Disco de Gang of Four: “Hard/Solid Gold”

I find the reviews here to be somewhat revisionist in their take on this double lp CD. Hard WAS commercially viable, scoring a fairly big pop hit with "Is it Love". It is really a fun album with lots or classic ironic GO4 lyrics and a fair sprinkling of the now fully developed lacerating guitar sound (Gill took his guitar sound to the logical extreme on Songs of the Free). Nearly every british post-punk band went in this basic direction, Captain Sensible scored big pop hits with his funk-rap and pure pop, 999 was a seminal punk band that went farther into disco with "13th Floor madness", Japan began their career with the most unstoppable mix of disco and snarl perhaps ever in the late 70's. The list goes on and not all went to funk/soul, some just went pop. Take American bands like Bad Religion (Into the Unknown is folk pop) and TSOL (not sure what Beneath the Shadows is but I think they may have been trying to copy the Damned's Strawberries). By 1983 there was no where to go with post-punk in England and not much of an audience. With the rise of Hardcore and bands like Discharge and GBH, you would have to get harder to try to fit in and the kids would have laughed at it, seeing GO4 as posuer old men, like they did the Stranglers.

Let's remember that Solid Gold was probably the reason they turned more pop for Songs of the Free. It was not very successful and I did not know many folks that liked it back then. I find the Yellow EP to be the best of their early "darker" sound. Solid Gold almost has none of the melody and hooks that all 3 of their other lps have, including Entertainment. It was a tough listen in the early 80's with all that was coming out at the same time. Sure, now that the Ramone are considered heroes instead of the zeroes they were seen as at the time by the masses, Solid Gold deserves a listen. But when people say GO4 was a huge influence etc, they are usually talking about Entertainment and Songs of the Free, even though they may not admit it now. Why do you think it took so long to put it on CD in the US? It didn't sell! It was the truly failed experiment, sadly.

All in all, this is a great CD from start to end and worth having. Songs of the Free is an absolute must as well as the US pressing of Entertainment (if only for the 4 song Yellow EP included which has different recordings of the 2 songs that made it onto Solid Gold).

solid gold is basically entertainment's unsociable brother. the same elements that made entertainment! great are still there, but they're hidden behind walls of reverb, dischord, and an overall darker approach. those qualities combine to make solid gold a sometimes uncomfortable listen, but an intriguing one when you're in the right mood. gill's guitar playing is more colorful than it ever was, the allen/burnham rhythm section is powerful & tight, and king sings with passion throughout. music like this can only come from the type of self analyzation where you realize that you don't like the world you're in, but there's not a thing you can do to change it...and then managing to find humor in the situation. a rewarding album that deserves as much attention as entertainment. (note:...i've never listened to hard & nothing i've heard from it on compilations would ever compel me to do so.)

As far as I'm concerned, this gets 5 stars just for the re-release of "Why Theory", a song that, criminally, the Young have yet to hear, and one that redefined my then-teenie-bop idea of syncopation. "He'd Send in the Army" and "Is It Love" come in close behind as old faves.

And if you're new to them, you must get their "History of the 20th Century" for the classic "Anthrax"!

i have yet to understand why solid gold has been over looked as gang of fours best. yes the critics go on about entertainment, and yes its a great debut. but this the one were it all comes together. the two records are in the same style-disjointed rhythms, great bass work, atonal guitar. the first one is little poppier and on this one they got weirder(the sign of a great band)and the songs are just stronger. the filler songs work. unlike on the first one(entertainment)with bores like 5.45,guns before butter, and glass.the songs here are solid gold! now who knows why somebody put this together with hard(to listen to). i think most people will be buying this for one of the two but not both. so ignore hard and get solid gold if you like unique music,or if you dig entertainment. get this its better!

At the time of "Hard" & "Songs of The Free" most fans of the Gang of Four's new direction as a descent into trite pop/new wave fare. However, I enjoyed both albums, as I was not one of those teenage males too caught up in the punk masculinity mystique to venture out into other musical genres. Many other groups (The Stranglers, The Damned...) were doing the same thing, after punk seemed to have exhausted its possibilities. The Gang of Four did it quite well, even if they didn't reach pop stardom like Billy Idol in their attempt.

I like both albums, my quibble with this release is that they are mismatched. "Hard" is better of coupled with "Songs of The Free" than "Solic Gold", not to mention that it is completely unavailable on CD. Whoever put this together did a poor job. Why didn't Rhino release this? No extras to the album tracks (live, non-lp stuff), hence the deduction of 1 star.