Why is Gang of Four’s Entertainment! on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
Are you not entertained? Well, you will be by this classic post-punk album, yes, thanks for asking.
What does Gang of Four’s Entertainment! mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
“Damaged Goods” crackles with punk energy and an eclectic, intelligent atmosphere that reminds me of the best of The Clash. And man, what an incredible song title, with oblique lyrics about sex that can be interpreted in any number of ways.
There’s something about the opening, thudding guitar riff of “Ether” that you can imagine bands for decades after – ranging from the Minutemen to Mission of Burma to Dead Kennedys to the Pixies to Nirvana – studying this song and thinking how the heck did these guys come up with this and how do we up the ante on it?
I suppose I’m particularly thinking about deep cuts from Nirvana’s first album, Bleach, along the lines of “Scoff,” “Swap Meet,” and particularly the incredible “Big Cheese.” Here’s the latter.
After I wrote the above I googled “gang of four nirvana” and wouldn’t you know it but I quickly found the official Nirvana Twitter account not only talking about Gang of Four but “Ether” in particular.
The opening chords of “Natural’s Not It” are so simple, so pure, so… natural, if you will, that it could be a Kinks song. But quickly the guitar playing gets syncopated, sophisticated, riffing wildly off the initial simple premise.
Some stats & info about Gang of Four – Entertainment!
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Post-Punk, Rock Music, New Wave, College Rock, British Bands
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – #273
- All Music’s rating – 5 out of 5 stars
- When was Entertainment! released? 1979
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #847 out of 1,000
Gang of Four’s Entertainment! on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective take on what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.