Horribly before its time, unjustly ignored
5
By Anonymous Teenybopper
Coming at the tail end of the 1980s, when the early 1990s styles of hip hop and grunge were on the rise, Voices of Babylon's mix of Beatles-esque hooks and riffs with an energic pop rock backing was highly out of place. Later on, indie rock bands such as Teenage Fanclub, the Posies, Material Issue, et cetera of the mid to late 1990s would take the same style with a harder edge and sell loads of albums. It's a shame that the Outfield petered out in the public eye the way they did, since their music has such a popular style.
On to the tracks: As with Play Deep and Bangin', it seems as if basically every song could have been a single. The title track is a softer, more reflective pop song about people's love/hate relationship with the mass media- the 'Babylon' of our times. 'My Paradise' is a fun, party-based, strong and fast power pop song- it's my 2nd favorite out of the album. 'Part of Your Life' and Reach Out' are similar, although they're a bit less rock and more pop. 'The Night Ain't Over' is a wonderful romantic ballad. My favorite song is 'No Point'- it's about the grittiest, most bitter, and most vehement song the band has ever done, about a relationship that's regressed down into nothing (the closest I think they've gone to traditional rock and roll). It alone is worth the price of the whole album.
I recommend the whole album, or at least those six songs. You won't regret it!
One Of THE Best 80's Pop Albums
5
By DrimbleWedge
From the perspective of a musician/songwriter who would have LOVED to have my name on this effort,- 'Voices of Babylon' is a collection of incredibly inspired tunes with very inventive chord structures, vocal harmonies, and precisely executed music tracks. Yes - the lyrics often belong in the mind of a teenager, but, for pop music, it's really well done.
The songs are wonderfully hummable, there's energy in the music and vocal deliveries, and - overall - there's a great youthful urgency to the whole sound on this album. My tastes run all over the map - from Bizet's Carmen to Lena Lovitch 'Lucky Number' - and - even 20 years later - this is one of my all-time favorites.
