Record Reviews: "I Want To Be A Clone" By Steve Taylor
The Rock
March-April 1983 Issue 11
© 1983
Page 5
"I Want To Be A Clone" By Steve Taylor
So early in my career as a record reviewer (this is #2)... I find myself at a loss for words. The cause of this temporary inability to articulate, known among record reviewers as the "I-don't-know-what-it-is-but-I-like-it" syndrome, is a new album from Steve Taylor called "I Want to be a Clone". The fact of the matter is, the album just defies description. It simply will not conform to any known descriptive terms.
Not satisfied with the lack of information on Steve Taylor, I immediately arranged for an interview which, because of his touring schedule, will not take place until after the deadline for this article. For now, you just want to know whether or not to buy this album, right?
Well, here's my answer: If you are between the age of 2 and 40 and can handle anything harder than classical music, BUY IT! It has that amazing ability to cross nearly all barriers of musical taste. I'm convinced that the element responsible for this acceptance is raw energy. The whole album radiates it. The instrumentation is fairly basic: guitars, keyboards, drums, etc., but the sound is totally new and exciting. My vocabulary fails me beyond that. Oh, did I forget to mention the lyrics? Definitely not for the spiritually squeamish. Some of the topics covered are hardness of heart ("Whatever Happened to Sin?"), tithing ("Written Guarantee"), hypocrisy ("Bad Rap") just to name a few. The album has fewer songs than most (6), but many times the energy.
This one's a must for additions to your record collection in 1983!
