Stickered Front Cover, Island Records Advertising Inner Sleeve.
Re-release of album with the same catalogue number, but with remixed versions of Lorelei, On, On, On, On... , and with the addition of Under The Boardwalk, which replaces the track: Booming And Zooming.
I often wonder if my over-coffee-fuelled-word-vomits are too much, but I'll take that as all the encouragement I need to keep thrashing the pages with more words :)
...But you're right, in that this isn't exactly Dark Side Of The Moon or anything (or whatever you're own personal standard of wow album is), and maybe because it avoided being too distinct and notable might also be the reason it doesn't burden itself with the baggage that other music of the time does, by becoming so dated.
It strikes me as one of those that works it's way more subtly but all the more surely into your brain over time if it gets a little , and even just enough of your attention in the first place.
But it's also significant in that it's one of those endless treasure troves of raw material for sampling that's been plundered constantly over the years, like The Peddlers': Suite London, so you probably know, or remember - or believe you remember- more of it than you thought you did, because in it's various parts, it's appeared in dozens of other people's songs.
But I'm increasingly intrigued to hear it's original state now... with the un-remixed tracks and the other original one that was replaced here.
Plenty of the first issues round the second hand shops in Australia for some reason Magic. Well, I've seen a few in the past year. I have the single of Wordy Rappinghood but I reckon a whole album would be too much for me. Being a huge Talking Heads fan when this came out I listened to this one in the shop and didn't come to the same conclusion you did in your review. I have always seen this a bit of a lightweight throwaway effort. Maybe I was expecting too much but I enjoyed your review and may give it another chance.
Given how other experimental music featuring early white people stabs at rap and hip hop-ish stuff of this period has aged excruciatingly, and toe curlingly, this is probably unique in still sounding very good, and undated...
It's like they've travelled from the early eighties through time to the future to hear how those experiments would sound to our modern ears all these years later, to see what would work, and which was best expunged from the memory and history (Blondie: Rapture -Aaaaarrrgghhh!!!!!)....
armed with knowledge, they went back there and made this album, which, as a result, is timeless sounding, and for this reason, a benchmark of it's time and style.... indeed, this seems to be still a highly influential and sought after album because of this.
It really could be lined up alongside any album on the Mercury prize shortlist today, and nobody would have any clue it is not a more modern recording.
That said, the only element that threatens to let this down is the cover of Under The Boardwalk, which kind of makes you wince even before you've heard it.... and only just hangs on by it's fingernails to credibility in the opening part, but gradually evolves and becomes more in-keeping with the rest of the album (although, by this point, it bears little relation to the song it is purporting to be - thankfully, I might say :).
And it's for this reason that I will still be keeping my eyes open for the original first press (linked below), which features the original track listing, and probably advise anyone looking for this to do the same if presented with both options.