Disc 11. Our Lips Are Sealed 2. How Much More 3. Tonite 4. Lust to Love 5. This Town 6. We Got the Beat 7. Fading Fast 8. Automatic 9. You Can't Walk in Your Sleep (If You Can't Sleep) 10. Skidmarks on My Heart 11. Can't Stop the World
Label: A&M Records (USA)
Release Date: 10/25/1990
Original Release Date: 1981
Recording Mode: Stereo
Producer: Richard Gottehrer; Rob Freeman
Engineer: Rob Freeman
Recording Type: Studio
Distributor: Universal Distribution
The Go-Go's: Charlotte Caffey (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Jane Weidlin (vocals, guitar); Belinda Carlisle (vocals); Kathy Valentine (guitar, bass); Gina Schock (drums, percussion).
Recorded at Pennylane Studio, New York, New York.
L.A.'s the Go-Go's had shed a lot of the strict punk rock-isms of their past by the time of their first album, though the best moments of BEAUTY & THE BEAT still present them a touch closer to punk than to pop. It is as a result of records like this that new wave came into being. The Go-Go's were one of the first American punk bands to achieve significant commercial success (probably only Blondie really preceded them), and this album is no sell-out to "the man."
The record spawned two huge hits, "Our Lips Are Sealed," "We Got the Beat," and one not-as-huge one, "Can't Stop the World" (written by bass player Kathy Valentine). All three feature Gina Schock's powerful drumming way up into the front of the mix, Belinda Carlisle impassioned (and slightly unschooled) vocals, and brief allusions to surf-guitar rock. As good as those tracks are, "Skidmarks on My Heart," an awesome nitro-injected, adrenalized pastiche of '60s girl-group standards, and "This Town," a scathing character study of L.A. life, are possibly better. For all of its enormous commercial success, this record is one of the very best albums of the early '80s.
Rolling Stone (10/31/02, p.136) - Ranked # 36 in Rolling Stone's "Women in Rock: The 50 Essential Albums"
Rolling Stone (p.77) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[E]very element is exactly in its place. But it's the combination of pop-rock production and a band that was unhinged, unschooled and unlovely that makes BEAT great."
Spin (p.104) - "[With] handclap rockers and terse love notes, they actually became, no joke, America's sweethearts. In a shocking pop upset, they also write their own songs."
CMJ (1/5/04, p.10) - Ranked #9 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1982".
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