Japan released what many consider their masterpiece, the beguiling Tin Drum, on 13 November 1981. It was the band’s final long-player and the most avant-garde and challenging album of their career. Yet for all its beautiful oddness, Tin Drum would become the group’s highest-charting LP, peaking at No.12 in the UK.
Named after German novelist Günter Grass’ 1959 novel The Tin Drum (singer David Sylvian was never shy of showboating his highbrow tastes), Japan’s fifth LP started recording on 22 June 1981 with producer Steve Nye (Stevie Wonder, Frank Zappa) at the helm. Just a month before, their guitarist Rob Dean had left the band after six years, and his absence hangs over much of Tin Drum.