- Room Service
- So Long
- Crazy Girl
- No Right
- Going Deaf For A Living
- Pick Up / Slip Up
- Crank
- Haters
- Four Minutes In Durham (With You)
- Limbo
The Noise of Modern Life
With Going Deaf for a Living (1980), Fischer-Z sharpened their sound and their vision. Where Word Salad was the debut of clever observers, this follow-up feels like the statement of a band fully aware of its voice - and of the world closing in around it. John Watts and company capture the manic pulse of the post-punk era with unflinching wit and urgency, turning anxiety into an art form and irony into empathy. It’s an album that laughs through the static while quietly warning that the static might consume us all.
At first glance, Going Deaf for a Living sounds like a sly title - a jab at the music industry, the volume of modernity, and perhaps even the futility of trying to be heard in a world addicted to noise. But behind the sardonic humor lies a deeper melancholy. Fischer-Z explore communication breakdowns, political absurdities, and emotional disconnection not as abstract concepts but as daily realities. Watts’s lyrics are alive with restless intelligence, but they’re delivered with an honesty that keeps the band from slipping into cynicism.
Musically, the album tightens the wiry textures of Word Salad into something leaner and more muscular. The band has found its equilibrium between tension and release - guitars cut like arguments, basslines throb with nervous purpose, and the rhythm section carries an almost mechanical precision. Yet the precision never feels cold. Fischer-Z are far too human to hide behind irony; their songs move with heart as much as with intellect.
What makes Going Deaf for a Living so compelling is its refusal to separate personal from political. It’s music that captures the individual inside the system - caught between protest and participation, expression and exhaustion. Watts writes like someone watching the information age being born, and already feeling its tinnitus. Every track feels like a dispatch from an era teetering between technological excitement and existential fatigue.
More than four decades later, Going Deaf for a Living sounds less like a relic than a prophecy. Its blend of urgency and detachment, critique and compassion, mirrors our own overloaded times. Fischer-Z weren’t just documenting the world - they were diagnosing it.
At first glance, Going Deaf for a Living sounds like a sly title - a jab at the music industry, the volume of modernity, and perhaps even the futility of trying to be heard in a world addicted to noise. But behind the sardonic humor lies a deeper melancholy. Fischer-Z explore communication breakdowns, political absurdities, and emotional disconnection not as abstract concepts but as daily realities. Watts’s lyrics are alive with restless intelligence, but they’re delivered with an honesty that keeps the band from slipping into cynicism.
Musically, the album tightens the wiry textures of Word Salad into something leaner and more muscular. The band has found its equilibrium between tension and release - guitars cut like arguments, basslines throb with nervous purpose, and the rhythm section carries an almost mechanical precision. Yet the precision never feels cold. Fischer-Z are far too human to hide behind irony; their songs move with heart as much as with intellect.
What makes Going Deaf for a Living so compelling is its refusal to separate personal from political. It’s music that captures the individual inside the system - caught between protest and participation, expression and exhaustion. Watts writes like someone watching the information age being born, and already feeling its tinnitus. Every track feels like a dispatch from an era teetering between technological excitement and existential fatigue.
More than four decades later, Going Deaf for a Living sounds less like a relic than a prophecy. Its blend of urgency and detachment, critique and compassion, mirrors our own overloaded times. Fischer-Z weren’t just documenting the world - they were diagnosing it.
=====
My personal view:
Their sophomore effort is rated generally higher than their debut, but I would put it just a notch lower - but still excellent. There is more guitar, and a shift toward a more mainstream New Wave sound, rather than the eclectic quirkiness of its predecessor (although... Limbo!). Outstanding tracks include the hit single So Long, the aforementioned Limbo, Room Service, Crazy Girl and the title song - but it is all good.