Reunited and it feels so good
O joy! I have just reacquired a copy of an album I sold years ago, John Ruth's 1981 masterpiece of synth minimalism I Am A Model. The funny thing is, it's not as rare as I thought it was: it has been reissued in both CD and mp3 formats, but under Ruth's new (original?) name of John Ruskan. All those fruitless web searches I conducted, and it was there all along, I just didn't know what to look for. The album is as good as I remember it, and for modern disaffection set to modernistic music it ranks right up there with the early work of John Foxx and Gary Numan, especially in the overtly futuristic "Goodbye" and "Polyclimate Is Here." (The former contains gems such as "When we passed by Jupiter / It was raining metalically.") I didn't remember Ruth/Ruskan's vocals sounding so David Byrne-like, but it is definitely the case. Here, you can check it out yourself with the brand-new (just seven months old; oh yeah, I'm on top of things!) Amazon Mp3 Clips Widget (which as of press time won't actually load, but maybe it will one of these days; in the meantime, here's a link to the product page with its own player):
Now I know what you're thinking: you're thinking, "Hey, that's not quite the same track list as on the original album," and you're right. "Concern With Myself" is a new insertion; "She Moves Too Fast" is merely "Rhonda Lo Boo" retitled; "50 Mile Radius" has become "60 Mile Radius"; and the narrative-over-music "Restaurant" has had its narrative replaced with a completely different one and is now called "Sibling Rivalry." So if you were hoping to hear the original "Restaurant," here it is, freshly ripped from pristine vinyl: