David Peel

Now this is the David Peel who is known and loved, aiming at what, in 1979/1980, was regarded as the most mindless brand of popular music ever to rear its head on the charts or the airwaves. You had to be there to realize just how ubiquitous disco had become by the closing three years of the '70s, or how it was driving a lot of other music out of the marketplace. Peel unloads both barrels at once with the opening number, "I Hate Disco," a name-dropping, vitriol-dripping piece that could have summed up this reviewer's primal thoughts at the time, and is still damned funny. The rest is mostly as good, assuming that the messenger's still-minimalist style appeals at all. By this time, Peel was practically a musical institution and, in his quiet way, sophisticated enough so that his comedic swipes were more knowing and clever than the settings in which he placed them. And if some of the named targets now seem more benign, they didn't come off that way at the time, especially with the so-called music industry ramming them down one's throat every time the radio was turned on. Peel spoke for a lot of people, and deserves credit for getting his topical/satirical barbs out there. And big chunks of this record are still lots of fun. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi