Rocktrospectiva: The Stronger Rhythmic "Big Trash" Turns 35

 

Released on 26 September 1989, "Big Trash" was the seventh studio album by British pop indie band Thompson Twins, produced by Tom Bailey and Alannah Currie and two track by Steve Lillywhite, the album spawned two singles "Sugar Daddy" & "Bombers In The Sky", the first one reached No. 28 on Billboard Hot 100, and No. 97 on the UK singles charts, the second one was a commercial failure, despite the huge budget the duo enjoyed on the making on this record, the album only managed to reach No. 163 on Billboard 200. 

 

"Big Trash"  was the duo's first release for Warner Brothers. According to Currie in 1989: "Warner Brothers came to us and said "Here's a pile of money, go make the sort of record you really want to make", which is every musician's dream. So we made Big Trash, the album had the collaboration of Debbie Harry, who contributed spoken-word vocals to "Queen of the U.S.A.", recorded by Bailey over a transatlantic telephone connection, it was great fun, it was a new era and we were trying out some new ideas as well as a new way of working. We saw that video and being studio-oriented was the way of the future. 

 

The track "Sugar Daddy" "cheerfully borrows from earlier tunes, while the rest shows remarkable growth and depth, the tracks are short, Alannah Currie's gone easy on the percussion for a change and Tom Bailey has decided to start playing around with his vocal a bit more. This work brings up some superb creations such as "Queen of the USA", "Salvador Dalí's Car" and of course the hit single "Sugar Daddy" a pleasant single, though not as amusing as the observant title track. 

 

The album found Bailey and Currie calling upon guitars again as well as beefier rhythms, with a  great improvement on its predecessor, other cool track are "This Girl’s On Fire" containing enough echoes of the older Twins to satisfy long-term fans, it nonetheless failed to prove distinctive, "Wild" and "Bombers In The Sky" mixed contemporary funk-pop with mainstream rock, echoing INXS similar sound back then, in the case of "Queen Of The USA" the band had a certain Jesus Jones vibes.

 

The critics were mixed, some felt the album was "just a bit too serious" and "an attempt to change their squeaky-clean but catchy pop image by tackling current and controversial issues", others considered the album was a successful attempt to add a stronger rhythmic sensibility to The Thompson Twins' sound, but the album failed to produce any hit bigger than the number 28 "Sugar Daddy," although there were several other strong numbers on the record.

 

Big Trash Track List: 

 

1. Sugar Daddy

2. Queen Of The U.S.A.

3. Bombers In The Sky

4. This Girl0s On Fire

5. T.V. On

6. Big Trash

7. Salvador Dali's Car

8. Rock This Boat

9. Dirty Summer's Day

10. Love Jungle

11. Wild