THOMAS DOLBY "THE FLAT EARTH" POLL

Screen Kiss vs. Flat Earth FITE...

I've never really been able to decide between those.

"Flat Earth."

The album version of "Hyperactive" loses because of the fade out--if any song demands to come to a screeching halt (like it does in the video/remix), it's this one.

"i scare myself"

"I Scare Myself". This album is by no means as good as the debut.

too many genuine shiver up the spine moments on this album.
i'm having to really think as to where i place my vote.

when i was finishing my dissertation last summer, i put this album on after being awake for god knows how long and just started straight BAWLING when "the flat earth" began. everything about that song is perfect.

great recent footage of td performing "the flat earth"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNIQrIXlrNw

thats from the new(ish) DVD/CD which was recorded at the Martyrs/chicago gig i went to.
t'was a great night.

"The Flat Earth" gets my vote, even though there are a few underdogs I'm tempted to boost (Mulu, Dissidents). Not fond of I Scare Myself -- for me, it seems like the beginning of TD's dabbling in genres to which he doesn't have much new to bring (see also "The Ability to Swing.")

i saw this at a record fair for 1 euro yesterday and am now kicking myself for not picking it up...

i'll bloody kick you as well if you do that again.
good grief.
if i ever see if one euro, i'll buy it and send it to you.
this album, like the debut, so needs a proper reissue treatment.
(as we've discussed elsewhere it looks like this will never happen)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

mulu is sick. somebody vote mulu. this album is balearic as hell.

"The Flat Earth", but might just as easily have gone with "Screen Kiss". Positively Hockneyesque, that one.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I dig these results! Flat Earth just barely edges out Screen Kiss...and that's how I voted, too.

I got this album for a couple of bucks thinking I would just take a punt...and it's great! What else is like this?

Or...what else is like "The Flat Earth" and "Screen Kiss". I guess it is kind of an "Avalon"/David Sylvian vibe

he's kind of a babe in the 'dissidents' video

as to your qn: try it's immaterial's 'song' lp

he's kind of a babe in the 'dissidents' video

for real

What a very lovely album...Perfect for a balmy summers night...hate the 80's music press for being so snide against him...

Born 1958, with The Flat Earth out in 1984, amazing to me that he wrote "Screen Kiss" at 25 or 26.

Unreal. That song is a whole damn movie

I've had this conversation a couple of times:

"This is great, what is it?"

"The Flat Earth by Thomas Dolby"

"wait...its not *that* Thomas Dolby is it?"

i love this album

i'm glad i found it a few years back.

now when i think of t dolby, the first thing that pops into my head is:

LIKE AN IRON FIST!

that has replaced:

SCIENCE!

i feel like that's a good upgrade to the quality of my brain content

those two songs on Flat Earth are probably his best but Golden Age of Wireless is still my go-to. I remember hearing the ending part of "Windpower" for the first time and thinking "shit, another one-hit wonder whose entire catalogue I need to explore"

Appreciate how "She Blinded Me with Science" might have led to uninformed dismissal, yet he continued to mix in the oddball songs: Hyperactive!, Airhead, The Toad Lickers, etc. I wonder if his output would have been different with wider appreciation? He seems like he's happily marched to his own interests, and it wouldn't have mattered.

"flying north" is my go-to dolby, the only one of his i've heard that reaches the swoonworthiness of his buddy paddy mcaloon's songs

i appreciate "swoon-worthy" isn't always or even usually what he's going for, but still

What do you think of "Budapest by Blimp"? That's definitely Sprout-tinged.

oh btw anyone who loves "Screen Kiss" should at least check out "17 Hills" on his latest album

What do you think of "Budapest by Blimp"? That's definitely Sprout-tinged.

― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Friday, April 16, 2021 11:20 AM (thirty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh yeah, definitely has echoes but the vibe is slightly undermined by the slap bass lol

What do you think of "Budapest by Blimp"? That's definitely Sprout-tinged.

the crowd singalong section always sends shivers all over.
absolutely love this song.

Budapest By Blimp fucking rules including the slap bass

oh btw anyone who loves "Screen Kiss" should at least check out "17 Hills" on his latest album

Thanks for this - Spotifying _Map of the Floating City_ now, and enjoying it after a few years of not playing it.

xp i dig the slap bass, was specifically saying that those kinds of dancefloor-friendly touches are part of what distinguishes him from mcaloon

i am so used to the proper version of this so had a definite raised eyebrows moment when this remix was included on the recent(ish!) compilation.
had never heard of this remix being available, but i love it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VnGCkF7YPk

Love this track, although it’s nearly 30 years later feels like it would fit right in to The Flat Earth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7STUTxwdC5A

Wrong album, I know, but man I had such a crush on Adele Bertei after seeing this go out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAEiCA8dN_8

yeah, thats a really good track.
did you get the 25+ minute megamix of the Oceana stuff with remixes etc, 'Return To Oceana' ?
he announced it via the forum/website as part of a big online treasure hunt thing.
its rather lovely.

xpost.

No, will need to see if it’s on YouTube.

"Hyperactive" always reminds me of this song, in retrospect the similarities were definitely intentional. it even uses some of the same sounds!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LBUEYGfisQ

His book ‘Speed of Sound’ is a good read, not least his encounter with Michael Jackson. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/inside-michael-jacksons-mansion-thomas-dolby-recalls-surreal-visit-192458/

And of course, Dolby specifically wrote 'Hyperactive' to order for Jackson, sent him a demo, and then never heard anything back. He presumably brought Adele Bertei in on his own version to provide the MJ vocal stylings that he had heard in his imagination.

I listened to this for the first time only a couple months ago. The first three tracks on this are so great that the second half can't help but pale. I also don't get the inclusion of "Hyperactive" at the end, it clashes with the vibe of the album imo