band name and title with the original photograph now covering the whole surface. Reception Gentlemen Take Polaroids has been well received by some critics. Writing in Smash Hits magazine in November 1980, Steve Taylor said: "If Brian Eno, rather than Bryan Ferry, had rerouted the original direction of Roxy Music, this might well have been the result..." However, other contemporary critics were unimpressed. NMEs Paul Du Noyer and Melody Makers Patrick Humphries both saw Japan as Roxy Music imitators. Du Noyer said: "If only Japan's music was as eloquent as it's elegant... they lavish tender loving care on the surface sound – a beautifully polished, empty shell of a sound." Humphries expressed a similar opinion: "There's something infinitely unsatisfying about this album. From the false image of the band to the hollow songs they perform." In his retrospective review, Ned Raggett of AllMusic called it "unquestionably the album in which Japan truly found its own unique voice and aesthetic approach." Joseph Burnett of The Quietus wrote that the album "took the sound of Quiet Life and refined it into a series of oblique, almost cinematic avant-pop creations that exquisitely surround the frontman's woozy post-Bryan Ferry croon in layers of pop textures that sounded like little else by Japan's contemporaries." Trouser Press called it an "excellent" album whose "technically exquisite and musically adventurous sound is loaded with atmosphere, yet displays a very light touch." Track listing † The track "Burning Bridges" was put on the album as a last-minute replacement for a track titled "Some Kind of Fool", with quite a lot of UK and German pressings of the album listing the latter song on the inner sleeve and on the track listings. "Some Kind of Fool" was also going to be released as a single in 1982, but was replaced by "Nightporter". An overdubbed version with new lyrics was released on Sylvian's solo album Everything and Nothing in 2000, but the original Japan version has never been released. Singles Personnel Japan David Sylvian – vocals, synthesizers (ARP Omni, Oberheim OB-X, Minimoog, Roland System 700), piano, electric guitar Mick Karn – fretless bass guitar, oboe, saxophone, recorder Steve Jansen – drums, synthesizer (Roland System 700, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5), percussion Richard Barbieri – synthesizers (Roland System 700, Micromoog, Polymoog, Prophet 5, Oberheim OB-X, Roland Jupiter 4), sequencer, piano Rob Dean – guitar, ebow Additional personnel Ryuichi Sakamoto – synthesizers Simon House