Game Theory
were only a few months old when they began recording their debut album, 1982's
Blaze of Glory
, in a makeshift studio in the home of singer, guitarist, songwriter, and all-around idea man
Scott Miller
.
is in many respects the work of a band taking baby steps, but it's also a very ambitious work that represents
Miller
's desire to move on from his juvenilia with his previous band,
Alternate Learning
, and this LP sounds like a rough draft for what
would achieve on albums like
Real Nighttime
and
The Big Shot Chronicles
. Considering it was recorded in a semi-pro home studio, the production on
is assertive, and the first flashes of
's infatuation with audio montage and fragmented songwriting can be found here, though they're used very sparingly, and while it's clear the group was trying to emulate certain specific studio techniques of the day, the low-budget processing on the drums and the very dated synth patches doubtless have a lot to do with why
became reluctant to let fans hear this material in its original form (he re-recorded "Bad Year at UCLA" and "Sleeping Through Heaven" for the 1990
collection
Tinker to Evers to Chance
, and most tracks from this album were remixed and/or given fresh overdubs for the 1993 collection
Distortion of Glory
). The grander attempts at a big sound on "The Girls are Ready to Go" and "Stupid Heart" work only so well (and are a reminder of how much producer
Mitch Easter
brought to the later
albums), but more modest performances like "Mary Magdalene" and "It Gives Me Chills" are very effective indeed, and tunes like "Sleeping Through Heaven," "Something to Show," and "All I Want Is Everything" make it obvious that
was already a superb songwriter with a unique take on smart pop.
would grow by leaps and bounds by the time they released their next full-length album, 1985's
, but
shows that
's creative vision was very much in place in 1982, even if he was still working out the mechanics of putting it on tape. ~ Mark Deming