One thing I've realised over the past few months is that I am a big fan of anthemic post-punk. Some bands, like U2, managed to charm their audiences with an atmospheric sound and pick up a few hit singles. Some have become staples of 80s radio, whilst others, like U2, have become staples of modern culture.
Unfortunately, the best band to ever play this sound aren't as popular as these certain bands, even though many bands like Oasis have cited them as influences. They're the Chameleons, and even their Wikipedia page says they should have been more acclaimed. Mark Burgess's singing puts many to shame, and Reg Smithies and Dave Fielding combined to create a guitar sound that's timeless. All in all, they were a great band.
Strange Times
I managed to stumble across their music when listening to a playlist, when one of their songs Caution came up - a seven minute long track, magnificent and haunting throughout. This intrigued me enough to go on and listen to them more, and when I decided to listen to their third album Strange Times in its entirety, I was hooked. The songs overwhelm you with the sheer power of the guitars, which when coupled with Burgess's vocals creates music that could make even the most mundane subjects thrilling. It's both boastful and nostalgic, yet is also able to calm down and create a beautiful soundscape. The main example I have of this is Strange Times' "Side A+" - Time, The End of Time is anthemic, packed full of energy, but as the track becomes "Seriocity", it's immediately more wistful. Burgess goes from singing "Time" as if in front of an audience to singing as if alone. Yet Seriocity becomes In Answer becomes Childhood, and the energy returns, culminating in a rousing vocal before it crashes down and becomes I'll Remember, a formless peaceful instrumental (that is, until a pointless fade in ruins the effect). Much of this is obviously also down to John Lever's drumming, which is fantastic.
Strange Times is possibly one of my favourite 80s albums, but then again I have loads of them. It's consistent throughout and is maybe the best example of anthemic post-punk that I have heard. It's their most successful album by chart rankings, but at only 44th position on the main charts, it still didn't become that big a hit. The two singles, Tears and Swamp Thing, did chart in the low 80s, though - both are brilliant songs, the former more acoustic, the latter more proud.
The Other Two/Three
That's not to say they released nothing else in that time. Script of the Bridge is a beautiful album which at 57 minutes long manages to avoid sounding stale. Every track is brilliant, though some, like the stunning Second Skin, the thoughtful Thursday's Child (its chorus especially is beautiful and makes me feel nostalgic), and culminating with View From a Hill, initially melancholic yet ending with a rather nice instrumental, heavy drumming combined with floating guitar lines. And that's not even mentioning Don't Fall, Monkeyland, Up the Down Escalator, As High As You Can Go...it's astonishing how great this album is.
What Does Anything Mean? Basically has a rather clunky title in comparison, and though it has its share of great tracks like Perfume Garden and Singing Rule Britannia, I don't come back to it all too often. A notable exception is PS Goodbye, the closing track, which is brilliant - it's somewhat dream pop-like with a synth and echoing guitars, but it only truly gets great when Lever starts drumming. If anything, I'd argue that this album was too similar to Script and Strange Times, and thus doesn't stand out to me.
Unfortunately, The Chameleons only released three albums in their heyday - in 1987, their manager Tony Fletcher died, and they soon broke up. It's a shame because these three albums alone make up one of the best discographies from the 1980s, sounding both heartfelt and euphoric - grander than anything U2, the more successful "atmospheric post-punk" band, ever released. They did briefly reunite and released their fourth album, Why Call It Anything? in 2000, but I haven't got round to listening to it.
Unexpectedly, however, they even released an EP titled Where Are You?, and by this point they've now had three major releases with questions in the title. But the more important aspect is that this means The Chameleons are back together - they're releasing an album later this year! It was far more laidback than their previous work, and the guitar didn't really kick the songs into life all that often, so I was a bit disappointed by it. I suppose I'm not all too big a fan of acoustic rock. The band is also quite different now; Fielding and Lever aren't present, with Lever sadly dying in 2017. Burgess's voice was still as strong as ever, though, so that was good.
Looking Inwardly
The only thing I'd nitpick about The Chameleons is that their sound didn't change all too much compared to other bands, apart from getting darker towards the end - Strange Times has the brooding Caution and the powerful Soul in Isolation after all. That's not a bad thing - I'd much prefer if the music was stellar rather than experimental - but I sometimes feel I could shift the songs between the albums and get a similar end result. But thirty-two excellent songs means I need not worry about that.
I have heard about the acoustic versions of songs by The Chameleons, and after listening to some of them, they confirm just how great the songwriting is. I personally prefer noisier guitars, though I don't mind the more subdued versions. They even released an album full of them, called Strip.
There's also the artwork, which is sometimes quite unusual and I often critique cover art in my reviews heavily, but the music more than makes up for how unsettling it can be.
PS Goodbye
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