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The Riff’s April Album Discussion: ‘Cosmic Thing’ by The B-52's

Listen to the album & then chat with us about it in our own little Love-Of-Music Shack!

After volunteering to host this month’s album discussion for The Riff, I struggled with which album to choose. When you’ve been a music lover for most of your life and can easily say that there are hundreds of albums that you love from start to finish, how in the world do you narrow it down to just one album as the ‘front runner’ for something like this?

I went back and forth trying to decide on an album by one of my all-time favorite acts. The Monkees, Pink Floyd, James Taylor, Daryl Hall and John Oates, Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, Counting Crows, AC/DC — and a dozen or so others — were all in the running.

Then, a couple of days ago, I was listening to the radio, and this song came on:

Love Shack, baby!

That did it for me, baby! I decided right then and there that the album that “Love Shack” came from, Cosmic Thing by The B-52’s, would be the perfect album for me to choose for the discussion.

Not only is it one of my favorite albums ever, but it’s also considered by many music listeners and critics to be the best album ever by The B-52’s. It was also the band’s biggest-selling album ever, achieving 4x platinum status in the United States and also going platinum in the UK.

However, when The B-52’s released Cosmic Thing in June 1989, the band was coming off of an incredibly difficult and tragic event: the 1985 death of one of their founding members — guitarist and songwriter Ricky Wilson.

Shortly before his passing, Ricky had worked on most of the recordings for the band’s Bouncing Off The Satellites album, released in late 1986, nearly one year after his death.

At the time of the album’s release, the remaining members of The B-52’s (including Ricky’s sister Cindy Wilson) were still devasted by his passing and unsure if they would continue together as a band. They decided not to tour to support their new album. In turn, their record company did little to promote Bouncing Off The Satellites, and it did not sell very well.

While the band did not officially split up, they decided to take an extended break and go their separate ways for a while. They got back together in 1988 at the urging of their drummer, keyboardist, and songwriter Keith Strickland, who had begun writing new music. With Keith now playing guitar in place of their beloved late bandmate, the foursome began working together on the songs that would appear on their Cosmic Thing album.

The album was produced by Nile Rogers and Don Was. The first two singles from it were “Channel Z” and “Cosmic Thing.” Both were only moderately successful at the time, but they put the public’s eyes back on the band and paved the way for the future hits that were soon coming from the album.

Channel Z

While I don’t remember this song getting played much (if at all) on the radio when it was new, the above music video got played a lot on MTV back then. It’s always been one of my favorite songs and videos by them.

Cosmic Thing

A very fun live performance of this song. I especially love the vocals on it by Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, especially the latter. P.S. — If you don’t know which one is which, Kate is the redhead, and Cindy is blonde.

Also, even though I’ve heard this song countless times, the “shake your honeybuns” lines in it always give me big smiles when I hear them.

“Love Shack” was the third single released from the album, and it went on to become not only their biggest-selling single but perhaps the song with which they are best known— with the possible exception of their early hit “Rock Lobster.”

The next single was “Roam,” which was also a huge hit for the band.

Roam

The vocals in this one by Kate Person and Cindy Wilson are amazing. Their voices are incredible together here. Also, this is a VERY fun music video. Singer Fred Schneider, who doesn’t sing at all in this one, is hilarious in the video.

A couple of my other favorites from the album:

Deadbeat Club

This has always been my favorite song on the album. Like in “Roam,” the vocals in this one by Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson are wonderful.

This is also probably my favorite music video by The B-52’s. Both the song and the video are homages to the band’s pre-fame days they spent hanging out with each other in their hometown, Athens, Georgia, USA. Look closely, and you’ll see their friend and fellow Georgian Michael Stipe of R.E.M. in the video.

Topaz

The penultimate song on the album. To me, there’s something kind of magical about this one. I don’t know if it’s because of the music, the vocals, or the enchanting lyrics about winking skyscrapers, singing blue dolphins, and cities by the sea… but I love it all.

“Yes, I see the cities by the sea…”

While I already shared over half of the Cosmic Thing album above, I encourage you to listen to the entire thing if you've never heard it. If you’re a Spotify user, here it is:

It can also easily be found on other streaming platforms.

If you like the album, I then invite you to join me, Terry Barr, and other music lovers in a Zoom Meeting, in which we’ll discuss what we like — or maybe don’t like — about the album.

If you’ve never joined us before for one of these monthly album discussions, they’re a lot of fun!

There is ZERO PRESSURE put on anyone who attends them. If you’d like to be there and just listen to what the rest of us are saying, that’s perfectly fine. You can have your microphone muted the whole time. You can also be there with your camera turned off.

However, if you want to chat with us, that’s highly encouraged too. We would love to hear your thoughts about the music!

Any way you want to be is fine with us.

If you’d like to join in on the fun, the discussion will take place on Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 4 PM Eastern Daylight Time (New York time.)

Zoom Meeting Info:

ID: 85185041336 Passcode: 4q^b86X#

Tagging some of the regular attendees of the monthly chats and some others who I feel may be interested in joining us: Nicole Brown, Jeffrey Harvey, If Ever You’re Listening, Jessica Lee McMillan, Jasmine Aguilar, Bob Merckel, Madeline Dovi, Kevin Alexander, Charlie Cole, Charles in San Francisco, Steve Goldberg, Anthony Overs, Kerry Purvis, Christine Carmichael, Mark Holburn, Chris Zappa, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Paul Combs, Amber Walters, Arpad Nagy, Lark Morrigan, Nichola Scurry, David Perlmutter, Laura Lind, Bonnie Barton, Brandy Niremburk, Paul K. Barnes, David Acaster, Paul Walker, Alexander Razin, and Robert Gowty.

If your name’s not above, you’re still invited. All are welcome!