Real Nighttime

by Mark DemingWhile Game Theory had released three EPs between 1982 and 1984, their first full-length album, Real Nighttime, was where the band truly found their voice on vinyl. With Mitch Easter on board as producer, the band was finally working with a sympathetic craftsman who knew how to make the most of the band's sound, and Scott Miller was maturing into one of the finest and most distinctive pop songwriters in America. While Game Theory's most obvious influence was certainly Big Star (the album even features a cover of "You Can't Have Me" that sounds slightly more deranged than the original), Real Nighttime's loose narrative suggested a mid-'80s smart-pop update of Pet Sounds, as it followed a young man from blissful innocence on "24" to crushing romantic defeat on "I Turned Her Away." Always tuneful, and by turns rollicking and heartbreaking, Real Nighttime was the album that announced Game Theory as one of the major talents to emerge from California's Paisley Underground scene.