Visage Album: “Anvil [Bonus Tracks]”

Close your eyes for just a moment. You're wearing rather martial black leather trousers, coat and hat; your jackboots are shined to a spit-polish. You're sitting in a dark, high-ceilinged parlor with a group of classical friends and statues...the men and women are beautiful in powder and rouge. Somewhere, a lone piano echoes a plaintive song - and dissolves into the pounding throb of machine music. It's 1982, and few bands crystallized the New Romantic trend as well as Visage did. Vocalist/model (or was it model/vocalist?) Steve Strange added his effete talents to the band (which at times included Dave Formula and Ultravox's Midge Ure and Billy Currie). Look past Strange's dated and extreme couture and you'll find strong electronic musicianship that deserves a second, third, and fourth listen. Just listen...with the lights out.

Huh. Am I glad I worked in a music store in 1997 and bought this CD. And it was so easy to get then, we stocked it at the time. In 1983 I recall only liking Side A. Years later it's still far better than Side B, but the rest of the cuts have grown respectable with distance, possibly due to nostalgia for the synthesized music of that era. This CD edition towers super-hard over the original LP simply for including "We Move (Dance Mix)" (Right On...) and "Frequency 7 (Dance Mix)", the latter being a particularly amazing analog-synth instrumental freak-fest. I always imagine Midge Ure ditching decorum for these five minutes to help invent the future of electronic music.

I love "Frequency 7". And "The Damned Don't Cry".

Darkness at its finest, still fresh after all these years. I have the antique original tape! Unfortunately, the additional dance remixes on the CD are no good. But what a treat that this is finally available. The reissue of "Fade to Grey" is wonderful too.

1982: Imagine listening to "The Damned Don't Cry" or "Wild Life," flying through the night in a very fast car under a full moon in Yellowstone National Park, on a winding road disappearing over the horizon. Takes me right back to sweet mountain air surging through my veins, hair pulled in streamers by the wind, the mystery in the vast space under the stars. The hot springs wait, mists rising. In the blue light, hidden, historic gravestones of drifters are lost to time and memory, the sharp scent of sage blows down the valley. Death and life dance in the balance. "Sisters of Mercy" is about the only other group to get this sharp beauty. This is a classic, vintage, yet new, due to pure creative genius.

The deep vocals and darkness of "Sisters of Mercy" must be heard:

This album begins with the anthemic "The Damned Don't Cry" (which by the way was the title of a Joan Crawford film noir flick, just one gay reference that this album conjures up). This is definitely late night gay prowling music if I ever heard it. "The Anvil" indeed was a hardcore gay club in New York. I especially like "Again We Love" and the closing "Whispers", a really lovely instrumental with, you guessed it, whispers in the mix. Visage - The Anvil is an unabashedly glamorous trip through the underground gay subculture as well as being an atmospheric early '80s snapshot of synthpop at its peak. In other words, this is perfect club music.

Wow....What a price jump anyone who would pay $400.00 for a very good condition cd is crazy unless your a millionaire, and have nothing else to do with your money.I will wait for the re-issue version thank you.Otherwise great album Visage is one of my favorite new wave groups from the 80's. Good Luck to the sellers