The B-52's - Mesopotamia (1981)

When The B-52's burst onto the music scene in 1978 with 'Rock Lobster' they epitomized the retro dayglo orange fun of the late seventies. With that single and 'Planet Claire' they had mixed twangy guitar lines, kooky organs and beehive hairdos into a sweet and frothy confection, filling college dance floors and even making inroads onto mainstream radio. As the eighties dawned, they went looking for ways to expand their musical range, and assert their willingness to take artistic risks without abandoning their abiding commitment to the groove that moves. To help them make the transition from New Wave to Post Punk they enlisted the help of David Byrne, hoping he might do for them what Brian Eno had done for The Talking Heads, securing their place as critical darlings while paving the way for further commercial success. By the time that Byrne came to work with the band in 1982, he had fully absorbed Eno's interest in African polyrythms and analogue synthesizers, and was already beginning work on his first solo effort, a score for Twyla Tharp's dance company that he would call 'The Catherine Wheel'. He soon stripped the band's sound down to a dancey, primitive beat, with the kitschy guitar lines making way for sleek synthesized bass lines, brass arrangements, and inventive percussion effects of the kind that were beginning to emerge from the nascent hip hop scene in New York. The resulting sound was considerably darker and more atonal than the band's earlier efforts, full of angular, abstract grooves that stood in stark contrast to the increasingly earthy and distinctly southern sensuality of Kate Pierson's and Cindy Wilson's vocals. It was adventurous, challenging music, but perhaps more reflective of Byrne's private preoccupations of the time than the interests of the band or its record company. 

At some point, the band and the producer fell out with one another and the sessions were abandoned, and to recoup some of the costs, six of the most fully developed tracks were released as the 'Mesopotamia' EP in 1981. In general it has been regarded as a misstep by the band's fans, and when it came for a CD reissue it was completely remixed to remove any sign of Bryne's involvement, and it is this sanitized version which is today most readily available. However, back in 1982 initial copies of the EP were released on the Island Record label in the UK and parts of Europe that included Byrne's longer, dubbier, and altogether more interesting mixes of several tracks, offering a brief glimpse of what The B-52's' third album might well have sounded like had Bryne been allowed to complete the project. Some of the tracks are noticeably longer, with the title track adding an extra three and a half minutes, while 'Cake' gains nearly two minutes more music. By adding in the 'Queen Of Las Vegas' out-take from the sessions we have the full album that Byrne would have made with the B-52's, and whether you're an avid fan of the band or just a casual listener, this is definitely worth hearing to see how the band had initially tried to progress their career to a new level. 

Track listing

01 Loveland 
02 Deep Sleep 
03 Mesopotamia 
04 Cake
05 Throw That Beat In the Garbage Can
06 Nip it In the Bud
07 Queen Of Las Vegas

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