DRASTIC PLASTIC

Drastic Plastic was the regrettable swan song album for Be Bop Deluxe; Bill Nelson had seemingly exhausted his contributions for the band. The music was heavily electrical for sure, but the album has a combination of wonderful songs which, whilst are not prog per say, did nonetheless show experimental progression heading towards the new wave era but at the same time retained the band's musical rock roots.

There's not a bad track on Drastic Plastic, however there are a couple of highlights to compare favourably alongside the band's best earlier work, namely: "Dangerous Strangers", "Islands of the Dead" and the sublime "Japan", the latter which only appeared on the US LP release unfortunately (however it can be found now on the compilation CD "Raiding The Divine Archive")

I was lucky enough to see the band tour this album but alas it was to be the end of the road for what seemed a magical combination of rock and musical innovation. I spent many a following year exploring the earlier albums. The band were very talented and have retained a special place in my memory, mainly because of my initial introduction to Drastic Plastic.

4 stars for the sheer enjoyment the album continues to give me.