ALBUM REVIEW - ADAM AND THE ANTS - Kings of the Wild Frontier (1980)
Musicians: Adam Ant (composer, vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica, piano) - Marco Pirroni (composer, guitar) - Kevin Mooney (bass) - Merrick (drums) - Terry Lee Myall (drums) / Producer: Chris Hughes / Label: Epic Records, Columbia / Recorded - Released: August 1980 - November 3, 1980
When one thinks of late seventies and early eighties music, one thinks of glam rock first and punk rock second. Right in the middle of that drastic and yet natural transition is the figure of ADAM ANT, whose most famous incarnation started just before what is arguably his ultimate album, KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIER.
Dressed in a wild garb, a mixture of Native American, pirate and dandy gentleman fashion, the eccentric post-modernist and highly sexualised visual impact conveyed the original music style that is featured in the album itself. And to think that KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIER was the ultimate make it or break it moment in ANT's career makes it all the more remarkable. Just before the bulk of the songwriting for what was to become their greatest work to date, ADAM ANT was left all alone after his manager and mentor MALCOLM MCLAREN stole the band from him to form BOW WOW WOW, a post-punk band that would be even more centred around the BURUNDI BEAT backbone structure that still defines many of the tracks in this ADAM AND THE ANTS outing.
Thankfully, ADAM ANT's inspiration was also aided by a meeting with the man who would become his song-writing partner - CAMDEN man MARCO PIRRONI, who brought along with him an exciting adoration for rockabilly and blues guitarists, the likes of DUANE EDDY and LINK WRAY. The former's influence can directly be heard in LOS RANCHEROS a track which seems to have been written for a Western matinee, while the latter's is directly referenced in KILLER IN THE HOME, which "steals" the main riff from the seminal RAMBLE tune.
KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIER is an enthusiastic mixture of flamboyance, sexual ambiguity, but also virility and bravado, as the opening track DOG EAT DOG clearly shows. This is a song that introduces the albym with a distinctive BURUNDI BEAT that is just magic, an unusual and yet sure fire hit for its time. If this band were a nation, the title track would be its national anthem, there's an air of solemnity about it. The strange tribal chants are, after all, a vital part of the band's unique sound, and every now and again ADAM ANT enrichens them with banshee cries and yodels that are just part of his distinctive vocal artistry and interpretation. These can also be well admired in a track like THE MAGNIFICENT FIVE.
What strikes about the wide variety of tracks and different strokes of mood and rone is that it somehow manages to feel perfectly cohesive. Fittng the funky DON'T BE SQUARE BE THERE with the eerie and sinister FEED ME TO THE LIONS is an example of this bizarreness. The paranoia of THE HUMAN BEINGS, easily exploring the album's darkest territories, sharply contrasts the matinee galore of the pirate chant JOLLY ROGER. On the other hand, ANTMUSIC is shameless TOP OF THE POPS gold, with its happy beat. Still, it doesn't feel rude or commercialised and has a garage punk sound as if the song had come out of a thoughtless afternoon of fun. Perhaps it is for this reason that it's still one of their most popular songs.
KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIER is also an album full of hooks. Much can be said about the structures of the songs, that make the album seem even more spontaneous. The reason for why they were mostly forgotten by the mid eighties has nothing to do with the music itself, and more to do with the ever changing music industry and the busy schedule with which ADAM and his ants were faced. Rest assured, however, that this album's legacy will live forever as one of the strongest and most original of its times.
TRACKLIST: Dog Eat Dog - Antmusic - Los Rancheros - Feed Me to the Lions - Ants Invasion - Killer in the Home - Kings of the Wild Frontier - The Magnificent Five - Don't Be Square (Be There) - Jolly Roger - Making History - The Human Beings (all songs composed by Adam Ant and Marco Pirroni)