The Boomtown Rats - V Deep (1982)

“V Deep” was The Boomtown Rats' fifth album, and the first to be released after guitarist Gerry Cott left the group. It includes the minor hit single "House on Fire".
The Boomtown Rats started integrating their impulses into the most representative album they ever did. In sheer terms of songwriting, the results you'd get by paring everything down to vocals and simple guitar, I'd probably also grade it as their weakest (ignoring the debut), which makes it an ideal place to examine what, exactly, I find so consistently brilliant about their output.
They moved closer to Caribbean rhythms, employing a percussionist and upping the bass guitar in the mix. They even had Dennis Bovell do a dub mix of "House on Fire" and included it at the end of the album. Meanwhile, Bob Geldof's lyrics indicated an increasingly embattled sensibility; he noted in a song called "The Bitter End" that "It isn't too far." Unfortunately, nothing here matched the catchy, daring work on the Rats' first three albums, and even in England their star was beginning to fade.
Their strength was not, precisely, originality. The Rats were always with their time, not in front of it. Simon Crowe's polyrhythmic, multitracked, multiethnic, layered drum parts on “V Deep” were even more sophisticated and danceable than on “Mondo Bongo”.
In America, Columbia Records at first declined to release the album, opting for a four-track EP, then allowed it to escape in September 1982, when it failed to chart.

Track listing

01.  "Never in a Million Years"  (Bob Geldof)  - 3:46
02.  "The Bitter End"  (Bob Geldof)  - 4:26
03.  "Talking in Code"  (Bob Geldof)  - 2:53
04.  "He Watches It All"  (Bob Geldof)  - 3:15
05.  "A Storm Breaks"  (Bob Geldof)  - 5:59
06.  "Charmed Lives"  (Bob Geldof)  - 3:58
07.  "House on Fire"  (Bob Geldof)  - 4:43
08.  "Up All Night"  (Bob Geldof)  - 3:35
09.  "Skin on Skin"  (Bob Geldof)  - 3:33
10.  "The Little Death/... House Burned Down"  (B. Geldof, P. Briquette)  - 4:54

Credits
Bob Geldof – vocals, saxophone
Pete Briquette – bass, vocals
Johnnie Fingers – keyboards, vocals
Simon Crowe – drums, vocals
Garry Roberts – guitar, vocals
Producer - Tony Visconti, The Boomtown Rats

Notes
Genre: Post-Punk, Synth-pop
Length: 41:02

© 1982 Ensign / Columbia Records