Let's Active - Cypress

This month marks the thirtieth anniversary of Cypress, the first full-length studio album from Let’s Active. It spent sixteen weeks on the US Billboard Album chart, peaking at number 138.



Side one begins with “Easy Does”, a melodic mid-tempo number.

The second single was “Waters Part”. Midway through, there is a surprising funky guitar riff that really sparked my interest. At exactly five minutes in length, it is the album’s longest track.

“Lowdown” is up next.

“Gravel Truck”, at just over a minute in length, is the album’s shortest track. It is very much an experimental piece of tones and sounds.

“Crows on a Phone Line” harkens back to 60’s Brit pop which was one of the band’s many inspirations.

One of the band’s two females takes the lead vocal duties on “Ring True”. The song incorporates a false ending, fading out and then coming back for a final thirty seconds.

Side two opens with “Blue Line”, the first single and the B-side to the second single. The song has a strong sound to it, a good choice for a release. The chorus reminds me a little bit of the ladies from the B-52’s.

“Flags for Everything” most reminds me, musically, of the band’s debut EP Afoot (click here for that review).

The introduction to “Prey” is very interesting to me; I would have liked to gotten a bit more exploration of that. It sort of gets lost beneath the rest of the elements of the song.

The up-tempo “Co-Star” has an ever changing rhythm that keeps the listener on his toes.

Next follows “Ornamental”.

The album closes with “Counting Down”.

While a few of these tracks are available to listen to digitally online, I really had to go to YouTube to get the complete Cypress experience. Again, this was not an album I had heard back in the 80’s. I definitely found it interesting in a number of parts. If you are a fan of early 80’s alternative, and particularly R.E.M., you definitely should give some of these a listen.