Released December 1981 Length 39:52 Release date December 1981 Genre Alternative rock | Recorded 1981 Artist The Teardrop Explodes Label Mercury Records | |
 | ||
Producer Clive Langer,
with Alan Winstanley on "Passionate Friend" Wilder
(1981) Everybody Wants to Shag... The Teardrop Explodes
(1990) Alternative rock albums Everybody Wants to Shag T, Saint Julian, My Nation Underground, Fried, World Shut Your Mouth | ||
Wilder is the second album by neo-psychedelic Liverpool band The Teardrop Explodes, and the final completed album released by the group.
Contents
- Background
- Original track listing 1981
- CD Re issue bonus tracks 2000
- CD Re issue bonus disc 2013
- Personnel
- Songs
- References
In 2000 former Teardrop Explodes leader Julian Cope gave his blessings to re-release Wilder with a selection of bonus tracks, mainly single b-sides, plus original artwork, a remastered sound, and full lyrics and essays.
Background
Wilder was recorded following a turbulent period in the band's career involving the success of their debut album Kilimanjaro, several line-up changes and a fraught, drug-fuelled American tour. For Wilder, the group's leader and principal songwriter Julian Cope developed his songwriting by using many experimental approaches.
Wilder featured a far greater use of synthesizer arrangements and loop experiments than Kilimanjaro, predominantly at the instigation of keyboard player David Balfe (who acted as Cope's principal creative collaborator in the studio). By now Cope had mostly abandoned his role as the group's bass player (with many tracks on the record featuring session bassist James Eller) and shared some of the guitarist role with Troy Tate, as well as dabbling in piano and organ. Some tracks featured a full group sound as featured on Kilimanjaro (most notably "Passionate Friend", the only single release and album track to feature the band's ill-fated US touring members Alfie Agius and Jeff Hammer) but in general the album broke away from the West Coast/beat group sound of the debut as well as having a noticeably more downbeat and troubled atmosphere. Some Wilder tracks featured little or no guitar, avoided the standard drumkit or set Cope's voice against solo synthesizer only.
While these approaches resulted in an album of diverse styles and revealed that The Teardrop Explodes was a far more flexible band than previous releases had suggested, it also lost the group many of the fans of the more straightforward Kilimanjaro. Although the single "Passionate Friend" charted reasonably, the album failed commercially. The band released one further EP, "You Disappear From View", which was added to the 2000 reissue of Wilder (following a previous release on Everybody Wants To Shag ... The Teardrop Explodes, the band's posthumous release of post-Wilder demos and late tracks).
Original track listing (1981)
All tracks written by Julian Cope.
CD Re-issue bonus tracks (2000)
All tracks written by Julian Cope; except where indicated.
CD Re-issue bonus disc (2013)
All tracks written by Julian Cope; except where indicated.
Personnel
with:
Songs
1Bent Out of Shape3:27
2Colours Fly Away2:54
3Seven Views of Jerusalem3:50