Kings of the Wild Frontier is the second album by English new wave band Adam and the Ants. It was released in November 1980 by CBS Records International. This album introduced the "Burundi beat" sound to popular music.[5]
It reached No. 1 in the UK Album Chart,[6] and spawned three hit singles: "Kings of the Wild Frontier", which was released in July and reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart; "Dog Eat Dog", which reached No. 4; and "Antmusic", released in December and reaching No. 2,[7] as well as No. 1 in Australia for five weeks.[8] The album was the UK number 1 selling album in 1981 (and the 48th best seller in 1980) and won Best British Album at the 1982 Brit Awards.
Background & recording
After having his previous backing band wooed away by producer Malcolm McLaren to form Bow Wow Wow, Adam Ant recorded Kings of the Wild Frontier with guitarist Marco Pirroni as his new writing partner.
Release
Commercial performance
Kings of the Wild Frontier was released on 3 November 1980 by CBS Records in the UK and Epic records internationally. It reached No. 1 in the UK Album Chart,[6] and spawned three hit singles: "Kings of the Wild Frontier", which was released in July and reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart; "Dog Eat Dog", which reached No. 4; and "Antmusic", released in December and reaching No. 2,[7] as well as No. 1 in Australia for five weeks.[8] The album was the UK number 1 selling album in 1981 (and the 48th best seller in 1980) and won Best British Album at the 1982 Brit Awards.
The album was remastered and reissued in 2004 with several bonus tracks.
A multi-disc "Super Deluxe Edition" was released 20 May 2016. It includes a DVD of the long out-of-print Ants in Japan concert video and a CD of a 1981 concert from Chicago.[9] This edition scraped a single week in the UK Album Chart in its own right at number 69 and is considered to be a separate chart hit from the original album (rather than a 67th week for the album as a whole)[10] Ant performed the entire album live on tour in the UK that year, and in the United States, Australia and New Zealand in 2017.[11][12]
Cover
Photographer Pete Ashworth wrote, "On 5 August 1980, prior to his first slot on Top of the Pops, Adam Ant got the band together in a small rehearsal room in Brixton to create a video test. Shooting stills from the monitor screen during the band performance produced some powerful images. Two days later a repeat shoot from the video recording, in a blacked-out studio, produced the sleeve image..."[13] The US version of the album dropped "Making History" in favour of two tracks penned by Ant prior to teaming up with Marco Pirroni, "(You're So) Physical" and "Press Darlings".
Reviewing the US edition for The Village Voice in March 1981, Robert Christgau judged the album as a response to British punk rock nihilism: "The music, needless to say, is rock and roll, a clever pop-punk amalgam boasting two drummers, lots of chanting, and numerous B-movie hooks. Especially given Adam's art-schooled vocals, I find that the hooks grate, but that may just mean that when it comes to futuristic warriors I prefer Sandinistas."[4]
In his retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called it "one of the great defining albums of its time. There's simply nothing else like it, nothing else that has the same bravado, the same swagger, the same gleeful self-aggrandizement and sense of camp. This walked a brilliant line between campiness and art-house chutzpah, and it arrived at precisely the right time – at the forefront of new wave".[14]Trouser Press cites it as the album where Adam Ant "found his groove".[23]
Legacy
Kings of the Wild Frontier is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[24] It is also one of twenty CDs in the Great British Albums box set released by Sony Records in 2012.[25] In 1992, Nine Inch Nails released a cover version of "Physical (You're So)" on the EP Broken, remade in an industrial rock style with more aggressive guitars and vocals than the original.[26]
On 20 May 2016, Sony Music/Legacy Recordings issued a lavish four disc super deluxe box set of Kings Of The Wild Frontier. The box included two CDs, a DVD & a 180g gold newly remastered vinyl LP.[27]
CD 1
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Dog Eat Dog"
3.09
2.
"Antmusic"
3.36
3.
"Feed Me To The Lions"
3.01
4.
"Los Rancheros"
3.29
5.
"Ants Invasion"
3.20
6.
"Killer In The Home"
4.21
7.
"Kings Of The Wild Frontier"
3.55
8.
"The Magnificent Five"
3.06
9.
"Don’t Be Square (Be There)"
3.31
10.
"Jolly Roger"
2.09
11.
"Making History"
2.57
12.
"The Human Beings"
4.31
13.
"Press Darlings"
4.11
14.
"Physical (You’re So)"
4.26
15.
"Fall In"
2.08
16.
"Don’t Be Square (Be There) (KPM Studio Demo)"
4.23
17.
"The Human Beings (KPM Studio Demo)"
4.56
18.
"Los Rancheros (KPM Studio Demo)"
3.33
19.
"Making History (KPM Studio Demo)"
3.44
CD 2, Adam & The Ants Live in Chicago, 1981
All tracks mastered by Adam Ant & Walter Coelho. Tracks 1-17 previously unissued on CD. Tracks 19 & 20 previously unreleased.
^Evans, Paul (1992). "Adam and the Ants". In DeCurtis, Anthony; Henke, James; George-Warren, Holly (eds.). The Rolling Stone Album Guide (3rd ed.). Random House. p. 6. ISBN 0-679-73729-4.
^Ellen, Mark (13–26 November 1980). "Adam & the Ants: Kings of the Wild Frontier". Smash Hits. Vol. 2 no. 23. p. 29.
^Sheffield, Rob (1995). "Adam and the Ants". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. pp. 6–7. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
^Lewis, John (July 2016). "Adam and the Ants: Kings of the Wild Frontier". Uncut. No. 230. p. 89.
^Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (23 March 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 978-0-7893-2074-2.
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