Crossing the Red Sea With the Adverts

This is as good as any of any it but I'm sick of British 70s punk in this list. It's a very shallow sound.

Did you know that British people call chicken sandwiches "burgers"? As if the bun is what makes it a burger. Wtf, England. They also abbreviate advertisements as "adverts" instead of "ads," because I guess they don't understand the point of abbreviations. Finally, their punk bands are typically pale imitators of the format, soullessly checking boxes on a form as if punk is a series of requirements rather than an attitude. Thankfully, that's not the case here, even if they still call them "adverts." Best track: Great British Mistake (I assume this song is about the burger/sandwich thing. Please don't @ me if that's wrong, because in that case I don't want to know)

"Crossing the Red Sea With the Adverts" is an utterly perfect example of peak UK punk. There's not a bad track on the album. Everything you love about punk is on display PLUS great vocal performances and a higher production value than is usual for the genre and time. What a great album.

Ah, the adverts… typically where one might stop watching for a few minutes to re-enter the real world. Get up, walk around, make a cup of tea, use the toilet, anything to pass the time before the next part of something more interesting comes on. A bit like how I felt with this album. It’s not necessarily “bad music”- in 1978 in the UK, it was probably a breath of fresh air alongside its peers- but it felt non-essential, and didn’t seem to offer anything new or innovative. At its strongest, the album feels like a perverse take on the British Invasion era from the disillusioned generation who came afterwards. “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” (a single not originally on the record) holds this up the most, with an ascending chord progression against a vocal line harmonising in opposite directions. It somehow sounded like an alternative 60s record to me. I enjoyed T.V Smith’s vocals throughout- less shouty, more melodic and precise than the stereotype “punk” voice. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for me, and the inspiration seemed to run out quite quickly. Chord progressions were reused, lyrics came off as vague variations on the same ideas, the arrangements and rhythms didn’t have much to separate them, and by “Drowning Men” and On Wheels”, even the band sounded like they were flagging. To its credit, it kept proceedings to a half hour listen and they saved one of the best for last, with “The Great British Mistake” having fun sardonic lyrics, several different sections musically, and a really catchy outro. It’s not too surprising to me that The Adverts broke up shortly after this album- listening to it, it’s difficult to work out a direction they might progress in. Lightning in a bottle… and then the bottle smashed.

Sound like every other English punk band

Surprising. I'm not a fan of punk and had definite trepidation on getting this, fearing truly one chord wonders with lofi production. Wrong! There's a ton of melody here, with frequent unexpected rhythmic twists and turns. Is it...crazy to say that maybe some very early Iron Maiden took some cues from this album? Seriously - there are hints of the Paul Di'Anno era of Maiden here and hey, who arrived first? It's raw without sounding garage-y. I like the twin guitar spread and simple yet effective and not distracting mix. I'd say the second half falls off from the excellent first - nothing bad, but suffers from a bit of same-ness. 7/10 4 maybe generous stars but this is an album that is a big crossover for me that held my attention

This is some really good punk music. It isn't particularly angry, it's just punks having enormous fun and playing music really well. I get the feeling that I've listened to "the ultimate edition" or something, because with 25 tracks, some of them 3 versions of the same, this is too long. Great music, but unless you're really really into it, just stop the playback after track 13.

My first time listening to or hearing of the Adverts, and it was a pleasant experience. I'm not entirely sure how much punk needs to be listened to once you get outside of the main contenders. Crossing the Red Sea sounds like typical punk and shouts the same message, but an all together good listen. 3.5/5

samey

Why on earth would you ever want to listen to the Ramones when this came out less than two years later and is just superior in every way imaginable?

Ah Gaye Advert and TV Smith. Gaye was my Teenage Heartthrob back in 77/78. A feisty female bass player, what's not to love! "One Chord Wonders" "Bored Teenagers" and on the Ultimate Version but not the original Album "Gary Gilmores Eyes" The humour of which was totally missed by British tabloids at the time. Absolutely Loved The Adverts and this album which is rightfully on this list. Listening to it again took me back to the heady days of 77/78 when anything was possible and Gaye, Wherever you are now, know your great influence on this teenage boy! Thank you!

The Adverts is a band that I've never heard of and I've never listened to their songs. When I read that they were a 70's UK punk band I got excited. I got hooked on after the first song. They're really good and mu first impression is that they equal the Clash and are better than the Sex Pistols. Great production quality for being punk from this era.

Awesome punk rock album from a band I had never heard of until today. The album sounded like one long song, but not in a bad way. It was totally cohesive and the energy felt sincere. Great guitar solo in “No Time To Be 21”. You don’t often see those in punk albums.

This is enjoyable british punk... clean, raw sounding with a pop-punk energy. One chord wonders and no time to be 21 stood out for me. Good listen.

Sprightly, zingy post punk. Surprisingly clean sounding but plenty of bounce and bite there.

Excellent tight punk record

Pretty damn good punk.

Cool vibes, I dig it.

Man, this was excellent. The evolution of punk over the years is really, really interesting to hear--this one feels like an artifact all the way through. Favorite track: Great British Mistake

Very Ramones in a very good way. SHIT these songs are catchy.

One of the most nuanced and varied punk album from the initial British explosion. More tuneful than the Sex Pistols, as energetic as the Damned, as varied in their influences as the Clash. This album is a blast of fresh air from bored teenagers already looking past punk rock at what else is out there. Their second LP is even better!

Urgent, angsty. The epitome of this era of punk. Astonished I've never heard it before, astonished by how good it is.

This was true punk 🤘 five stars

This is incredible! 1978! So timeless. One Chord Wonders and Gary Gilmore's Eyes are great songs but my favourite is Bored Teenagers. I also love the way that the live version of No Time to Be 21 ends. :mic-drop:

i dunno what to say about this one. i love the adverts, and have since i got my copy of burning ambitions, and heard gary gilmore's eyes for the first time. sooo...having it appear twice on this album was awesome, and the whole thing made me happy.

Fucking great.

This is pretty rad. A lot more distinctive than a lot of the punk bands I've listened to.

Pure punky, angsty-fun! Hidden gem to find!

Really good. Felt ahead of its time for a punk sound.

pretty great punk, honestly - 9/10

The Adverts only made two albums. I usually go for album number two, Cast of Thousands ..always found it hard to understand that that album was not well liked at the time. In contrast to Crossing the Red Sea, it is more new wave and less punk rock. But that is not say that CRS isn't great too.

This was an excellent album. Front to back great songs. A lot of power.

cool

Excellent

I'm giving this a five because it's great and I've never heard it before.

Crossing the red sea with The Adverts requires an acknowledgement of a sense of urgency, a kind of awareness for what's going on that colors the past, the present and the future and a overt feeling of surging rage flowing through the veins. Whether or not there is time to be a particular age, what is for sure is that, for the brief time that they were a part of the scene, The Adverts were very much amongst one of the best of the first wave punk bands. A pity that their clarion call didn't ring loud enough for the world to hear.

Now this is a punk sound. Unpolished in just he right way. It feels like the Ramones in a very good way.

A vital and important punk cornerstone that I had never listened to in full before - pretty much the point of doing this! It doesn't need all the flummery of the 1hr 9min expanded edition; the original was less than half that and better for it. Up there with the best UK punk, and the best work John Leckie has produced - both of which are impressive company to keep.

Awesome! I LOVED this! Such great songs, such great lyrics and melodies. So sophisticated for seemingly simple punk music. Brilliant. How did I ever miss this band?

Bardzo przyjemne, lubię punk(rock). Safety in numbers trochę brzmienie jak The Clash. Naprawdę dobry debiut. 5

Eine tolle Neuentdeckung! Melodisch und komplex genug, dass es nicht langweilig wird. Trotzdem der ganze Drive des Punk. Gary Gilmore's Eyes kannte ich schon - wahrscheinlich von meinen Peel Sessions - aber die Band nicht.

Cool punk sounds from l that era

Not often I find early British punk I haven’t exhausted. So I enjoyed this.

I only just started listening to the Adverts this year, although I'd heard a few of their tunes on some punk playlists before. It's really solid, punk vibes with high-level lyrics, instrumentation, and hooks. I've listened twice already and will probably do so again.

Perfect early punk album!

Rating: 9/10 Best songs: One chord wonders, Bored teenagers, New church, On the roof, Gary Gilmore’s eyes, Safety in numbers

What a powerhouse of an album. Fast, clean, and cheap is right. Songwriting is thought provoking, sound is clean, while 3 chord music blisters in the background. This is what ALL punk should aspire to. Highlight tracks: ALL (especially 1, 2, 6, 11). Gary Gilmore's Eyes my favorite track of the whole review process so far.

Seemed a bit more nicely produced than a lot of the punk albums, and as per most punk, i loved the energy.

This was cool

классическая панкуха

Unexpectedly punk! I thought this was gonna be psychedelia from the band/album name. I dug this - it's veering towards post-punk in places - seems a more interesting listen than just straight ahead punk. Fave track - "One Chord Wonders" is a fun opener. "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" is catchy as hell.

I’ve really been getting into the origins of my favourite genre lately. Especially the UK stuff. I’ve had Bored Teenagers on my playlist for a while now but wasn’t familiar with their other stuff. Really dug this Top Tracks: “Bored Teenagers” “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes” “New Church”

Bored Teenagers would have been a great song as a bored teenager. Gary Gilmore’s eyes, woof. Safety in Numbers maybe birthed new wave? Fun stuff.

Solid punk. 7/10

7/10. Just the right amount of punk

Much better punk album than the clash.

this album was completely average. i liked some of the songs but nothing totally stood out to me that really made me enjoy

I just love the 70's UK punk sound- so fresh and raw. Reminds me of playing 7" vinyl singles on the portable player in my bedroom at top tinny volume until my dad started kicking the door and telling me to turn it down. After a while it's kind of samey but great nonetheless.

Never heard of them but it was enjoyable!

Possibly a good album but a bit too raw. And I know several albums of that time.

I had outright never even heard of this band before it came up. And I thought I was pretty up on my early UK and NY punk! I don't have a lot of specific thoughts about this album other than it's right in the wheelhouse of some of my absolute favourite punk. I will be revisiting this one for sure!

If someone asked to show them punk for the first time I would show them this album I would have loved to go to one of their shows in the 70s and 80s

I really vibed with this album for whatever reason, awesome stuff. Just great punk rock. Crazy to contrast this to all the prog rock around at the time.

English punk rock at its best. Great album

Schön schrabbeliger first wave punk mit genug Spaß am Hall über düster verhangenen Bridges und gar nicht so shouty-tumben Songwriting. Etwas überhöhte 3.5

Shouty and repetitive but I quite liked it. Must have been in the right mood

Had never heard of the Adverts before but I really dug it! Classic punk, a very fun listen although it does get a bit repetitive. Did not need to hear Gary Gilmore's Eyes three times. 4/5 stars

A solid, energetic Brit punk album. I don’t think of heard of these guys before and glad to have listened to it.

Sorely tempted to make a snide comment hinting at James's Little Richard review and say "all these songs sound the same" (which made me laugh out loud cuz it's not WRONG) but it equally misses the point with the Adverts! Cuz just like Little Richard, these songs are a quintessential example of their genre, which happens to also feature 4-on-the-floor relentless shouting energy that sound great in shitty speakers and rarely surpass the 3-minute mark - 25 songs but just over an hr (I stopped after the original 13 due to time constraints). Interestingly I definitely hear some parallels to something Bowie leans into later (think On the Roof here in 78 vs the lyrical phrasing in Modern Love off Let's Dance in 83). Enjoyed it more than I expected to being an extremely casual fan of Punk music. 4

Good punk album, enjoyed the two listens!

I had never heard of this band before but I enjoyed their music quite a bit. Would definitely check out more by them.

I enjoyed this pretty well. Had not heard of them before so it was a good listen.

Excellent early punk rock. A bunch of catchy, hard rocking, two to three minute songs. What's not to like? 4 stars.

This is an interesting early British punk album. It came on the heels of the first slate of punk albums that were released in 1977. This album is more melodic and poppy than the Sex Pistols, though not quite as fun and strange as the Ramones. Overall, it's a really good early punk album. The Adverts share a lot of sonic similarities with the Buzzcocks, though the Advert's lyrics are a little more in the traditional punk mold. Overall a really fun album that slipped through the cracks of history while the Sex Pistols and Clash went on the become mega-famous 4/5

Some pretty good punk music. Really enjoyed listening to this.

This was good fun.

Du très bon punk.

Gary Gilmore's Eyes was the last song I listened to as a single man. My iPod shuffled it up randomly as I drove to my wedding. Good album, but it runs out of gas a bit towards the end.

Love this album!

This is as good as any punk band I've ever heard which means it's bad according the punk fans I know. Whatever, I really liked it.

I was familiar with "Gary Gilmore's eyes" but hadn't heard the rest of the album. I feel like the Adverts are underrated in the history of punk rock and new wave.

Angst

Very solid early punk.

Nisam očekivala da će mi ovaj punk album biti toliko slušljiv. Većinom mi nije žanr od kojeg bi slušala albume jer mi nakon duljeg slušanja postane malo iritantno, ali je ovo bilo iznenađujuće dobro i ne naporno.

I might grumble about the book this app is based on, but I have to admit this project also allows you to discover great stuff. I thought I knew the most important names in original British punk rock. I was dead wrong. This album is great (and the one after that is not bad either, as misunderstood as it was at the time). I still have to find my way as to what choice words I could use to convey how original this band was while still retaining the basic ingredients of punk. In the meantime, I'll merely highlight "One Chord Wonders", "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" (originally a single) or "Safety In Numbers" as the true punk gems they are. But mostly, I will finish this very short review by praising how f*cking epic closer "Great British Mistake" sounds, even today. Thanks, Dimery and co. Number of albums left to review or just listen to: 891 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 57 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 29 (including this one) Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more important): 24

Nice snotty B level punk. The band is good - the record is good too - but it’s not Never Mind the Bollocks, Ramones. Dead Kennedies or the Clash. It stands proudly in the hall oh oh m though.

Solid early punk

Didn't have a very strong impression

An energising and driving punk album, it has those early days bunk vibes like The Clash that I love. Never heard of these guys but will be added to the list of re-listens for sure. Favourite tracks - One Chord Wonders, On the Roof, No time to be 21.

the site deleted my notes but this album was a lot of fun

Great punk band in the apotheosis of this movement. To the usual punk energy and craziness, The Adverts adds a touch of nice melodies that makes the album attractive.

Never heard of The Adverts before. Such a cool sound. Impressive album.

I'm totally fine with donating my organs, or whatever is useful, after my death. I would also be totally fine with receiving the donated organs of someone else, if I had the need. But donated eyes is a bit weird. Eyes are organs, but they are a bit unique as far as organs go, what with being partially on the outside, and being instrumental in a sense that allows us to perceive the world. Plus, watching someone else's eyes get poked or touched or injured or anything affects me in a way that manipulating internal organs never does. But Gary Gilmore wanted to donate only his eyes. In fairness, he thought that would be the only part of his body that remained useful, after his execution by firing squad. He chose firing squad over other options, and also asked not to have his execution stayed, following his conviction of double murder in 1977. He was the first person executed in America in 10 years, after the Supreme Court decided in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment. Most of The Adverts' debut album was fun and irreverent punk, but "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" certainly has a different edge to it. Regardless, it was a raucous and enjoyable album.

Yeah man, digged this hit all the punky spots.

Oh wow I am liking this a lot! I guess this is kind of that English punk new wave sound, but a band I've never heard. Like it right in there with the Specials and the UK Subs. Band totally fits the time. Overall, the sound is perfect, harmonious and not to gratuitously angry, good lyrics, sweet guitars, short songs, and more than one chord per song. Baseline for 'On Wheels' is pretty sick. What a great band. Nice to find a new one I actually like!!

Enjoyed the album and would definitely listen to more of their stuff.

jag brukar inte gilla punk men detta var bra

A good catchy 70s punk album Stand out tracks - Bored teenagers No time to be 21 Great British Mistake

A new one on me that didn’t disappoint

Prima old-school punk