Amazing Adult Fantasy:Barnes & Barnes

Artist: Barnes & Barnes

Date Released: 1984

Label: Rhino / Oglio (reissue)

Produced By: Barnes & Barnes

Tracklisting: (Tracks 4, 15, 17-24 only on CD issue.)
 * 1) Learn To Kiss The Enemy
 * 2) Don't You Wanna Go To The Moon
 * 3) Modern Romantic Point Of View
 * 4) Blithering
 * 5) Nothing Funny
 * 6) I Don't Remember Tomorrow
 * 7) Life Is Safer When You're Sleeping
 * 8) Don't Be A Singer
 * 9) I Want To Live In Your Brain
 * 10) ZZ Top Beard
 * 11) Music Doesn't Matter
 * 12) Ah A
 * 13) The Little Man
 * 14) Music Spazchow
 * 15) You Can't Escape Your Destiny
 * 16) Bang Bang
 * 17) The Quiet Point
 * 18) Walk My Dog
 * 19) Life Is Harsh Reality
 * 20) The Ballad Of Jim Joy
 * 21) The Little Man (Original Version)
 * 22) Loch Ness Lady
 * 23) Oh Me Oh My
 * 24) The Inevitable Song (Second Version)

Review: This is Art Barnes' favorite Barnes & Barnes album, and it's one of mine as well. Barnes & Barnes said it wasn't intentional (and don't agree with me), but the original LP of this album tends to break pretty nicely into the A-side being the "pop" side and the B-side being the "comedy/experimental" side. Of course, there's aspects of both on both sides -- "I Don't Remember Tomorrow" has some really, really cool samples in the bridge, and "ZZ Top Beard", while being one of the few straight-comedy songs on this record, is still a great little pop song as well. This album is full of shoulda-been-hits -- "Don't You Wanna Go To The Moon" is at the top of the list. And some really great collage-work is on here too -- I love "Music Spazchow", a collage based around a radio preacher talking about Adam & Eve, followed by Barnes & Barnes singing "Music/Spazchow/Listens To You". And I've often thought that if I ever get the music video production company off the ground, "Music Doesn't Matter" will have to be the unofficial theme song. (Speaking of which, for a long, long time, I thought that the combination of "Music Doesn't Matter" -- the lyrics of which, in their entirety are "Well, we aren't sellin' records/As many as we should/But the music doesn't matter/if the video is good/yeah" -- and "Ah A" was a slam on a-ha, as a lot of critics said that the popularity of the song "Take On Me" was based all on the innovative video and not the song, which they didn't deem worthy. This theory would be great except for two things:  a) It kind of goes against the Barnes & Barnes rule of being Bold And Friendly, but, more importantly, b) Amazing Adult Fantasy came out two years before "Take On Me".  Oops.  And, for what it's worth, I think "Take On Me" is a great song, even without the awesome video.)  The bonus tracks on here are pretty interesting as well (the inclusion of "Blithering" and "You Can't Escape Your Destiny" in the album proper is because those songs were always intended to be on the album, but were dropped out of necessity because of mastering problems with them -- though in the case of the former it works out, as they later re-recorded it, in a better take, for Zabagabee") -- "The Ballad Of Jim Joy" and "Loch Ness Lady" were originally issued on the long-out-of-print Zabagabee'' best-of and I've always loved those songs, and "Life Is Harsh Reality" is also excellent. "Oh Me Oh My" doesn't really work, though, but that's about the only one. Like Spazchow, this is an excellent place to start, but I'd recommend this one over Spazchow if you're more interested in really great pop music, particularly new wave and 1980s pop. Though fans of experimentation will NOT be let down at all by the wonderful second side. (I'm not sure why, in 2005, I keep talking about this like it's an LP, but whatever.) This reissue is only available online, through CoolCDs.com. - Rev. Syung Myung Me