liberty boy wrote:I guess the thing with Japan was they captured our imagination at the time and inspired us to follow david sylvian on his unique and singular career thereafter. And as he grew up himself he taught us to grow up with him. The alternative would be to stay Duranies and to just carry on quite ridiculously like Nick Rhodes still trying to be ultra fashionable whilst paradoxically still looking like DS circa Gentlemen take polaroids in middle age. David Sylvian stayed well ahead of his audience. And that's what makes him so interesting. And his new Image and career was difficult for alot of his fans: as late as 1988 and the Shamens tour you still had a sprinkling of gentlemen take polaroids sylvian clones in the audience with their bleached hair and white shoes, whilst the man himself hippy length hair in pony tail and esoteric instrumentals had long since left that and the early eighties behind.
I mean the Japan/Nick rhodes look stayed highly fashionable for at least another two years after Japan were no more but even so it's aways best to move on, even before your audience is ready to let you and certainly before you become superseded by Curiousity killed the cat.
I'm not sure I totally agree. I think if something is good, it remains good, even if it's no longer in fashion (indeed, many music critics still cite Tin Drum as a seminal album). Groups that become "superseded" by the latest Next Cool Thing, and become irrelevant as the tide of fashion rolls on, tend to be ones that were all style and no substance in the first place(something I'd never say was true of Japan - or of late Japan, at any rate).
I also think you're conflating music and image in your comment in a way which, to me, doesn't quite apply. While I think Sylvian was a hugely influential and widely underrated fashion icon in the early 80s, and that's not necessarily something trivial, in fact it's a serious cultural historical observation (when people say that Jackie O defined the look of a generation, nobody takes that as a trivial comment or suggests that it's undermining the seriousness of JFK's political career, so I've never understood why some Sylvian fans think that talking about how much we loved the white hair and make-up is trivialising him as a serious musician), I can see that early 80s clothes can look a little comical now. But I don't think good early 80s music dates so comically or obviously as the clothes did.
I personally prefer DS's solo stuff to Japan, but I like Japan as well, and I think it's stood the test of time well. I think they're very different, though, and different people may prefer either, according to their taste.
But, as to the topic, I kind of know what you mean about RTC - for me it's a Paul Daniels album (I like it, but not a lot). I think that, had personal issues not intervened, though, it could have led to some fantastic work. I get the sense listening to it that they were only starting to explore the possibilities of working together again and that a second, third or fourth album could have been stupendously good.