The Buggles • The Age of Plastic

By Rich Teer | March 17th, 2011

Island Records ILPS 9585
33-RPM LP

The Age of Plastic was the first of only two albums from UK synthpop group, The Buggles. The album was recorded as a result of the success of their first single, Video Killed the Radio Star, which topped the charts in several countries (including their native Britain). The video for Video Killed the Radio Star was the first (and later, the one millionth) to be shown on MTV. The song was more recently parodied in the ironically titled Internet Killed the Video Star.

Originally released in 1980, the album itself contains eight tracks, four of which were released as singles: Living in the Plastic Age, Clean Clean, Elstree, and the aforementioned Video Killed the Radio Star.

The sound quality is middle of the road—not fantastic, but not terrible either—which is about what we can hope for. Tonally fine, the imaging is somewhat two dimensional although the soundstage is of a fair size.

Overall, this album merits a recommendation, mostly for the music but also for the sound quality. Add this one to your collection!