Colin Newman - Commercial Suicide

As a huge Wire fan I had slowly gotten into the solo projects of the three artistic members of the group, especially Gilbert and Lewis's end with Dome, He Said, and, ummm, Gilbert.

Anyway, as much as I love A-Z, when I got Commercial Suicide I just could not get into it no matter how hard I tried. Having heard about its orchestral concept beforehand--an idea that I felt was pretty gimmicky to begin with--is enough to show Newman's out of ideas. Thinking on this albums brings to mind the other cliched material he's released, the 'Fish' album, a Drum & Bass album, and the pretentious Githead project. Colin Newman is a great musician, but he doesn't give himself enough creative room when he attempts to be different just for the sake of being so. Take the title itself; it just shows that he's trying his hardest to pretend not to care which reveals just the opposite.

The music on this album is flowery pop/orchestral work that sends shivers down my spine (and not good ones). I don't blame him for trying something new, since this more positive sound was already being heard on Not To it's not all that surprising to hear again, but this is just too much. His lyricism, which is almost always strong, fails miserably here as well.

The only redeeming quality about this remaster, for me at least, are the bonus 'interview' sections. Even though I think these pieces of work are rather self-indulgent themselves, especially since he's not even being interviewed, just talking about himself, the music in the background is really interesting to listen to, and the dub is even better. Still, the bonus material is not enough to hold my interest for long.