Gang of Four- Entertainment! (1979) MP3 & FLAC -For reindeer man-

"The past lives on in your front room, the poor still weak, the rich still rule."

Nowhere is the ethos of Post-Punk better summed up than on Gang of Four's iconic debut, Entertainment! Sonically speaking, Andy Gill's razor sharp staccato guitar attack seems out to destroy every conventional assumption about what a lead guitarist can do in the context of a rock song. His is a trebly untampered sound that eschews both cock-rock excess and Punk-Rock minimalism while exploring a dynamically rhythmic approach that remains influential to this day. Lyrically, Entertainment! is subversive through and through, and I mean this in the best possible sense of the term. Always more interested in informing through ideology critique than in converting, Gang of Four reject the nihilistic anti-political stance that had come to be a Punk-Rock cliché by 1979, instead focusing their lyrics on the ideological constructs of late capitalism. For example in "Not Great Men," the band critiques the "personality theory of history," in which historical events and their causes are interpreted through the actions of those in power rather than taking into account the role of the working class as a force for historical change. In "Guns Before Butter," the target is the ideology of nationalism, a topic perhaps even more relevant today than it was in the late seventies, for what better way to describe the mood of post-911 America than the line, "Just keep quiet, no room to doubt"?  Entertainment! stands as the masterpiece of one of the most innovative and uncompromising bands of the rock era, and if you haven't heard this, better now than never. 

Entertainment! (2005 Remastered and Expanded Edition)
 1. Ether  (3:51)
 2. Natural's Not in It  (3:06)
 3. Not Great Men  (3:06)
 4. Damaged Goods  (3:26)
 5. Return the Gift  (3:26)
 6. Guns Before Butter  (3:45)
 7. I Found That Essence Rare  (3:14)
 8. Glass (2:29)
 9. Contract  (2:40)
10. At Home He's a Tourist  (3:40)
11. 5-45  (3:43)
12. Anthrax  (4:29)
-Bonus Tracks-
13. Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time (Yellow EP)  (3:16)
14. He'd Send in the Army (Yellow EP)  (3:41)
15. It's Her Factory (Yellow EP)  (3:10)
16. Armalite Rifle (Yellow EP)  (2:51)
17. Guns Before Butter (Alternate Version)  (4:25)
18. Contract (Alternate Version)  (2:48)
19. Blood Free (Live)  (3:17)
20. Sweet Jane (Live)  (3:20)

MU: Lossy (MP3@320)

MU: Lossless (FLAC)