New Picnic Time

The recording sessions for the album, the working title of which was Goodbye, were stressful and contentious.^[3] According to David Thomas, the band "had been intent on stretching the boundaries of the song":^[4]

I pushed maybe too hard and not wisely. I was determined. "All the Dogs Are Barking" was the breaking point. It was a pop song in the nature of what we had done before, a rock song with catchy hooks. I told Ken (Hamann, the engineer) to erase everything but the overdubs.

Normal studio problems were overcome by unusual means: for example, on "The Fabulous Sequel", the band wanted to record maracas but the studio only had one of a pair; the microphones were then put out on the gravel drive outside the studio and the band members all walked around in circles to create a maraca sound.^[4]

Another point of contention was Thomas's involvement in Jehovah's Witnesses^[5]. According to synth player Allen Ravenstine, this, along with disagreements about the band's direction, contributed to guitarist Tom Hermann leaving the band soon after completing the album: "[Thomas] was trying to get his Jehovah's Witness message in there, then he [Hermann] got very upset. So that was the end of him".^[5][6] The affiliation was reflected lyrically in the final song on the album "Jehovah's Kingdom Comes!".^[5]

Pere Ubu's then-record label, Chrysalis, was unhappy with the finished product and refused to release it in America. After one U.S. tour in support of the record and Tom Hermann's departure, the band briefly became inactive, before reuniting in 1980 with Mayo Thompson.^[4][7][8]

The lyrics for the song "The Voice of the Sand" are based upon the poetry of Vachel Lindsay.^[4]

More information Review scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[9]
Alternative Press	4/5[10]
Chicago Tribune	[11]
Christgau's Record Guide	A−[12]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[13]
Pitchfork	7.9/10[14]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[15]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	6/10[16]

Close

New Picnic Time has been described as the "black sheep" of the band's catalog as it featured a more experimental sound than any of their previous albums up to that point and originally didn't see release in America, only being toured once.^[4][5] On September 15, 1979, Dave McCullough reviewed the album for Sounds, writing: "It's a drunken, wanton, wilful sounding album with a spine as elastic and as totally absorbing as Beefheart...exhilarating, funny, somehow very vital music."^[17]

Writing in Melody Maker on September 8, 1979, John Orme noted, "They don't ask to be loved, but they do invite it. Whichever, they are open to instant embrace or rejection. Their music doesn't float on calm waters: it submerges, spurts, takes rapids, often half-drowns on its back... Having fallen in a big way for the last Ubu album, I approached New Picnic Time with much suspicion... Ubu have developed a wider maturity in scope, feeling and atmosphere, and I can only praise them for it. Don't forget to laugh."^[18]

In a retrospective review, Scott Laurence of the Herald-American described the album as "Weird. Weird and wonderful. Weird, wonderful and so far beyond the expected that these deconstructions of popular music are as charmingly retro as the Beatles and as modern as today's blendings of funk, hip-hop and alt-rock. Revolutionary and demented yet full of fun, Pere Ubu are indispensable to any collection of 20th century rock."^[19]

New Music USA's Rick Moody remarked, "I have been saying that the Pere Ubu album entitled New Picnic Time, from 1979, is the scariest album ever made..." Additionally, he stated "[...] was the rejoinder to any questions about what exactly Pere Ubu wanted, and the rejoinder was a mammoth stick in the eye. Gone, almost entirely, were the more user-friendly aspects of Dub Housing, and in their place we heard a willful insistence on experiment and double-crossing, but also expressive darkness. Let’s look closer".^[5]

The Cambridge Evening News wrote that the album "veers wildly between irritatingly inconsequential noises ... and surprisingly catchy riffs."^[20]

On the 1989 Rough Trade CD, the song "Jehovah's Kingdom Comes!" was re-titled "Hand a Face a Feeling" (a phrase from the lyrics). For subsequent reissues the song was remixed, removing all references to Jehovah, and re-re-titled "Kingdom Come". On the 2017 Fire Records reissues (and the 2016 box set Architecture of Language 1979 - 1982) the song was edited, removing approximately twenty-five seconds of music. The title of the opening track "Have Shoes Will Walk (The Fabulous Sequel)" has also varied from release to release.^[21]

Pere Ubu

• David Thomas – vocals, organ
• Tom Hermann – guitar, bass guitar, organ
• Tony Maimone – bass guitar, guitar, piano
• Allen Ravenstine – EML synthesizers, saxophone
• Scott Krauss – drums

Technical

• Pere Ubu – production
• Ken Hamann – production, engineering, mixing
• Paul Hamann – engineering
• John Thompson – design