The Vapors

Magnets, the second album by the Vapors

Recently I posted that Blondie’s Parallel Lines album was the first one I ever bought, in around 1980.  I think the second album I ever bought was New Clear Days by the Vapors.  Most people recall their massive hit “Turning Japanese”, which was a huge worldwide smash in 1980.  I totally loved this song and that prompted me to buy the album.  The rest of the album was similarly up-tempo, catchy pop punk/new wave that bordered on mod revival; the Jam’s bassist Bruce Foxton was an early supporter and he asked the band to support their Setting Sons tour. 

New Clear Days has a number of outstanding songs that I still love to this day; several are up-tempo like “Japanese” but others are more introspective.  Two examples of the latter are “Waiting For the Weekend”, with its catchy chorus but low key verse structure, and “Bunkers”, with its almost somber music and even more bleak lyrics painting a picture of urban anomie straight out of a William Gibson novel.   “Sixty Second Interval” is more upbeat lyrically and has a surging, building structure.  Slightly more peppy too is “Letter From Hiro”, which continues the Asian theme of “Turning Japanese” but is instead a lush, mellow groove that almost sounds like Britpop as it builds to a more aggressive, bass-heavy middle.  This song also reminds me of some of the stuff Blondie was doing around the same time on their album Eat To The Beat, most notably the lush, anthemic rock of “Union City Blue”.  Another standout is “Trains”, with its chugging guitar and thrumming bass building to two excellent bridges.  This song more than any in their catalog has a heavy Jam influence.   “Somehow” is another fantastic song about miscommunication and ending relationships, and “Prisoners” is one of their fastest tempo numbers with its descending chords and big chorus.  And finally, my favorite song on this album is “News At Ten”, with its chugging guitar beginning punctuated by roaring riffs and lyrics about a son’s disenchantment with the safe, comfortable lifestyle of his parents.  To me this as good a song about youthful rebellion and alienation as any written during the punk era; I especially love the end where vocalist David Fenton almost shouts “But you don't wanna sit tight you don't wanna play it cool, you don't wanna whole life like the first day at school, and I wanna fight wars and I wanna die young, so don't keep saying like father like son, I can't hear you!”

One thing that characterizes their first album is a feeling of alienation.  Nearly every song is about soured romance or outsiders on the fringe of society.  These themes of disorientation and darkness are amplified in their follow-up, Magnets, released in 1981.  Unfortunately, the album did not fare well and the Vapors broke up soon after.  And while its more uneven than their first album and contains a few mis-steps, it also contains several outstanding and powerful songs.  The album’s single, “Jimmie Jones”,  has a catchy riff that echoes that of “Turning Japanese” and lyrically describes the Jonestown tragedy of the Jim Jones cult from the late 70’s.  Its upbeat music and catchy, repetitive refrain belies the dark subject matter.  This should have been a follow-up hit to “Turning Japanese but alas the record buying public had moved on by this time.  Another outstanding song is the title track, which has a wistful, almost mournful repeating acoustic guitar intro, and somber lyrics.  The song, which describes JFK’s assassination, builds to a crescendo then does a long, slow fade to the repeated lyrics “magnetized boys, boys, boys”.  This song showed how this group could mix both soft and hard sonic structures together around a thematically unified topic lyrically to make an excellent song; it is reminiscent of “Stairway to Heaven” in this regard.  “Isolated Case” has a haunting, shimmering sound that evokes “Ghost Town” by the Specials and has a similarly depressing lyrical focus on violence and crime and our helplessness in the face of it.  “Lenina” is a perky spy/love song that reminds me of “Contact in Red Square” by Blondie.  And finally, “Silver Machines” is a phenomenal track, starting with a pulsing bass and a somber intro but eventually bursting into a happy, optimistic sounding body that describes love and living life and other positive topics.  This is a very positive song with a soaring vibe that is really enjoyable.

Its always interesting to me to go back and re-discover the music of an obscure one-hit wonder.  We all know and remember these artists from their one (or maybe two) songs but probably never heard anything else by them.  It’s a shame, because a lot of times these artists released a whole host of other great singles and albums that demonstrated their depth beyond this simple single hit.  Nearly everyone remembers the Vapors as new wave novelty poster boys but if you like guitar-driven new wave/powerpop with a light mod influence you should definitely check out some of their other songs.  iTunes somewhat surprisingly doesn’t have either album but has an excellent anthology that collects nearly everything from their first album, some highlights from the second (the ones that aren’t on iTunes are posted on YouTube), and a few rarities and out-takes.  Its worth a listen for sure.