Wilder

The Teardrop Explodes' leader, Julian Cope, starts here with a familiar pattern that would follow him throughout his solo career. Where The Teardrop Explodes' debut album, Kilimanjaro, captured the sound of an effusive and energetic guitar-based pop group with touches of horns and keyboards, Wilder puts synthesizers alongside the horns for a darker, experimental sound, with all songs written solely by Cope. There are still great pop songs—"Pure Joy," "Passionate Friend," "The Great Dominions"—but the robotic sequencing of "Seven Views of Jerusalem" and "Falling Down Around Me" suggests had the group stayed together it would've been very different with each successive album. But The Teardrop Explodes couldn't hold it together, and thus Wilder takes on greater stature. (Tapes for a third album were issued after the band's breakup as Everybody Wants to Shag…). Cope has refused to ever reunite with his old bandmates. He did, however, see fit to approve this reissue of the album; it includes eight bonus tracks, mostly b-sides that include tunes co-written with David Balfe ("Ouch Monkeys," "Soft Enough for You") and Gary Dwyer ("The In-Psychlopaedia").