Wild Planet

I will never say no to another B-52’s album. I think their debut is the better album, but this is still a great album. Their unique brand of proudly weird new wave/post-punk is fantastic and truly unique. Great choice for a submission.

I got this album the day I got their debut album so to me they are one big long album. No, really...I could never decide which I liked more. There is no ROCK LOBSTER like hit on this album, but I think it might be better than the debut... maybe? Still I love it and think it is amazing.

Introduced to this band in the early 80s, again courtesy of my brother's precocious (for growing up in a small Midwest town pre-internet) musical tastes. I guess this is considered part of New Wave, though they have always seemed like a genre unto themselves to me. The heavy affectation of the male vocals is the kind of thing I usually complain about and I guess it's what's worn thinnest for me. But it holds up, the unabashed wierdball lyrics over engaging lyrics jangly mutated pop rock.

The most annoying voices in musical history

So good! Just as good as the debut album, might be better? Love every song. So glad to see this on the list!

I can never get enough of these weird wild alien new wave rockers from outer space. To say that I FUCKING LOVE the B-52's is the understatement of the century!! God, everything they do is crazy dynamite gold! It's pure unadulterated FUN.

Great fun, infectious hooks, nonsense lyrics (most of the time), an absolute joy of an album

We had one B-52s album on the list already… Well, this one I like a little better so I’m happy to listen! Plus, there are plenty of duplicates from artists on that list that aren’t as good or as fun as this. Still, I think maybe some later-era B-52s would be my choice if I were to have two B-52 albums on this list (“Cosmic Thing” comes to mind). That’s all kind of academic because the truth is I love this album regardless!

I have always loved the B-52s!

Great album! 4 stars.

I think I enjoy this more than their debut. 3.5 up to 4.

Not as good as the debut, but still a ton of fun.

Very good!

So much fun. I've been a big B-52's fan since forever and this album got massive amounts of play in my house when I was a teenager. I agree that it will always play second fiddle to the band's debut, which was nothing short of lightning in a bottle. While the original feels vibrant and effortless, Wild Planet comes off as a little try-hard by comparison. They're better musicians at this point in time, but a bit of the spark is missing. That said, there is still so much to enjoy here. The album has the band's trademark oddball sensibility that draws from a lot of styles while at the same time sounding absolutely like nothing else. It's danceable and gleefully weird party music that's hard not to like. Sassy vocal performances by Fred, Kate and Cindy. Lyrics are unabashedly silly in the best way. Fave Songs: Private Idaho, Give Me Back My Man, Dirty Back Road, 53 Miles West of Venus, Runnin' Around, Strobe Light

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Runnin’ around, Give me back my man, Strobe light

OMFG some bands have more than one album on the list, what's the big deal?

I'm here for more B-52s. Glad someone corrected the fact we didn't have both great albums on the list.

Always fun and bouncy, with good vibes

Another fantastic album of the B-52's. Every time I adore the guitar work by Ricky Wilson.

Sounds exactly like every other B-52's album. Which is to say that it's enjoyable if not unremarkable.

The B-52’s are wacky and o.k.

While the B-52's already had an album on the list, I think this LP is a much better representation of their energy and overall oeuvre. The tracks are a bit more varied, the energy is generally high, and the musicianship feels more honed than on their S/T record. 'Private Idaho' is my fav track from the band and much better than some of their other hits, and I will not hear anything to the contrary.

The B-52s already had an album on the original list, and this album is a carbon copy of it. Why would you use your one vote so pointlessly? 2/5.

I don't think I understand this band.

No Rock Lobster. No points 1

Catchy as heck!

Oh yeah! Any list that includes more B-52s is a list that I want to be on. It’s not as uniformly-amazing as their first album, but there’s nothing else like the B-52s, so the only comparison is to themselves. Private Idaho can be on permanent repeat in my head. That counts for something.

Excellent.

7/10. Tbh the list doesn't really need an extra B-52's album. Like once you've heard one of their albums, you know if you like them or not. Still, found this fairly enjoyable

Speaking of beachy... The B-52's followup leans toward post-punk and is better for it. This planet lacks some dimensionality; It's also appropriately short. A stumbling dance with the necessary edge of the ridiculous.

Kinda crazy that someone listened to 1089 albums over 3 years and chose another B-52's album that also doesn't have love shack on it lol. This was good B-52's music but not terribly memorable except for give me back my man and maybe private Idaho. Honestly I just wanted to get back to listening to the hazards of love because holy fuck its only gotten better.

Luv the B-52’s yeah

Who isn't going to say no to more of The B-52s? I do think this is a weaker album than their debut, but it's still fun. My personal rating: 4/5 My rating relative to the list: 4/5 Should this have been included on the original list? Don't think so. I think the debut album was the correct choice.

This wild planet is better with The B-52's in it.

The B-52's are fucking weird. It took me 30 years to like weird shit like this & now im here for it all day

Weird but I like it

April 29, 2025 HL: "Runnin' Around", "Give Me Back My Man", "Private Idaho", "Devil's In My Car", "53 Miles West of Venus" QUICHE LA POODLE 🐶

Rock on

Even though they are from the eighties, they still retain influences from the sixties and seventies, very go-go music with good drums. For this reason, their music is very rhythmic and danceable that the entire album could be a single melody that can be good and harmful at the same time.

We already had the B-52s debut (with Rock Lobster) and this is very similar. Post punk guitar pop. Fun and cool.

High energy and fun, feels a little novelty. 3.3

Only like one song but I like it a lot. Fun album to listen to.

Another B-52s album, which is pretty similar to the other one on the list, in all honesty. However, I liked the previous one and I like this too. It is maybe a little more melodic and a little less ferocious. Rating: 3.5 Playlist track: Private Idaho Date listened: 04/09/24

Not sure why this needed to be added. The self-titled B-52's album has several stronger songs, though is a bit more uneven. Wild Planet brings us Private Idaho and Strobe Light, which are both great, but everything else is pretty forgettable. It is more of the quirky party B-52's sound, which is enjoyable in limited doses.

Very aptly named. A classic sound from the 52s. Great when they are in harmony. Not so great when they aren't.

New wave, disco-punk, surf. Ni fu ni fa.

Not bad

A fun, groovy, wavy time as one would expect from the B-52s. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of their staggering debut or their later peak Cosmic Thing but it’s still a grand way to spend 35 minutes

Fun af

Everyone and their mothers know that the second B-52s album can't reach the iconic heights of their eponymous debut. Inserting some admittedly subtle new wave flourishes in their formula -- still a groundbreaking music style in 1980 -- was a good idea on paper. Too bad the results are mixed. The wonderful quirks are still here, of course. But so many songs in *Wild Planet* are too long or ultimately inert. Worse, some of the vocal performances, technically flawless, come off as functional and perfunctory at times. A couple of cuts (like "Devil In My Car" or closer "53 Miles West Of Venus") still stand out, and the whole remains decent overall. And yet we're far from the debut's league. Some critics have blamed the production values. Turns out that I have no real issue with the latter, apart from those discrete moments where the vocal parts sounded a little wrong. No, for me, the real shortcoming lies elsewhere: it's a lack of melodic earworms managing to leave a somewhat lasting imprint. And it makes that *Wild Planet* sound... tamer. The person who suggested this sophomore LP explains in their review that they bought it at the same time as the debut, and that for them, the two are like one double album of sorts. That's a way to form a personal attachment to a lesser work released by a band, I guess. Also, I went to the summary of that person, and found out that, like me, they love *Songs Of Leonard Cohen*. Unfortunately, I also found out that, bar one LP, *all* their lowest rated albums were made by rap / hip hop artists. All black. The only hip hop artist making it to the highest rated albums list is... Eminem. A-hem. Oh sure, there are black acts mentioned in that list. But only four: Michael Jackson, Prince, Tracy Chapman and Funkadelic. Like, you can let some African American artists eat at the table of the greats in your proverbial "house", but it's as if they have to show some extra manners first. Eminem gets a pass, though. That line of thought is a little off-putting, honestly. I get that some people don't like rap, and it's OK. But frankly, you have to look back to your music tastes at some point and think a little about how they might actually suggest some prejudiced conceptions going on in your head, even if they're partly unconscious and vaguely defined. And then you have to work on them. At least a little. Saying that Kendrick Lamar's TPAB is merely "gross and disgusting" in two vitriolic lines is not merely being unfair and tone-deaf. It's also betraying an appalling inability to understand lyrical nuance or storytelling prowess. Unless something "blocked" that understanding. What is it that scared you so much in that masterpiece? Was it the use of profanity? Well if you love Eminem's magnum opus, it can't be that. Was it the fact that "Alright" was the unofficial BLM anthem? Nah, you might not even be aware of that, for all we know. Or was it *To Pimp A Butterfly*'s striking artwork on its cover, consciously designed to question the prejudices impoverished African American youths still have to face today? Let's just say that as of now, your "house" looks very white indeed. I can already see some other reviewers thinking I'm having a go at "performative wokeness" here. I don't know, maybe I am. But in this day and age, I'd rather have that supposed flaw instead of the opposite one. All I'm saying is that some folks really need to open their shakras, whether for music tastes supposedly addressed to younger generations, or for one addressed to different, quote-unquote, "target demographics". Speaking of shakras, I tried to open mine once again for *Wild Planet* today. It didn't really work, sadly. But that doesn't mean that choice for the users list is bad per se. The B-52s are still a cool project, and their debut obviously deserved to be in the original list, no contest here. Let's just say that checking where today's suggestion came from didn't give me an extra incentive to add their second album in my own list. Blame me for being tone-deaf myself, or for "punishing" a historical act just for the aesthetic shortcomings of a single fan of them. Or blame an indeed "wild planet" these days, now triggering me to digress about stuff that admittedly has nothing to with the B-52s. But that's how it will go for me. 3/5 for the purposes of this list of essential albums. 8/10 for more general purposes (5 + 3) Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 14 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 20 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 41 (including this one)

Never been a fan. This album doesn't change that. Is this even a different album than the one that was on the original list? They all sound the same to me.

I only know this from the hit 'Love Shack'. Although I realise this is a shallow bottom to critisize the rest of their music, it is the only thing I can do. It is simply too frivolic and gimmick like to me. After a few songs I was done.

Talented for a high school band

a But before my time and probably why I don’t have as much for this album as others might. B-52s have some good songs and are fun but this album doesn’t have any of the major catchy hits to grab me in. Overall it’s very 80s new wave pop but just dated for me. 5.5/10

Sorry one b52’s album was enough for me.

Inexplicably unavailable on streaming in Europe (same thing for their debut). Less post-punk and catchy hits, but way more cheese. I think the original list's B-52's was enough.

2.5/5

I enjoy the B-52's and many of their singles but they weren't on this album

Another that is not my thing.

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