February 27, 2022 by A.S. Van Dorston

The greatest American band of 1982 take a deep dive into mourning and heartbreak with their most personal, poetic, passionate music.

In 1982 the best American band was X, no contest. But what about Talking Heads? Remain in Light (1980) definitely capped off an incredible four album run, but the next year the band splintered into various solo projects and Tom Tom Club, and were still MIA in 1982, with a real possibility that they’d break up. The Suburbs from Minneapolis did release a stellar double album Credit in Heaven (1981), but it became more of a lost classic, despite their solid commercial efforts later on. The Feelies took five years to follow up Crazy Rhythms (1980), and consistent output counts. Blondie had a good run, but despite what some revisionists are saying, The Hunter (1982) truly did suck. The Gun Club and Wipers were solid contenders, but X released three incredibly great albums three years in a row, had signed to Elektra for their third album, and rocked as hard as ever. They shoulda been huge.

As great as their debut Los Angeles (1980) is, producer Ray Manzarek’s thumb pressed a bit too heavily on the Doors scales with his signature organ throughout the album. Wild Gift (1981) saw them honing their songwriting and experiencing some growing pains, and by their third they completely arrived as the truly great band they were destined to be, at the peak of their powers. It’s also largely Exene Cervenka’s show. After a breakup with John Doe, she was devastated by the death of her sister Mary by a drunk driver. Her intensely personal lyrics helped the band graduate from the Raymond Chandler school of grimy L.A. stories of sordid chaos. Her sister haunts the poetry of “Riding with Mary” — “On the dashboard rides a figurine/It’s a powerless sweet forgotten thing/So the next time you see a statue of Mary/Remember my sister was in a car.” Guitarist Billy Zoom’s experience playing with Gene Vincent and Etta James made him the perfect player to support the songs with delicate jazzy phrasing on “Come Back to Me” and masterful vibrato chording that might have perked the ears of Johnny Marr on the Latin flavored “Dancing With Tears in My Eyes.”

On “How I (Learned My Lesson),” Cervenka turns her attention to the end of a relationship, spitting the words, “Distance makes the heart grow fonder / So I never want to see you again.” At this point in time, Exene is NOT a woman to be fucked with, so pay attention. Unfortunately she was stuck in a band with her ex, but they made it work. So it was written, and so they rocked. Her literary work on the title track, addressing her Catholic upbringing, was truly some cutting edge high art. These punks have the collective brain power to fuel a think tank, and they have Billy Zoom to coax Exene on with his majestic guitar riffs to pour her guts and passion and soul and leave it on the track for the rest of us to marvel at. While Exene and John’s harmonies often clash in a tangle of minor keys, here, Doe’s harmonies are subtle and in tune, just staying out of the way while the boss shines.

About that rocking, the album kicks off with D.J. Bonebrake’s pummeling toms on “Hungry Wolf” sets up a song that is far more menacing and predatory than that other wussy wolf song by Duran Duran. “Motel Room in My Bed” is a whirlwind, with Exene’s evocative line, “Hotels do that with rubber sheets, so I can’t sleep. Staring at my sheets, or crying on my sheets, or bleeding on the same.” Underlying Cervenka’s reckon with grief was the ending of her marriage with Doe, and on a couple tracks there’s some sparring that rivals Fleetwood Mac. On “Because I Do” Exene sings, “I am the married kind/The kind that said I do/Forever searching for someone new,” while Doe responds on “Blue Spark” — “Thousands of lights/Thousands of people/She’s forgotten him for the bodies around her.” Zoom’s succinct divebomb riff is fantastic, sounding as fresh and innovative as any post-punk band. On “How I Learned My Lesson,” their back-and-forth vocals are perfectly in sync, a prime example of how they found it worth persevering and continue working together in the band.

While the epic title track is Exene’s baby, John Doe drives the final song, “The Have Nots,” a sweeping panorama picture of the hundreds of working class bars the band had passed through on their travels, infused with boozy wry humor. Another all-time classic on an album loaded with them.

The album was completely ignored by the mainstream, and the band powered through their fourth, More Fun in the New World (1983) with slightly diminished returns, a sign of the patchy albums to come. They were the subject of the feature film The Unheard Music which seems doomed to VHS tape graveyards, though they have gotten together for a couple triumphant tours, and even a really solid comeback album with Alphabetland (2020). They may still be underrated, and may not get a nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame anytime soon, but they fucking well should, and there’s at least a core of lifers who know it.