Personalities in 1980 - twenty year old visionaries of a sound that surrounds us more than quarter of a century later, or nitwits in cravats and beige corduroys? You decide… Start by listening to 'Red With Purple Flashes' or 'My Andy Warhol Poster', songs and a sound that predates the artistic interests and ambitions of Babyshambles. Or 'Pinstripes', even 'Dressing Up For The Cameras' - using irony like a bazooka and social observance long before The Artic Monkeys and The Kooks. How about 'The Joke's On Zandra' - Franz Ferdinand anyone? Everything you hear today, you can hear on this release, the first Times album from November 1980. Only when they did it there was nothing to compare. It's the sound of youth, the father we hate in its sights. Not afraid to ridicule anything or anyone - 'Interview' magazine-period Warhol, Zandra Rhodes - post-punk idiots to the slaughter. The Times hold the dogs of rage without letting them bite. And until the Smiths turned up, no one could do it with the same degree of humour. As we've come to expect with ARTPOP! releases, the label maintains it's high standard, reissuing the original album in its entirety, plus previously unavailable extra tracks. Also containing extensive extracts from the Edward Ball Diaries, quotes from all involved and a plethora of pictures seen and previously unseen. And remember, the next time you listen to the Times' 'No Hard Feelings' and imagine it to be Pete Docherty's Lets Make Up song for Carl in a Libertines reformation, don't blame me!! -Cherry Red Records