Suicide (1977)

Suicide is the debut studio album from the American rock band Suicide. It was released in 1977 on Red Star Records and produced by Craig Leon and Marty Thau. The album was recorded in four days at Ultima Sound Studios in New York and featured Martin Rev's minimalist electronics and harsh, repetitive rhythms paired with Alan Vega's rock and roll-inspired vocals and depictions of urban life.

Upon its initial release, Suicide was greeted with some favorable reception from the UK press, but was universally panned in the United States, where it failed to chart. However, the album would soon be regarded as a milestone in electronic and rock music. In 2013, Pitchfork named Suicide one of the greatest albums of the 1970s, while in 2012 and 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it as one of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album also influenced artists in various genres, including Bruce Springsteen, the Fleshtones, Spacemen 3, and Peaches.

Production

Suicide was the first group to sign to Marty Thau's Red Star record label. Thau had previously worked at Paramount Records and Buddah Records and had sold his assets to Richard Gottehrer to create Red Star Records. After hearing a demo tape from Suicide, he asked if he could see Suicide perform live, which led to the group being signed to Red Star. Red Star hired Craig Leon to co-produce the record.

Suicide entered the studio with much of their songs already written and rehearsed from having spent the previous five years playing shows. The recording of the album was done in four days. Leon had previously worked with reggae musicians Bob Marley and Lee "Scratch" Perry and seen them create dub-like effects with their music and used an Eventide digital delay unit to create these echo effects on the album's vocal tracks. Leon returned to California after four days of work which led to Marty Thau to work on the rest of the production. Alan Vega changed the lyrics of "Frankie Teardrop" during the mixing sessions of the album. Thau remixed the tracks "Ghost Rider", "Rocket U.S.A." and "Cheree". Leon returned to New York where the two remixed "Frankie Teardrop". The album was mastered at Frankford/Wayne in New York.

Style

Musically, Suicide has been described as synth-punk, electronic rock, and synth-pop, while also being labeled electronic and minimalist. All the songs on the album have a "stripped down" sound with Martin Rev providing a backing combining "harshly hypnotic organs" and "dense, unnerving electronics". The vocals on the album provided by Alan Vega have been described as similar to Gene Vincent. In 2012, Vega stated that "originally I was a rock'n'roll kid; I was born into the rock'n'roll era of 45s in the late fifties" and that "Elvis Presley to me is like God, and Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis, they're my triumvirate." "Johnny" was described by the online music database AllMusic as a showcase for the band's "affinity for '50s melodies and images, as well as their pop leanings."

Martin Rev described the songs "Frankie Teardrop", "Johnny" and "Cheree" as being about street people. "Frankie Teardrop" was influenced by a story Alan Vega read in a newspaper about a factory worker who lost his job and resorted to murdering his wife and child before committing suicide. The lyrics of the song were improvised by Vega, who attempted to get into the mindset of both the factory worker and his family. "Cheree" was about a girlfriend of Martin Rev.

Release

Suicide was first released in December 1977. Howard Thompson of Bronze Records in the United Kingdom received a copy of the album from the United States. After listening to it he went to New York to see the group perform live and negotiate a deal to license their music for Bronze. The album failed to chart in both the United States and the United Kingdom. A single for the song "Cheree" was released in May 1978 on both 7-inch and 12-inch vinyl formats. The single featured a remixed version of "Cheree" with the B-side "I Remember". John Lydon reviewed the single for the NME, referring to it as "'Je t'aime' with tape hiss".

The album was re-issued by Red Star Records in 1980. The album has been re-released on other labels including Mute Records in 1998 and Blast First Records on compact disc and digital download formats with varying bonus tracks.

Reception

Music journalist Tony Fletcher stated that the album "struggled for immediate attention" due to it being an independent release.

The album received positive contemporary reviews from the NME, Time Out and Melody Maker in the United Kingdom. Writing in Sounds, Jon Savage was more circumspect, saying "Granted that the monotony is intentional, much of the cut is chilling – the screams and drift of the instrument into landscapes of blankness – and reaches the sought level of terror. Yeah, and then the mood is broken by dumb lyrics".