Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Imperial Phase
Posted by DrJ on 12 April 2010 - 8:49am.
Neil Tennant coined this phrase, I believe, to refer to that period in an act's career when they can do no wrong: hit after hit, riding the zeitgeist like Roy Rogers on Trigger, not making it look like work, etc.
Neil says that PSB's Imperial Phase ended with Domino Dancing, as it only hit number 7.
So let's play the "when was their Imperial Phase?" game. To start the debate, I'll offer...
Costello: Debut to Imperial Bedroom.
Prince: 1999 to Lovesexy
U2: War to Zooropa.
(NB: Imperial Phase is not the same as "Jumping the Shark". PSB, EC, Prince & U2 kept releasing good records, it's just... something changed.)
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REM
Out of time to Monster 1991 to 1994.
I'd say...
REM - Murmur to Monster: 1983 to 1994.
Sales, dear boy, sales
Artistically I'd agree. But whereas Orange Crush scraped the top 40, most of the singles from Out of Time and Automatic made top 10, the press were all over them, and they hit the mainstream. Kenneth went top 10 and then it was downhill from there.
Stevie Wonder
Music of My Mind to Songs in the Key of Life
Aberdeen FC
The April 1970 Scottish Cup win to the late 1995 League Cup win (when the final was played before Christmas) ...
(absolute peak 1983-85 with European Cup Winners Cup, European Super Cup and two domestic championships)
Fergie...
took a pay cut when he moved to Manchester United from Aberdeen.
As always, the answer is................
Bowie.... 72 - 80. Unbroken genius.
The Smiths & Morrissey's first solo outing (effectively a Smiths record, sans Marr) 83-87.
Not sure re U2 example - Rattle & Hum was a clunker, as was War and the accompanying singles bar "Desire" didn't capture the public imagination as an "imperial phase" would. U2, to me, have always seem to do one good album followed by a clunker or two - Boy (good) followed by October and War (patchy) Joshua Tree followed by Rattle & Hum, Zooropa - Pop, ATYCLB - HTDMAAB etc etc....
Eh?
How on earth is Viva Hate effectively a Smiths record sans Marr?
Morrissey,
Joyce, Rourke, Reilly - produced by Street....
Bears all the hallmarks of a classic "Smiths" album without the pub rock accompaniment that followed.
Although
Vauxhall & I is generally acknowledged to be the closest in sound and mood to The Smiths.
Rourke & Joyce didn't play
Rourke & Joyce didn't play on Viva Hate. It was (basically):
Moz - Vocals
Vini Reilly - Guitar
Stephen Street - Bass
Andrew Parisi - Drums
Steely Dan...
Can't Buy A Thrill to Gaucho. I think they produced the most consistently brilliant body of work by any group I can think of, partly because they only made 7 albums when they were originally together.
Sevended.
Everything by The Dan from the 70's should be in every record collection. Fact. No debate. No other artiste made 7 brilliant records on the bounce and then had the self-awareness to withdraw and leave their legacy intact. Sheer class.
(Mind you: Roxy Music came close.)
Oasis
Definitely to Maybe.
You make it sound like there was a
Masterplan when we all know they were just Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.
Richard Thompson:
Across A Crowded Room (1985) to Rumor and Sigh (1991).
Hmmm
Not really seeing this one - possibly because I'm not over-fond (relatively speaking) of either Across a Crowded Room or Daring Adventures. I think RT tends for follow the pattern of great album followed by one that is a not-quite-so-good echo of it.
Cases in point:
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight - -> Hokey Pokey
Hand of Kindness - -> Across a Crowded Room
Rumor and Sigh - -> Mirror Blue
Though there are a few stunners that don't quite fit in that pattern...
God.
I'm such an idiot.
Not the explanation I had in mind
I just assumed our tastes were different yet overlapping...
I prefer your explanation.
Sorry. Having a sh*t day.
Can I recommend
listening to some RT? As you know, everything seems cheerier by comparison;-)
Marty.
Mean Streets to Goodfellas.
And...
DeNiro:
Mean Streets to Once Upon A Time In America.
Roy Harper
Stormcock (1971) to Bullinamingvase (1977).
However I'm sure Roy would bridle at the use of the term 'Imperial'.
This idea is flawed in some cases...
as with regards Led Zeppelin. Albums one to four are magnificent, Houses of the Holy a bit patchy and then they hit creative overload with Physical Graffiti.
Interesting stuff. I believe
Interesting stuff. I believe Tennant was referring to singles and chart placings rather than any extended sequence of successful albums, like some of the examples above. PSB had three number ones in 87/88, including a Xmas number one, as well as the duet with Dusty, which narrowly missed out on the top spot, but Domino Dancing marked the point after which they never really put out anything guaranteed to get into the top three. So really the PSB imperial phase only lasted 18 months or so. But I love the idea that Neil Tennant, despite the fact he's had numerous successful albums before and since then, regards that spell of amazing singles as PSB's peak period.
REM is another good example. I love everything they did Murmur to Automatic but Richie is right - they only really had two or three years when they were absolutely on top of their game in terms of guaranteed commercial and critical adulation, around Out Of Time and Automatic for the People - interesting that this is the period when they didn't tour!
Introspective...
...is PSBs biggest selling album worldwide, even though it came out after the imperial phase. I also believe Go West is their biggest selling single worldwide, coming out some five or six years after the imperial phase of hit singles.
Behaviour seems to be the point that PSB were no longer dominant pop stars. It was quite a strange period for PSB fans. As Tennant has mentioned himself, people were expecting them to release a rave-culture record and instead they came back with Behaviour. I remember as a teenager waiting forever for Behaviour to come out, only to be really disappointed. Of course, it's now regarded by many as their best album.
They also did the Performance tour, which as I recall from attending two of the shows, totally baffled a great deal of fans at the time.
Macca...
... McCartney to Ram.
Kate Bush....
Kick Inside to Aerial
King Crimson
Larks' to Red
Yes - Album to Close
Roxy Music - 1st to Avalon
The Fall
Perverted By Languge to I Am Kurious Oranj.
Also known as The Brix Years.
The Fall
Dragnet to Imperial Wax Solvent :-)
Mark E. Smith
From the soup kitchen to the bus station.
Via
the Police Station.
Grateful Dead
Live/Dead to Europe '72
Belle & Sebastian
Tigermilk to Arab Strap.
Traditionally, the Stones
'Beggars Banquet' to 'Goats' Head Soup'.
HJHs
Noone's mentioned The Beatles yet......
good
!
Doesn't apply to them as their entire career was
one long imperial phase.
Jam
Imperial Phase started at 'All Mod Cons' and ran to The Gift (ie the end), plus Bitterest Pill & Beat Surrender singles.
You just get that nagging feeling that in 1983 they WOULD have become The Style Council, but with two people who really didn't want to be there.
Van Morrison
Common One -> Enlightenment
Helluva decade.
You won't like the new Greil Marcus book ...
He dismisses everything from 'Common One' to 'Days Like This'.
Yeah,
but what does he know, eh? :-)
Greil Schmeil
What's he ever done for us?
Jackson Browne 1972-4
The first three albums. With a possible extension to include the next two, some may say. (Not me, though.)
Depeche Mode 1987 - 1993
Before this period, they were a good pop band banging out hit singles and releasing a new album every year. Then they went global and had three massive albums and tours.
This success hurt them but after that, they have kept things together and slowed down - and the quality remains, but a band in their ascendancy and then at the crest of a wave are a joy to behold.
ELO
From Eldorado to Out Of The Blue
Madness -
- second only to The Beatles in their run of imperial singles - from The Prince through to One Better Day.
SOFT CELL - HUMAN LEAGUE mini-imperial phases
81-82 – Tainted Love, Bedsitter, Say Hello Wave Goodbye, Torch, What
- all top 10 and all absolute classics
- after this they appeared to actively seek obscurity (though “Art of Falling Apart” has some great moments)
The Human League had a similar run of five top tens from Love Action through to Fascination – and nearly misses either side of this run (“Sound of the Crowd” – 12 and “Lebanon” – 11)
Couldn't agree more about the 'Cell
Although I think the Art of Falling Apart had many fine moments, including the criminally-ignored Where the Heart Is, which is up there with Torch and Say Hello...in terms of great songness, but their time had passed and there's not much that can be done.
Where they self-imploded was the third LP, This Last Night in Sodom. I love this record - it is one of the most interesting records ever made - but it certainly was not a platter for the pop kids of 1983/4. It was Soft Cell's "My Lovely Horse", in that it told everyone not to expect any more hit singles from this band.
The Johnny Thunders cover, Down in the Subway, was just about passable as the first hit single but the follow-up Soul Inside was definitely not. No real tune or danceable rhythm, lots of angst-ridden shouting from a particularly off-key Marc Almond. TOTP trying to replicate a party atmosphere to that song was very amusing.
It was not Metal Machine Music, but it was a record that was so difficult to get through, particulalry for the "Tainted Love" fans, that it seemed to be asking for directions to the Dumper.
Soul Inside
…is one of their best and I always felt that a remix would have faired quite well in with the Ibiza generation. I’ve had Last Night in Sodom on my ipod for a while now and ‘pon your advice will give it another spin.
Culture Club
Do You Really Want to Hurt Me
to
It's A Miracle
I know that the subsequent song "War" was a top 3 single, but it was a heap of crud - and dropped like a stone immediately. Frankie were top dogs by then.
Frankie also had a brief Indian Summer when "Rage Hard" followed up the Pleasuredome singles and entered the charts at a high position - but somehow we all knew that their time had come and gone.
Rage Hard…
…clearly didn’t have the blockbuster status or shock value of Frankie’s earlier singles, but it does have a certain subtlety and has rather grown on me over the years (it sounds a little bit like Bowie should have sounded like in the mid-80s)
The Undertones singles:
Teenage Kicks: October, 1978 - UK #31
Get Over You: February, 1979 - UK #57
Jimmy Jimmy: April, 1979 - UK #16
Here Comes The Summer: July, 1979 - UK #34
You've Got My Number (Why Don't You Use It?): October, 1979 - UK #32
My Perfect Cousin: April, 1980 - UK #9