Tom Tom Club – The Genius Of Love

Sounds amazing to me ears, great pressing. worth the money probably

hard to understand why the 'long version' wasn't on the 'deluxe' CD issue of the album. Master tapes lost, presumably.

"We went insane, and we took cocaine..." Ms Weymouth sings at one point. Perhaps that's why, despite (what I remember) as being a bit of a buzz about the group and this record in particular at the time, it never really broke through into the mainstream. That and also perhaps because of the name-checking of some underground folk who many of us only started to recognize years later - for instance 'Bohannon'. (This record is also better known for mentioning James Brown, Bootsy Collins and Sly & Robbie). Still, a wistful neo-reggae vibe - no doubt aided by it being recorded in Nassau - pleasantly permeates this song. That and the sick and a little sad irony of the tale in the lyric (check it out for yourself) wraps it up as a nice and quirky, almost subversive, plus enjoyable groove, masquerading as something altogether lighter. 'Disco-not-disco' aficionados ought to check it really as a good candidate for a set opener in that style.