The Fine Art of Surfacing by Boomtown Rats

The Fine Art of Surfacing, the Boomtown Rats' third studio album, came out on 5 October 1979, and it's the Irish band's sharp, sardonic postcard from America. Mutt Lange produced it, following A Tonic for the Troops, and the sound is crisp, punchy new wave with plenty of theatrical flair.

The band had toured the United States ahead of the record, drumming up attention and learning about American life and about breaking into its music market. It shows. Some songs look at American life with a straight face, "I Don't Like Mondays" and "Diamond Smiles" among them, while others, like "Nothing Happened Today" and "Having My Picture Taken", poke fun at it. "I Don't Like Mondays", released as the first single on 13 July 1979, is the dark centerpiece: it refers to Brenda Ann Spencer's killing spree in San Diego that January, and it unfolds with swelling, stately drama into something eerie and unforgettable. "Someone's Looking at You" is jittery and paranoid, with a nervy, twitchy bounce.

"I Don't Like Mondays" went to No. 1 on the UK singles chart, and the album reached No. 7 on the UK albums chart. After the original went out of print, Bob Geldof and Pete Briquette remastered it for a 2005 reissue, adding bonus tracks, mostly B-sides, that dig into the band's musical roots. Mondo Bongo came next.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.