Rocktrospectiva: The Last Big One "Big Bam Boom" Turns 40

 

Released on 12 October 1984, "Big Bam Boom" was the 12th., studio album by the American duo Hall & Oates, considered on the most successful albums released by a duo in the 1980s. The album peaked at No. 5 in the United States and spawned four brilliant singles "Out Of Touch" peaked at No. 1, "Method Of Modern Love" peaked at No. 5, "Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid" peaked at No. 18 and finally "Posession Obsession".

 

One of the most eclectic album portrayed several musical styles such as pop, rock, dance rock, with R&B & Soul slices and touches of electronic, with a more urban feel than its predecessors album, the album employed hi-tech and the most sophisticated equipment used to record back then, and brought Bob Clearmountain as a co-producer and hip hop pioneer Arthur Baker for additional mix a production, in order to create a more massive and noisy record than its predecessors records, with its rhythms smacking around in an echo chamber and each track built on layers of synthesizers and studio effects, no doubt about that this was one of the first mainstream album of the 1980s where everything was sequenced and run through a computer, practically they were innovating at the time and paved the way to follow at the end of the decade. 

 

About this, the duo said: We embraced each new device on its merits as a tool to enhance and integrate into the recording process. For us, they were instruments to be used to achieve an end: service and enrich the songs. The duo opted to record on analog tape rather than the then-new digital multitrack machines, and due to their commercial success they were able to take advantage of the latest musical devices available at the time, specially the most advanced polyphonic synthesizers like Synclavier and the Fairlight. The drummer Mickey Curry recorded various drum sounds, manipulating delays and reverbs to create huge dramatic bottom end that is emblematic of this album and the 1980s in general, and thanks to the new polyphonic synthesizers, the duo experimented with new sounds, for example, recording Boy Scout canteens, cardboard boxes, vocals, footsteps in gravel, etc., and combined them with newer and more sophisticated drum machines. 

 

The duo create a touring band that are credited as playing on each track, and thanks to this, they were able to create and empowered fantastic tunes such as the brilliant "Out Of Touch", the corny "Methof Of Modern Love" the haunting "Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid", the smooth and blue-eyed sound-a-like "Posession Obsession",and  the hard rocker "Bank On Your Love", as the most defined songs on the set, everything works on time and in favor for each song, that makes the album an truly worthwhile listen for every fan and 80s., enthusiast.

 

Big Bam Boom will be the last of the biggest Hall & Oates albums, the one that closed their period of greatest commercial success and artistic achievement, despite some critics were dissapointed with the methods of recording calling the album as something noisy and diffuse, some others called exciting and bigger that fits for the decade.

 

Big bam Boom Track List: 

 

1. Dance On Your Knees

2. Out Of Touch

3. Method Of Modern Love

4. Bank On Your Love

5. Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid

6. Going Thru The Motions

7. Cold Dark And Yesterday

8. All American Girl

9. Posession Obsession