new introductory bit here.

This is a reviews page based on my own collection, which just keeps growing despite itself. If it isn't listed here, it's because I don't own it yet, or I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Also, bother your local "new rock" radio station and make sure they are playing "new rock" and not "Rock the Casbah," which is not new.

note: entries in red text indicate my pick for the artist's best available album. A gold numeral indicates the POPocalypse winner of the year's best album; second- and third-place winners are in blue. Green lettering indicates an obviously exploitative record company compilation without apparent artist input.

Japan formed in 1976, and, with the "benefit" of long hair, rawk riffs, sneering delivery and pouting lipstick, signed to Hansa Records for a chart career as disappointing as was their music. After two frankly awful albums, the quintet from Lewisham, led by David Sylvian, teamed with Giorgio Moroder for the interesting, synth-based single "Life in Tokyo," and begun changing their sound to something quieter and more introspective. Sylvian toned down his over-the-top delivery and, by late '79, was dressing in the most stylish of vinyl suits, skinny ties and clean, powdered peroxide hairdos. Quiet Life, their third LP and first chart dent, saw them during this identity crisis. Fueled by the minor success of "Life in Tokyo," the band started dressing better and playing with synths, but there is still some sneering holdover of their loud glam days. "Halloween" is the worst offender, but the title track, "The Other Side of Life" and "Despair" (sung in French) point the way forward. Despite its minor success and the critical praise for the singles of the period, Hansa elected to not renew their contract.

Signed to Virgin, their fourth album, also from 1980, closed out their second phase, where makeup and increasingly borrowed Roxy riffs saw them as unlikely forerunners of the New Romantic movement. David Sylvian's mannered, Ferry-like vocal stylings earned Ferry's contempt, but the end results are quite good. The eight tracks from the original LP (including the 1982 hit "Nightporter") are augmented by two instrumental B-sides from that period.

Japan stopped being New Romantics as soon as the movement gained momentum, and instead went with complex synthesizer arrangements and a strong influence from traditional Chinese music for their final studio album, which was their first to make the UK top 20. The album was so far removed from their original sound that there was no longer a place for guitarist Rob Dean in the lineup, leaving Sylvian, his brother Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri and Mick Karn to reap the benefits of massive press interest in the pop pages of the day, second only to Duran Duran in pin-up photo coverage that year. Containing the hits "Ghosts," "Visions of China" and "Cantonese Boy," the album, the singles, and reissued singles from the Hansa days left them all over the British charts in 1982 and, as soon as their career gained momentum, the band undertook a final tour and split at the height of their success. This posthumous release, Oil on Canvas, is a live album recorded in London on their last tour, and it's a great one. It features 12 live tracks, supplemented with three studio instrumentals. The band, augmented by Masami Tsuchiya on guitar, are in top form, with Sylvian still giving 100% despite his dislike of the band's direction and success.

Japan never made any impact in America. The Hansa material never moved, and, signed to Epic, Japan, a compilation of various tracks from Polaroids and Tin Drum was their only post-1980 issue here. Their main chart rivals Duran Duran graciously played the video for "Visions of China" when they guest-VJed on MTV, but Epic couldn't sell it even during the height of the early-80s British invasion. Probably as a result, America never had call to consider their various solo efforts, sadly including those of the massively talented Sylvian.