Flash and the Pan (album)

Did You Know?

• "Walking in the Rain" was later covered by Grace Jones on her 1981 album Nightclubbing.
• "California" is the only song ever released by Flash and the Pan that was not written by Harry Vanda and George Young; it was written by George's brother Alex under the pseudonym of his wife Monika James.
• The Renaissance edition does not preserve the segue between "The African Shuffle" and "California", fading out and in instead.

Critical reception

Critics couldn't quite agree on what to make of Flash and the Pan's 1978 debut, but they were almost all hooked by its strangeness. The vocal style and lyrics drew mixed reactions, yet the overall verdict was often upbeat, sometimes even glowing. Alan Niester of The Globe and Mail described it as "surrealistic in its detachment at times," calling it "one of the strangest but ultimately finest records to surface in the seventies." He went further, declaring it "the closest thing to a masterpiece we're likely to get this year, and you have to have it."

In Rolling Stone, David Fricke took issue with the "rampant punning" and "mind games" in the lyrics, but acknowledged that songwriters Vanda & Young "never underestimate the simple joy of a good hummable tune." He ultimately labeled the album a "flawlessly executed operetta of applied rock & roll knowledge." Steve Simels, writing for Stereo Review, called it a "minor pop masterpiece" while noting that the synthesizer sound "verges on Eurodisco, with some tacky New Wave organ."

He described the lyrics as "frankly melodramatic... declaimed (in the verses) more often than sung," but threw up his hands and concluded, "Let's just say that it's excellent music and let it go at that." Jon Pareles in Creem found the songs "incorrigibly catchy," though he also pointed out the detachment of the vocal style and the insincerity of the lyrics. Like Simels, he countered his own criticism: "You want sincerity, go watch Merv Griffin."

Simon Frith in Melody Maker credited Vanda & Young's experience for the album's "pop mastery, evident in the hooks, the minor chords, the insidious orchestrations." He expressed doubts about the "bland monotone" of the vocals, saying it "adds to the joke, but I'm not sure it adds to the pleasure," before adding, "But then I'm still listening to this LP, and Vanda and Young may be cleverer than I think, and make easy listening out of this robotic sound."

Several reviewers compared the album to the group 10CC, specifically "early 10CC, before they took themselves seriously," and "10CC gone maniac." Niester offered additional comparisons: "a hungover Lou Reed" and "Tom Waits with a Jack the Ripper fetish." Pareles said the music was arranged "Brian Eno-style."