For better or for worse, Bronski Beat is more well-known for whom it comprised - gay men who wrote about their gay lives some of the time - than for the music it made. Thirty years down the line, of course, one wonders what the fuss was all about - you almost feel sorry for someone who would be shocked, shocked at hearing frontman Jimmy Somerville sing,
And the sweetest thing of all is men loving men loving men loving men.
As you would infer from the preceding paragraph, I myself couldn't care less about Bronski Beat's sexuality, any more than I care that Bob Mould and Grant Hart are gay, any more than I care that Amy Ray and Emily Saliers are gay (Saliers prefers "gay" to "lesbian", so I'll use her word choice), any more than I care that Tegan and Sara Quin are gay - it simply isn't an issue to me. What I care about is the music, what's the music like, lads? So I'll focus on the music in the discussion below. Maybe Bronski Beat itself wouldn't want me to separate its gayness from its music, but that's what I'm going to do.
The Age of Consent CD that I checked out from the library held sixteen tracks: ten songs from the original Age of Consent release plus six bonus tracks, three of which were remixes culled from Bronski Beat's second record, Hundreds & Thousands. Musically, about half of the CD was synth-pop and about half of it I would describe as 'soul' for lack of a better term.
The reviews of Bronski Beat that I've seen alternately describe it as a synth-pop or dance band; this characterization as regards The Age of Consent is at best half correct, as noted above. Admittedly, it is possible that Bronski Beat ditched its soul side on its post-Hundreds & Thousands output, I don't know.
I did not like The Age of Consent at first listen for the following reasons:
(1) I did not care for Somerville's high register, approaching-falsetto vocals; if they're an acquired taste I didn't acquire it.
(2) The record's absence of guitar rubbed me the wrong way. (OK, there's some rhythm guitar on "Screaming" and I'm pretty sure that I can hear a faint guitar part on "Love and Money", but there needs to be more.)
"But there's no guitar on the Human League's Dare." Touché. And I would take those guys to task for it as well.
(3) Regarding the original Age of Consent synth-pop songs, I felt that the production could have been punchier. Hi-NRG? My standard of comparison for this sort of thing is Pete Shelley's XL1, to which The Age of Consent doesn't measure up. The Hundreds & Thousands tracks did have the punch I was looking for, however.
(4) I found some of the songs to be dreary ("Wasn't that the whole point, re the gay thing?"), but I suppose you could say that about a lot of early-1980s post-punk music.
Having said all this, I very much liked the textural elements that adorn the soul songs, namely, the clarinet, piano, and choir on "Ain't Necessarily So", the unusual percussion on "Screaming" and "No More War", the sensuous sax solo on "Love and Money", even the tap dancing on "Heatwave". Moreover, one of the synth-pop songs, "Why?", boasts a prominent brass part.
The Age of Consent did grow on me, and I even became accustomed to Somerville's vocals somewhat, with repeated listens. The record's highlights IMO are "Love and Money", "Need a Man Blues", and "Run From Love" (the last track is one of the Hundreds & Thousands add-ons).
Accompanying the CD was a booklet containing neither lyrics nor any credits but rather a fan-written essay that
(a) outlined the history of Bronski Beat during Somerville's time in the band (Somerville appears on Hundreds & Thousands but left prior to its release) and
(b) complained about a scornful New Musical Express review of The Age of Consent.
Actually, I doubt that Bronski Beat's press at the time was as vicious as what was doled out to Queen, Yes, and Styx in the 1970s, but I digress.
Bronski Beat did not make it past the mid-1990s. Somerville today enjoys a solo career but I have no idea what the two 'permanent' members of Bronski Beat - Steve Bronski and Larry Steinbachek - are currently doing.
Overall impression:
All in all, I would say that The Age of Consent is a good but not great record; it's definitely worth a listen, and as for most records, you would want to listen to it before deciding to buy it.
Our musical conversation will (not necessarily in the following entry, but at some point) next take up Norah Jones' Little Broken Hearts...
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