The B-52's – Cosmic Thing

"Love Shack" aside (which is pretty much impossible to assess to due its omnipresence for the past thirty years), this is actually a really phenomenal album from the B-52's. The whimisical nonsense songs ("Cosmic Thing", "Junebug") are quirky and catchy, with pleasant hipsway rhythms. But there are songs of substance here, as well. "Roam" connects to a generously warm, world-wandering spirit that felt at home in an era during which the Berlin Wall came down, and the song shared a sort of shoulder-to-shoulder camaraderie with their fellow Athenians R.E.M.. There's some earnest, emotional content to the more mellow songs and the single instrumental track here. There's the down-the-middle 80's vibe of "Deadbeat Club", and the dark side of that decade explored in a chaotic manner in "Channel Z". Given the very carefully constructed production demonstrated on this, I'd be interested in hearing the demos of this album and finding out what the original, rawer versions of the songs were like.