Alan Vega - Collision Drive - LP [ Record ]

Remastered, Red Vinyl

Collision Drive is Alan Vega’s second solo studio album, originally released in 1981. If his debut laid the groundwork for a raw, minimalist take on rockabilly and blues, Collision Drive expands the palette with a grittier, more layered, and unfiltered energy. Here Vega’s lyrics channel universal themes rooted in his fascination with street life, science fiction, politics, comics, love and the mysteries of the universe. It’s a record that pulses with feeling and rebellion, displaying the full spectrum of human experience and Vega’s evolving vision.

Alan was always reinventing himself, creating and refining his mastery of variation while maintaining his own unparalleled and identifiable aesthetic. Sonically, this album is more dynamic than his first. Ditching drum machines for a live drummer, and enlisting a hard rock band to back him, Collision Drive offered a different view of Vega’s artistic vision. The aching punk rockabilly of “Magdalena 82” unfolds with a hypnotic blend of guitar slides and frenetic energy, while Vega’s cover of “Be Bop A Lula” transforms Gene Vincent’s classic into an aggressively charged, manic howl. Elsewhere, tracks like the hard-driving cosmic rock n roll “Raver” push into psychobilly territory. Vega was relentlessly innovative, continuously paving new ground. Newly remastered by Josh Bonati from the original tapes, Collision Drive receives a reverent reissue from Sacred Bones Record.

Magdalena 82 (3:04)
Be Bop A Lula (2:22) 
Outlaw (3:32)
Raver (2:47)
Ghost Rider (4:30)
I Believe (5:26)
Magdalena 83 (2:58)
Rebel (2:49)
Viet Vet (12:47)