If retrospect gives the advantage of appreciating the subtlety of trends, then I'm wondering why Guadalcanal Diary hasn't been culled from the bottom of the 1985 album charts. REM backlash is inherent on their debut, Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man, but that first college rock scene was so small in the south at the time. Bands who were only slightly less hardworking than REM were guaranteed to amble off into the mere shadows of the behemoth. Perhaps my sympathies are driven by the specter of inattention, but I will stand up and vogue for this album.
There is a lot that sets it apart. Murray Attaway's vocals are simply charged with a passion unseen since the Asylum imprint was begun. He drills into every note, unsympathetic to the pitch that wishes to wrap its arms around him, or the beat that looks to coincide with the melody. For disaffected early college rock, this was John Lydon territory. Backed up by the Byrds-homage 12-string and some impressively thundering drums, Guadalcanal Diary are reaching for somewhere out to the ends of the big country out west this record calls to mind. It was recorded in Athens, but I picture something closer to a band of Native Americans circling a fire and declaring their eviction of the unjust white man. This is the stuff that will awaken the spirits.
"Trail of Tears," "Fire From Heaven," and, later, "Why do the Heathens Rage" form a trilogy of memorable imprints that passionately condemn the workings of the human race like causes and results of war, and religious strife. Borrowing the jettison of odd rythyms in the chorus that post punk did so well, all that's left Attaway and Jeff Walls' harmonies, shouting straight into the sky.
Despite the anger of the younger generation in the middle of Reagan youth, the fact that Guadalcanal Diary even released a record was probably due to the oncoming astronomical heights that Stipe and company would reach. They only released one other record, invariably destined to flop. This is pure injustice. If REM had never released document, it is almost certain in my mind that these two would be invariably linked.
1. Trail of Tears
2. Fire from Heaven
3. Sleepers, Awake
4. Gilbert Takes the Wheel
5. Ghost on the Road
6. Watusi Rodeo
7. Why Do the Heathen Rage?
8. Pillow Talk
9. Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man, Pt. 1
10. Kum Ba Yah
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