Red Line is Trans Am's magnum opus. The album might not have the band's best
song or their best set of songs, but in the maturity and breadth of its
composition, arrangement, and execution, it is Trans Am's master work. More
so a synposis on the past 20 years of futuristic music than a roadmap to future
sounds, the album takes the foundations of the band's music, a song-by-song
either/or choice of keyboard-based atmosphere or cock rock muscle, and
broadens the scope of each substantially, covering many new subgenres and
sounds never heard from Trans Am before.
The album is Trans Am's first double LP, and it is designed to fit that format.
The gaudy artwork of color-modified faces, hair, and space scenes fits well
next to the covers of albums like Computer World and Man-Machine, which resemble
similar basic computer imaging effects, all fitting into the band's
retro-futuristic approach. The songs of the album are also arranged as if for
a double LP, each side containing one or two scorchers, i.e., keyboard pop or
hard-nosed rock songs, and the rest mood pieces, like drum solos (via hand,
stick, or machine) or more atmospheric keyboard pieces.
Side 1-A pulls from the German new wave that the album's cover art resembles,
using multiple layers of keyboards and continuing Futureworld's vocoder usage.
"I Want It All" takes a short, driving bass keyboard sequence as the foundation
for several layers of keyboard melody and atmosphere with lyrics like "enemy
soldiers surround us." "Polizei (Zu Spät)" uses dueling vocoded and
non-vocoded voices, singing in multiple languages, and a very short repeating
keyboard bobble to build tension.
Side 1-B puts away the keyboards and brings in the guitars, starting off in a
blaze with "Play in the Summer," a Southern boogie rock jam, sounding much
like a carry over from (or a tribute to) Golden's last album Golden Summer.
At the end of this set of songs is "I'm Coming Down" which uses unprocessed
vocals from two singers along with a chugging affected guitar.
Side 2-A contains the double album's centerpiece, the nearly ten minute
long post-rock epic "The Dark Gift." If the use of sitars
threw you a few songs ago, get ready for acoustic guitars!
Acoustic guitars in a Trans Am song? Yes, acoustic guitars in a Trans Am
song. The song goes through many phases, acoustic guitar strum to
electric guitar noodlefest to a building, undulating guitar and drum
rhythm to pure keyboard atmosphere to a pleasant keyboard melody, definitely
one of Trans Am's best songs.
Side 2-B moves more into classic rock territory. "Slow Response" uses a
crunchy guitar that pummels the listener repeatedly with (dark) angelic vocals,
sounding a bit like Black Sabbath-esque metal. "Ragged Agenda" features
guest vocalist Ian Svenonius of The Make-Up sounding as if he is on the verge
of nervous breakdown as the band plays a steady, driving rhythm and
saxophonist Julian Thomson wails.
These four basically disparate sides make up Trans Am's Red Line.
The album is simultaneously a fuming piece of garbage and a masterpiece.
I both cannot stand listening to it and cannot wait to listen to it again.
It is both everything I love about Trans Am and everything I hate, all
magnified one thousand times, revealing every jagged edge and every
wicked flourish. It is a grand statement of rock, a catalog of where
we've been, where we hoped to go, and where we always return. It is
undeniable.
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