REVIEW: Missing Persons, Late Nights Early Days (Designer Fruit)
- Rey Roldan
As one of the progenitors of the budding New Wave music scene, Missing Persons (along with likeminded A Flock of Seagulls and Devo) ushered a new sci-fi sensibility in the punk and pop music world. With their space age look and futuristic synth flourishes, Missing Persons combined the music and image into a perfect MTV-friendly package. While dressing like a Martian harlot (with her pink and platinum hair, plastic bowl bras and TV screen shorts), vocalist Dale Bozzio hiccuped her way through some of the finest 80s New Wave.
Late Nights Early Days captures the band live, prior to their signing to Capitol, with eleven tracks that encapsulate most of their studio debut Spring Session M. A previously unreleased track, the rather lackluster but no less interesting "Action Reaction", leads off what proves to be a surprisingly good glimpse of the band on their own terms. "Words", their anti-paean to communication in the technology age, carries a formidable punch with Bozzio's nasal delivery wavering alongside Chuck Wild's bloops and bleeps, outshining its studio version. "Destination Unknown" is almost identical to its album counterpart, adding as a testament to the band's easy transition from studio to stage. The main weak link on this record comes with a cover of The Doors' "Hello I Love You," turning its swirly sex-addled vibe to a pre-programmed mess of misguided synths and futuristic schmaltz. While not a must-have album since much of this album appears on Spring Session M in studio versions, Late Nights Early Days adds welcome insight into one of New Wave's largely forgotten heroes. And as far as live albums go, this collection ranks up there with the best of them (U2's Under a Blood Red Sky, Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense).
