mrJim
Senior Member
In 1985 The Adicts begin to experiment with more mainstream music and release Smart Alex. The band is pressured by their label and temporarily changes their name to ADX. Clearly around this time the group the Sire label is putting the screws to them. Moves were even made to get the band to get rid of Monkey the lead singer under the fact that he can’t sing. The Band basically tells them to piss off.
Smart Alex is significantly more mainstream oriented and starts to slip in some new wave type elements. This is significantly different than the first 2 albums.
Smart Alex opens as any Adicts album would, an “England” type Intro that transitions directly into the title track Smart Alex. The Intro, transition and Smart Alex are good with no hint of what to come. The 3rd track “Troubadour” it’s clear something is different.. a softer sound searching for polish. The next track is “Tokyo” and is forgettable and generally sounds like someone couldn’t stop mixing it.
Then there is huge run a run of excellent tracks “Crazy”, “Bad Boy”, “Jelly Baby” “Maybe or Maybe Not”, “Rockin Wrecker” and “Runaway” which are all songs that clearly have Adicts elements but all have been softened and readied for the mainstream mindset.
Overall, I think the Album is really great regardless if it isn't “what the Adicts are” Smart Alex is actually a pretty good album. It fits in their total body of Adicts work as an experiment that produced really good music. The tracks are catchy and well put together and exhume the have fun attitude. Different as it is I like the album and the reissued CD version on SOS records has some cool Bonus tracks including 2 covers of “Falling in Love Again” which is nice!
Gone is the raw punk sound and ripping guitar. Gone but maybe not discarded.
Smart Alex
Crazy
Bad Boy
Jelly Baby