THE VIBE: GENERAL PUBLIC’S “ALL THE RAGE” ALBUM
The spring of 1994, I was fourteen years old and in my freshman year of high school. I don’t know how I came across General Public’s 1984 album All the Rage, because it was a decade past its release and therefore not exactly something my local record store would have been promoting at the time. But I do remember that entire spring, I made it my “getting ready” music in the morning, before school. I have extremely vivid memories of brushing my hair at my vanity mirror in my bedroom, while the album played on my CD boom box behind me. It was a very specific vibe, that album: bright and sunny and bouncy. I know it sounds cheesy to say, but that spring seemed super sunny because I was listening to General Public first thing in the morning.
All the Rage is a little bit ska, which made it cooler than a band like UB40, which also had that British/Caribbean vibe going. But UB40 was more reggae than General Public, and General Public was somehow way more punk than UB40. After all, General Public was an offshoot of the English Beat, who were one of those early-80’s British ska bands that must have seemed pretty revolutionary, given the white-bread culture of the UK pop scene at the time (with the exception of actual punk).
I’m also really into the aesthetics of All the Rage’s album cover. The photos of Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger are super stylized and cool. I might even go so far as to say they’re unforgettable to the point of being iconic, because I remember those images to a T, way back from when I was fourteen years old. Overall, the album design is colorful and playful while also managing to be sleek and avant-garde, even by today’s standards. That’s a graceful balance, but it’s done well here.
What I think really gets me are those graphical rainbows connecting the pictures on the back cover.
🌈💘