The dB's got lumped in with the college rockers, but had they been around fifteen years earlier, they would have been a perfectly commercial pop band...albeit one who's best-known song tells the tale of a poor schlub who decides to end it all after his girlfriend not only dumps him but steals all his shit... well, all of it except for his amplifier.
The bubbly pop sensibility that the dB's brought to their second album and Scott Litt's crisp wide-screen production, complete with chunky contributions from Graham Parker's Rumour Brass, make the dB's a very different beast from other early-eighties groups with a similarly retro-ethos, such as Television Personalities, R.E.M., and The Three O'Clock. In 1966, Repercussions would have been an international smash fit for top-40 radio. In 1981, the year of Juice Newton and REO Speedwagon, it wasn't even pressed in the U.S.
That changes now as Propeller Sound Recordings is giving Repercussions its"first-ever U.S. pressing", as its hype-sticker proudly declares.
Arriving on "yellow sunrise" colored vinyl (which actually looks more like blue with a green mist floating through it), the vinyl has some low-level surface noise audible between the tracks and very mild distortion as the stylus gets closer to the spindle. The music is beautifully remastered by Bob Weston, with strong and clear lows, mids, and highs. The introduction of "I Feel Good (Today)" is so startlingly present you'll think Chris Stamey just sneaked into your room to strum in your ear. It includes a bonus insert featuring extensive quotes from Scott Litt and the band, who name drop a refreshingly offbeat conglomerate of influences for a hip college rock band, including Chic, King Crimson, and Boz Scaggs.
