The Times - Pop Goes Art

Virtually no mention of this album on ILM. I just listened to the expanded reissue and while the obvious highlight (I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape) is great, I can't say I love it though by the end it was growing on me. Thoughts?

I have heard the theory advanced that yer man from The Times must have incriminating photos of Alan McGee, because nothing else would explain Creation's commitment to releasing his records.

Ed Ball was a pioneer in the indie label scene and a personal hero to Alan McGee. He had a pretty important job at Creation so he released his records there during that time. Same as Joe Foster or Alan McGee did. The Times are obviously a hell of a lot better than just about any of the bands that were on Creation in the early days. I think he only released four solo albums on Creation anyway. The One I've got (If A Man Ever Loved A Woman) is a fine album.

Pop Goes Art is probably my favourite album by The Times. "It's Time" is probably my favourite song by them. I always think of it as a TV Personalities album with all the cynicism stripped from it. I really appreciate the positive vibe in all the songs. What's on the reissue? The version I have is the really old early 90s CD with "Go With The Times" on it as well. That's a cool album too. Heavier. That particular CD is suffering from CD rot sadly.

On further reflection Go With The Times is similar in style to And Don't The Kids Just Love It though not as good. It doesn't quite have the same energy though some of the tracks are brilliant. Pop Goes Art is similar to the earliest TVPs (the stuff collected on They Could've Been Bigger Than The Beatles", but slightly better overall. I guess it's more cohesive as an album since TCBBTTB is a compilation. As I understand it the line-up of the bands were more or less identical at this point.

Cool album. Has it been reissued?

Yep, with some other albums: http://www.cherryred.co.uk/other/product.php?display=times

All their albums I've heard, including this one, are patchy really. There's quite a lot of good stuff though. They could use a decent compilation - the kind that ignores albums and even skips whole chunks of their career.

The "Pirate Playlist" album is strangely addictive.

I pick that one up, one of these days.

actually, a 4CD box of the Times/TVPs/O-Level/Teenage Filmstars etc would be good way to take care of all your Ball/Treacy needs and tell their story over 20 or so years.

True. I imagine it would be a nightmare to do it properly as that would cover about 15 or 20 different record labels, publishing deals etc. The TVPs comps that have been put out over the years normally are pretty limited in their scope, I suspect for that reason. Also, wobbly quality control but whatever.

What are the good Teenage Filmstars albums/tracks? I've never got into them.

Propose a tracklisting for that box set!