Japan - Adolescent Sex (1978)

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Japan - Adolescent Sex (1978)

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Most people will land on this album by way of researching David Sylvian, Japan, et al. If you are interested in that vein, this is probably not your wisest first shot. If however, you have a craving for long-neglected, trashy, mascara-drippin' rock (guitars that cross Sly Stone with Sticky Fingers-era Stones, sneering heroin vocals, androgyny and alienation) you won't find a better album. This is L.A. gutter rock at its finest. The contradiction (for this IS the band Japan and the singer IS David Sylvian) is that Japan started out as a bunch of 15-year old south London boys fixated on Bowie, T-Rex and Motown. They recorded two "hard rock" albums (this and "Obscure Alternatives") before discovering Roxy Music and their true, sublime calling with "Quiet Life." They disowned those first two albums as the shady manipulation of producers and managers, but the fact is that "Adolescent Sex" in particular is greasy, sleazy and brimming with furious talent. The album bombed, despite enormous record company hype. It was released just as punk was peaking and nobody had time for this kind of loud, tacky glamour anymore. Nobody namechecks the album, but you can hear it in LA Guns, GunsNRoses, Suede, and others. The best tracks on the album (the wicked blaxploitation funk of "The Unconventional", the hammy soul of "Wish You Were Black" and the georgous synthesizers on "Television" and "Suburban Love") can make you wish that the 70s never ended, that life should be one long cocaine-fueled sex party. The arrangements are watertight, the playing verges on brilliant, and the whole collection is encased in a humid, throroughly-analog mix. It is a true guilty pleasure for those of us who think we've outgrown such things.