“Hammerheads” by Shriekback

"Hammerheads" comes off Oil and Gold, the fourth Shriekback album, released in 1985 on Arista in Britain and Island in America, and the writing credit is split four ways between Barry Andrews, Dave Allen, Carl Marsh and Martyn Barker. Andrews sings it, plays keyboards and produced it, with Allen on bass, Lu Edmonds on guitar and Barker working the drum machine.

The record caught the band mid-mutation, sliding from funk-flavoured new wave toward darker, knottier art rock, and the arrival of Barker and Edmonds put a harder edge on much of it. It was a changing of the guard, too: Marsh, whose voice had been out front on earlier releases, left once the recording was done, and Andrews stepped up as the main singer. Oil and Gold widened Shriekback's audience and sold well in the US.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.