting, yet atmospheric and wonderfully weird “Souls”, or the bouncy, silly, and hooky “Mad Hatter”, you are bound to find something you outright love. I personally love most of these songs, even if a bit more contemporary than usual, as they have a decent balance between wackiness and a more mainstream appeal.
At this point of the review, I usually point out that I just covered the entire track list in the last sentence, but since that was 2 sentences ago, things are a little different. Overall, color me surprised. The band managed to come close to their peak with this one. While it’s not my favorite by the band what with the pacing being a bit uneven, and the focus not being particularly high in terms of direction, what with how awesome all the songs are, thanks to there being a lot to each of them, those flaws hardly matter. And because of how well everything else works, this is still, as far as I’m concerned, an underrated gem. Doesn’t matter if you’re from uptown, Spain, or even somewhere where the north winds are blowing, this is one sculpture that shows no mercy in being great.
