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''New Clear Days'' is the 1980 debut album by the British
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
group
The Vapors The Vapors are an English new wave and power pop band that initially existed between 1978 and 1981. They had a hit with the song "Turning Japanese", which reached No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart in 1980 and No. 36 in the US ''Billboard'' Hot 10 ...
. It spent six weeks in the UK album charts, reaching a highest position of No. 44 in June 1980. It contains their best-known song, "
Turning Japanese "Turning Japanese" is a song by English band the Vapors, from their 1980 album '' New Clear Days''. It was an international hit, becoming the band's most well-known song. The song prominently features an Oriental riff played on guitar. Overv ...
", which reached No. 3 in the UK chart in February 1980 and was also a worldwide success. A remix of "News at Ten" (named after the well-known ITV news programme), went to No. 44 in July of that year. A third single, a re-recording of "Waiting for the Weekend" that included a horn section, failed to chart. The title of the album is a
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on "Nuclear", with
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s and
power stations A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many po ...
being prominent societal issues at that time.


Song details

"News at Ten", a cynical examination of the generation gap and the narrator's fear of ending up as complacent as the parent he despises for his conformism, was expected to be a hit on the back of the success of "Turning Japanese". Its poorer performance was blamed in part by the long-running strike at the BBC's ''
Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most o ...
'', which meant it received very little media exposure. There was also a marked reluctance by BBC Radio 1 - then the nation's premier radio station - to play a song named after an ITV programme. Apart from the three singles, the other best known track is "Sixty Second Interval". Its ambiguous lyrics have been interpreted as concerning the short ceasefires agreed upon between armies during wars to allow each to attend to their wounded in the no man's land between them. The song was the inspiration for the long-running "Sixty Second Interview" feature of the UK's free ''
Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urb ...
'' newspaper given away at public transport stations. "Letter from Hiro", the album's lengthy finale, concerns the sense of powerlessness a boy feels as events push towards
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, and towards the inevitable ending of his friendship with his more patriotic Japanese pen pal ("And when the sun was rising somewhere in the East, and when a flag meant more to Hiro than to me"). The song concludes with the playing of a traditional Japanese tune on a
cimbalom The cimbalom (; ) or concert cimbalom is a type of chordophone composed of a large, trapezoidal box on legs with metal strings stretched across its top and a damping pedal underneath. It was designed and created by V. Josef Schunda in 1874 in ...
.


Artwork

A reflection of the album's title and lyrical content, the album cover shows a grainy television screen displaying a
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...
TV
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. Among the symbols for clouds is one located over
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that is, on closer examination, a
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. In addition, one of the temperature symbols has been replaced with one warning of radiation and the weatherman is glowing.


Releases

The American and Canadian releases omitted both "Cold War" and "America" in favour of the single "Prisoners". The U.S. album was released on CD twice: in 1995 as ''Anthology'', by
One Way Records One Way Records was an independent record label based in Albany, New York that specialized in budget reissues of classic rock albums. In the 1990s, it gained business pressing reissues of those records that had "fallen through the cracks" in the t ...
, with four tracks from their second album, ''
Magnets A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel ...
'', as bonus tracks; and in 1998 as ''Vaporized'', by
Collectables Records Collectables is a reissue record label founded in 1980 by Jerry Greene. Jerry Greene formed Lost Nite and Crimson record labels. Soul Survivors gained the hit "Expressway to Your Heart" (1967) while on Crimson Records. History It maintains a ca ...
, which included the ''Magnets'' album on the same CD. In 2000, Captain Mod Records, an offshoot of the Captain Oi! label, specialising in punk rock and new wave bands, reissued both of the band's albums on CD, separately. ''New Clear Days'' featured the original UK LP track listing for the first time on CD, and included all single mixes and B-sides the band recorded for the album as bonus tracks. The CD reissue of ''New Clear Days'' was remastered by Tim Turan and, while some of the bonus tracks had previously been issued on ''Turning Japanese: The Best of the Vapors'' (1996), many of the tracks made their debut on CD for the first time. The booklet included a brief essay on the band's history as well as the lyrics for all the songs on the album. In October 2021, ''New Clear Days'' was reissued on vinyl for the first time since 1980 by British label
Demon Records Demon Music Group (DMG) is a record company owned by BBC Studios that is mainly concerned with back-catalogue rights and re-issuing recordings as compilations on physical media (CDs and vinyl) via supermarkets and specialist stores. History DM ...
, on split black and yellow vinyl and based on the 2000 remasters.


Track listing


Original European, Australasian and South African LP release

*All songs written by David Fenton (
EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...
Music Publishing, Ltd.). ;Side one # "Spring Collection" - 2:52 # "
Turning Japanese "Turning Japanese" is a song by English band the Vapors, from their 1980 album '' New Clear Days''. It was an international hit, becoming the band's most well-known song. The song prominently features an Oriental riff played on guitar. Overv ...
" - 3:44 # "Cold War" - 3:57 # "America" - 2:22 # "Trains" - 3:26 # "Bunkers" - 3:54 ;Side two # "News at Ten" - 3:18 # "Somehow" - 3:33 # "Sixty Second Interval" - 3:52 # "Waiting for the Weekend" - 3:07 # "Letter from Hiro" - 6:23


Bonus tracks on 2000 CD remaster

#
  • "Prisoners" - 2:55
    • #"Sunstroke" - 1:57 -side of "Prisoners"/small> #"Here Comes the Judge" (Live) - 6:34 -side of "Turning Japanese"/small> #"News at Ten" (Single Version) - 3:21 emixed/small> #"Wasted" - 2:48 -side of "News at Ten"/small> #"Talk Talk" - 3:55 -side of "News at Ten"/small> #"Waiting for the Weekend" (Single Version) - 3:03 e-recording/small> #"Billy" - 5:58 -side of "Waiting for the Weekend"/small>


    Original North American LP release

    ;Side one # "Turning Japanese" - 3:40 # "Sixty Second Interval" - 3:50 # "Waiting for the Weekend" - 3:04 # "Spring Collection" - 2:52 # "Letter from Hiro" - 6:22 ;Side two # "News at Ten" - 3:18 # "Somehow" - 3:32 # "Prisoners" - 2:52 # "Trains" - 3:26 # "Bunkers" - 3:53


    Charts


    Personnel

    ;The Vapors *David Fenton - lead vocals, rhythm guitar *
    Edward Bazalgette Edward Bazalgette is a British television director and former musician. Biography Bazalgette was the lead guitarist in the 1980s rock group The Vapors, whose hit "Turning Japanese" remains a popular one-hit wonder. He later became a film edit ...
    - lead guitar *Steve Smith - bass, backing vocals *Howard Smith - drums, percussion ;Technical *Alan Douglas, Andy Lyden, Trevor Hallesy - engineer *John Pasche - art direction


    References

    {{Authority control 1980 debut albums The Vapors albums United Artists Records albums