Generally considered to be one of the worst things to make it to disc; 1993’s “Cyberpunk” is considered by many to be the worst concept album ever and one of the worst albums ever period. I had to hear this thing for myself, and was lucky enough to find it for a low low price of $2 after some bargain searching through discount bins. Let’s take a look at Cyberpunk and see if the album really deserves such a savage beating. The album contains a number of short segments that bridge songs, and obviously I have chosen to ignore these sections.
The album opens with “Wasteland” which sounds like a soundtrack for a Super Nintendo game. The horribly dated and digital electronics are utterly pathetic even by 1993 standards. The song concerns atheism in the post-apocalyptic future that Idol created for this album. The song is horrible in ever sense, Idol constantly repeats “no religion” over and over until you instantly want to remove the disc from the drive. The next proper song is “Shock To The System”, which contains very low-grade samples of electricity signals. The song is really not all that different from most Idol tracks, with a slightly Punk song structure, albeit in a much more ridiculous guise here. This song is really quite shit, but one of the “better” songs on this album. The lack of electronics probably helps the song avoid total disaster, as that particular area has never really suited the snarl of Idol. “Tomorrow People” heads back into techno mode, this time with slightly better results. The song instantly reminds one of the Happy Mondays and the whole “Madchester” scene of the early 1990s. Some gritty distortion and danceable beat give the song some decent qualities, but fails to impress. “Adam In Chains” begins with a hypnotic spoken-word introduction that sounds like a relaxation tape your mother would listen to. The dub bass is a half-decent sound exploration, but the spoken-word robotic vocals annoy and anger after the one-minute mark. Idol eventually comes in and delivers a half-decent vocal about lost love, but at this point the listener has lost all interest in the song. “Neuromancer” sounds like industrial-lite, and here Idol delivers a vocal that reminds of INXS. The song is not offensive, but adds little to change your opinion of this album at this point. “ Power Junkie” is a horribly grating affair, and will test the limits of your patience. Here Idol repeats that he is “going crazy” several times, which is exactly what I wanted to do during this song. The guitar solo is utterly pathetic and cheap 1990s digital keyboards sound like they are off a Casio demo track. The song is terribly repetitive, and Idol barks like a rapid dog throughout the track.
“Love Labours On” sucks the big one. The song incorporates “Eastern” sounds such as sitar and a slightly raga-like beat. The quite distorted guitar drowns out Idol’s vocals, and the digital sitar is paper-thin and sounds very phony and tacky. The lyrics are barely audible, and the song really shows the shoddy mixing job on this album. Idol does deliver a decent howl that sounds somewhat like vintage “Cult”, but the vocal performance is driven down by lame effects applied to Idol’s voice. The worst sin committed on this album is the techno/industrial cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Heroin”. The song sounds more like the soundtrack for the movie version of Mortal Kombat than the Velvets, and is easily one of the worst covers I have ever heard. This is a complete and utter disgrace with horrible production, shoddy electronics, and Idol screaming his way through the track. Like most the album, the soul has been sucked out of the music through the use of very cold sounding beats, production, and overall feel. This song is terrible in the worst way imaginable. “Shangrila” continues the exploration of “Eastern” influences and is meant to evoke a deeply spiritual and meditative vibe. Instead, the song is extremely cliché and induces nausea. The laughable combination of didgeridoo and sitar samples show that the song is simply trying too hard to be “ethnic” sounding in an all-you-can-eat buffet kind of way. Idol channels George Harrison here, but the lyrics sound contrived and amateur. Another dud on this increasing terrible album.
“Concrete Kingdom” makes use of tabla drums and chanting to again go for a world music vibe. The song reflects the growing divide between modern urban life and the values of religion. The song contains some nice sweeping analog synthesizers, deep techno bass, and solid production and sampling. One of the better songs on this album. “Venus” reminds one of Depeche Mode in some way, telling of sexual seduction with a backing track clear influenced by the rising “trip-hop” movement from the U.K. The song also reminds one of the production style of regular Madonna produced “Stuart Price” as well as additional Madonna producer “William Orbit”. In this regard, Cyberpunk did predict the stylistic trend in popular music production that would become the standard as the 1990s rolled on. Decent track, but by no means a lifesaver at this point. “Then The Night Comes” sounds like a cross between INXS and the Cult, but not exactly like either band. The samples were produced using very primitive computer programming by today’s standards, and are really starting to show their age. The guitar work is decent enough, but like most of the album is quite distorted and contrasts with the cold sounding digital feel to most of the tracks. However, I think Idol did intend to show this contrast musically. Idol’s scream outwears its welcome quickly, and the song is very long and loses any kind of luster after the 3-minute mark. The album closes with “Mother Dawn”, a quasi-spiritual affair with female backing vocals that would not sound out of place on “Dance Mix 1993” or any such compilations. The lyrics lack any sophistication and good luck finding out what the song is about. The beat is repetitive and begins to annoy quickly. A lame duck.
“Cyberpunk” is horrendous. Although never a critical darling, Idol made a huge misstep here. However, the bold experimental certain was a brave move, but one that did not pay off. The really cold sounding feeling of the album, the inclusion of spoken-word segments, the lame themes of cyber-culture, and the overall dated production produce an boring, too long, and often laughable piece of work that should be avoided by all of those who value good music. As bad as people say.
Rating-1.5/10
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