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The uncannily elastic and yet also synthetic rigor of "Beat the Clock" doesn't put
the 1980 Disco number of the same name by (of all people) Sparks out to pasture -
interestingly enough, it utilizes the same device of creative percussion to signify
temporality. (For that matter, The Hollies did the same thing back in 1967 with their
maddening, import-only album track "Water on the Brain.") "Time Enough" treads similar
ground. The definite keeper here is the ambitious "Supergenius," which we suspect may
be something of a Baby Ray homage of sorts. It's a meandering tune full of twists and
turns that keeps us listening in spite of its unnaturally distended length. We might
mention that for all the bounciness of the tunesmithing represented here, there's also
an air of ambiguous resignation underlying these toe-tappers, which allows the songs to
shade into art territory rather than encouraging us to regard them as mere entertainment
fodder. "Supergenius" is my pick for Song of the Month for November. Butch and Brenda |