Gentlemen Take Polaroids : JAPAN

 

Thirty odd years ago it shone, and was a near perfect piece of vinyl as you were likely to find. All this time later, and I listen to this more than any of the supposed classic albums. It still sounds as fresh and as unique and as ethereal as it did the first time I heard it.

 

The reason for that is it's completeness. Not a sound out of place, not a note too many or too few, and Mick Karn's incredibly fluid bass guitar was an almost-unique sound (only Level 42 and Stanley Clarke were using the bass in a similar way)  Every track is a gem, no filler here, and it also acts as homage to a golden era in electronic music. It stands at a crossroads; analogue synths were the best they would ever be in terms of sounds and digital synths were only a year or so away. Many would agree that the sounds an old Prophet 5 or Oberheim could make after a fair bit of knob twiddling was far more ear pleasing than even synths available today. Hence why these machines fetch such good money nowadays.

 

Gentlemen Take Polaroids

 

 

Swing

 

 

My New Career

 

 

Nightporter

 

 

 

 

His 'n' Hers : PULP

 

Pulp had been kicking around since 1981, but for all intents and purposes, their 1994 major-label debut, His 'n' Hers is their de facto debut: the album that established their musical and lyrical obsessions and, in turn, the album where the world at large became acquainted with their glassy, tightly wound synth pop and lead singer Jarvis Cocker's impeccably barbed wit.

 

It was a sound that was carefully thought out, pieced together from old glam and post-punk records, assembled in so it had the immediacy (and hooks) of pop balanced by an artful obsession with moody, dark textures. It was a sound that perfectly fit the subject at hand: it was filled with contradictions -- it was sensual yet intellectual, cheap yet sophisticated, retro yet modern -- with each seeming paradox giving the music weight instead of weighing it down.

 

This was Pulp's shot at the big time and they followed through with a record that so perfectly captured what they were and what they wanted to be, it retains its immediacy years later

 

Lipgloss

 

 

Babies

 

 

Do You Remember The First Time?

 

 

Acrylic Afternoons

 

 

 

 

 



Organisation : ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK

This is an album that is criminally overlooked for more than one reason. 

 

Rarely has a band made such a significant leap in style and content from first to second album. Listen to the first album and this is like The Beatles releasing "Abbey Road" nine months after "With The Beatles". The cover gives much away ... the band saw this as a weightier, more mature effort than their debut. However, although the songs are undoubtedly more complex, they retain their pop sensibility

 

But perhaps of more importance is the influence, usually unsung, that this album had on music. Without this album, Joy Division may have been just another punk band.  Without this album, we might never have heard "Blue Monday". Without this album, we might never have had a Radiohead

 

2nd Thought

 

VCL XI

 

 

The Misunderstanding

 

 

Stanlow

 

 

 

 

 

 



Killer - ALICE COOPER

Killer was famously recorded and released in the same year as its predecessor, but it was far from a cheap cash-in on the breakthrough success the band found on Love It To Death. In fact, it seemed that the band still had plenty more ideas in their twisted minds, enough to write and record another classic record in such a short period of time. In short, Alice Cooper's fourth studio album takes everything that made its predecessor so good and takes it one step further. While Love It To Death was more along the lines of a straight-up 70s hard rock album, the band stepped into deeper waters with their songwriting abilities on Killer and took on a variety of influences, including blues, garage rock and even proto-metal. Bob Ezrin, the mastermind behind the band's third album, was back on board twisting the knobs once again. If not to their discoverer, Frank Zappa, it was to Ezrin that the band owed its greatest debt, and this would not be the last winning collaboration either.

 

Under My Wheels

 

 

Be My Lover

 

 

Desperado

 

 

Halo of Flies

 

 

School's Out - ALICE COOPER

Alice Cooper took the theatrical sound they had developed on "Killer" and moved it on a step, producing one of the finest concept albums of the 70s.  Not just taking a lead from "West Side Story ... actually borrowing chunks of it .... they fashioned an album on a grand scale. The band still rocked, but their love of show tunes, and sleazy jazz, also comes to the for.  Unjustly criticised as a one-trick pony album at the time, over the decades this has become, rightly, critically acclaimed as one of their best records ever. It follows the classic 'Killer' template but has a broader musical brush.

Luney Tune

 

 

Gutter Cats vs The Jets

 

 

Blue Turk

 

 

Alma Mater

 

Imperial Bedroom - ELVIS COSTELLO and THE ATTRACTIONS

"History repeats the old conceits, the glib replies, the same defeats" may possibly be one of the best couplets to start an album ever. Having previously released a country music album "Almost Blue", Costello went back to the album before, "Trust", and developed some of the ideas he had experimented with and produced, for me, his best album. And that is saying something, for Mr Costello has produced some of the finest music of the last 35 years. Jam-packed with classic songs, his lyrical dexterity is plainly in evidence here but The Attractions had never been, and never were, better.

 

Beyond Belief

 

 

The Long Honeymoon

 

 

The Loved Ones

 

 

Almost Blue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Softly Towards The Light - THE BLACK HOLLIES

They could easily have called themselves The Black Beatles, or The Black Zombies, such is this band's devotion to the sound of "The British Invasion". They are actually from New Jersey and this is the third (and so far latest) excellent album by them.  As far as unabashedly retro albums with no real aspirations towards originality go, Softly Towards the Light is a damn good time. The Black Hollies have been paying close attention to the works of the Beatles, the Kinks, the 13th Floor Elevators, Creation, etc, and suffice to say, that attention has paid off. If you were to try and sneak any song off Softly Towards the Light into an all-mod play list, it’s doubtful anyone would notice the subterfuge. What’s more, you can truly pick any song off this record, and your choice would have no effect on the ruse, so completely homogenous is this album. There are miles of fuzzy guitar and an ostensibly endless supply of psychedelic keys. In case it’s not clear yet, the 60’s worship is thorough and complete.

 

Gloomy Monday Morning

 

 

How Did We Get Here

 

 

Run With Me, Run

 

 

Look What You've Done

 

 

 

 

Reflections On A Life - BLONDE ON BLONDE

Blonde on Blonde were spawned in 1967 out of a Welsh blues-rock band called the Cellar Set and took their name from the then-new Bob Dylan album of that title. Though decidedly guitar-based in their sound, the band's music also used psychedelic pop arrangements that gave it an almost orchestral majesty which, when coupled with sitar, lute, harpsichord and other unusual keyboards — as well as a tabla — gave them an appealingly exotic sound. Their live performances were frequently divided, à la Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, into acoustic and electric sets, in order to show off their full range. Unfortunately, this excellent album failed to sell any better than their prior releases, however, and the group broke up in 1972, shortly after its release.

 

Sad Song For An Easy Lady

 

 

Gene Machine

 

 

Love Song

 

 

The Rut

 

 

 

The Lexicon of Love - ABC

 

 

 

Few periods in music are viewed with the contempt that is held for the early ‘80s. We witnessed the death of disco and punk. New wave suddenly meant A Flock of Seagulls instead of XTC or Talking Heads. Middle of the Road music (MOR) ruled the radio waves with acts such as Olivia Newton-John, Sheena Easton, and Kenny Rogers.

 

 

But in 1982, one of the finest albums of all time was released. ABC’s The Lexicon of Love  was like disco done right, with one eye on the theatre stage (the album cover states that rather obviously) and another on the dance floor. Trevor Horn made his name producing this record, creating a lush landscape that no one previously considered him capable of doing, based on his work with Yes and the Buggles.

 

 

Yes .. the album is shamelessly over the top, but not in a gaudy way (unlike, say, Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Welcome to the Pleasuredome, also produced by Horn). It is a classic example of right place, right time for all concerned. ABC would go on to experiment with rock, house, and Motown with mixed results, to put it mildly. But The Lexicon of Love still holds its own, and still sounds bloody great today

 

Incidentally, the theatrical aspect of this album went a stage further - the band made a short film - Mantrap - which used the songs from this album to tell the story of a Martin Fry doppelganger form eastern Europe (well, it WAS 1982) who may ... or may not ... replace him. Very hard to come by now but very enjoyable, not least for the theme song ... surprisingly called "Theme from "Mantrap""

 

 

The Look Of Love

 

 

 

 

Date Stamp

 

 

 

Valentine's Day

 

 

 

 

Poison Arrow

 

 

 

 

and a bonus track, which is not actually on the album

 

 

Theme from Mantrap

 

 

 

 

and you can see a snapshot of the film here ...

 

 

 

 

 

Broke Down - SLAID CLEAVES

 

What happens when you grow up listening to Hank Williams and The Beatles? Well, you start making albums that sit easily in both the country music camp and with mainstream rock / folk fans.  Even though you have probably never heard of him, Slaid Cleaves has made many fine albums over the years but, for me, this is his piece de resistance.

 

He has a talent for drawing pictures with words, of people down on their luck, the lovelorn and the lost, yet presents them in wide screen. You know these people; you've passed them on the street, seen them sitting in bars, it may even be you!. There's the tale of love gone astray down at the "Horseshoe Lounge," the worn-down soul pleading for "One Good Year," and the tale of Sandy Gray, a proud Canadian logger who ends up eating "Breakfast in Hell."

 

Cleaves may be likened to some of his heroes, but Broke Down shows he stands on his own

 

Broke Down

 

 

One Good Year

 

 

Breakfast In Hell

 

 

Horseshoe Lounge