Thomas Dolby: Aliens Ate My Buick (1988)
No, it’s not another soundtrack, but a funkin’ fantastic new album from Dolby.
Kronomyth 6.0: Play that funky music, white boy.
Maybe it was the wire-rim glasses or all that scientific gear, but I never thought of Thomas Dolby as a funk musician. It became much more obvious on Aliens Ate My Buick that Dolby had been playing funk music from the very beginning. “She Blinded Me with Science,” “Hyperactive!,” those were very funky songs if a little strange. Then again, funk musicians have never been afraid to fly their freak flags. Unfortunately for Dolby, I don’t think audiences were ready for funky music from a white boy who was so, well, white. Airhead could be heard (and seen) as the logical successor to “Hyperactive!” but The Key to Her Ferrari and Hot Sauce were the kind of music you expected from Prince and Cameo, not some bookish steampunk. Now, I happen to think this is a terrific record. May the Cube Be with You (available as a CD/CS bonus track) and Pulp Culture are pure joy. The remaining tracks find Dolby stretching out toward Culture Club (My Brain Is Like a Sieve) and Sting (Ability to Swing) without sacrificing those mad-scientist-in-the-studio surprises. There are several reasons why this album didn’t chart as well as its predecessors, none of which have to do with the quality of the music. First, popular tastes were moving from the dance floor to the mosh pit with the success of heavy metal and, soon, grunge. Second, Dolby had busied himself over the last few years scoring films that Danny Elfman wouldn’t have touched with a ten-foot baton. (It hardly helped that Aliens Ate My Buick looked like yet another soundtrack.) And, thirdly, Dolby himself seems to have overestimated his audience’s interest in seeing him slip out of his scientist’s lab coat into something a little more comfortable.
Original LP version
A1. The Key to Her Ferrari (Thomas Dolby) (4:35)
A2. Airhead (Thomas Dolby/Grant Morris) (5:05)
A3. Hot Sauce (George Clinton) (5:00)
A4. Pulp Culture (Thomas Dolby) (5:32)
B1. My Brain Is Like a Sieve (Thomas Dolby) (4:48)
B2. Ability to Swing (Thomas Dolby/Matthew Seligman) (4:35)
B3. Budapest By Blimp (Thomas Dolby) (8:37)
B4. May the Cube Be with You (Thomas Dolby) (6:50)
The Players
Thomas Dolby (vocals, keyboards), Laura Creamer (vocals, percussion), Terry Jackson (bass), Mike Kapitan (synthesizer), David Owens (drums), Larry Treadwell (guitar) with Bill Bottrell (spaghetti western guitar on A3), Colin Crabtree (backing vocals on A2), Lesley Fairbairn (backing vocals on B3), Donny Gerard (backing vocals on A1), Jean Johnson McCrath (backing vocals on A3/A4/B1), Csilla Kecskesi (Hungarian aria on B3), Erica Kiss (translation on B3), Mendy Lee (backing vocals on A1), Edie Lehmann (backing vocals on A1), Arno Lucas (congas, timbales), Rose Banks Stone (backing vocals on A3/A4/B1), Gueysel Tejada (Mr. Dolby’s domestic cleaning and outburst on A3), Bill Watrous (trombone), Bruce Woolley (backing vocals on A2). Produced by Thomas Dolby and Bill Bottrell; engineered by Bill Bottrell.
The Pictures
Artwork and typography by Steve Vance. Front cover and inner sleeve photography by Leslie Burke. Back cover photography by Dennis Keeley. Front cover model: Kathleen Beller.
The Plastic
Released on elpee and expanded cassette and compact disc on April 25, 1988 in the UK (EMI Manhattan, MTL/TC-MTL 1020/CDP-7-48075), the US (EMI Manhattan, E1/E4/CDP-7-48075), Italy (EMI Manhattan, 64 7480751/4), Japan (EMI Manhattan, RP28/ZP28/CP28-5616) and Spain (Hispavox, (590) 7480751) with lyric innersleeve. Reached #70 on the US charts and #30 on the UK charts.
- Re-issued on 180g vinyl in 2025 in the US (Music on Vinyl, MOVLP3794).
