Sold Date: May 21, 2024
Start Date: May 12, 2024
Final Price: $25.00 (USD)
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Dark Continent is the debut studio album by the American rock band Wall of Voodoo, released in 1981 by I.R.S. Records.  It followed 1980’s self-titled E.P.  In a 1981 review from Trouser Press, Jon Young said, "[t]his deadpan opus is either a joke or just another pretentious search for meaning." He continued, "Wall of Voodoo will need a better sense of the absurd to attain true strangeness. Here they just don't go far enough." In a later review from The Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records (1983), Young stated that  Dark Continent displayed "more polish" than the band's debut EP and benefited from "colorfully morose guitar and keyboards." In a retrospective review, Greg Adams of AllMusic declared Dark Continent to be Wall of Voodoo's greatest album, pointing to the uniformly strong songwriting and the intensely original voice and style. Conversely, Geoff Barton of Classic Rock magazine opined that the first two Wall of Voodoo albums did not age well; he found Ridgway's singing style "intensely irritating" and the music "too clever-clever for comfort." Dark Continent reached number 177 on the Billboard 200 chart. 

THIS COPY is a 1st Terre Haute pressing from 1981 (see Notes, below).  The vinyl shows some marks but per a test listen none of them affect playback.  The vinyl is in Very Good [VG] conditon.  The original cover has the ghost of ring wear, but otherwise is perfecto.  The cover is in Very Good Plus [VG+] condition.  The original inner sleeve, with lyrics on one side and credits on the reverse, is also in Very Good Plus [VG+] condition.

Notes

Original pressing with picture labels and printed inner sleeve.

Tracks A3 and B2 not listed on back cover or labels.

"TI" etched in the run-outs denotes a pressing by Columbia, Terre Haute.

Runouts, variant 2: the "b" and the "B" are stamped.

Barcode and Other Identifiers

Rights Society: BMI

Matrix / Runout (variant 1 etching, side A): TI IRS-SP-070022A-TI D3

Matrix / Runout (variant 1 etching, side B): IT IRS-SP-070022B-TI D10

Matrix / Runout (variant 2 etching, side A): I IRS-SP-070022A-P4 = b

Matrix / Runout (variant 2 etching, side B): I T IRS-SP-070022B-T2 B

ENJOY!