Red Flag – Naïve Art

A truly CLASSIC synthpop album, "Naive Art" was released at a time when synthpop appeared poised to take over the world! The album arrived a year after Camouflage's debut "Voices & Images" made it cool to immitate Depeche Mode. Both Camouflage and Red Flag were largely (and accurately) compared to DM at the time, but, they each also had a sound and style unique enough to rise above all the other DM "wannabe's". With so much more under the hood than just the three massive club hits, "Broken Heart", "Russian Radio" and "If I Ever", Red Flag's masterpiece "Naive Art" would be one of my most-listened-to cd's of 1989 (and 1990 as well)! Only Depeche themselves were able to divert my attention with the release of their own masterpiece in 1990, "Violator". Absolutely not to be overlooked here, is the stunningly gorgeous ballad (gasp!), "Rain"! What an unexpected and delightful surprise!

For a debut album, the writing, performances and production are solid, thanks in no small part to the behind the scenes guidence and knob twiddling of synthpop legends Paul Robb (of Information Society) and Joseph Watt (of Razormaid!).

Sadly, fate had other plans for synthpop, as the early 90's took a 180 degree turn toward grunge and europop instead. At least we got this absolute gem to treasure (along with the aforementioned "Violator", as well as Pet Shop Boys' "Behaviour" and Erasure's "Chorus") before the scene was drastically diminished (for a while).

Mine has "IFPI 810A" (also Americ Disc) but is otherwise identical as far as I can tell.

3) RED FLAG - Naive Art (1989)

Pocas bandas han logrado tener un excelente disco debut y es que como bien dicen, para un primer álbum se tiene toda la vida entera para hacerlo, a diferencia de los que seguirán y es por está razón que en 1984 en la ciudad de San Diego en USA, unos jóvenes hermanos Mark y Chris Reynolds bajo el sello Enigma Records, darían a conocer al mundo entero sus sonidos sombríos con bases sintetizadas que se convertirían en joyas dentro del Synthpop.

En sus inicios tocaban bajo el nombre de "Shades of May" donde participarían en discos compilatorios con su tema "Distant memories"

Cabe resaltar que ambos hermanos nacieron en Liverpool (Inglaterra) y además fundarían su propio sello discográfico independiente "Plan B Records" en 1993, con los cuales editarían sus posteriores 15 discos.

El dúo Red Flag, visitaría Perú en mayo del 2002 con un concierto multitudinario y presentaciones en televisión (CMD).

Lastimosamente al año siguiente, 2003, Mark dejaría este mundo pero también dejaría un imenso legado para los que disfrutamos de este estilo. Por su parte Chris en el 2007 decide continuar con Red Flag aunque el estilo mudaría al Future Pop.

Este año por la celebración del aniversario del disco, la compañía Pylon Records lanzó una edición limitada a 300 copias de vinilos dobles en formato "Gatefold" en color negro, rojo y blanco de este fabuloso álbum.

Acá las versiones en rojo y blanco.

Temas recomendados:

1) If I Ever
2) Russian Radio

FIVE STAR RELEASE: Amazing pressing, love the fact that they used George Horn Mastering, the same person who cut the original lacquers. Really impressed with quality of the pressing, you going to need a nice Stylus to play and enjoy this. I have all version of this classic Synth Pop album and purchased all 3 colors of this release. The Bonus tracks are welcome addition, along with the original running times of the album, spread out on double vinyl in nice Gatefold jacket, love it when labels put the time to source and collect all the bonus material. I highly recommend the 2CD as well.

Really pleased with this. Sounds great. Totally silent in the quiet/silent parts and great dynamics. Been wanting this for a long time and the extra 12" versions of Russian Radio, red discs, and under 300 pressed, sold me. Glad I got one.

Poor quality release. A lot of dirty sibilants on vocals. They wheeze straight. Not recommend

"Many songs on this release differ from the original Restless/Enigma CD releases, one is longer (!), and eight are shorter."

Of those that are shorter, they are nearly identical to the versions found on the original Enigma LP release. It's almost as if the producer for this re-release cherry-picked a few LP versions and a few CD versions, and intermingled them (before compressing the daylights out of the entire disc, unfortunately).

1) If I Ever [LP Version]
2) Pretty in Pity [LP Version]
3) Russian Radio [CD Version] (On the original LP, a much shorter ~4:20 edit is used)
4) Give Me Your Hand [CD Version] (On the original LP, a shorter ~3:48 edit is used, which ends with a piano riff and not a drum machine.)
5) All Roads Lead to You [LP Version]
6) Count to Three (Similar to the LP and CD versions, except this version finishes with 48 beats instead of 16.)
7) Save Me Tonight [LP Version]
8) Broken Heart (Same version as on CD and LP)
9) I Don't Know Why [LP Version]
10) Rain [LP Version]
11) Für Michelle (Same version as on CD and LP)

Also of note is that 12) Russian Radio (Razormaid Dub) and 13) If I Ever (Extended Remix) are both edited to be shorter than the versions found on the original CD release.

Amazing release. Perfect pressing. Most underrated synth pop album in history.

My copy of this release is missing 2 tracks = "Russian Radio (Razormaid Dub)" and "If I Ever (Extended Remix)". Can anyone explain this?

It needs to be noted that this reissue should also be called a re-edit. As most of the tracks are remastered edits of the original album versions. And we are talking trimmed by 3 minutes some of these songs!! This should have been repackaged with a bonus disc. Wow. That is pretty awful.