A Flock of Seagulls With the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra – Ascension
August Day Records
http://www.aflockofseagulls.org/

Rating: A

A Flock Of Seagulls have always been an interesting footnote in the annals of New Wave pop. They made smart, catchy music that found massive airplay despite coming from (gasp!) concept albums. Songs like "I Ran", "Space Age Love Song" and "Wishing (I Had a Photograph of You" remain radio staples to this day.

Despite this, all everybody ever talked about was their hair. Even the press release regarding their current reunion project focuses a little too much on the legacy of their hair styles, something Duran Duran partly overcame by having a bass player who played as good as he looked.

By 1986's A Dream Come True, New Wave hairstyles gave way to faux Metal hair styles, teased from the Sunset Strip salons, and A Flock of Seagulls musical flight had ended. Lead singer and keyboardist Mike Score, who by this time had emigrated to the US, kept the band's name alive by performing countless gigs with session musicians as support.

In 2003 the original band, consisting of Mike Score, his brother Ali, Paul Reynolds and Frank Maudsley reunited for the VH1 series Bands In Town and played a small series of shows the following year.

Flash forward to 2018 and the four original members have reconvened once again, this time to record a new album together for the first time since 1983. Ascension features brand new recordings of the best songs culled from their first three albums, A Flock of Seagulls (1982), Listen (1983) and The Story of a Young Heart (1984) along with one new song "Ascension".

Usually, I am the first to dismiss projects where bands re-record their hits because they've run out of ideas or (sadly) they're forced to because it's they only way they can make a buck off the songs due the the horrible contracts they signed when they were starting out.

A Flock of Seagulls, however, have gone out of their way to make things interesting by enlisting the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra to add a deep new dimension to these excellent songs.  Re-recording songs with an orchestra is not a new idea but it's an idea that rarely works.

The orchestral arrangements often become impediments to the songs rather than enhancements. When Yes attempted a tour utilizing an entire symphony orchestra to replace Rick Wakeman they quickly realized it wasn't going to work and had to draft in a session whiz to play Wakeman's parts, relegating the orchestra to background noise.

It all comes down to the arrangements. Do they add to the song, detract from the song or do nothing for the song? Often it's the last two. 

I don't know who scored the orchestral tracks for this album but he or she got them just right. The arrangements bring the original minimalist keyboard lines into full flower (I will forever have the image of Mike Score and his single digit jabs at the keyboard burned into my brain) without ever coming off as too much or sounding hokey.

This album is a very entertaining listen throughout. In fact, it's a lot of fun being able to listen to these songs together on one album in this way.

As you will see in the accompanying video, at least no one will be talking about their hair this time around.

Track List:
1) I Ran
2) Modern Love Is Automatic
3) Telecommunication
4) Space Age Love Song
5) Ascension
6) Wishing (I Had A Photograph Of You
7) Nightmares
8) DNA
9) Electrics
10) Transfer Affection
11) The More You Live
12 Man Made

By Eric Sandberg