Water

This is the album that introduced the Left Brain sound, featuring the unlikely combination of synthesizers and drum machine with multitracked vocals and a wide range of acoustic instruments. That sound softened a bit in their later recordings, but here you can hear it at its most extreme.

The album features the song “Europa Won’t Do,” the greatest song ever recorded about the lifelessness of living on the most intriguing satellite of Jupiter. Other favorites are “Razor Sharp,” an off-balance song you listen to again and again and still never quite get, and the hypnotic “Waterfall,” in which an optical illusion reveals the illusory nature of life itself. By the way, this is the only 12-inch record Breakfast Records still sells.

Length

44 minutes

Producer

Paul Nordquist

Principal performers

Paul Nordquist: vocals, keyboards, drums, saxophone

Amy Guskin: vocals, guitars, keyboards, trumpet

Additional performers

Paul V. Patanella: trombone

Songwriters

Paul Nordquist and others

Cover photograph

K. Sundance

Selections

1. Let’s Get Wet
2. Greenhouse
3. Lightning Strikes Twice
4. Waterfall
5. When the Music Stops
6. Razor Sharp
7. Don’t Think Loudly
8. Swamp in the Center of Town
9. Europa Won’t Do
10. Waxing the Moon