A Product Of... (Participation)

"Perfect Game" is the first single taken from A Product Of... (Participation).{{cite web|title=Thompson Twins - Singles Releases|url=http://www.discogs.com/artist/Thompson+Twins#t=Releases_Singles-EPs&q=&p=1|work=Discogs.com|accessdate=30 Sep 2012}} It was released on 30 January 1981 on the T Records imprint,{{cite magazine|date=31 January 1981|title=New Singles|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1981/Music-Week-1981-01-31.pdf|magazine=Music Week|page=24|accessdate=23 May 2021}} a label created by the band and distributed through the Fame/EMI label. The B-side to the single is the single mix of "Politics".

In September 2008, the band's first two albums, A Product of... and Set, were released as a double CD. This version included their earliest singles, non-album tracks, and extended remixes.

{{Album ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|2.5|5}}{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/a-product-of-mw0002620623|title=Thompson Twins: A Product Of... (Participation)|author=Cater, Evan|publisher=AllMusic}}

| rev2 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev2Score = {{Rating|2|5}}{{cite book|last1=Larkin|first1=Colin|title=Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music|date=1997|publisher=Virgin Books|location=London|isbn=1-85227 745 9|page=1,176|chapter=Thompson Twins}}

| rev3 = Record Mirror

| rev3Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine|title=Thompson Twins: A Product Of... (Participation)|author=Cooper, Mark|page=15|issue=26|volume=28|date=27 June 1981|magazine=Record Mirror}}

| rev4 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev4Score = {{Rating|2|5}}

| noprose = yes

| rev5 = Smash Hits

| rev5score = {{rating|6|10}}{{cite journal |last=Birch |first=Ian |title=Albums |journal=Smash Hits |date=25 June – 8 July 1981 |volume=3 |number=13 |page=35}}

}}

Contemporarily, Harlow Star critic Roger Fulton commented on the album's numerous influences, including Talking Heads, but believed that "thoughts of the Thompson Twins merely being an amalgam of other people's sounds are quickly dispelled by some of the wildest rhythms this side of the Sahara", praising the band for writing "thinking, thoughtful songs" (such as "Politics", "Perfect Game" and "Slave Trade") in addition to "invigorating rhythmic excursions" like "Oumma Aularesso" that are "adventurous and completely engaging". However, he did believe that the band's live shows were "even better" than the album.{{cite journal |last1=Fulton |first1=Roger |title=Thompsons have that twinning formula |journal=Harlow Star |date=20 August 1981 |page=13 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/803052111/?match=1&terms=thompson%20twins%20%22a%20product%20of%22 |access-date=11 July 2024}} Smash Hits{{'}} Ian Birch found Thompson Twins "More interesting for what they promise then what they deliver, the T.T.s are sometimes too ambitious. When variety is this diverse, the group's identity takes second place" and that they "succeed best when they're as simple as in "When I See You"."

Retrospectively, the album is regarded as the first of two experimental pop records that the Thompson Twins recorded before moving towards a more mainstream sound.{{cite book |last1=Wardle |first1=Ben |title=Mark Hollis: A Perfect Silence |date=2024 |publisher=Rocket 8 8Books |location=London |isbn=9781915156167 |page=131 |edition=2nd |chapter=Chapter 12 (1984): "I bet ya didn't expect us to come back did ya?"}} AllMusic writer Evan Cater commented that A Product Of... (Participation) was drastically different than the group's later pop records, being "more experimental and more guitar based than the keyboard dominated hits of Into the Gap and Here's to Future Days", as well as favouring "murky tuneless noodling" over the pop hooks they were later known for. He noted the album's international theme, exemplified by the artwork, the heavy influence from African music (most notably on "Slave Trade" and "Oumma Aularesso (Animal Laugh)," the latter of which was a traditional Sierra Leone song rearranged by Bailey), as well as the reinterpretation of the Gregorian chant "Vendredi Saint" as either "an Asian or African chant (it isn't entirely clear which)."{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/a-product-of-mw0002620623|title=Thompson Twins: A Product Of... (Participation)|author=Cater, Evan|publisher=AllMusic}}

Ira Robbins of Trouser Press noted that in addition to playing their primary instruments, all six musicians contribute percussion. However, he notes that the "cleverness and variety of the tracks ... eliminate any potential monotony that might have resulted from the heavy reliance on rhythm. And although the music is designed to incite maximum motion, there isn’t one track that skimps on lyrical, melodic or structural depth." He concluded that while the record is not "uniformly wonderful", its textures and sounds "make it pleasurable and energizing."{{cite web |last1=Robbins |first1=Ira |title=Thompson Twins |url=https://trouserpress.com/reviews/thompson-twins/ |access-date=11 July 2024}} Colin Larkin wrote in The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1997) that, despite the group's invigorating, punk-esque live shows prior to the album, in which they invited audience members to beat rhythms to their songs, A Product Of... (Participation) "showed a band struggling to make the transition from stage to studio". Also negative in his reappraisal, Dave Marsh rated the album two stars out of five in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (1983). Referring to the album as "a conglomeration of pop, reggae funk and African rhythms", he concluded that the music is "engaging but lacks real substance."{{cite book|chapter=Thompson Twins|last1=Marsh|first1=Dave|author-link1=Dave Marsh|last2=Swenson|first2=John|title=The New Rolling Stone Record Guide|publisher=Random House/Rolling Stone Press|location=New York|edition=2nd|year=1983|isbn=0-394-72107-1}}

All tracks composed by Thompson Twins; except where indicated

1. "When I See You"
2. "Politics"
3. "Slave Trade"
4. "Could Be Her...Could Be You"
5. "Make Believe"
6. "Don't Go Away"
7. "The Price"
8. "Oumma Aularesso (Animal Laugh)" (Traditional from Sierra Leone; arranged by Tom Bailey)
9. "Anything Is Good Enough"
10. "A Product Of..."
11. "Perfect Game"
12. "Vendredi Saint" (Traditional Gregorian chant; arranged by Tom Bailey)

1. "Squares and Triangles"
2. "Could Be Her...Could Be You" (original version)
3. "Weather Station" (written and recorded by Bailey for the independent film The Onlooker)
4. "Modern Plumbing" (written by Bailey; recorded by the Blankets, a separate group that included him)
5. "She's in Love With Mystery"
6. "Fast Food"
7. "Food Style"
8. "Oumma Aularesso (Animal Laugh)" (original remixed extended version)
9. "A Dub Product"
10. "Make Believe (Let's Pretend)" (extended version)
11. "Lama Sabach Tani"

• Tom Bailey – bass, lead vocals, keyboards, percussion, reeds
• Chris Bell – drums, backing vocals, percussion
• Peter Dodd – guitar, backing vocals, percussion, saxophone
• Joe Leeway – congas, backing vocals, percussion
• John Roog – guitar, backing vocals, percussion
• Jane Shorter – saxophone, percussion

;Technical

• Steve Dewey – engineer, mixing
• Alan O'Duffy, John Hade, Tom Bailey – mixing
• Jonathan Phipps – cover art

{{reflist}}

{{Thompson Twins}}

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Category:1981 debut albums

Category:Thompson Twins albums

Category:Albums produced by Mike Howlett

Category:EMI Records albums

Category:Experimental pop albums

Category:Post-punk albums by English artists