Search - Wall of Voodoo :: Call of the West

Ted S. (stsaks) from AVON, NY
Reviewed on 6/23/2007...

80's techno pop, got it for Mexican Radio, there was little else I liked

0 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Saddle up and let's ride!

A. Clark | Seattle, WA United States | 08/29/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is cool and in listening to it you are thereby cool as well. By reading this you are either already a fan looking for yet another review lauding the praise of this album or are unacquainted with the band and are curious. If the latter, in all likelihood you've heard "Mexican Radio" and you're thinking of buying this just so you can put the actual song to the vague memories you have of the tequilla saturated night you heard this. If this is so, I was like you (minus the tequilla...I was a young un when this was released). Though "Mexican Radio" is still one of my favorites from this release I was thoroughly impressed by this album as a whole. In fact, there are no weak songs at all. It's simultaneously quaint and timeless. Quaint in that the drum machine sounds ancient and clunky and that the synths sound like the toy synthesizer you always wanted as a child. Timeless in that the lyrics are hilarious and depressing at the same time. The American dream and all its pitfalls and dead ends are portrayed for the myth that they are with no short amount of irony and tongue in cheek humor. Anyone who's lived in a small town will definitely appreciate this, unless its your buck toothed cousin Leonard who thinks moving to LA and buying a rubber swimming pool for the kids sounds just dandy. This would do well as the soundtrack of a John Waters film. And lest you think this is an electronic album the twangy (saddle up cowboy!) guitars will surely appease you. Be cool and lets ride into the smog choked sunset."

Surreal Mexicans, cowpokes, and factory workers

TUCO H. | Los Angeles, CA | 09/19/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Mexican Radio" is one of my all-time favorite songs, I must've heard it a 1000 times and it still hits me fresh. "Factory," "Call of the West," "Lost Weekend," "Spy World" and "On Interstate 15" are the other standouts, and they are ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL for any self-respecting pop fan.The whole record has an eerie mood that's quite timeless--full of cheesy sounds and surreal narratives at every turn, glued together by a bizzare underlying humor. In fact, on the strength of this one record, Stan Ridgway was recruited by Francis Ford Coppola to collaborate with Stewart Copeland on the fantastic soundtrack for "Rumble Fish.""