Worm Salad

Overall Album Score: 8.5 out of 10

Man!!! Why do such good bands have to be forgotten like this??? I mean, has anybody, ever in the world hear of Fischer-Z? ... I exaggerate of course, but this isn't exactly a household name!

Riding on the coattails of various New Wave groups such as The Talking Heads and Japan and (sometimes) The Police ...... and also right at the helm of the then-developing New Romantic movement, Fischer-Z proves to be quite a fun and dynamic band. Of course, they're not nearly as groundbreaking or important as those aforementioned bands, but ........... Fischer-Z is still pretty dang good.

John Watts, the principle member of this band, should be commended for his really nice display of songwriting here. About three of these songs, in particular, have THREE melody/harmony lines. That's something that I rarely ever see in music ... Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" is another good example of having three melody/harmony lines, but ... wow, Fischer-Z's utilization of that is even more impressive than even McCartney's. ...Of course, that's not an original invention, but too few musicians ever really do that in such a way!

Perhaps Fischer-Z had to do this because they didn't manage to land a very good record deal that would have allowed them to make more POLISHED songs. That's unfortunate, too, because some of these might have sounded nice on the mainstream radio.

SO, the New Wave movement was cool, this album has a lot of excellent & fun songs in it, (it gets a bit soggy in the middle, but ... oh well). This is a good piece of guilty pleasure! I look forward to listening to the rest of Fischer-Z's catalogue.

Overall Album Score: 8.5 out of 10 (A very good and very fun album! It might not be as studio-polished as would be ideal, but most of these songs are just FUN.)

Average Song Score: 8.6 (Good songs! There are more catchy melodies, awesome harmonies, and kick-butt druggy dance grooves than you can shake a fist at, baby!)

Album Tilt: 8.5 (It's a little dull at times, but for all those times that it's not dull, ... dudes. Why isn't this band famous?)

Artist Rating: 8.5 (This is New Wave music that has been done before plenty of times ...... but I would like to personally commend Fischer-Z for those songs that employ three part melody/harmony lines. Im. Press. Ive.)

Track Reviews

Pretty Paracetamol 9/10

After an intricate search on the Internet, I came to the conclusion that "Paracetamol" is an actual word that has to do with something about medicine. But putting that aside, I've also come to the conclusion that everything having to do with the New Wave movement in the late 70s and early 80s was awesome!! Anything with such a druggy yet danceable jerky beat and some dreary electric guitar and synths going off in the background is awesome. Fortunately, this song also has a pretty catchy melody.

Acrobat 8/10

Verrrry fast paced and kinda dumb & pompous, but I still kinda like it. For all the glory of the New Wave movement.

The Worker 10/10

COOL!!! I love this song not because it's catchy (semi-ska) melody, but there's like three melody/harmony lines going at the same time!!! Isn't that cool???? Why shouldn't this band be famous? ... WHY SHOULD THIS BAND BE FORGOTTEN???? ***THREE*** MELODY/HARMONY LINES AT THE SAME TIME!!!!! AND THAT'S NOT EVEN INCLUDING THE SKA RIFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spiders 9/10

Really, a verrrry rollicking tune that reminds me quite pleasantly of the Sparks!! Anything that pleasantly reminds me of the Sparks is super in my book! A good melody, exciting (but not intricate) instrumentation, and ... just a good song!

Remember Russia 7/10

Unfortunately, this is a dull and plodding ska song ....... but I do like the little explosion at the end. ... We totally should have nuked Russia when we had the chance.

The French Let Her 7/10

Another rather disappointing song, after hearing a few of those excellent ones at the beginning of this thing. This is even of the danceable variety of song from the New Wave period in the late 70s and ... ho hum.

Lies 9/10

'Tis a silly song! I really enjoy the chorus; the desperate cries of "LIES" is both silly and dramatic. And the jerky New Wave (later New Romantic) beat is too awesome! And the conflicting synth noises just sound neat. The dialogue probably could have been cut out, but I suppose the purpose of this song was to be a novelty number. It's pretty good when taken on those terms, though I suppose it wasn't mad enough to have been accepted by Dr. Demento. This is pretty mad, though. And wonderfully mad.

Wax Dolls 10/10

John Watts really is good at developing melody/harmony lines when he puts his mind to it! This is another really nice song that has about three melody/harmony lines! HOW NEAT!!! And I really enjoy this jerky, drugged up, and completely danceable beat! Again WHY ISN'T THIS BAND FAMOUS????? ... This song is so neat!!!

Healines 9.5/10

Oh man!! What a nice rhythm!! And a really catchy melody and harmony, too! ... This doesn't quite have three melody/harmony lines, but ... THIS IS ANOTHER GREAT SONG!!!!!!! It's danceable, the instrumentation is fun'n'quirky and you cannot argue with such a catchy melody. Again, why the #*$*#&$*#*$&#&$ isn't this band famous? A group of nerds somewhere should give this band cult status. They're too cool to ignore until the end of time.

Nice to Know 9/10

WHAT THE CRAP!!! ANOTHER EXCELLENT SONG??!?????!???!???? I am absolutely dazzled by this (yet) another entrancing three melody/harmony lines. And the song, AGAIN, is verrrrrrrrrry fun and verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry catchy and ... dudes. Seriously. Why isn't this band famous. CATCHY MELODIES! COME ONNNNNNN!!! (That said, the song got a lowish score of a 9 for a not-that-great instrumental thing at the end, but the song is still cool.)

Billy and the Motorway Police 8.5/10

Okay ... I swear I'm not intentionally knocking off every successive song another half point, but ... this is a cool song, but it's not *excellent*. ... Gotta dig all this New Wave stuff, baby ...... Easily one of my favorite movements in the history of rock-and-roll.

Lemmings 7.5/10

Hmmmm... not so great an album closer. Although this is danceable and kinda fun, the melody isn't all that catchy. Considering all the catchy melodies we've been hearing in the album, we all had just might as well forget THIS ONE. The album ended with "Billy and the Motorway Police." Okay? ... Although, I like this song's title. More songs should be titled "Lemmings."

Ever wantta commentta on your opinnionnna of the Fischer-Z here?

vpc@optusnet.com.au (Prince Vince) received Nov. 25, 2005

Great album, brings back fond memories of my discerning taste way back in 1979!! What's the "Worm Salad" caption reference though??

Don Ignacio responds: Just one of my signature idiotic puns.