Ric Ocasek helms Suicide's second album and it's a grower

Suicide : Diamonds, Furcoat, Champagne

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In the late Spring of 1980 Suicide released its sophomore album, produced by Ric Ocasek of The Cars. Slicker than the debut album, with a motorik drum beat, Alan Vega - Martin Rev is one of those criminally under-appreciated albums that still stands in the shadow of its legendary 1977 debut.  Alan Vega, who was 42 when he recorded the album with Rev,  told Pitchfork's Simon Reynolds about the lifestyle that led to the second album's sound:

It was beautiful, you’d go from one club to another. And when the clubs shut at 4 a.m., you had all the after hours joints like Berlin, which was across the street from Danceteria. It was a never-ending thing where I’d go out around 2 a.m. and stay out until 8 in the morning. You’d walk out from the clubs into the painful sunlight, stoned out of your mind, and there’d be all these people going to work—straight people looking at you pissed as hell because you were looking all fucked-up and going home to sleep, while they’re off to work. I never had to pay for a drink—there was an unwritten law that if you had performed in a club, you didn’t have to buy a drink there forever after. So I’d come in with my entourage.

Suicide had opened for The Cars on a tour and Ocasek was obsessed with the band. ZE Records owner Michael Zilkha thought the band could take dance music to a new place and gave Ocasek a copy of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" as a starting point. The album was recorded at the Power Station, where Bruce Springsteen was working on The River next door. 

Suicide's hard edges were smoothed down, but it's still menacing and twitchy. It also foreshadows the synth pop sound of the decade. In his Trouser Press review Steven Grant says the first listen made him believe the duo had sold out by recording watered -down "over-embellished electronic junk". But by his fifth listen he's sold.

Among the album's fans is Ripley Johnson (Wooden Shjips/Moon Duo) who told Fact in an article called the 100 Best Album Of The 1980s :

“Suicide’s Second Album manages to be both cinematic and claustrophobic at the same time, and you can clearly hear the seeds of 80s electronic pop in its dark textures and rhythms. But it cut a trail that proved hard to follow, despite being produced by pop star super-fan Ric Ocasek. It has the benefit of actually being a product of 70s NYC, but, more importantly, the advantage of Alan Vega’s and Martin Rev’s unique vision and dedication to their art.”