Rip It Up

about as dull as dishwater 2/5.

Rip it up!

Deb vote

3.5

Somehow if the UK had a California Beach scene. Which can also be described as if the Addams Family had a summer vacation episode

Loved it!

4/5

They were on to something -

Had high hopes for a great punk record based on the cover - boy was I disappointed.

Title track bangs but not much else exciting here for me

oh hey, that's Edwyn Collins kinda enjoyed this one, had low expectations. interesting genre mix

Rip it up is a banger, rest of album is unfortunately 80's twaddle.. 2.5 stars

So they really just let anybody be the lead singer back then huh?

That was different. Not sure if it’s for me but it was something.

Maybe its was because I was doing catch up and everything else was sludge today but I really enjoyed this. It was good. Good 80's vibes but also a little different and more modern then 80's music. Some were a little strange and not my favorite but overall pretty good.

This was decent enough for a 3. I like his unique vocals, and the songs are pleasant enough. Nothing really shined bright though.

Someone had clearly been listening to Talking Heads. However, there are worse bands to be influenced by and this still retains some of their own ramshackle indie charm. Talking Heads with a dash of Orange Juice - it’s a cocktail that works for me.

Je met un 5 pourpas que je l'oublis. Maic c'est un 4.3

3,75 : bien bon, écoutable sans problème

Quelques tounes meilleures que d'autres. Prod semi-bonne. Des bouttes où le hi-hat me rendait fou. 2.5 étoiles

A decent, occasionally grating little 80s record that sounds like a bit of this and a bit of that.

Not interesting but not offensive. A bit calypso in some sounds which I didn't love

80’s pop. Not my sound

I was planning to write that I've never listened to such combination of New Wave, Jangle Pop and funk, but then I remembered that the music of Talking Heads exists. Still, this band has its unique approach, even though is not one that I'm excited about, as the album sounds incredibly tame and forgettable. Maybe some groove rhythms, passionate saxophones here and there, some decent melodies and chord progression, and some more "experimental" parts like the singing in Shone at "A MIllion Pleading Faces" and "Hokoyo", or the reggae song "Breakfast Time". But everything else is very uninteresting or even irritating in the case of the voice when the singer makes an exaggerated accent. Not a bad album, but definitely a collection of forgettable ideas despite of its kind of unique sound

Orange Juice- Some of the music was cool. The guys crooning is really over the top. I am really not a fan of that style of singing. Favorite song “ A Million Pleading Faces” I think the drummer sings that one. There are some bad guitar solos on this album.

Jesus Christ

Started with some really annoying drip drip sounds, like water torture. Hey if your Rick Astley CD has gone missing and you need to "rickroll" someone, this will do in a pinch.

Reminds me a lot of Uh Oh by David Byrne, so I was surprised to find out it cam out about 10 years earlier! The title track is definitely the best one.

I didn't know this going in, but i thought, at least i know the title track, so if everything is as punky as i remember this should be decent. Turns out, i had mixed up Rip It Up with Smash It Up by The Damned... this was not the same as that. Turns out, i DO actually know the title track, and i honestly hate it - and the album fares no better, being the worst kind of self indulgent 80s synth pop. It has a checklist of tired 80s tropes, including saxophone solos, earnest songs using (or appropriating) African vibes, and of course a singer who loves himself despite sounding like he's four martinis deep at a dive karaoke bar. By the time we had an interminable outro on Breakfast Time where the drummer decided to try out every bit of percussion in the music shop, i was ready to tap out. And we were only halfway through. Boy, this was a slog.

3.5

Patiently waiting for a good album to come up bc it’s been a lot of this CRAP

Better than a lot of the never ending Brit Pop on this list, but still pretty mediocre

Overall, okay.

Actually a fun listen. High 3. Might revisit with time

So so, not remarkable

British pop new wave

Early 80’s pop punk

Vi har klart hørt værre lort i denne genre men den er stadig så repræsentativ at jeg har lyst til at give den 1 alligevel

Havde godt nok håbet på lidt mere postpunk og lidt mindre new wave her, eller hvad faen det er. Sikke en omgang grå kedelig grød at lukke med!

🥲 british white people ska to end this adventure.

It was nice! turns out i know few songs from this album!

Good

Rip It Up

Fun and upbeat. I love the use of horns throughout the entire album. I've been a huge hater of the over representation of the UK on this list, but this one itched something in my brain somehow.

Awful!!!!!

a decent little album but i don't think you'd need to listen to it before you die. hokoyo is cool. 3.5

Neat eclectic collection of songs from a post punk band I had never heard of, but should have

I liked the title track. I'm not convinced about the rest of the album.

Supposedly one of Keir Starmer's favourite bands

It’s so easy to hate on 80s music. So I will

A wildly inconsistent but occasionally brilliant album. A classic case of a few hit singles of genuine class surrounded by filler.

Orange Juice?? Who is Orange Juice?? OHHHH Orange Juice = Talking Heads + David Bowie. Got it. Not bad.

it was ok. reminded me of a mashup between XTC and Talking Heads

At first I was like, son of a .... Not another freaking 80s post-punk album!!!!!!!! Can't they mix it up a LITTLE??? But this had a lot of cool stuff going on in it. A lot of instruments and multilayering. I didnt love the voice, definitely held it back. But overall a pretty cool listen.

Another alblum that positively surprise me. I could not put my finger on exactly what genre i would put it into or why I enjoyed. It had alot of little pieces that i really liked. Glad i listened to and that it made the top 1001.

It was an easy listen but nothing really special. I can give or take… very meh.

Kind of hated the vocalist but the instrumentals were SO fun

Pretty light and warm pop, with a great vibe; even if not particularly interesting, it is a fun listen.

groovie muito praia, mas só tem uma música que vale revisitar

Surprisingly nice. Thought first, that this will be one more of the average 80s pop albums on this list. But no, it's a bit more. It's not great, not very special, but better than the average.

Caught me totally by surprise, incredible record. Dense yet airy, lush yet precise, diverse yet never random. Each song an acoustic treat, masterfully crafted and given time to enfold, all topped with Edwyn Collins' derply melancholic voice. Sounds almost like the Talking Heads if they were better musicians and songwriters.

This band has some similarities to the band Haircut 100 but is looser, more funky, and has an African drummer that elevates their sound. It's a weird mix, fusing synthy new wave, world music, and the singer's romantic/crooner voice. Not all of it works but the title song is great and "I Can't Help Myself" should have been a big hit. 3.5 stars rounded up.

Kinda like Tears for Fears meets The Smiths, I dont hear the post punk element that's apparently there nearly as much as the new wave so popular in the era. It's all pleasant to listen to but to be honest, nothing i haven't heard before and nothing I'm likely to remember

I found it just okay.

New Wave/Indie Pop/Jangle Pop Favorite Song: A Million Pleading Faces Least Favorite Song: *Not recorded* Probably an above average album. I did felt like it was a little boring for a new wave album, but I did liked one song out of it. 6/10

It was fine but forgettable. I enjoyed while listening but unlikely I'll go back and listen again.

80s gotta be my least favorite decade

One or two good songs—I love a good saxophone solo—but the rest of it just comes off as strange.

Brit pop, some interesting horns and such in the mix

Fabulous

Really good stuff, it was going just alright but the second half has some great music

I wanted guava. All I got was orange.

Um disquinho insignificante!

I have no words!!!!!

Love the whimsy, and Edwin Collins has a fine croon going on. Quality of the title track wasn't really sustained over the whole album though so it's another one in Bob Dimery's "British bands that were influential on me personally as a young man" pile.

Bowie full on haggis and wearing a kilt.

Not too interested in this. Reminds me of early 10,000 Maniacs: extremely white bread ska / reggae and fairly mediocre playing. None of the songs grabbed me.

Kind of a weird one. It had a lot of new wave influences, but there was some funky synth pop and reggae mixed in. I appreciate the mix of styles but I didn't feel like any of it was done particularly well and the vocals were quite off putting. Rip It Up and I Can't Help Myself both had good moments but not enough to add them to my playlist.

They sound like the band is doing an impression of Duran Duran and the singer is doing an impression of Morrissey, but this came out the same year as Rio and directly influenced The Smiths. But spiritually it feels like a knockoff. It also has one of the fakest album covers/band name/album name I've ever seen - maybe it's a fictional band from a movie. Generally very fun though. Rip It Up is an awesome song and A Million Pleading Faces is really good too. There's something really unbearable to me about the type of voice the lead singer has so I'm very grateful when the other singer shows up.

like a sophisti-pop Huey Louis & the News with more sax solos + some random alt rock thrown in. each track is extremely '80s but in a distinct and fun sorta way. reminded me a lot of Japanese citypop, in a good way

This is an interestingly diverse record that dabbles in a lot of things I like. That said, I can't recall many specific moments or songs so.... maybe not that interesting after all? Giving it 4 stars feels over-generous, given that lack of memorability, so I feel like I have to stick to 3 stars here. I may update after a re-listen.

Ugh. I don't want to write this. I don't want to say that this is how every guy who lives in a major city is trying to look now. I don't want to write that this is yet another album from what I can assume is the author's formative years in his formative isle (British Isles). I especially don't want to write that I tried to like this, and due to either my 2026 attention span, boring music or both, this ended up floating off into the North Sea of my mind. Yes, much like so much discarded plastic, it ends up in the ocean despite nobody who throws garbage away wants it to go there. Where is this metaphor going?? Why is it that the guilt of consumption is placed on the consumer? Do we not attempt to arrest the drug dealer rather than the dependent purchaser? Do we send government task forces to raid the dilapidated lean-to of one feeble addict, or do we focus that attention on the distributor? Who knows anymore. Whatever. I got caught up on the concept of thrown away plastic being de facto dumped into the ocean and the blame being placed upon users of said plastic. Everybody has to do their part, am I right? No, silly. OF COURSE the companies that dump waste into our oceans are not included in that call to action. What are you trying to cause an economic downturn, ya commie?? This is so bland and mediocre. If there wasn't a historical record of this existing before 2024, I'd assume it was a modern-day new wave revival group with particularly hilarious vo-killz. 2 HIGHLIGHTS: Needs more pulp. Wait. That band sucked too. What's next? Grapefruit? ANOTHER kind of citrus???

Nope!

Lots of different stuff. None of it particularly remarkable. All fine.

I feel like it deserves points for a reasonably diverse sound. But half of the songs didn’t work for me and the only consistency was the downright irritating vocals.

This was very different than what I anticipated when I read the description and saw punk in there. Though I did not love it, I was fairly impressed and pleasantly surprised by it. Theres a very strong undercurrent of R&B in here. It’s got swing to it. Honestly, I dig it. There wasn’t much standout stuff, but it was a cool vibe, and I added a few songs to my liked playlist. Feels like a very early indie band in a way. A hearty and healthy three, plus change.

Other than the title track this kinda sucks.

i already loved rip it up. but the rest of this album is super fun!! very enjoyable

Another pleasant surprise from the list. I knew I liked early 80s neo punk like Television, and I liked the indie from the aughts, but I never heard of these guys before, or never listened if I had. But this album was really good, fun and engaging.

Absolutely rotten. Would give 0 stars if I could.

My group has gotten plenty of post-punk on this journey, and I gotta say this is one of the better ones. Solid 4 Stars.

I’m at a 2.5 that I’ll bump down to a 2. In a 1982 review of this album in “Smash Hit” magazine, Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys wrote the following: “This outstanding bunch of songs have been excellently arranged with horns and a variety of keyboards added to the basic line-up.” He’s right about that. He goes on to say “Overall, [it’s] a big step forward which they can be proud of and you can enjoy”, before giving it an 8 out of 10. He’s right. Orange Juice can be proud of it, and I can enjoy it. The key word is “can”. I think he’s utterly nuts for giving it an 8 out of 10, as I only enjoyed about half of it. Neil’s review fails to acknowledge a rather unfortunate truth; these songs are unbelievably half-baked as hell. If you’re paying attention past the instrumentations & arrangements (which really do feel slightly ahead of pace for 1982), you’ll find that the back halves of practically every single track here are devoid of lyrics & vocals. It’s not inherently a negative on the tracks that flesh themselves out & say everything they have to say. The problem is that almost none of the tracks truly flesh themselves out; most of them are devoid of an extra verse that leaves them emptier, and the subsequent repetition in the outros left a really bad taste in my mouth. “Rip It Up”, for as good of an opener as it is, owes a lot of its success to blatantly sampling Chic’s “Good Times” & riding it out for the back half of the track. It’s the best track on the album, and everything after that just sort of pales by comparison. It’s solid enough through 5 of its first 6 tracks (yes, I quite literally meant ‘half the album’ both ways), but it just kinda falls apart in its last 5. I just found some of the tracks in the back half to be outright bad. I think “Breakfast Time” tries really hard to make something out of nothing with all the instrumentation flash in the back half, & the first half just sort of reads like someone who’s simping over a person way younger, in a creepy way. “Flesh of My Flesh” just isn’t compelling, both in subject matter, as it feels condescending, & instrumental execution, since it also bored me. “Louise Louise” is especially dismissive, given that I read it as a track that either downplays suicide threats or treats her concerns about a relationship as nothing more than trite melodramatic flirting that can be ignored. Even in 1982, you had Michael Jackson crooning about the PYTs & the lady in his life, so why are we going backwards here? “Hokoyo” & “Tenterhook” are both just utterly fine, with the former feeling like a blander retread of “A Million Pleading Faces” & the latter having a really disconnected tone between its nervous lyricism & its far too relaxed instrumental. So, with this album’s biggest hit riding off of the back of a Chic sample, peaking at the top & only descending from there, with 3 of the first 6 tracks in desperate need of an extra verse & all of the last 4 tracks being a combination of try-hard, bland, or outright problematically dismissive & condescending… yeah, I just can’t bring myself to give this a 3. For a while, I was there, then I bumped myself down to a 2.5 bumped up to a 3, but after laying it all out, I’m stuck going down to a 2. It’s an album that relies far more on the (again, well done) instrumental flash than any kind of true substance. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if these tracks were compelling & fleshed out past a single verse & a semi-looping chorus, but they quite literally give up on writing anything past half a song. With a pun very intended, there’s just not enough juice here, yet they squeeze these songs out far too long. It’s still *probably* more of a 2.5, but it’s just not a very compelling album experience. Hence, a 2.5 bumped down to a 2. It might be harsh, but I stand by it. P.S.: Sorry, Neil. If this helped to inspire the Pet Shop Boys’ direction, I’d certainly believe it. It’s just not an album that should stay in the 80s canon, nor should it stay on the list outside of maybe a loose historical purpose.

Fun album from back when music was fun

Post punk generally isn’t my thing. I often find it monotonous and not super interesting. This was different and surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. Bringing in some different instrumentation gives it a lot more movement, the vocals are kind of typical but they fit the style. Overall it was fun and interesting.

It's alright, not my cup of tea. It's not bad, like, it's performed well and is melodious and has interesting ideas, but it's also nothing special.

A good step up from the new wave British boring stuff we’ve been getting. Really enjoyed the farty synths.

huh, that's def an album. has all the things that make music cool, don't get me wrong. again, i don't think there's a soul that needs to listen to this before they die.

It's fine, but if Robert Dimery didn't love British post-punk new wave, it wouldn't be on the list. The reggae-like sound in the latter half of the album was a bit refreshing compared with many similar albums in the same genre.

Pretty fun early 80s, Talking Heads with reagge

This has too much going on for my AuDHD brain to handle.