The Golden Age of Wireless is the debut album by Thomas Dolby. Matrix / Runout (Runout side B stamped): 07607-B1.Matrix / Runout (Runout side A stamped): 07607-A1.Still later pressings switch off between the long and short versions of She Blinded. Replaces the full-length Airwaves found here with a 7" version, and includes a different version of Radio Silence.Ī later US version then dropped Urges and Leipzig and instead added She Blinded Me With Science and One Of Our Submarines. Later pressings differ from this one in a variety of ways, but most notably:įirst US issue (but second issue overall on Harvest):ĭrops The Wreck Of The Fairchild, but adds Urges and Leipzig which were taken from an early single. The version found on the B-side of the Airwaves 7" single fades early making it about 5 seconds shorter. This full-length version of The Wreck Of The Fairchild found here is unique to this pressing, which continues the radio frequency tones directly into Airwaves without a break. This is the first European version of the LP as released in early 1982 in the UK. Written-By – Thomas Dolby (tracks: A1, A3 to B4).
Windpower Brass, Flute – Simon LloydDrum Programming – TMDRVocals – John Marshįlying North Backing Vocals – Lesley FairbairnDrum Programming – TMDRGuitar – Dave BirchPercussion – Justin Hildreth Radio Silence Backing Vocals – Akiko YanoMixed By – TMDRMixed By, Synthesizer – Daniel MillerĬloudburst At Shingle Street Backing Vocals – James Allen, Judy Evans, Lesley FairbairnVocals – Lene Lovich, Les Chappell Especially fine numbers include the amusing romp "Europa and the Pirate Twins" and the nostalgia-touched, just mysterious enough "One of Our Submarines.Europa And The Pirate Twins Backing Vocals – Les ChappellHarmonica – Andy PartridgePercussion – TMDR
Dolby's melodies are sprightly without being annoyingly perky, his singing warm, and his overall performance a pleasant gem. If anything, The Golden Age of Wireless is the friendlier, peppier flip side of fellow Bowie obsessive Gary Numan's work, where the melancholy is gentle instead of harrowing. The overall result is still first and foremost Dolby's, with echoes of David Bowie's and Bryan Ferry's elegantly wasted late-'70s personas setting the stage. Elsewhere, Andy Partridge contributes harmonica, Mute Records founding genius Daniel Miller adds keyboards, and Lene Lovich adds some vocals of her own. "She Blinded Me with Science" itself features Kevin Armstrong on guitar, Matthew Seligman on bass, mega-producer Robert "Mutt" Lange on backing vocals, and co-production with Tim Friese-Greene. Part of the album's overall appeal is the range of participating musicians, no doubt thanks in part to Dolby's own considerable range of musical work elsewhere. To Thomas Dolby's credit, the rest of the album isn't simply that song over and over again, making The Golden Age of Wireless an intriguing and often very entertaining curio from the glory days of synth pop. The most famous song from the reissued version of the album, it's a defiantly quirky, strange number that mixes its pop hooks with unusual keyboard melodies pitched very low and a recurrent spoken word interjection ("Science!") from guest vocalist/video star Magnus Pike. Talk to anyone who was the right age in the early '80s for both pop radio and the dawn of MTV, and "She Blinded Me with Science" will inevitably come up.