Fanfare for 1984

FANFARE FOR 1984

The Wanderers’ sole album, Only Lovers Left Alive was recorded in November 1980 but didn’t come out until 1981. As might be imagined from the title of the opening song “Fanfare for 1984” (which features sirens that might have come from a concentration camp), the album concerns a young man who becomes obsessed with the impending doom of civilization through his fascination (described in the track “A Little Bit Frightening”) and later disillusion (“Can’t Take You Anymore”) with the pronouncements of a conspiracy theorist. The two singles released from the album were the potent “Ready to Snap” and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changing”. As Allmusic put it: “This album remains one of the most foreboding records ever released and plunges the listener into a world of Bolshevik plots, duplicate Popes, and a third World War that is so close you can smell it.”

(February 2011)