Description
Collision Drive is Alan Vega's second solo studio album, originally released in1981. If his debut laid the groundwork for a raw, minimalist take on rockabillyand blues, Collision Drive expands the palette with a grittier, more layered, andunfiltered energy. Here Vega's lyrics channel universal themes rooted in hisfascination with street life, science fiction, politics, comics, love and the mysteriesof the universe. It's a record that pulses with feeling and rebellion, displaying thefull spectrum of human experience and Vega's evolving vision.Alan was always reinventing himself, creating and refining his mastery of varia-tion while maintaining his own unparalleled and identifiable aesthetic. Sonically,this album is more dynamic than his first. Ditching drum machines for a livedrummer, and enlisting a hard rock band to back him, Collision Drive offered adifferent view of Vega's artistic vision. The aching punk rockabilly of "Magdalena82" unfolds with a hypnotic blend of guitar slides and frenetic energy, whileVega's cover of "Be Bop A Lula" transforms Gene Vincent's classic into an aggres-sively charged, manic howl. Elsewhere, tracks like the hard-driving cosmic rockn roll "Raver" push into psychobilly territory. Vega was relentlessly innovative, continuously paving new ground.Newly remastered by Josh Bonati from the original tapes, Collision Drive receivesa reverent reissue from Sacred Bones Record.Here we witness the full ascension into his own mythology: part rockabilly out-law, part cosmic preacher, part outsider visionary. Broader in scope than his debutbut just as uncompromising, Collision Drive is a bold and personal explorationof sound and identity. Raw, electrifying, and groundbreaking, it remains a cultcornerstone of outsider rock and a touchstone in the evolution of art-punk andexperimental pop from one of New York's most fearless icons.
