Like it or not, 's (aka ) was an album that helped set the pace for what eventually became known as . In England a vacuum had opened up in the wake of the breakup of in January 1978, and many fans and rival groups were impatient to see what ex- frontman aka " " was going to roll out next. Disheartened owing to events in his legal proceedings against the management company Glitterbest, and disgusted by the scene in general, was determined to create something that was neither nor even really as it was known in 1978. Working with ex- guitarist , first-time bassist , and Canadian drummer , produced an album that represented the sound after it had shot itself in the head and became another entity entirely. Embracing elements of , and atonality and driven by 's lyrical egoism and predilection towards doom, death, and horror, was among a select few 1978 albums that had something lasting to say about the future of music. And not everyone in 1978 wanted to hear it; contemporary critical notices for were almost uniformly negative in the extreme. Not all of the material on was necessarily forward-looking: and could almost pass muster as latter-day songs if it weren't for their substandard production values. These two numbers were recorded late in the project, and on the cheap, as the fledgling had already been kicked out of practically every reputable studio in London. And there was a bracing song about 's pet peeve, presented in both spoken and sung incarnations. It is about as vicious and personal an anti-Catholic diatribe as exists on record, and in its day was considered a high holy turnoff by many listeners. But from there it gets better -- 's debut single, was also included on , and 's guitar part, with its tasty suspensions and held-over-the-bar syncopation, was an important departure from standard guitar language absorbed so quickly by others ( ) that listeners and musicians alike forgot the source of the sound. 's opener, was a force to be reckoned with, a grindingly slow dirge with wild, almost -like figurations on the guitar and 's floor-splitting foundation. This was with the power of , but none of the pretension. 's anguished mantra in "...and I just wanna die," was the exact reflection of what his generation was thinking about in the wake of the collapse of classic . is the hardest-kicking rocker on the album, with nosebleed-strength guitar from ; it is so good that in all practical purposes purloined the whole number, with minor alterations, as on . But even with all of the calculated controversy seemingly built into the various cuts on , none attracted quite so much attention as Faced with a serious shortage of material to fill out the album and with its release date looming, decided to conclude the project with a track 12:55 in length, consisting of no more than a beat, chattering synthesizers, a bassline, and singing, shouting, and screaming the phrase "we only wanted to be loved" in a joke voice. critics savaged the song as a deliberate attempt to rip off the public, but it became hugely popular at the in New York; the drag queens and hipsters sang and screamed right along with out loud on the dancefloor -- nothing like that had ever happened at . As it is perhaps the earliest extended mix that has little to do with or , it is apparent that is an obvious precursor to the that began to evolve in the mid-'80s, although it is seldom accredited that distinction. After it was released in December 8, 1978, peaked at number 22 on the British album charts, and import copies were snapped up in America practically as soon as they were loaded off the boat. But , the American label to which were signed, was unhappy with the album, particularly in that the label felt the bass was mixed too loudly -- no one had ever recorded the bass so hot on a regular LP before. protested, but stood fast and the band ultimately relented; in the early weeks of January 1979 the whole of was re-recorded for the American market. But the only portion of this project ever to surface appeared on the backside of the U.K. 12" single of in July 1979, a mix of minus the vocals, retitled never released the remade album, and the remainder of it has since disappeared. By early 1980 was joking that the American issue of was the "longest rush release in recorded music history," but clearly long before was a "dead" issue with Right after the remake session concluded, drummer surprised by departing with no notice to join the interesting but now forgotten English group . In came ex- drummer , and by their next album, had already worked out an entirely different sound and approach. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis