''Adolescent Sex'' is the debut album by the English band

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, released in March 1978 by record label Hansa. To avoid controversy over the title, the album was renamed simply as ''Japan'' in some countries.

Content

According to

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, ''Adolescent Sex'' "snarls with leftover punk intent, a few glam rock riffs, and a wealth of

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

that not only reach back to the band's youth, but also predate much of what would explode out of the next wave of British underground."

Release

Though not a commercial success in their native UK, the album was better received abroad, particularly in

itself, where it peaked at No. 20, and in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

where the single " Adolescent Sex" reached number 27 in the

Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 () is a weekly music chart compiled by ''Stichting Nederlandse Top 40''. It started as a radio program titled "Veronica Top 40", on the offshore radio, offshore station Radio Veronica in 1965. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" ...

in 1979. The Japanese release contained several mistranslations of song titles. "Transmission" became "Invitation to Fascination", "Suburban Love" became "Carousel of Love", and "Television" became "Temptation Screen". The album was remastered and re-released as a digipak CD in April 2004, with four videos as bonus material.

Reception and aftermath

'' Trouser Press'' wrote that the album "introduces Japan in all its guitar-rock misery, playing such Bowie-influenced tripe as 'Wish You Were Black' with less style than a sense of urgency".

retrospectively gave the album a 4.5 out of 5 grade, writing: "A more exciting album than just about anything else they'd ever record, Japan were young, hungry, and more than a little rough around the edges." Within a couple of years of its release, the band publicly denounced the album.

David Sylvian David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt; 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan (band), Japan. During his time in Japan, Sylvia ...

also said in 1982:

Track listing

Personnel

; Japan *

– lead vocals, rhythm guitar * Rob Dean – lead guitar, backing vocals * Richard Barbieri – keyboards, backing vocals * Mick Karn – bass, backing vocals * Steve Jansen – drums, backing vocals, percussion ; Additional personnel * Ray Singer – production, additional backing vocals * Pete Silver –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

* Dick Whitbread – cover design and artwork * Graham Hughes – cover photo

Charts

Album

Singles

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1978 debut albums Japan (band) albums Hansa Records albums