Brand X ‎– Product (1979)

Product is the fourth studio album by English jazz-rock operative Brand X, released September 14, 1979, on Charisma/Passport. They recorded the album during a prolific round of sessions that also produced their two subsequent longplayers, Do They Hurt? and Is There Anything About?

A1. “Don’t Make Waves”

5:31 | writer: Goodsall, vocals: Collins | progressive hard-rock, AOR | gripping, intense, commanding, dramatic, suspenseful

“Don’t Make Waves” frames a paranoid world where control hinges on obedience, passivity, and information suppression. Its voice alternates between authoritarian command and hallucinatory memory, collapsing geopolitical dread into personal dislocation. The lyrics evoke themes found in pre-1979 dystopian fiction—Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), THX 1138 (1971), and Philip K. Dick’s surveillance-laden worlds—alongside faint echoes of 1960s counterculture burnout and post-Vietnam shellshock.

Don’t you make any troubleDon’t you break any bubbleIf you wanna be safe don’t make wavesHear what I say, don’t make wavesDon’t make waves

The speaker lays down a rigid warning, reinforcing self-containment as a survival mechanism. Phrases like “break any bubble” suggest both psychological insulation and enforced isolation, with “waves” cast as detectable danger—possibly broadcast signals or emotional ripples.

These foreign armies march across your landWitness the downfall of all your plansTheir lethal rays bring towers down to dustTheir life-detector pick up waves from us

Describes an overwhelming external force that erases stability and renders resistance futile, shifting the song from social warning into open catastrophe. Images of annihilation—“Their lethal rays bring towers down to dust”—merge Cold War nuclear dread with science‑fiction invasion imagery common in mid‑century films and novels, where surveillance technology detects even hidden survivors.

Keep your mind off the airwaysDon’t transmit any relaysIf you wanna be safe don’t make wavesWhat I say, don’t make waves

Don’t you make any troubleYou just wait in your bubbleIf you wanna be safe don’t make wavesOh no no, don’t make wavesDon’t make waves

Reinforces total surveillance and urges silence as survival, framing thought and communication as liabilities. Commands like “keep your mind off the airways” and “wait in your bubble” reduce autonomy to isolation, echoing themes from THX 1138 and Orwell’s 1984, where control depends on suppressing signals—emotional, intellectual, or technological—that might betray presence.

Used to dream I was in ThailandI found no comfort in a spoonAnd the band was always high, manTill we ran right out of tune

Conjures a fragmented flashback of disillusionment, where escapist fantasies give way to collapse. “I found no comfort in a spoon” evokes drug use and its failure to numb, while “we ran right out of tune” suggests collective unraveling—mental, musical, or both—hinting at the aftermath of 1960s hedonism or post-war expat drift in Southeast Asia.

Don’t you make any troubleDon’t you break any bubbleIf you wanna be safe don’t make wavesOh no no, don’t make waves

Don’t you cause any hassleDon’t you play like an assholeIf you wanna get paid don’t make wavesWhat I say, don’t make wavesDon’t make waves

Closing Observation:

“Don’t Make Waves” frames obedience as a survival tactic in a world where expression equals exposure. The lyrics spiral from external threat to internal withdrawal, merging cold-war paranoia with drug-era collapse. Authoritarian warnings blur with bitter recollection, fusing the language of control with the ruins of counterculture retreat. Every directive—don’t transmit, don’t make trouble, don’t cause hassle—reflects a system where silence is the last refuge.

Comparable Songs (1975–79):

This lyrical terrain parallels the dystopian resignation, mechanized dread, and shellshocked inertia of 1977/78 songs by Peter Gabriel (“Here Comes the Flood”), Ultravox (“The Wild, the Beautiful and the Damned”), Japan (“Suburban Berlin”), and Magazine (“Definitive Gaze”). It also shares thematic resonance with the Roy Harper epic “One of Those Days in England (Parts 2–10),” where dream, memory, and breakdown loop across collapsing timelines.

Musically, “Don’t Make Waves” echoes 1979 rockers by Camel (“Wait”), UK (“Nothing to Lose”), and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (“Don’t Kill It Carol”), all driven by frenetic pacing beneath layered synth textures and terse vocal phrasing that escalate tension with looming fate.

Tracklist:

A1. “Don’t Make Waves” (5:31)
A2. “Dance of the Illegal Aliens” (7:50)
A3. “Soho” (3:44)
A4. “Not Good Enough-See Me!” (7:30)

B1. “Algon (Where an Ordinary Cup of Drinking Chocolate Costs L8,000,000,000)” (6:10)
B2. “Rhesus Perplexus” (4:01)
B3. “Wal To Wal” (3:14)
B4. “…And So to F…” (6:28)
B5. “April” (2:08)

Credits:

Keyboards, Sounds [Gunfire, Chainsaw] – Robin Lumley
Guitar – John Goodsall
Bass – John Giblin
Drums, Percussion, Vocals – Phil Collins
Drums – Mike Clark (A2, A4)
Percussion – Morris Pert (A2, A4)