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(2021) Missing Persons - The Album Collection (Rubellan Remasters)
Review:
All three classic Missing Persons remastered and expanded CD reissues. Famed as much for their video-ready space age image as for their music, the Los Angeles-based new wave outfit Missing Persons formed in 1980, a year after the marriage of singer Dale Bozzio and her husband, drummer Terry.
A one-time member of Frank Zappa’s backing band, Terry Bozzio met the former Dale Consalvi (an ex-Playboy Bunny) at a Hollywood recording studio; after founding Missing Persons – initially dubbed U.S. Drag – the couple recruited fellow Zappa alumnus Warren Cuccurullo on guitar and Patrick O’Hearn on bass, and with classically trained keyboardist Chuck Wild in tow, they began playing area clubs. In 1981, the band released its self-titled debut EP; after signing to Capitol, the label reissued the record in 1982, and the singles “Words” and “Destination Unknown” both nearly hit the Top 40. Their videos also helped Missing Persons find success on the fledgling MTV network, where Dale Bozzio’s hiccuping voice and campy look (comprised of shocking-pink hair and sci-fi outfits capped off with Plexiglass bras) combined with the group’s synth-driven songs to make them naturals for heavy rotation. Later in 1982, the group issued its first full-length album, Spring Session M (an anagram of their name), which launched the underground smash “Walking in L.A.”
After 1984’s Rhyme and Reason notched only a minor hit with the single “Give,” Missing Persons enlisted Chic’s Bernard Edwards to produce 1986’s dance-pop effort Color in Your Life; the album stiffed, however, and both the band and the Bozzios themselves broke up. While Dale Bozzio issued one solo album on Prince’s Paisley Park label, Terry Bozzio went on to work with Jeff Beck; Cuccurullo, meanwhile, joined Duran Duran, O’Hearn recorded several instrumental new age albums, and Wild composed music for films and television.
Spring Session M [1982]
In 1982, Missing Persons established themselves on the new wave pop scene by loading up their hair with shocking pink dye and enough hairspray to tear a hole in the ozone layer big enough to poke a small parking garage through, programming a few synthesizers to play hyper dance-pop, scrambling their band name into Spring Session M, and scrawling those words across the jacket of their first full length record. The band scored one hit single from the album, “Walking in L.A.,” which is the catchiest effort on the record. The two singles from their self-titled debut EP, “Destination Unknown” and “Words,” are both tolerable. But the rest of Spring Session M is somewhat overwhelmed by the Cyndi Lauper screechiness of lead singer Dale Bozzio’s vocals, Warren Cuccurullo’s wailing guitars, and the relentless chirpiness of the keyboards and synthesizers, of which there are so many that it took three band members (Terry Bozzio, Chuck Wild, and Patrick O’Hearn) to manage them all.
1 Noticeable One 3:25
2 Windows 5:02
3 It Ain’t None Of Your Business 2:57
4 Destination Unknown 3:41
5 Walking In L.A. 4:01
6 U.S. Drag 3:38
7 Tears 4:24
8 Here And Now 3:30
9 Words 4:28
10 Bad Streets 3:43
11 Rock And Roll Suspension 2:37
12 No Way Out 2:46
13 I Like Boys 2:40
14 Mental Hopscotch 3:17
15 Hello, I Love You 2:20
16 Action Reaction 2:51
Rhyme & Reason [1984]
Though some consider this to be Missing Persons’ best album, it is, in essence, a catalog of flawed ambition and missed opportunities. For other, more sober critics, the band’s moment had passed and they were in serious danger of outstaying their welcome. Trite rock songs such as “Surrender Your Heart” did little to assuage that opinion. The one clawback is “Give,” the least obvious and least expansive track on a record that singularly fails to adhere to those values elsewhere.
1 The Closer That You Get 4:55
2 Give 4:55
3 Now Is The Time (For Love) 3:40
4 Surrender Your Heart 4:23
5 Clandestine People 3:01
6 Right Now 3:30
7 All Fall Down 3:25
8 Racing Against Time 3:26
9 Waiting For A Million Years 5:24
11 Fight For Life 5:17
12 Give (Dance Mix) 6:43
13 If Only For The Moment (Full Version) 4:54
Color In Your Life [1986]
Produced by Bernard Edwards (of Chic fame), Color in Your Life saw Missing Persons apply further cosmetic surgery to their already highly commercial sound. Funk was a touchstone currency of the new romantic movement, and Missing Persons accommodated it with more dexterity than some, but that’s not saying much. Dale Bozzio’s voice flounders in this unsympathetic environment, and the band play like they know the game is up — and it was. Dale, who had long-since romantically disentangled herself from husband Terry Bozzio, moved on to release a solo record on Prince’s Paisley Park label.
1 Color In Your Life 5:01
2 I Can’t Think About Dancin’ 5:16
3 No Secrets 4:29
4 Flash Of Love 4:15
5 Go Against The Flow 5:55
6 Boy I Say To You 4:39
7 Come Back For More 3:42
8 Face To Face 3:33
9 We Don’t Know Love At All 5:02
10 Hot To Cold (Album Outtake) 3:41
11 It's A Must (Album Outtake) 4:34
12 I Can’t Think About Dancin’ (Single Version) 4:17
13 I Can’t Think About Dancin’ (Extended Version) 5:43
14 I Can’t Think About Dancin’ (Dub Version) 5:11
Media Report:
Genre: new wave
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits |
