Wild Gift
X
1981
Album Summary
Wild Gift is the second studio album by American rock band X, released on May 4, 1981 by Slash Records. It was very well received critically, and was voted the year's second best album in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll. Wild Gift was later ranked at number 334 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Wild Gift showcases the band's unique punk rock style, which infuses roots rock, country, blues, R&B, and rockabilly. In 1988, Slash issued Los Angeles and Wild Gift jointly on a single compact disc. Wild Gift was remastered and reissued in 2001 by Rhino Records, with seven bonus tracks. The track "White Girl" was sampled by the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their 1989 album Mother's Milk, in the song "Good Time Boys". The Chili Peppers song's lyrics mentioned X's John Doe specifically, "whose voice is made of gold".
WikipediaHad never heard this before - awesome - right up there on the list with the Clash, the Femmes, and other angry punk/post-punk bands of the era.
Wow. Impressed. Heard of X, I think, but never listened before. It’s catchy, pared down, good variety, not too one note. I hear ramones, pixies, misfits, Jefferson airplane, sonic youth, iggy and the stooges, that says it all. Saved the album to my library.
Maybe it’s the pop-punk loving side of me, but I really enjoyed this album, especially the first and last tracks sung by the female vocalist. I liked the blend of 50s rock with the driving pace of punk. This is the more palatable version of what The Cramps were trying to achieve. I waffled between 3 and 4 stars and ended at 4 because I want to look up more music by X.
well, this is another one that was over too soon. i knew about X, of course, being a punkity-rock kid back in the day - but they were a little before my time, and i didn't really come to them until later. i love the aggressive attack on the guitar, the almost brutal uncaring in exene's voice...just great punk rock.
alright but a bit boring. Superb bass playing though, and bonus points for being short and sharp
favorite songs: The Once Over Twice, Universal Corner, In This House That I Call Home, When Our Love Passed Out on the Couch. a really good album, only a couple songs that I thought were meh
Solid punk album. Good sound, songs are happily 3 minutes. Songs are happily 75 seconds. Good melodies, fun listen.
This album is tight. It's full of ramshackle, energetic rockers from one of the most unique bands in music. X's punk bona fides are on full display, sweetened with a rockabilly undertone and a hint of a twang, which would become more pronounced on future albums. Billy Zoom's guitars burn brilliantly. D.J. Bonebrake's drums set an urgent pace that propels everything forward without distracting from the true stars of this show, John and Exene. The chaotic harmonies of John Doe and Exene Cervenka are imperfectly perfect. They're languid and messy and totally endearing. Their lyrics are incredibly poetic, blurring the gritty with the romantic. They sing about the dysfunctional side of life and of love, and you can feel it. Fave Songs: The Once Over Twice, Adult Books, In This House That I Call Home, I'm Coming Over
I'd never heard of this band before... I wish I had! I loved this. Short and catchy which satisfies that craving I have. Will be exploring the rest of their discography based on this.
Best American rock band from the first half of the 80s when they made five 5* albums. Probably their LA album is even a bit better but it is always a hard choice. Wild Gift contains songs like Adult Books and Universal Corner etc.
Bounces between Ramones style bouncy punk to leaning slightly more hardcore. I'd say it's a proto-pop-punk record. Lot of fun, and the dual vocalists definitely help break it up here and there. Favorite tracks: "Universal Corner", "Back 2 the Base"
What a great album. One of my favorites so far. Brings back great memories
Certainly not everyone's cup of tea but fantastic classic punk in my opinion.
Opgewekte muziek. Misschien wat eentonig, maar omdat het zo tof is, kunnen we dat door de vingers zien.
love this like probably not enough to listen to it again but maybe who knows when i'm feeling Punky
Exhibit A on why not to look at the Wikipedia page before listening to the album. Apparently the female lead, Exene Cervenka, has gotten into conspiracy theories in recent years, including mass shooting hoaxes. But once I listened, I was pleasantly surprised and mostly didn't think about what I had learned about them. I had also read that their brand of early-80s punk was tinged with rockabilly, and I could definitely hear that in the songs. Sonically I thought they were pretty great - I liked the sped-up rockabilly/surf rock style, and usually enjoyed the paired lead vocals. I wasn't as big a fan of the lyrics, though.
Classic punk. I loved the way there were male and female vocals on most tracks. Really well done and catchy.
Tan punk californiano. Amo. Flema tiene un tema que se llama 'Surfeando En El Riachuelo' que es todo lo que está bien y me hizo acordar, musicalmente, al primer tema del disco. Me remontó a eso automáticamente cosa que amo profundamente. 13 temones muy fáciles de escuchar y, por sobre todo, muy geniales. The Once Over Twice y Year 1 son los temas que más me gustaron. Lo escucharía mil veces más. 9/10 ludomatics.
Promisingly rapid start! Punky with a 50's rock and roll feel, makes me think of the Rezillos a bit. Four tracks in, I really like this and feel I missed out not knowing this album before! In short, this is really bloody good. I still love The Rezillos more for this fun, 50s inflected punk (I'm naturally going to identify more with Scottish sci fi geeks than a cool LA band), but this is definitely going back on at some point.
Very West Coast punk album, another new band from this list that I've never heard before so had no idea what to expect. I liked it, great energy, wailing guitars, has a rockabilly vibe. Would listen to this again. Short, punchy, and I like that the vocalists switch it up, each leading their own songs and some with both harmonizing. Fun album.
Some heavy Pixies, Talking Heads and B-52's vibes from 1981. Post-punk new wave soundtrack to a student house party in a movie, any movie.
Some real good older Riot Girl punk music. Reminds me of Blondie. Never heard of X before but I really like this.
Was a bit slow to start but once it got going it was a really fun listen. Still sounds fresh. The cover of the album had me expecting something more contemporary so it was a real surprise.
Now, I adore 70s punk and post-punk. I consider them together to be the greatest genre of music. However, I'd never sought to listen to X before, for no reason other than I've always been more compelled towards UK acts of the period. I decided to set the evening aside to listen to both this and their earlier Los Angeles, and I found a rather pleasant straddling of punk and new wave, with Wild Gift the more embraceable. I'd have to say it lacks the knockout blow of a 5-starrer, but it's plenty rocking and sardonic, and there are worse ways of spending an evening.
The wildest gift I ever received was for my 13th birthday. My siblings had all clubbed together to get me the severed penis of our old scout master. I loved it. I would play with it all the time. Every night before bed I would kiss it goodnight and then fuck the shit out of myself until my anus resembled a bloody casserole.
I just don't know if I knew far less about music than I thought, or this 'challenge' goes out of it's way to pick more obscure bands. But these guys shouldn't be - early 80's raw punk tinged rock - so why aren't 'X' as big as they should be?
Punk rock. Energetic. Fast paced and fun. Would listen to again (and check out more by this band).
I knew nothing of X before this came up, and what a pleasant surprise. Lively, brash punk - will be returning for more listens
It was way better than I expected it to be, by far. I actually liked a lot of it.
Really cool pop-punk album. I’d heard Los Angeles before and though it was ok, but honestly I think this one’s better. Also still can’t believe they’re produced by Ray Manzarak
I generally like X, haven’t gone back before More Fun in the New World in years. I enjoyed this. It makes me want to go back to listen to Los Angeles.
I really enjoyed this album - it feels like a perfect segue between rock from the previous two decades and the two to come. You can hear rockabilly sounds like Elvis (who they likely were inspired by) and post-punk / alternative sounds like Sonic Youth too (who they likely inspired) plus some of their contemporaries like the Sex Pistols. Lots of different sounds really; this is not one-dimensional punk. Highlights were the Once over Twice (more brooding Ramones), We're Desperate (like frenetic Talking Heads), Adult Books (my favorite - Elvis meets the Velvet Underground meets Marty Robbins), Universal Corner (can't put my finger on it, but feels ahead of it's time), It's Who You Know (Motorhead with more depth), White Girl (Sonic Youth meets the Velvet Underground), and Beyond and Back (Dead Kennedys meet Elvis Costello).
Real good punk / new wave feel to it. The male vocalist has a bit of a David Byrne vibe in his voice (not a bad thing, mind you). Universal Corner feels a bit lke "Shape Of Things To Come." Its nice to finally hear the whole song RHCP sampled for their song "Good Tine Boys." Now there's one song off the samples I don't know as of yet. Anyway, back to X. Even with it being punk, there's still a bit of variation, which is good. Nice short punk album, I really dug it.
Wow - this is great early punk. Tuneful, solid 2 attack vocals, decent melody, great instrumentation.
This short and sweet little album with a really fun surf rock kinda punky sound is just what I wanted to hear on this summer morning. The male/female playful vocals remind me of the B52's in a lot of ways. I dig it!
Fun, playful punk. I hear a lot of The Clash and some B-52’s in their sound. But there’s also some country rock in here too. The male singer adds an interesting tone to some of these songs. I got a kick out of the Roy Orbison affectation he puts on for “Adults Books.” And “In This House That I Call Home” has a little of that Orbison drama but mixed with punk riffs. The lyrics are sharp and funny too (“Back 2 the Base” is a wild one!) which makes the songs worth paying closer attention to. I’m definitely going to want to spin this one a few more times.
I was aware of a small number of songs by X, so I definitely wasn't going in blind here. I knew what to expect, and loved what I got. I always meant to go back through some of their catalogue, as most of what I was familiar with was from the Los Angeles album. Very much enjoyed this one.
My original notes got erased, but my synopsis is this band fkn rocks. I'll be listening to more of X.
I'm inclined to categorize this as Ramones-style punk. Less raw, more polished than, say, the Sex Pistols, and their has the late '50s-early '60s rock vibe that the Ramones' often has. Depending on the song, the lead vocals might be handled by Exene (whose banshee-like wailing is unmistakable) or John Doe (or even both), and they make for a good combo, giving their music more versatility than the average band. But the standout aspect of their music is Billy Zoom's quick, clean, and precise guitar playing. Personally, I'd have liked to hear him get a little more time in the spotlight, but the results are pure rock n roll whether he gets it or not. Standout tracks include "Universal Corner," "Some Other Time," and "Beyond and Back" (which has a pleasing rockabilly flavor to it), but the entire album's solid. I could happily listen to the entire album without skipping a track. I wouldn't go so far as to give it 5 stars, but 4.5 feels right.
I **almost** didn’t listen to Wild Gift before voting and reviewing because I already know i love X and this album. BUT- i actually took the time to listen to it a couple of times through before writing this. This week is shite at work and today i came home, cranked this album and lay on the floor letting the unpolished guitars and raw vocals melt that crap away. Perfect 80’s American punk album- a touch of rockabilly, just enough scream and right amount of thrash, be still my beating heart. Not my fave X album- regardless stellar showing.
This was easily the nicest surprise for me so far. Had no knowledge of this band and was blown away since the start. I have to say I very much preffer the lady vocals.
A previously unheard and undiscovered punk rock delight! I can hear their influence on so many of my favourite acts. A gift indeed.
The name of the band it's interesting and this album is interesting too. The punk style in this album is great and even if the voices weren't that great, it's part of the punk, no need to beautify the music when you only need to express something. Even if the album is so good, it needs something to be perfect
It was okay. The album was definitely consistent, but nothing amazing.
This was some ok punk rock. Some songs were more aggressive than others ("the once over twice" and " desperate Los Angeles"), While some seem more country("adult books" - has a more punk Elvis vibe.), some just didn't work at all for me as it seems the 2 singers weren't so harmonious(but that could be what they were going for)"I'm coming over". But for me there were some great songs "it's who you know" and "in this house that I call home"has the right about of everything above mixed together. Overall a decent album.
X sounds best when John and Exene are singing together. It's a little off kilter, but the energy is gives off is fantastic. Pretty consistently good album, though nothing that is amazing.
I was originally down on this album but it grew on me and as the album played through spotify took me to some very cool punk bands with a similar sound that I enjoyed. Pretty neat.
In one ear and out the other. forgettable rockabilly punk vibes. It's fine
New to me, quite liked it - going to have a listen to their other stuff 👍
Production: 13/20 Songwriting: 12/20 Innovation: 11/20 Bangers: 5/20 Emotional response: 10/20 =51 Yeah was alright bit boring but hey ho
If the Ramones hopped into a Cadillac, put Johnny B Goode on the 8 track, and drove straight into the B-52's love shack, it might sound like this. Thanks, X, for pushing punk in new directions. The rockabilly stuff is not my cuppa tea, but the rest was solid. I have a feeling their lyrics deserve more attention. Perfect soundtrack to Tony Hawk Pro Skater II. B+
De eerste paar nummers had ik de indruk dat die met tegenzin waren opgenomen en vond ik nogal vervelend. Naar het verder verloop van het album toe begon het iets dragelijker te worden
never heard of these before - better than expected but not one I can imagine getting really into
Sounds a lot like Auntie Christ. Pretty enjoyable, would listen again.
There are some solid, rocking songs on here. I’m iffy on the vocals. Some tracks they are good while on other tracks not so much. I’m more in favor of the music.
I have to give it to them for the cohesive performance, sounds like a band playing together live instead of multiple takes on-top of one another.
Decent early punk, good vocal harmonies between the male and female lead. Songwriting was pretty straightforward but catchy.
80. Tudo isto não é uma fábula. A quantidade gigantesca de dados que ELES têm armazenados sobre nós pode efetivamente impacto muito reais na nossa vida, na nossa saúde... No acesso a produtos financeiros, no acesso a produtos de seguro que é um dos casos... Pá, que é mais conhecido. Todos estes dados podem efetivamente virar-se contra nós, man. Eu posso saber que uma pessoa cuja mãe tenha tido cancro do pulmão, que fume e que tem um conjunto de atividades na sua vida XYZ*##%, com muita probabilidade se tiver uma doença oncológica, amanhã lhe pegar aquele tratamento, aquele tratamento não vai ser eficaz em 70% das dos casos. Faz sentido que nós possamos tomar essas decisões sobre as pessoas? Na minha perspetiva não faz. Mas é nesse caminho que nós estamos. É deste tipo de situações que nós estamos a falar, meu. MotA: When Our Love Passed out on the Couch "I just heard the sad song by another band sung. By another man he gave me the once over twice"
Can't tell why this one is here. Sounds like most rock albums and didn't blow me away. It's good punk, but I wouldn't say I needed to hear it before I died.
Enjoyable for what it is, and can see the influence it had on later bands, but doesn't stand out as much anymore
Neat punk album. Fairly high quality production, a bit more polished than your traditional punk. Not all the tracks were winners.
"4th Of July" by X is one of my all time favorite songs. I got into it after hearing it used at the end of an episode of The Sopranos. It's from the latter stage of X's career, and it's one of only a handful of their songs not written by John Doe and Exene Cervenka. There's really nothing here that resembles "4th of July" (but you should listen to it, 4th Of July is a 5). It's still a great listen. I don't necessarily side with all of the critics who seemingly fell all over themselves to over praise it back when it was initially released. But 1981 was a bizarre year all around.
Certainly the best thing I've heard from John Doe. I think I last heard X over 40 years ago - this has aged well.
Got a Pat Benatar meets the Ramones vibe. Never heard of this band, but they can rock! This is definitely punk, but a little more refined. Ramones is really a good comparison. I also love just the fast-rock 2-minute jam and done tracks. Adult Books sounds so much like a Talking Heads song, I have to know if they collaborated or were just fans. Boom: from John Doe: "But he cites his live introduction to punk rock, a gig by the Talking Heads early in their career, which took place at New York City’s CBGB, appropriately enough, as a true life-changing event. “Their music was an elixir,” he recalls. “It filled the space and affected everybody who was there. The band played Psycho Killer, and at the end, David Byrne took off his guitar and just walked out the door. I thought to myself, This could be his last performance." Clearly an influence there. This was pretty good. They carved out a style and it mostly works. I don't know how memorable it was, but I think I would listen to some of this again, and i can see how it can get its hooks into you. Definitely an album about having fun - no bummers in here.
It was fine. The first two tracks rock then it gets a bit middle of the road after that.
Pretty alright. I didn’t hate listening to it. Nothing to write home about though.
decent punk album. doesn't blow my socks off but don't hate it either. sounds pretty much like what I'd expect an early 80s punk album to sound like.
Has some interesting parts...I enjoy the more rockabilly side of things. I didn't remember X having that type of sound. Overall the early 80s punk sound isn't my favorite...prefer more post punk. 2.5/5
I was only familiar with the Australian band of the same name. This one rocks nuts much harder though.
very lorelai/jess punk rock style but i think i'm too young to really feel it
Didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did! As with all punk it's best enjoyed in small doses
It sounds like a band trying to leave behind the '77 punk sound of Los Angeles (which is fine) but not really hitting on anything new of note. Punk was splintering in a million different directions by 1981, this probably wasn't one of the more exciting ones.
If it was released between 77-80 it would have been more interesting, but it wasn't so it's just some generic punk by numbers. Not bad to listen to, just uninteresting.
The first album I've got where I had genuinely NEVER heard of them before. Grungy and crunchy and surprisingly enjoyable.
"Wild Gift" is the musical equivalent of being woken in the middle of the night by two cats having sex outside your bedroom window. There's a lot of confusion and some truly horrible noise going on and you just want it to stop. I generally give punk and punk-adjacent music a pass where vocals are concerned but, in no key are these vocals hitting actual harmonies. They're just wailing. Which is a shame because the lyrics are legitimately poetic and the backing music is pretty decent. The wailing, though. Dang.
Listened to on 3/2/22 3.5/5 Favorite song: Back 2 The Base Great - very big hair 80s party vibes
It's alright. Nothing special. None of the songs left a lasting impression.
Punk rock nordamericà de primer nivell. No arriba a ser tan memorable com el seu primer disc, l'anterior 'Los Angeles', però no baixen gaire el llistó. Temes ràpids, precisos i tot i que no compte amb singles que destaquin és un bon i consistent treball
I enjoyed this while I listened, but it didn't really seem to have anything particularly memorable
This album didn’t make a great first impression but it grew on me after a while. Still not great and not good canvassing music but oh well
A real bare bones garage band type feel to this...At one point it started to wear me down and then the last few tracks White Girl, When Oour Love Passed Out on the Couch and Year 1 got me back in.
I checked to see if X's much more notable debut album Los Angeles is in the list and it is not, so do yourself a favor and good listen to that right now. X makes generally good punk. By 1981 we would start to see hardcore punk take over so for X to stick to what they know is a safe call. X's style of punk is more rooted rockabilly sound, which allows them to standout. They excel most when the songs are fast and driving, full of energy. Wild Gift is a good showing from X but I find it more underwhelming than not.
The was a group that is new to me. At just over 30 minutes it has the perfect album running time. Some of the riffs strangely reminded me of Sigue Sigue Sputnik. It's a little low on melody, but it makes up for this on attitude.
Never quite understood the appeal X had on the early LA punk scene (along with the one it had on rock critics such as Christgau and the likes). Guess you had to be there at the time to get what's special about them. They're a more-than-decent act *objectively speaking*, but to me their overall sound and aesthetics are still too tame for bona fide punk--and not nearly intense enough compared to what was done in that genre at the time--while their melodies and unimaginative chord changes often lack the inventivity and/or catchiness that's required for more regular (indie-)rock bands. It's sort of a lose-lose situation for me. I suspect those 50s rockabilly influences, so endearing to X's fans, are also to blame here. They make the whole thing sound as a very derivative exercise, even though you never feel that the latter was at least *fun* to play (like it was for The Cramps or The B-52s). Or maybe Ray Manzarek's somewhat bland and linear production is at fault here. An ex-Door producing punk albums is an idea that has always sounded a little suspicious to my ears. I swear that I didn't know about that when I explored X's back catalogue and listened to that string of records he produced for them, always finding the whole thing a little too generic for me. But I have a sneaking suspicion he was not the best choice for the band... I have to say that X is far from being a ridiculous band, however. And browsing through their early discography, it's easy to see why singling out this particular record (along with the debut released before it) is a no-brainer. There are some nice cuts on "Wild Gift" ("White Girl", "We're Desperate", "In This House That I Call Home", "When our Love Passed Out on The Couch"), even if there's nothing in it that relatively similar acts such as The B-52s and The Violent Femmes haven't said more convincingly. One of the assets of this album is clearly the charming vocal harmonies between Exene and John Doe--"perfectly imperfect", as someone *perfectly* stated in this group. For some listeners, 80% of what makes an album good is related to the vocal performances (and they *are* very good here). My own percentage is certainly lower than that. Conversely, it might be higher than other listeners when it comes to songwriting, catchy melodies, instrumentation, arrangements, production and intensity. Those "gifts" can be "wild", too. Even for punk rock. Number of albums left to review or just listen to: 852 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory: 81 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 37 (including this one) Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more important): 31
I have not heard of "X" before, but I'm interested to find out what they are about. So far nothing jumps out as hey I really like this sound, but it's inoffensive and is decent. May check it out again but overall meh its alright.
Punk's not really my jam but this wasn't a horrible listen - I'd give it 3.5 if I could. Fave track - "The Once Over Twice", maybe, or "In This House That I Call Home"
Cet album s'écoute assez calmement même si tout au long du projet, notre oreille nous suggère que quelque chose ne tourne pas rond. En voici l'explication : il a été produit par l'ignoble Ray Manzarek.
x - wild gift (1981) notes: - post punk band with shared lead vocals - really like the artwork! - i like the album “los angeles” by x but i’d never gone deeper in their discography fav - were desperate - i like the energy and dissonant guitar in the chorus least fav - year 1 - i like the vocals but the rest of the song didn’t match to me to me los angeles does everything this album does but better
I like the style but beyond that is was just okay. Competent punk but nothing stood out.
Has alot going for it, particularly when they go hard, but I think it gets bogged down when they do the old timey thing. Do love the male female vocal mix though.
It’s a little punky, a bit grindy and sort of rock revivalist, but for all those reasons, it’s lost a little bite and energy.
A delightfully polymorphic punk album that leans more towards the cerebral/art-house vibe.
Interesting punk album that incorporates a lot of different genres in it.
I think I like X. Let's see -- yep, rollicking sarcastic fun. Actually, doesn't quite hold up, even through the very short run time. Good but not uniformly great. Definitely fun. 3.5 stars
Sounds like a lot of good bands (Love, talking heads, Siouxsie) while also being kinda forgettable
Most of it was generic punk. A few standout tracks, but not enough to make me want to listen again. Best track: It's Who You Know
Not a fan of this. If we’re looking at an evolutionary tree for punk rock, this is a different branch that went extinct
Enjoyable punk rock, but nothing that seemed particularly special or unique to it, making me question why it was on the list.
This album would have benefitted from the following: 1. A competent producer. 2. A vocal coach to teach the two singers how to harmonize in more than one interval 3. A new lead vocalist The first four songs on this album were really terrible. It got better towards the end, which is the only reason this gets 2 stars instead of 1.
Hat mich nicht so berührt. Klang wie Punkrock von der Stange; für Kontext war diesmal keine Zeit.
Solide. Könnte auch aus den 90ern sein. Eingängige Songs, nette Mann/Frau call/response vocals, Drums wie Bela B. sie liebt. Für ein Evergreen Album zu wenig / eine charmante Vorband. Anerkennende 2.2
Punkowanie po raz enty, tym razem zachodnie wybrzeze hameryki, na pierwszy rzut oka nie moglem bandy polaczyc z zadnym albumem, czy nawet kawalkiem, dopiero po analizie plejki wyszlo, ze cos wczesniej od nich slyszalem, ale byl to pojedyczny trak musze nie myslec negatywnych mysli, ale rownie dobrze moglbym przesluchac calego albumu i o tym nie wiedziec, bo nic z tej plyty nie zostaje w glowie, nie wiem czy to sprawa tego wokalnego duetu, gdzie glowna role odgrywa pani cervenka, do bolu juz ogrywanymi gitarkowymi brzmieniami, ktore gdzies juz wczesniej slyszales, o ile w niektorych momentach lirycznie by sie kawalek bronill, to znowu wokal mieszano nijaki nie pomaga w odbiorze, nie wiem z ktora brytyjska wokalistka punkowa mi sie kojarzy maniera baby Xowej, ale doslownie deja vu, juz to slyszalem u kogos innego, na plejaka wrzuce we are desperate, co dobrze okresla styl w jakim jest utrzymany material, desperacja sukcesu, ciekawy random fakt, ze na produkcji siedzial, wtedy juz byly, czlonek doorsow, czyli pan manzarek, czego bym sie nie spodziewal, a wyprodukowal im jeszcze debiutanckiego krazka
There were a couple songs I enjoyed here, like Adult Books, but it was overall a bit too whiny-grungy to be a good listen.