Dave Balfe once said of the Teardrop Explodes “we sounded like Vikings on acid fronted by a lunatic” and I can’t think of a better description than that. Everybody’s drug intake, a fraught US tour and Cope leaning more heavily on Balfe as his main creative foil (even though all songs are credited to just Julian Cope) saw a shift in sound on “Wilder” and ultimately the end of the Teardrop Explodes.

Lead single “Passionate Friend” suggested that “Wilder” would be a natural follow on from “Klimanjaro” but this turned out to be the only track on the album to feature the full touring version of the band. The sound here isn’t as upbeat as previously, many songs feature little or, at times, no guitars and there were songs just made up from Cope’s vocal and a synthesizer.

“Bent Out Of Shape” starts proceedings. It has all the ingredients of the Teardrops with Cope’s strident vocals and the horns in the refrain. It doesn’t have the urgency of previous Teardrops but some life is injected next by “Colours Fly Away”. The guitars are back alongside the horns coupled with Gary Dwyers driving beats in the verses. The real highlight on Side 1 is final track “The Culture Bunker”, a song which name-checks the Crucial Three and is one of the Teardrops very best.

Side 2 begins with “Passionate Friend” which comes on like a direct descendant of “Kilimanjaro”. “Tiny Children” is like a lullaby sung by a child, a distant relative of Bowie’s childlike songs, and is followed by the warped Psychedelic Funk of “Like Leila Khaled Said” (she was a Palestinian militant and activist). Which leads us to the final two songs, firstly the beautiful “…and The Fighting Takes Over”, just Julian Cope crooning over a hugely chorused and imperfectly played electric guitar, occasionally joined by a trumpet, it’s quite lovely. In a parallel universe “The Great Dominions” would be revered as and end of the night, lighters in the air stadium anthem, but this is the Teardrop Explodes instead. It’s the perfect end on a high to this musically confused album.

“Wilder” isn’t a bad record but it’s obviously a band who don’t really know in which direction to jump. Whatever the makeup of the musical backdrop there are some great songs on “Wilder”, “The Culture Bunker”, “…and The Fighting Takes Over” and the closing “The Great Dominions” are all top notch stuff and “Passionate Friend” gave them their final Top 40 hit. After some fractious recording sessions for a third album and a disastrous UK tour with no band but lots of synths and backing tapes the Teardrop Explodes, well, exploded. It set Julian Cope off on a a fascinating career path, including records, books and a life as an antiquarian which I’ve followed ever since. He really is a treasure.

The Great Dominions - https://youtu.be/S09LrFyP4lE?si=k5IQGMoUKlqgOF52