Entertainment

Like being hit across the back of the head with a frying pan wrapped in barbed wire. Spiky, cold and indifferent to your feelings; a lot like my first girlfriend. Except this album didn't give me a hand job round the back of a youth club. Best Tracks: Natural's Not In It; Damaged Goods; I Found That Essence Rare

One of my all time favorite albums. Funky as fuck, with shredding guitars, a rhythm section that cooks and great great lyrics. I am envious of those among you that are going to discover this album and experience it anew like I did some 40 years you're in for a treat. 5 🌟

Never heard of this group. Very bright, punchy punk. Reminds me a bit of Parquet Courts. Wikipedia describes a lot of political lyrics and themes--I'm gonna take their word for it because I don't find myself catching many lyrics on here, aside from "Your kiss so sweet.....your sweat so sour." Damn, what a line. "Damaged Goods" is awesome. If the whole album had that energy, I'd be head over heels for this. Alas, we got what we got. It's still good, but I won't be cosigning the classic status. Favorite tracks: Damaged Goods (by a mile), I Found That Essence Rare, Not Great Men. Album art: Really like this one. The color choices are terrific. I love how much of this is just empty space. The three-panel story on the right is a great political statement, much more conspicuous than the lyrics. This whole cover fits the album well. 3.5/5

Love the bass forward sound. Love when bass has more of an equal share in the mix and more freedom to be a melodic contributor alongside the guitar, rather than simply being a support. I'd argue that the bass is actually driving the hooks here and is in a sense the main the melodic instrument, with the guitar playing more of an accent /support role stabbing in there with a really trebly sound. Lots of interesting changes and movement/stopping/in/out/bursts of energy. I'm a sucker for this flatter yet still passionate singing style too. Like the way they seem to cut in lower fidelity possibly demo recordings into the mix for effect at certain points throughout. Lyrics and subject matter are my cup of tea. Not too much love and relationships shit here. Punk with a college degree. I might be an Anglophile. Listened to this several times.

Another completely new thing to me. Punk. Okay. Punk-ish. The song *Natural's Not In It* could even be AltRock. This album could have been dropped in 2000 and kinda fit in with Jet, The Vines, and The Hives. Okay. Maybe that's a stretch but whatever. What I type here doesn't really matter. Fuck conformity and fuck the establishment. I am not a punk rock fan, but this was really good. I did not expect to like this as much as I did. oh and fuck the hippies too. Favorite song: Damaged Goods.

Getting this the day after The The’s “Soul Mining” is a great 1-2 hit of British post punk from the generator. “Entertainment” is one of those universally lauded albums of its genre I’ve never made the time for, so it’s been quite a journey getting to know it. It’s a frenetic, disarming listen where the energy never lets go. It’s almost a cliche to say “wow it was only 1979, jeez they were ahead of their time”… but it’s impossible to shake the feeling that “Entertainment” could be released in 2022 and fit right into the post-punk landscape today. A lot of this is down to the talents of the band themselves: Andy Gill’s guitar hooks are jagged, abrasive, angular. All rhythm, no lead (just occasional howling feedback where any other band may throw in a glossy solo). Riffs and rhythm parts are frequently start-stop and staccato, and vocals are barked out in a manner that perfectly suits the backing. Very few notes are left to ring out, perfectly serving the spiky, punchy feel. Hugo Burnham’s drums help to drive the songs home- listen for the hi-hat and cymbals in tracks like “Natural’s Not In It” or “Love Like Anthrax” to hear they’re used sparingly, adding to the cold starkness of the production. Above all though, Dave Allen’s bass is the hero of “Entertainment”. It introduces the world to the band’s sound on “Ether” and remains in the foreground throughout: all the bass lines are good but “Contract” and “Damaged Goods” in particular deserve special mentions. The songs themselves veer between oblique despair of the state of the world (pitched perfectly in “Not Great Men” and “Guns Before Butter”) and total high-octane mania (“Natural’s Not In It”, “Damaged Goods”, “I Found That Essence Rare”… all triumphs of manic energy). Very occasionally, it’s a little much to stomach, and it would have been nice to either get a change of pace or more of the accessible end showcased so well in “Damaged Goods”. But really, that’s my own preference: the more time I’ve spent with this album, the more it’s won me over and it could very easily become a 5 star once it settles in. And gee whizz, 1979…

It's hard for me to adequately convey the impact this album had on me when it came out. I was about 18 or 19 when I first heard this album. I was just coming out if my prog rock high school days and was ready for a new sound that got my ass moving as well as my mind. I had never heard anything like this before. A rhythm section that demanded attention...that grabbed hold and would simply not let go. Stabbing guitar that was more color and mood than lead instrument. And the singing...real English accents that I found so damn charming. This album and Wire's first three were at the centre of a musical epiphany for me that 40 years later continues to shape my musical tastes. 5 🌟 (I'd give it 6 if I could)

What is there to say about this album that hasn't already been said? Post punk classic, through and through. I love the weird angular guitar work glued together with infectiously funky rhythms. Lyrics are on point and carry some significant weight; it's one of the better examples of politically driven lyrics without being whiny or preachy. Total shame what the band has become these days, a low resolution nostalgia cash grab. This album is extremely influential to me. I think Solid Gold has better songs, but as an album its the most solid of them all in their discography. Mandatory listening no matter who you are or what you like.

Great album with interesting rhythms and topical lyrics. This album was also hugely influential on later bands and is considered to be one of the greatest albums of the 70s. I found the mix of post-punk, funk, and dub to be particularly compelling

At first this was a 4, but upon repeat listens it really deserves its 5 status. I'm not sure what it even means in this context, but the one word I think about this album is 'angular'. Great stuff from top to bottom, and Contract really stood out to me, especially since it isn't considered one of the top tracks on here. Full album experience.

"Entertainment!" is the debut album from the Leeds' band Gang of Four. Credited as one of the first post-punk bands and encorporating funk, Dance, Reggae and Dub. Their music is very much unique: a very aggressive, angular guitar with an idiosyncratic rhythm. The guitarist, at times, almost sounds like each note he plays is giving him an electric shock. The closest musical comparison I can think of is a weirder version of Devo if that's possible. The lyrics are politically far left - Situationism, feminism, theory of alienation on personal life and commodification. I obviously had to look up three of these four ideologies. Given all this, this makes for one heck of an interesting and orginal listen. "Ether" starts things off with a weird time signature from the rhythm section and that angular, aggressive guitar which almost sounds like a gun. Which is interesting, since the song is about internment (basically imprisonment) of the IRA by the British. "Damaged Goods" is the one song I've heard the most from this album. It has great driving guitar and dance beat. Undoubtedly, Bloc Party was listening. Supposedly about the effect of capitalism on a relationship. OK. A similar sounding song "I Found That Essence Rare" states that the worst thing about the 1950's were bikinis and is actually a reference to the H-bomb testing on Bikini Island. A great example of that guitar sounding like it's giving the guitarist an electric shock is "At Home He's a Tourist." Great bass line and rocking end too. I forgot how different sounding this album was/is. A pleasure going back to this one and especially hearing their influence on some future bands.

Fuck the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There you are, the Gang of Four, making one of the truly great deconstructions of the rock album with Entertainment!, and a bunch of conceited blowhards with no heart strip your angular, provocative funk-punk for parts and use it solely to score smack and ass, and as a horrific bonus begat Crazy Town. So yes, this album is a standout masterpiece of post-punk, a genre admittedly littered with standout masterpieces. With this, we have one of the most overtly political albums of the period, a late-Marxist synthesis of Brecht, Gramsci, Marcuse (the "repackaged sex keeps your interest" refrain summarises his later philosophy in five words) and Situationism. This radicalism extends to the music, where the instrumentation is egalitarian, with the consequence being to boost the bass (thus making it as funky as all fuck) and streamline the guitar (making it as sharp as all fuck). To appreciate this fully, it helps if you know what commodity fetishism and false consciousness mean, but if you just dance as jerkily as possible to this, you should love this. You should love this anyway. The allied group Delta 5's Marxist-flavoured Mind Your Own Business were recently used to advertise Apple, and as I already mentioned, the awful RHCPs nicked the Go4's innovations and hawked them in a meaningless, bastardised manner. This is an example of not only Marcuse's despair that capitalism subsumes everything, but Baudrillard's jest of how all this is just the free interplay of signs. By the by, I am not a Marxist.

Talk of "angular" guitars is just noise, like the sound of the instruments themselves. Necessary to locate the songs, but what Gang of Four really has is counterpoint between the words and the rhythm section. It's particularly evident in the opening cut; After that, the band explores lots and lots and lots of sonic territory. I stress words because the lyrics, while coherent, are by far less important semantically than sonically. Sadly, I don't have the familiarity with Gang of Four to hear this well; But I do see why they echo so loud and, true to form, dig this in a major way.

Here, amongst the explosion of post-punk record in the late 70s and early 80s, we see the beginnings of dance-punk, which had the tone and energy of punk/post-punk alongside danceable rhythms similar to funk and disco. Entertainment! is easily the best of these early dance-punk records. Politically-charged and stilted with jagged guitar riffs, Gang of Four sounds unlike any other band from this time. Drummer Hugo Burnham holds it down so well, with steady beats driving the rhythms for the entire album. Dave Allen, on bass, keeps up with solid bass grooves not often found in punk. These two make up the "dance" side of things, while Jon King brings punk vocal attitudes over the energized guitar of Andy Gill. I love this record. It's so odd with the guitar choices and the occasional melodica, but that only adds to the charm for me. As far as post-punk is concerned, these guys made the definitive album. I find it endlessly endearing.

I mean, it's great. If you're into punk, this is going to work for you. It's everything you love about punk - all the energy and the sheer, nihilistic joy - but with the added spice of funky beats, great production, and skillful arrangements. I just loved it.

One of my favourite albums, still as good now as when I first heard it as a teenager and hasn't really dated at all. Love the sound of everything, and it values close listening - the bass and guitar in particular. Intelligent, anti-consumerist/capitalist/imperialist lyrics, coupled with funky jams - what more could you want?

I wish I could give this more than 5 stars. This album is straight fire all the way through and I cannot get enough of the guitar in At Home He's A Tourist.

This was a good punk album. I could hear The Police, Fugazi and others in their songs. Enjoyed it

This is almost a stereotype of dour, shouty British post-punk. Scratchy, wiry, discordant guitars coupled with anti-materialist sloganeering - I'll say this, the album title is a wonderfully dry bit of business. 'I Love a Man in Uniform' is my favourite Gang of Four track and it ain't here, but this is good stuff nonetheless.

Four young dudes at the familiar graduate-first job juncture meet for a final pow-wow, alight on a formula for turning their tubthumping into danceable pub-funk, never have to get that first job after all.

Another album that cements post-punk as my favorite genre. A creative artistic mix on the punk formula by incorporating influences from other genres, most notably dance-pop and funk. Embodies the spirit of punk perfectly that follows The Sex Pistols, from the lyrical subject to vocal style to art direction. One of my favorite punk techniques is how instruments and vocals stop suddenly, to allow other elements to shine and have their place momentarily. It makes for an open experience that doesn't shroud the audience with constant noise as other genres do. The bass is my favorite, characterizing each of the songs and making them distinctive. Flows great. Several amazing songs, but none are bad. Favorite tracks: Damaged Goods, At Home He's A Tourist, 5.45, Return the Gift, Contract Least favorite: Guns Before Butter, Natural's Not In It

The 70's deliver again. Good old fashioned anti-establishment punk. The composition of the songs themselves show a complete disregard for established pop norms, instead preferring to forge their own path. The instruments float in and out of the song and even in and out of alignment with eachother. But they all work together to create a truly distinct and enjoyable album. I was pleasantly surprised to find tracks that appear to be direct forefathers for groups like LCD Soundsystem (Not Great Men) and Blur (Ether). I'd never heard the album before, but it will defintely be on my list and it defintely belongs here as well.

A great head-bopper - love the call and response of the guitar in lots of the tracks. Riffs are catchy as hell too and the off-beat strumming makes things interesting but can feel a bit same-y after a while.

A funky af; proto-fugazi sounding, "It's native american, sir", album. Definitely recognized some of these songs as classic 'left of dial' jams, having never heard delved into Gang of Four before. Good stuff

Interesting to hear this one again - still edgy, raw, strange, and intimate. High quality punk art rock. I can see where Minutemen got their vibe...

Amazing album. Tight intricate rhythms, with a political punch.

Who would have thought that forty-five years on from punk it was albums like Entertainment that would remain vital and contemporary. Or: 1980. Everyone wants to sound like the Sex Pistols (see US hardcore: Pistols sped up). Eighties and nineties: everyone wants to sound like the Jam or the Clash (white reggae excursions aside looking at you lots of Britpop and the Manics). Last thirty years: the most important bands from the punk/new wave era in terms of influence and bands actually wanting to sound like them: Wire and Gang of Four. In sixties terms then we can see GOF as The Velvet Underground in this scenario with the Jam, Clash and Pistols as Kinks, Stones and….well who were the Pistols? Whereas Wire’s songs were diverse GOF’s on Entertainment cleave to a restrictive template entirely in keeping with their politics. Slashing guitars, tight drumming and bass with a dried-out and sped-up funk tempo, and sloganeering vocals over the top. Elastica, Franz Ferdinand, Rakes and a billion other bands the sound you took from is here. What they didn’t take which makes GOF sound bang up to date is hardcore Marxism. There’s no personal insights, no obtuse metaphors or poetic phrases but political analysis: At Home He’s A Tourist (He fills his head with culture/he gives himself an ulcer) The problem of leisure/What to do for pleasure, Watch new blood on the 18 inch screen/The corpse is a new personality. These are lyrics that would make as much sense on a posterr. I wish I’d bought this on vinyl as the artwork carries all this into the visual arena: I spend most of my money on myself so I can stay fat/We’re grateful for his leftovers, the cowboy and indian sequence and so on. Streaming on Spotify is just not the same. Conceptual joke/situtationist artwork: this was released on EMI. And finally, in the scratchy textures and awkward corners there are nagging tunes and melodies. Not the kind to trouble Elton John or Billy Joel, but enough to have them in your head for a few days.

Fantastic album. I got into Gang of Four about 3 decades late, but their jagged guitars and infectious licks are beguiling.

One of my favorite albums. Andy Gill gets a lot of press as an unlikely guitar hero, but the rhythm section of Dave Allen and Hugo Burnham is seriously underrated. Dave Allen's bass makes you want to shake your ass while listening to heavy political lyrics about Maoist rebels in Latin America. Guerrilla war struggle is a new entertainment!

My first time with this one. (Though it’s been on my to-do list forever!) Great album cover. No bad songs. Unique sound. The closest comparison I can come up with is Wire circa Pink Flag. But where that feels more Art Rock or New Wave in essence, Gang of Four feels decidedly more Punk. And more cohesive and like the product of somebody’s political and personal vision or dream. The sound reminds me of Young Marble Giants, but louder and faster and more yelling. Great satire. Instrumentation is really unique. The backing vocals on the chorus of “Damaged Goods” takes what should have been the hit, sing-a-long moment of the album and puts it waaaaaay back in the mix. There are other moments like that, where instincts and inclinations are not only ignored but actively opposed. Really great content and lyrical subject matter. Yeah this is great. Best punk album we did this week! 5 stars!

hack to say but doesn't feel like it was made in 79. love it

Another classic in the punk family tree. A bit like Wire, but more groove I guess I would call it. So many of those dance/rock bands (The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, The Faint etc) owe debt to Gang of Four. It's a fine album. I give it a 4 for the music and a 5 for the influence factor.

Hmm. I'm inclined to give this 5 stars just based on Andy's story, but It's probably more of a 4 star thing for me, but then there's Andy's story and it's Friday so what the hell. Five goddamn stars.

Such an interesting blend of flavors going on here. Nothing quite like it! And that's not even getting into the lyrics. This was a delight.

Fantastic, like Wire but hookier. Love.

Big fan of this one. Such a fun listen. It's a post punk album but with some more brightness and very punchy bass. Catchy melodies and great energy.

Post punk with intelligent lyrics that you can dance to, whats not to like? Excellent album.

One of my favorite dancy-punk albums of all time. Awesome bass lines

Excellent, and it's amazing just how fresh it still sounds 52 years later. Then again, I'm a big fan of Squid and Shame who've raised the banner for this kind of music in the past year. Love it. Highly recommended.

Way more fun of an album than I remembered. Absolute banger

Really 4.5 but I round up. Love the bass and guitars. Can really hear all the music it later influenced. First album that I've bought vinyl for after listening (that I don't already own)

Often imitated, never duplicated.

Tight, distinctive, economic. Great bass that's used like a counterpunctual rhythm guitar. Cryptic and unusual lyrics. Brilliant stuff.. there are a couple of songs that wash over...but I like this a great deal. Solid 4.

Belle découverte! Une énergie punk qui n’empêche pas une certaine sophistication des riffs et grooves.

Le lien Tidal n'est pas le bon, mais l'album est bien présent sur la plateforme (https://tidal.com/album/72601257). Wow, quel coup de coeur pour moi. Certaines pièces m'étaient familières, peut-être entendues dans des playlists. J'aime comment la basse prend de la place pour développer les mélodies. C'est minimal aussi dans les arrangements, mais tout est là pour que ça reste accrocheur. Pièce préférée: Damaged Goods

Picture yourself as a 20-yr old living in the doldrums of the Thatcher-Reagan hellscape, surviving in a shitty London suburb with 4 other people in a 2 bedroom leaky apartment with no job and it's raining all the time. And you're just tired and angry but wired like an East Vancouver tweaker jumping from skateboard to stairs to railing at 100mph. That's what this album sounds like. There's no way I should like this album...I love grandiose sweeping music, big production, arena or stadium filling chills-inducing progressive side-long complex time-signature and key jumping epics. But for some reason I kind of have always loved this album. Angular and angry guitars, very very dry production. I usually hate that but here, it's awesome. This is nowhere near calming music - this is not breakfast table music - this is generally not to be played after Fleet Foxes (which in my case it was but I love them both). Killer tracks are "I Found That Essence Rare" and "Anthrax" the latter of which is just.so.weird. Two completely different vocal tracks stepping right on top of each other, spoken word, but every once in a while they align. You might really hate this album and I wouldn't blame you one bit. It's ugly. I don't even like punk music... I don't know - I just love this - I shouldn't but it's a mood. Aggressive, interesting and unique guitar work, bass propelling everything. I always forget to pronounce migraine as "mee-grain" - I'll get there. 8/10 4 stars.

Another great surprise in the punk/post-punk genre. Once again an English band I'd never heard of that put out some really solid stuff. The lyrics are awesome (I'm going to have to listen 10 more times just to fully grasp them) and the sound pulls you in. That sound isn't overly complex (pulsing bass as the backdrop, tortured guitar chords, enough drums mixed in) and is similar to other trail blazers from this era, but it rocks. I immediately thought of Fugazi when I heard Ether - I wonder if Gang of Four had any influence on their sound. I got to Glass before I hit a track that I found a bit dull but it bounced back quickly, especially with At Home He's a Tourist two tracks later. Natural's Not In It, I Found That Essence Rare, and Damaged Goods were also particularly good. I'll be going back for more listens of this album and this group.

This is new to me and I like it. This project is showing me what a variety of genres and sub-genres were developed or furthered in the '70s. A lot of the sounds in this album preview all sorts of things that showed up in the decades to follow, and I'm sure if I were to study the roots and influences of this band, I'd find earlier incarnations of this danceable semi-punk-rock-pop stuff that's a lot of fun to hear. Dang, they play superbly well and wicked tight. (I know, I write that a lot -- forgive me: as a beginner musician myself, I know how much it takes to get to that skill level; I've got years and years to go, so I admire it when I hear it.) Good stuff.

The punkiest post-punk i've heard. Took a bit of adjusting to, but the reliably dancey, punchy bass lines that this genre needs are here in spades and scratchy guitars, angry vocals and political lyrics are all here too. I feel like this has an edge and energy that often has scarified for the moody atmosphere of other bands in the genre - and there is a tradeoff, because Entertainment certainly is less absorbing and immersive than a joy division record, but It's a cool side of the genre. standouts: damaged goods, return the gift

This album is probably the best post punk album ever recorded. This is the album I would recommend for anyone with an interest in checking out this genre. It really sums up what post punk was all about, still embodying the energy and anger of punk, but so much smarter and more musically adept. The lyrics are more pointed, more driven by the band's political and philosophical points of view. The songs are tight and urgently paced with great jagged, menacing guitars, propulsive drumming, and some of the best, funkiest bass work in post punk. Fave Songs: Damaged Goods, Not Great Men, Ether, 5.45, At Home He's a Tourist, I Found Essence Rare

Glisteningly sharp proto-punk. While one could claim the songs sound similar instrumentation-wise, each has a distinct, sharp take due to clever melodies and wry lyrics.

UK punk rock with interesting fills and rhythms. Catchy without being sappy. Feels like The Hives mixed with some Rolling Stones with a bit of added edge. Really good. Added to collection.

This is 100000% more my vibe. I've never heard of them but I like. I don't know if I'll add them to my CD deck, but this is the best album I've gotten so far.

Interesting. I was definitely not familiar going into this one, but I liked most of it.

I like this one way more than on my first listen. I appreciate this brand of discordant post-punk a lot more these days, and the philosophy of the album is so real.

Good album, great songwriting. Glad I got to listen all the way through. Minimal and classically post-punk, much more raw than their later work.

One of the most outstanding albums from one of the best and most creative periods in pop history. Syncopated guitars, funky rhythms, lyrics full of meaning... its fame is well deserved

I like these guys. Had not listened to them in a long time, so excited to see them on the list. Really appreciate the tight hooky guitar riffs and basslines.

Post-punk. Very listenable. Succinct. Not dated.

Tremendous - must buy!

This is an excellent post-punk album made like a snubbed nose to the new wave craze that was happening at the time. Solid and catchy, yet it was still giving the finger to the corporate man.

Post punk revolutionaries with lots of funk and dub too.

Outstanding, well recorded album. I'd never heard of them until about a year ago surprisingly. Elements of so many styles and done in a more polished way than expected for the time period and genre.

I first heard this band thanks to Sofia Coppola's film Marie Antoinette, and I'm embarrassed to say I thought Natural's Not In It was a DEVO song...ugh, I was so wrong. BUT I got to see Gang of Four live and was blown away. The show was performance art complete with smashing a microwave on stage. I later learned they've been doing this for ages, so I was glad to have witnessed it myself. I missed out on this band while young, but quickly listened to this album in May after I came back from Cruel World. It's excellent high energy post punk. 4.5 stars.

Super solid

The moment that Punk became Post-Punk is somewhere in here - maybe (somehow) in every song! One of the (many) albums of the list which is interesting *and* important, while also being more fun than a hard-left political polemic playlist has any right to be! I really enjoyed and appreciated this, and have added their next few albums to my "after the list" list.

A post punk masterpiece!

Didn't know this band but can tell they influenced some of my favorites today.

Great great music, gritty vocals and banginig tunes

I would describe the style as punk in a stylish new-wavey vessel. It sounds less angry and more dark and contemplative. The guitar style is also interesting. I will probably listen to it again to catch more of the lyrics.

Now we are talking. Prominent and urgent bass, spiky, scratchy guitar, great lyrics, enjoy the backing vocals too. Very confused by the reviews that couldn't hear the politics. Look this is just the perfect post punk album, it is the yardstick. 1/4 manc too. RIP Andy Gill, taken too soon by COVID.

I think this album pretty flawlessly deals with not blunt but still quite indicative political lyrics, as well as having fun melodies and great guitar playing. 5/5

Punk you can dance to. A favorite of mine. “Damaged Goods” is a standout.

Love this punk album. Not too punky and not barely punk, just the right combination.

Clearly defined voice, drums, guitar and bass leaves all this space. It works so well that when they change it up (the climax of Damaged Goods is a classic example) it has so much power.

Jittery, but n

This might be my favourite post-punk album so far. I actually had to look up the definition of "angular" in this context because other reviews mentioned it a lot, and yeah that describes this well. It's energetic, it's aggressive, it's unsettling, it's angsty, it's anti-establishment. It's everything post-punk usually is, but it differs from that by being funky, rhythmic and danceable. I wasn't very familiar with the term "dance-punk", but looking it up I realised I've heard a lot of it already, or at least some of the more contemporary stuff from its revival in the 00s and 10s. I totally understand and get how this fits in to that, and frankly if this album dropped today it'd fit right into the current punk scene. This was a great album and I'm sure I'll revisit it. Favourite: Damaged Goods

Call me basic but this is just top-shelf post-punk. All the musicians are great in their own ways and the songs they play are catchy, groovy, well thought-out and well-written. Maybe Bob is going to lay off the post-punk for a bit because it wouldn’t compare well.

I originally discovered this album about a year after graduating high school, freshly 19, and it really opened a lot of doors musically for me. There wasn’t a lot of music from this genre I was familiar with, being still relatively new to punk music, and it’s hard for me to separate it from that time period. I haven’t listened to this album in full for at least 10 or so years, so this was a fun trip down memory lane for me. At the time, I don’t think I was listening to much that felt this sexy, this cool, this dangerous, and I loved it. I still kinda love it, it turns out. Songs like Damaged Goods still get me amped, and Andy Gill’s guitar tones still cuts through like an alarm call that refuses to be ignored. It’s an album that feels very angsty, and youthful, and while I’m much older now, it’s power still holds that energy over me. Incredible debut, and a must listen for punk and post-punk fans alike.

Якоо, слушай пак!

I drove down to Leeds about 10 years ago to see Gang of Four, and they’d replaced that many members that I think I was in line next. I’m certain I was older than the new singer. Along with XTC, Gang of Four are one of them bands that always get compared with bands I love, or have had an influence in. This record is a belter, so much more interesting and unique than other punkier bands of the time. Love anything that is a bit off beat / jangular. I guess these pretty much defined the term ‘post punk’, which is fine by me.

Everything the Grateful Dead is not: Killer musicians, each one absolutely crushing it on their own instrument. Fire. Passion. Wit. I thought about dinging it a star because it gets a bit samey in the middle, but then "Contract" came on and it floored me, and the quality just stayed at that same level of brilliance til the end. I don't know why this fell out of rotation for me shortly after college. But don't worry, it's back in.

I can't fully express how much I love this album.

Great record from my birth year!

Very IDLESy—5

super fun post-punk album! lots of charm! I love it 9/10

This is lightening in a bottle. All the stars aligned for this one. Rock and roll is and should always be a progressive movement, awop bob a loo mop a lop bam boom, break free of form and tell the world something's going to change. Now of course there will always be the reactionaries, the Stills/Queen revisionism etc. But yeah great rock and roll is always social democratic in nature, looking to have fun and making things better. Gang of Four perfectly marry their insightful prescient politics with kick arse rock and roll. Tick it off, Hugo swings in that Phil Rudd way, holds it together with a powerhouse backbeat, while Dave roams as all good bass players do, a brilliant rhythm section. Jon has the vocal shops to carry the heaviness of the lyrics, he's got something to say and by jingoes he says it. And Andy is the perfect hard edged, asymmetrical, jagged guitar player, he took on the whole rock guitar thing and stood it on its head, what a player. That said, a nod to Wilko who was worthy too. I don't like the punk/post punk blah blah around this band, they are just a great rock and roll band and this record is perfect.

I don't think I've heard of Gang Of Four before, and that's a shame, because I really loved this album. I'm a big fan of post-punk, and this is everything I could have wanted in a post-punk album. I loved the instrumentation and how Gang of Four managed to differentiate themselves from the rest of the post-punk field of the time. I really loved the anger they sang with when discussing social issues of the time (also, is it just me, or were the English way ahead of their time when talking about the plight of the working class?). "Not Great Men," "Damaged Goods," and "Guns Before Butter" were my favorite tracks on here, and I will definitely be listening to this album again in the future.

Gang of Whoop!

Still a masterpiece.

masterpiece

Seminal, influential, thrilling through and through... A post-punk stone-cold classic, which hasn't aged a day when you take a quick look at the indie musical landscape these days. On that note, I found the review that said that this record reminded its author of Parquet Courts a little cute, to be honest. Without Gang Of Four, there wouldn't be any Parquet Courts to speak of. That said, I wanna thank this reviewer for dropping that name, just as I want to double down on those reviews mentioning acts such as Shame and Squid. Starting from the mid-naughts, Dimery's list is totally out of touch when it comes to rock, post-punk or indie sounds. Glad to see that a few reviewers in here at least know where the good stuff is these days... Apart form that, I don't have anything original to add to all the other reviews praising *Entertainment*. Jon King's politically charged lyrics, with wry situationist overtones? Check. Andy Gill's "angular" guitar playing? Check (funny how one reviewer let on that some clichés like this one are sometimes unavoidable to describe iconic bands such as GOF). Dave Allen and Hugo bouncing and surgically precise rhythm section? Check. What I found a little strange in some of those reviews is the number of people giving high praise to this record and yet only giving it a 4/5 grade. C'mon, guys, you gotta try a little harder than that. This here is an incredibly important album, and it's also one where the devil lies in all the little details, in spite of the instant catchiness of many songs in it. It's that sort of idiosyncratic peculiarity which gives *Entertainment* a potentially infinite replay value. 5 stars for me, then. Number of albums left to review: 661 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 166 (including this one) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 79 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more essential to me): 93

At home he feels like a tourist At home he feels like a tourist He fills his head with culture He gives himself an ulcer He fills his head with culture He gives himself an ulcer Down on the disco floor They make their profit From the things they sell To help you cover All the rubbers you hide In your top left pocket At home she's looking for interest At home she's looking for interest She said she was ambitious So she accepts the process She said she was ambitious So she accepts the process Down on the disco floor They make their profit From the things they sell To help you cob off And the rubbers you hide In your top left pocket Two steps forward (Six steps back) (Six steps back) (Six steps back) (Six steps back) Small step for him (Big jump for me) (Big jump for me) (Big jump for me) (Big jump for me) Two steps forward (Six steps back) (Six steps back) (Six steps back) (Six steps back) Small step for him (Big jump for me) (Big jump for me) (Big jump for me) (Big jump for me) At home she feels like a tourist At home she feels like a tourist She fills her head with culture She gives herself an ulcer Why make yourself so anxious You give yourself an ulcer

Post post punk album?

fajne

Brilliant

Really great.

This album fucks. Super tight, funky drums and bass and still-relevant leftist subject matter.

One of my favourite albums, love it

There’s early punk vibes and strong garage roots here in this utterly fantastic debut. Everything seems to coalesce together to make sure you’re actually having a great time while listening. High production considering the circumstances of this albums creation.