The Boomtown Rats - the fine art of Surfacing

So, what did Bob Geldof and The Boomtown Rats think about America in 1979? Not a lot of positive things, it turns out.

With 2 UK hit albums under their belt, they spent quite a bit of time over here trying to gain some international notoriety, and then they wrote an album about that experience. It's called The Fine Art of Surfacing, and damned if we just don't even bother. We're lunatics.

It's hot, it's freezing, we kill ourselves, and kill kids at school, gossip, play dress up to pretend we aren't miserable, and the only thing we know about all the drugs we take is what color the pills are before we swallow handfuls of them. None of it ever f-ing stops. Just being here is enough to drive you insane. Back to Ireland and some fresh air for us!

He's not wrong. Granted, i was literally a sperm while they were exploring our bounteous insane asylum, but it hasn't gotten any better now has it? Make no mistake, this is a concept album. The concept is America is insane, but it's not the grandiose vacation adventure of Supertramp. Boomtown Rats got the local treatment, for sure.

I've heard songs from this album before, but the full context makes a huge difference. It's much more new wave (as opposed to rock) than their first album, but it is much more confrontational in its own way. They were paying attention, and "When The Night Comes" is the most American sounding thing i've ever heard from any British musician ever. Like if Tom Petty and Bob Seger hijacked a Gin Blossoms concert to play a Springsteen song they found on a napkin in a Waffle House trash can.

I'm listening to the whole thing a second time as i write this, and it's a fantastic album. It could come across as condescending, but it's pretty authentic from my perspective. I mean it, this is top shelf of my collection stuff. You can hear everything in there, from The Cars to the B52s and Devo to the aforementioned heavyweights of rock, all from a cynically British David Bowie meets Thin Lizzy perspective. It's borderline clairvoyant.

If you've never heard this album, i think you'll be really surprised. I know i am.

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