THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #9

The Smiths – Hatful of Hollow (1984)

From wiki:-

Hatful of Hollow is a compilation album by English rock band The Smiths, released on 12 November 1984by Rough Trade Records. The album features BBC Radio 1 studio recordings and two contemporary singles with their B-sides.

The album consists mainly of songs recorded over several BBC Radio 1 sessions in 1983. Tracks shown with an asterisk were included on the album.

For John Peel on 18 May 1983 (broadcast 31 May): “Handsome Devil*”, “Reel Around the Fountain*”, “Miserable Lie”, “What Difference Does It Make?*” (all four songs were later released as the Peel Sessions EP)
For David Jensen on 26 June 1983 (broadcast 4 July): “These Things Take Time*”, “You’ve Got Everything Now*”, “Wonderful Woman”
For Jensen on 25 August, 1983 (broadcast 5 September): “Accept Yourself*”, “I Don’t Owe You Anything”, “Pretty Girls Make Graves”, “Reel Around the Fountain”
For Peel on 14 September, 1983 (broadcast 21 September): “This Charming Man*”, “Back to the Old House*”, “This Night Has Opened My Eyes*”, “Still Ill*”

When first broadcast, these radio sessions mainly featured songs which were otherwise unavailable. All were subsequently re-recorded for singles or for the band’s debut album the following year. “This Night Has Opened My Eyes” was recorded in the studio in June 1984, but the only version ever released was the September Peel session.

Hatful of Hollow also features the band’s debut single, “Hand in Glove”, and their two most recent singles prior to the album’s release, “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” and “William, It Was Really Nothing”, along with their respective B-sides, “Girl Afraid”, “How Soon Is Now?” and “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”.

The radio session versions of songs are different from other studio recordings. Some of the major differences are:

“What Difference Does It Make?” has heavier and more natural-sounding guitars than the version on The Smiths. It is also in a higher key than the version on The Smiths.
“These Things Take Time” features bass that is more prominent and drums that are less controlled than in the version from the “What Difference Does It Make?” 12″ single. Sliding guitar figures accompany the chorus.
“This Charming Man” has softer and more upbeat vocals, guitars and even drums than the version released as a single and on some versions of The Smiths. The bass line is louder and altered slightly. Additionally, there is no solo guitar introduction.
“Still Ill” opens and closes with a harmonica solo, and sounds less hollow and slightly slower than the version on The Smiths.
“You’ve Got Everything Now” is slower than the version on The Smiths and does not have any keyboard part. The bass line is also altered slightly.
“Back to the Old House” is an acoustic piece with melancholic guitars and vocals, as opposed to the full band version on the “What Differences Does It Make?” single.
“Reel Around the Fountain” has duller-sounding drums and acoustic guitars than the version on The Smiths. The bass is more prominent, but the piano and organ parts are not included. It is also in a higher key than the version on The Smiths.

In addition, the original single version of “Hand in Glove” is included, not the remixed version that appears on The Smiths. It features a fade-intro and fade-out, louder bass, and vocals that sound very distant.

JC adds……

That’s your facts.

These days, Hatful of Hollow is the Smiths release I’ll lean on as my go-to album as it takes me back to the innocent and wonderful era when the band was being discovered. All those radio sessions had been recorded onto cassette by someone or other in our ‘gang’, and numerous copies were made and passed around, with ever decreasing sound qualities and ever-increasing hissing. I’m not sure that all the recordings were even in stereo.

It all meant that when the debut album was released in February 1984, it felt something of an anti-climax as so many of the songs were familiar, and indeed, even though the sound quality of the home-made cassettes was lousy, we felt the radio sessions were better versions.

The release of Hatful of Hollow in November 1984 went a long way to rectifying matters.

One other reason for looking back on this album so fondly? It was responsible for my first ever written review of any album, thanks to the editor of the Strathclyde Telegraph, the University’s student newspaper, asking me to come up with a couple of hundred words. I think he did so as he knew I had a copy of the album and there was so much interest in the group that he felt it better feature, even though Rough Trade hadn’t sent one in for review purposes.

Unfortunately, I no longer have a copy of the review….which I’m sort of glad about as no doubt it was appallingly written….but it was good for the ego to see my name in print.

mp3: The Smiths – This Night Has Opened My Eyes

As wiki states, Hatful of Hollow was the only place that this track, which was an essential part of so many of the early live shows, was ever given a release.

Oh, and it shouldn’t be forgotten that three of the band’s best and subsequently most enduring studio recordings, previously only available as b-sides, were included on the album.

JC

Scritti Politti

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #10

Scritti Politti – Songs To Remember (1982)

I’ve said plenty about this album across various previous posts on TVV, old and current versions alike, (and as SWC so kindly and helpfully points out, I’ve been known to say a few things on other wonderfully curated music blogs). But please, bear with me as i try to find some more words for the purposes of the rundown.

I think I’d be held up to ridicule if I ever tried to claim that this is one of the ten best records ever made. But I’ll always have it placed high in any rundown of this nature for the fact that it helped to develop and broaden my musical tastes, listening and gig-going habits.

It was, thinking back on it, the first chin-stroking record that I ever truly fell for, one that didn’t require fast-paced guitar chords, poptastic synths or vocals being delivered by a brilliant or troubled genius to truly hold my attention. If you’d suggested a few months prior to owning a copy that I’d be giving regular spins to a record on which a double-bass solo, alongside a jazzy sounding saxophone, were central to the delivery of one of its key tracks, then I would most likely have laughed in your face.

mp3: Scritti Politti – Rock-A-Boy Blue

To be fair, I should have seen it coming. An NME cassette had introduced me to Scritti Politti via the song The ‘Sweetest ‘Girl, a near-ballad whose softly played piano, drum machine and falsetto vocal I had found utterly charming. The purchase of a later 45 of said song led to the discovery of a b-side, Lions After Slumber, that worked its way into my brain courtesy of a funky beat and a proto white boy rap delivery. It was inevitable that I’d end up buying the album.

And loving it.

In 2001, a remastered version of the album was issued on CD. A review in Q Magazine at that time stated that it still sounded delightfully undateable as it did back in 1982.

I’ve never really thought of the album in that way, but it is deadly accurate. Songs To Remember is the type of record that could have been made in any of the past six decades and most of the time, would have never been dismissed as being totally out of fashion. It’s the sort of album no discernable music fan is every likely to fall out of love with.

Sigh.

JC

Mary Onettes

(BONUS POST) ‘LET’S MAKE THIS YEAR LOOK GOOD TONIGHT

The Mary Onettes @ Hus 7, Stockholm (01-06-23) + @ Nefertiti, Gothenburg (03-06-23)

A guest posting by Comrade Colin

thumbnail_TMOstockholm01-06-23

After a period of relative radio silence – it has been close to five years since the ‘Cola Falls’ (2018) single release – Swedish band The Mary Onettes recently made a welcome return to making new music.

For sure, there had been a solo LP from lead singer/guitarist Philip Ekström – in the guise of H.MOON (‘Trustbood’, Welfare Sounds, 2020) – but that was very much his own thing.

In early 2022 rumours started to emerge online that the band were recording again for the innovative Gothenburg-based label Welfare Sounds and, right enough, in July that year the gorgeous slow-burning pop single ‘What I feel in some places’ was released digitally and on cassette tape, alongside two other new songs (‘Mind on fire’ and ‘Palace’).

Not content with this much-anticipated reintroduction, in March 2023, another glorious pop single appeared entitled ‘Easy hands’ (backed with the glacial quasi-instrumental song ‘Pearl Machine’) Those catchy riffs were instantly recognisable as The Mary Onettes. The band – with all original members present – were back with a vengeance and could still land a catchy riff and a heartfelt vocal.

And then, in May 2023, yet another single emerged via Welfare Sounds – ‘Forever before love’. This time, the single was backed with a song called ‘Future Grief’ which is a duet between Philip and the wonderfully talented Agnes Aldén (this a song that dates back to 2016, so it was great to finally hear it). I would say, for me, this is one of the best duets that I’ve ever heard (but more will be said about this song in a moment).

It is a truism, of course, but after an absence the heart does indeed grow fonder. The new material, to my ears at least, represents an extension and development of the material and sound to be found across all four albums they released for the Swedish label Labrador between 2007-2014 (‘The Mary Onettes’, 2007; ‘Islands’, 2009; ‘Hit the Waves’, 2013; ‘Portico’, 2014).

Then, in early 2023, news circulated of possible live shows. This was even more unexpected than the run of new singles. The band, as The Mary Onettes, had not played a gig since at least 2017, and even before this year their live shows were somewhat sporadic and almost never happened outside of their native Sweden (there had been a US tour, in early 2015, but this was the exception, not the norm).

A friend and I had always said we’d travel anywhere in Europe to see them play. If dates were to be announced, we had to be there. As it turned out, four dates were given: two in May 2023 (a warm-up show in Malmö and the Park Sounds festival in Huskvarna and two small club shows early on in the following month (Stockholm and Gothenburg).

Unfortunately, in the end, my pal couldn’t make these dates and stayed in Glasgow. I decided to venture forth and attend the latter gigs in June solo, via a journey that has now involved buses, trains, airplanes, trams, and my very tired legs (I am writing this at the airport in Gothenburg waiting for a flight back to Scotland).

In short, the last few days have been a life-changing time. But I will spare you those aspects. I will just focus on the music and the gigs.

The first show I saw was in Stockholm. I travelled by train from Gothenburg to get to this as the flights that worked best were between Edinburgh and Gothenburg. It was at a small venue called Hus 7 (House 7).

This was quite tricky to locate as it turned out, even with Google maps, but I thought I’d found it. I stood in the queue with an expectant audience that did not look to me like a typical (I imagined) The Mary Onettes audience. There was a lot of black clothing, a lot of chains, and a lot of deathly stares through thick eye make-up. I got to the front of the queue and the security guy looked at my ticket, then at me, and just laughed: “No, no… you need that place over there… [pointing at a doorway leading to another venue, next door]… this is a metal night. A very different thing!”. If I had been granted access to my mistaken location, well, that could have led to a very different kind of outcome and review.

The support act for the Stockholm show were called Lovi Did This and they were very good. Quite inventive in a soundtrack kind of way, embracing a range of instruments and styles (I would recommend ‘The Fish Song’ as an example). The lead singer prowled the stage with real confidence, and I admired that a lot.

The Mary Onettes took to the Hus 7 stage just after 9pm – with a gentle ‘hello’ from lead-singer Philip – to the drum pattern for ‘Puzzles’, the opening track from their 2009 LP ‘Islands’. It was a blistering start and it felt like a dream coming true. I sensed the goosebumps emerging and a lump in my dry throat… emotions were taking over. If you know their music at all, then I’m sure you can relate to this… they can cut you to the bone.

From this start we then had the pleasure of a 16-song set that covered most of their album and single releases, from the likes of ‘Lost’, ‘Slow’, and ‘Void’ to ‘God Knows I had Plans’, ‘Evil Coast’, and ‘The Night before the Funeral’ (before playing this latter song, Philip dedicated it to those who had travelled far to be there… including a certain city in Scotland).

Glasgow represents.

The real surprise of this show was the final song of the encore from the Det Vackra Livet 2011 release (‘Barn Av En Istid’). This was a one-off album made for Labrador by the brotherly team of Philip and Henrik Ekström. The lyrics are all in Swedish, and it is a truly beautiful record that adds to the strengths of what Philip does as a songwriter. The song, ‘Barn Av En Istid’ – translated as ‘Children of an ice age’), is one that slowly builds and builds and is a fragile thing that becomes fully-formed and one of those songs that ultimately becomes a soundtrack for important moments in your life. Had I theoretically heard this song before it was recorded, when I was a teenager in the late 1980s, this track would have ended side-B of every mix tape I ever made. One of those tracks.

On the Friday, I travelled back to Gothenburg from Stockholm by train for the second The Mary Onettes gig the next evening. In between I managed to see Suede play a free open-air gig on the Friday night by the new Hisingsbron bridge – to mark the 400-year anniversary of the city – and attend an IFK Gotëburg football match on the Saturday afternoon, but that tale is for another time. They lost 1-0 to Mjällby, for what it is worth, and it turns out Swedish football is just as frustrating as Scottish football. Suede played a kind of ‘greatest hits’ set and were, genuinely, taken aback by the response from the audience. They had them in the palm of their hand.

The Gothenburg The Mary Onettes show – an early one due to a club night starting at 10pm – was held at an old jazz/soul club called Nefertiti, just by the university campus in the city. Like Hus 7 it was going to be an intimate event. Philip and I had a brief chat before the show, and I nervously thanked him for the shows and the ‘shout-out’ in Stockholm. He was still a bit stunned I’d travelled solo all the way from Glasgow to see the band play in two different cities in Sweden. I had mentioned my plans on Twitter/Instagram earlier this year, just after the gigs were announced. I just replied: “But your music matters, of course I had to be here. I had to be here!”.

The support act for the Nefertiti show was Karl Vento, a very talented multi-instrumentalist who also now plays keyboards with The Mary Onettes (he has been with them the last 4-5 years or so). His set was mainly acoustic and electric guitar but aided and abetted via a very impressive pedal board. He created some magical sounds and had a very sweet vocal delivery, reminding me of Nick Drake and the Manchester musican Danny Saul. You can listen to Karl’s 2022 album ‘Rainbow Lights’ via his Bandcamp page.

The Mary Onettes hit the stage not long after 8:30pm at Nefertiti and played an intense and fast set similar to the Stockholm one, but with a few key variations. One such difference, and the highlight for all of us who were present, was a semi-acoustic version of ‘Future Grief’ (the new duet with Agnes Aldén). The surprise appearance of Agnes on stage to sing with Philip added to the emotional intensity: the reflexive refrain of “Letting other people down” really cut the skin and hit home. Karl was on stage for this song as well, adding some electronica to the acoustic mix.

Before we knew it, the show was over… 70 minutes passed by so quickly. As they left the stage, Philip and Petter Agurén, the other guitarist in the band, both thanked those of us who had travelled a distance to attend – Spain, Germany, Scotland and elsewhere. After the show I managed to speak with Petter who kindly gifted me a signed setlist.

setlistgoteborg03-06-23

I also went to a club called Folk, near Järntorget, to hang out with them after the show. I was quite nervous and anxious about intruding into their post-gig space, but both Philip and Petter reassured me they wanted me to be there. We had a great conversation, including a lively discussion about the best song on the Cure LP ‘Wish’ (either ‘From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea’ or ‘To Wish Impossible Things’) and their best album (I would say ‘Faith’, Philip argues for ‘Disintegration’… both answers are actually correct).

As I sit here at the airport reflecting on these last few days, I just feel incredibly lucky and fortunate to be able to do things like this, not that I actually do them that often. In fact, the last time I travelled such a distance to see a live show it was fellow-Swedes The Radio Dept who were playing at the Kantine am Berghain in Berlin, February 2017. The band had a Glasgow show at the CCA cancelled, unfortunately, so a trip to Berlin it had to be.

It might be a Swedish thing. They do tend to make the best indie music. Or it might just be the power and draw of live music that speaks to you. We need to feel that connection and shared identity through singing along to every word, as your stand before your heroes who give their all for the cause. I don’t care if you are 16 or 61, you feel it and you need it. Music matters.

How to find the essential? The five songs below capture the main ingredients of the two shows I attended. I only hope you like them as much as I do, and then buy the albums they come from.

Thanks to JC, as ever, for giving me the space to say these words. And thanks for reading if you made it this far. I do go on a bit (as JC knows well).

‘Comrade Colin’

Gothenburg Airport

04-06-23 @ 16:17

PS, A musical recommendation from Petter – the LP ‘Nordsjøen’ by the Bergen-based musician, John Olav Nilsen (2017). It is excellent. This album is also worth your time and ears.

PPS, Hello to Thomas who travelled to both shows from Germany, who I have just met at the airport right now. Musical solidarity, mein freund!

The Mary Onettes – ‘Puzzles’ (4.32) – from the 2009 LP ‘Islands’.

The Mary Onettes – ‘Slow’ (4.24) – from the 2007 LP ‘The Mary Onettes’

The Mary Onettes – ‘Cola Falls’ (4.03) – from the 2018 single ‘Cola Falls’ (recently re-released on vinyl, here)

The Mary Onettes (with Agnes Aldén) – ‘Future Grief’ (3.41) – from the 2023 single ‘Forever Before Love’

Det Vackra Livet – ‘Barn Av En Istid’ (4.25) – from the 2011 LP ’Det Vackra Livet’

Massive Attack

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #11

Mezzanine – Massive Attack (1998)

I think it’s pretty obvious by now that I’m a bit more comfortable trying to write about guitar-based indie music than any other genre. This rundown has contained a few bits of hip-hop/rap/dance, but they have been the exception. I find it much harder to explain why some records from such genres have hit my sweet spot, while many others have landed very far from the mark.

Massive Attack had been responsible for one of what was, and still is, one of my all-time favourite singles, Protection. I can put my hand on my heart and say the Tracey Thorn vocal is my all-time favourite of hers, and given I’ve been a lifelong fan of Everything But The Girl, that is something of a bold statement.

But, no matter how hard I tried, neither of the first two albums ever fully clicked with me at the time, a situation that would only change when I went revisiting in the years after I bought and fell hard for Mezzanine.

Hearing the song Teardrop proved to be the jaw-dropping moment. I’m 99.99% sure my first exposure was through the airing of its promotional video on MTV2 or suchlike, as hearing the voice of Elizabeth Fraser via the medium of television was something quite rare, particularly in the late 90s. If I had previously thought Tracey’s performance on Protection had been career-defining, then I was quite prepared to feel exactly the same way about Liz’s work with Massive Attack.

The single was purchased for a stupid amount of money – it was either £3.99 or £4.99, and I came away wondering if I’d have been better shelling out for the album. I played Teardrop an awful lot over the following days, discovering that I was enjoying the remixes and the b-side, Euro Zero Zero almost as much, and so I bought the album a few weeks later, probably just after the next pay day.

I found it to be an astonishing listen from start to end. I couldn’t imagine any other trip-hop album being so dark, almost gothic like in nature, with the sounds seeming to have been engineered so that every note carried a sense of menace or a warning of impending danger.

mp3: Massive Attack – Mezzanine

I hadn’t, until this point in time, fully appreciated the skill and craft deployed by Massive Attack. It led to a revisiting of the previous two albums, and a greater acknowledgement of how consistently excellent they had been.

A few years ago, as part of a festive period series, I posted a contemporary review of Mezzanine that had been written by Barney Hoskyns for Rolling Stone Magazine. He described it as ‘a richly eclectic, unpigeonholeable artifact’ which seems just about perfect.

Only the Top 10 left now. I’m sure regular readers will have just about worked out who are most likely to appear.

JC

Various

(BONUS POST) THE AWKWARD BUNCH

A guest posting by Fraser Pettigrew

deck-chair

[“An Elvis Costello fan struggling to re-fold his copy of Armed Forces.”]

Aside from the music, one of the chief pleasures of vinyl records is the variety and artistry of their physical format and packaging. From the moment Andy Warhol placed his peelable pink banana on the cover of The Velvet Underground with Nico and The Beatles commissioned Peter Blake to design the cover of Sgt Pepper, the LP became more than just a disc of recorded music and presented a challenge to every marketing department’s art director to come up with novel twists in sleeve design that would catch the attention of press and public.

Geogadi

[“Geogadi, three discs, five sides, double pocket sleeve, Jesus wept…”]

The unintended consequence of this creative compulsion is that anyone with a decent-sized record collection will possess LPs whose packaging fails the most basic test of a mass consumer product – usability. In their quest for gimmick, record companies have delivered discs that frustrate their owners in any number of ways, and some of the most common I will now illustrate with items from my own collection, and some others.

ArmedForces

[“Armed Forces, harder than stripping and reassembling an AK-47.”]

For starters there are the numerous examples of pocket sleeves, or other unconventional wraps that require more than a simple tug or tilt to release the vinyl. This is definitely not a recent contrivance confined to such as Stereolab‘s Emperor Tomato Ketchup or Geogadi by Boards of Canada (beware: also features an unplayable side 6). In my shelves I have elderly examples such as an Australian pressing of Tommy by The Who, Roberta Flack‘s Killing Me Softly, and excellent Brit-disco album Four From 8 by The Real Thing. Elvis Costello‘s Armed Forces came in a famously complicated five-flap fold-out like a two-dimensional Rubik’s cube, containing a poster, four postcards and a bonus single as well as the actual LP itself, but none of that made it any easier to get at or put away again safely in your collection without the neighbouring LP getting jammed against a protruding flap as you tried to replace it. Good job Ballistic Bob wisnae a record collector.

Flack

Flack2

[“Copping flack for nuisance value”.]

The envelope sleeve is the next nuisance to be dealt with. My original UA label British edition of Can‘s Tago Mago is a good example. Worth a bob or two to collectors, but fragile and prone to wear and tear with repeated use, to the point where the closure tab doesn’t really do its job any more, reduced to a flabby puff of frayed paper that won’t fit in your letter-box never mind the tiny slot it was designed for.

TagoMago

[ “No can do”.]

Inconvenience of format rather than packaging brings us to albums that are not played at the conventional 33rpm but consist of two or three 45rpm 12 inch discs. If you have a turntable with a speed selector switch this is hardly any issue at all, but if you have invested in some higher-end hi-fi equipment you may have to lift the platter off its spindle and manually move the rubber band to a different position.

Welcome to my world, in which cracking good albums such as Cabaret Voltaire‘s 2×45 (the clue is in the name) or Spiritualized‘s Laser Guided Melodies don’t get the turntable time they deserve because I find it all too much effort.

mp3: Cabaret Voltaire – Breathe Deep
mp3: Spiritualized – You Know It’s True

This of course is nothing to those (not me) who may have been tempted to buy the 1980 single Buena/Tuff Enuff by Joe ‘King’ Carrasco and the Crowns (I know, why would you?), issued by Stiff Records in a 10 inch 78rpm version. This is the point at which gimmickry becomes pure perversity.

mp3: Joe ‘King’ Carrasco and The Crowns – Buena

The multi-disc 45rpm album became more common with the advent of the CD era. The Rough Trade version of Ultramarine‘s Every Man and Woman is a Star, as well as the Spiritualized debut just mentioned, date from the time when a 12 inch 33rpm disc simply couldn’t accommodate the 60-70 minutes of music that had become the norm for CD albums without loss of signal volume. For convenience, however, this format quickly gave way to double-vinyl 33rpm sets where the sides were simply a little shorter than normal.

HowieB

[“Howie B, don’t get comfortable.”]

Even then, things could get out of hand. Sly and Robbie‘s Drum & Bass Strip to the Bone, mixed and co-created by Glaswegian hip-hop artist and producer Howie B, is quite a nifty, grinding rhythm work-out by the legendary Jamaican duo. But the ability to get a good sense of it as a whole has been severely hampered by pressing it on no fewer than FOUR pieces of vinyl. There’s about 75 minutes of music in there but the longest side only just manages to graze 11 minutes before you have to get up and flip it. Most of them are more like seven or eight. I mean it’s quite funky in parts so you MIGHT not want to sit down, but it’s definitely not one to stick on while you do some knitting.

HunkyDory

[“Transparent vinyl, it’s all or nothing.”]

Coloured vinyl may be attractive but it can be a pig if you’re trying to pick out a particular track. The darker and more solid the colour the better – a judiciously placed light source can help you see the division between tracks. But if the vinyl is transparent, like my RYKO re-press of Bowie‘s Hunky Dory, then forget about it.

mp3: David Bowie – Life On Mars

Everyone will have examples of records whose packaging discourages frequent playing on account of shoddy manufacture. Machine Says Yes by FC Kahuna is my example, whose two pieces of vinyl hide in woefully under-sized inners and are impossible to remove without gripping the rims tightly between thumb and forefinger, violating all the rules about contact between greasy skin and the playing surface.

On the plus side of that equation, my copy of Bowie’s Aladdin Sane was picked up about 20 years ago in an Amsterdam back-street pop-up shop for the princely sum of 3 Euros. It’s an original 1973 UK pressing that I suspect had never been played on account of the fact that the inner sleeve is too big to fit into the outer, and I think it had languished for years in the back of a record shop, unsold until it found its way into my hands. Three cheers for printers’ errors.

Plain silly packaging is not the unique preserve of vinyl, of course. One needs only think of the 12xCD ‘pharmaceutical’ blister pack edition of Spiritualized’s Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space. It’s one of the truly great albums of the 1990s, but the pill-pack concept renders it nigh-on unplayable. Even if you ruined it as a collector’s item by opening the blister pack to get at the CDs, could you really be arsed popping each single-track disc into your player, especially disc 7, all 2 minutes 22 seconds of it? Seriously, fuck that for a game of soldiers.

mp3: Spiritualized – Home Of The Brave

But frankly, nothing beats The Return of the Durutti Column for plain silly. First released by Factory Records (who else?) in 1980, its sleeve consisted of two sheets of heavy duty number 1 glass paper, specially designed to utterly ruin whatever sat next to it in your record shelves. The concept was nicked from situationist Guy Debord‘s book “Mémoires”, and was originally contemplated the previous year by PiL for their second album. Nothing could be less abrasive than Vini Reilly‘s delicate, jazzy guitar pickings contained within. I have a later reissue of the plain, black-sleeved edition that came out after DIY enthusiasts snapped up the first pressing. (Discogs notes: “All sandpaper copies were stuck together and sprayed at Palatine Road by Joy Division to earn some extra cash – although Ian Curtis did most of them as the other members were watching an adult film in an adjoining room.”)

Tommy

[“Colonial crimes – NZ pressing of Tommy, polythene bag AND pocket sleeve”.]

My penultimate pet-peeve is the half-moon polythene inner sleeve, mercifully rare in the UK and America, but regrettably common here in Australasia. Trying to slide such bags back into the outer sleeve without the tops crumpling up into a bulging blob of plastic is like the proverbial effort of pushing jelly up a hill with your nose. Combined with the pocket sleeve as in my copy of Tommy, it was calculated to kill music much faster than home taping ever would.

Metal Box

And finally, to the mother of them all, an LP that manages to combine at least three of the above design defects and yet still holds a prized place in my record collection. Yes, it’s Metal Box. A tarnished tin film can that doggedly refuses to release the three 12 inch 45s inside, however much you tilt and shoogle it, vainly trying to keep your fingers off the surfaces as you winkle them out.

After I’ve hoiked the platter off my deck and flipped the speed regulator I can finally play it.

Ten minutes later and I’m up again changing sides, or trying to coax another disc out of the can.

The main reason it was originally pressed in this format was to give full rein to Jah Wobble‘s bowel-shaking bass, and the amplitude of the groove is so physically large it used to literally throw the needle into a jump on my old turntable. Even now I turn up the tracking weight on the arm when I play Albatross.

mp3: PiL – Albatross

And yet for all this it’s the music that wins. It’s simply one of the greatest and most uncompromising albums ever released, and worth wrestling with on a regular basis. I could buy a CD version, or even the 2xLP ‘Second Edition’. But, well, you know… it just wouldn’t be as much fun, would it?

Fraser

R.E.M.

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #12

New Adventures In Hi-Fi – R.E.M.(1996)

I know I’m in the minority when I make the statement that New Adventures In Hi-Fi is R.E.M.‘s best album. Its numerous detractors feel it is a bit overblown, extending out to 14 tracks, and the inability of the band to settle down and record it in a single location and at a given point created an inconsistency in mood and tempo.

These, however, are precisely the sort of things that have made me increasingly love the album with each passing year. I’m not going to say that it’s a flawless piece of work – indeed, for all that R.E.M. made many magnificent albums during their existence, including a couple towards the end of their career, they all contain something that could be nitpicked or criticised for one reason or another.

The album was recorded, for the most part, while they were out on a world tour in 1995, the first time they had undertaken such a venture in six years. It is quite strange looking back at things to fully appreciate that they had become global superstars on the back of Out of Time (1991) and Automatic For The People (1992) without ever playing what could be seen as a series of standard live shows in theatres or arenas.

It seemed a good idea at the time. The nightly set-lists would be packed with ‘the hits’, so what better way to alleviate the tedium of life on the road by using soundchecks and rehearsals to try out some new songs.

The intention was to make for a more relaxed way of recording a new record, one that the constant search for perfection in a studio would be avoided. The takes put down in the theatres could, if required, be fine-tuned at later dates with overdubs and the likes, but with these proving to be minimal, what came to be released was a double album which turned out to capture the original four members of R.E.M. at their performing peak.

Of the 14 tracks, five were recorded at soundchecks, two in Atlanta, and one in each of Orlando, Memphis and Phoenix. Four were recorded live (but with no audience present) in Charleston, Boston, Auburn Hills and Phoenix. An instrumental track was captured in the dressing room of a venue in Philadelphia. The remaining four, which all required a bit more technical input or contributions from musicians/singers not on the tour, were put down in the more traditional way in a recording studio in Seattle.

It all adds up to a fascinating listen. The songs were genuinely fresh and brimmming with ideas, and with much of the Monster tour set lists in ’95 heavily leaning on the three albums recorded in the early 90s, it is no surprise that the eventual contents of New Adventures In Hi-Fi proved to be a very fine blend of the acoustic and electric, as well as country rock and indie rock.

mp3: R.E.M. – Low Desert

Recorded at a soundcheck at the Omni Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe, the performance benefits from Nathan December on slide guitar and Scott McGaughey on piano.

My one regret looking back is that I only bought it on CD in 1996…..but then again, the old record deck, amplifier and speakers were in storage, and it was CDs or cassettes all the way, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to hear it. But I did buy the 25th Anniversary re-release on vinyl and got to enjoy things all over again.

JC

Pet Shop Boys

PET SHOP BOYS SINGLES (Part Twenty)

maxresdefault

Back in 2010, Record Store Day was still an idea worth getting behind. Pet Shop Boys announced that they would be participating on 17 April 2010, with the release of a 7″ single, limited to 1,000 copies.

R-2236211-1273476455

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Love Life

It wasn’t an entirely new song. It had been written back in the early 2000s and given to nu-disco outfit Alcazar, who subsequently enjoyed a Top 10 hit with it in their native Sweden. PSB resurrected the song for RSD 2010.

The b-side of the single was of a studio version of a song that had only previously been heard when recorded for the John Peel Show session back in 2002.

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – A Powerful Friend

The introduction to A-side starts off like a Pet Shop Boy song, the verse sounds like a Pet Shop Boys song, while the chorus couldn’t be anything else.

The B-side on the other hand……..I just don’t get it. Does nothing for me. I’ll leave it at that.

The important thing is that the recording and release of the single had the purpose of assisting small, independent record shops, and whatever copies participating stores would have received would have sold out very quickly on the day, hopefully from PSB fans perhaps making their first visit to such stores in decades.

Here’s the thing.

I’ve listened to the version of A Powerful Friend that was recorded for the Peel Session and I love it. In places, it’s unmistakably PSB at their synth-pop best, albeit the track is faster and more furious than most of their tunes, while it also incorporates harder elements within the music, almost as if they want to acknowledge the sort of material that is more normally to be heard on the Peel Show. I’m quite surprised that Neil and Chris didn’t seek agreement with BBC Enterprises to make it the actual b-side.

The next major thing to happen was a triumphant appearance at Glastonbury on Saturday 26 June when they headlined The Other Stage, and according to many accounts, delivered the best performance across the entire three days of the festival.

R-2563812-1375707175-3309

A brand-new single was issued on 24 October 2010. It sounds as if they were trying to create their own version of the sort of tunes that were massive in the clubs, thanks to new(ish) kids on the block such as Calvin Harris or David Guetta, both of whom owed a debt to PSB. Sadly, it isn’t one of their best efforts.

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Together

It was initially just a digital release that was followed up by physical content on 29 November. In the interim, it had appeared as the one wholly new song on Ultimate, another ‘greatest hits’ album, containing 19 singles all told. Ultimate was also made available in an expanded form with a bonus DVD containing including 27 performances at the BBC from the past 25 years, most of them filmed for Top Of The Pops, as well as their Glastonbury 2010 show.

The physical release of Together came in a CD single and a CD maxi single. The former had a remix of West End Girls as the additional track, while the latter contained two cover versions.

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Glad All Over
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – I Cried For Us

Yup. One of these IS the song made famous by the Dave Clark Five in the 60s. The connection here is that it’s a song often sung at matches by fans of Blackpool FC, the hometown club of Chris Lowe. It might well qualify as the worst cover version they’ve ever released.

The other song was written, back in 1982, by Kate McGarrigle who enjoyed a long and successful musical career alongside her sister Anna, particularly in their native Canada. Kate, whose name had become increasingly more after her son Rufus Wainwright shot to worldwide fame, had died at the age of 63 in January 2010, and Neil had performed I Cried For Us at a memorial concert in London in June 2010. Shortly afterwards, a studio version of his interpretation of the song was recorded.

As mentioned last time around, the days of PSB singles going high into the UK charts were now at an end. Together peaked at #58.

JC

Urusei Yatsura

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #358: URUSEI YATSURA

urusei-yatsura

From ICA 268 :-

Urusei Yatsura formed in 1993. Founding members Fergus Lawrie and Graham Kemp met whilst attending the University of Glasgow. They recruited Elaine Graham as bassist, and the line-up was completed with the subsequent addition of Elaine’s brother, Ian Graham, on drums.

They took their band name from the manga Urusei Yatsura, written by Rumiko Takahashi, and contributed their first recording, “Guitars Are Boring”, to a compilation album released by the locally based Kazoo Club. This record in turn brought them to the attention of John Peel, who brought them in to do a session in 1994. They would go on to record 4 Peel Sessions in total, as well as appearing on the Evening Session for Steve Lamacq.

Over the years they released three albums: We Are Urusei Yatsura (1996), Slain By Urusei Yatsura (1998) and Everybody Loves Urusei Yatsura (2000). Albums in America and Japan were released under the name of Yatsura for legal reasons. There were also around a dozen commercially available singles, mostly on Che, a London-based indie label. Urusei Yatsura split in June 2001, but three of the members would resurface in 2009 as Project A-Ko with a really good collection of tunes on the album Yoyodyne.

The most obvious, and therefore lazy, comparisons are Pavement, Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth. As someone else has said elsewhere on t’internet, the sonic attacks of their songs were like three-minute bolts of lightning, and likewise, their debut album, snapped and crackled in a time when everything Brit-popped.

mp3: Urusei Yatsura – Hello Tiger

From Slain By Urusei Yatsura.

The closest the band ever got to commercial success. It reached #40 in the singles chart in February 1998.I wonder if things would have turned out different had they been invited to perform that week on Top of The Pops?

JC

Beths

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM #341 – THE BETHS

A guest posting by The Robster

The Beths are from Auckland, New Zealand, though they are at pains to point out it’s actually Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa in the native Maori. They formed in 2014 after meeting at university and named themselves after singer/songwriter Elizabeth Stokes. They came to my attention shortly before the release of their debut album. They struck me as a band who catered for my love of indie guitars, pop melodies, clever lyrics and vocal harmonies. All those things packaged together as one. I fell in love and remain so.

I recently saw them live and very good they were too. Most striking were the flawless vocal harmonies, sometimes involving all four members of the band. It is one of the reasons I like them so much. Funny, isn’t it, how some facets of the music can really grab you as much as, if not more than, the songs themselves. I’ve always been a sucker for a good vocal harmony.

To date, The Beths have released three albums. I’m not sure JC has ever mentioned them on these iconic pages, so I’d like to introduce them here for the uninitiated.

THE SOUND THE SOUND THE SOUND…

An Imaginary Compilation by THE BETHS

SIDE ONE

1. Silence Is Golden

Kicking off with a track from the band’s third and most recent album, 2022’s ‘Expert In A Dying Field’. It’s a record that didn’t grab me as immediately as the first two, but it’s a definite grower. This was its lead single and is the song that gives this ICA its title.

2. I’m Not Getting Excited

The opening track from second album ‘Jump Rope Gazers’ is one of the band’s loudest and hard-hitting. That doesn’t detract from its underlying pop sensibilities though.

3. You Wouldn’t Like Me

Elizabeth Stokes is a master at writing great tunes with a dark underbelly in the lyrics. I’m sure she’s not always writing from a personal perspective as I can’t imagine she’s as nasty as she makes herself out to be in this song. I do wonder if she is facing up to some demons in some of her work though. This is a highlight from the debut album ‘Future Me Hates Me’.

4. Jump Rope Gazers

The title track of The Beths’ second album is very possibly my favourite of theirs, which is unusual as it’s a slower-paced love song. But the tune hits me hard, and then when those harmonies start in the chorus – whoah! Credit really should also go to guitarist Jonathan Pearce who also records and produces the band’s music in his home studio. For me, this is where it all comes together perfectly.

5. Knees Deep

From ‘Expert In A Dying Field’. Here, Elizabeth laments her lack of bravery. “The shame!! I wish that I was brave enough to dive in / But I never have been and never will be / I’m coming in hot and freezing completely.” I know that feeling.

SIDE TWO

1. Idea/Intent

A couple non-album tracks now. This was the band’s furious debut single, first released in 2015, it then appeared on the following year’s ‘Warm Blood’ EP. It might be the only song in their canon to have swearing in it.

2. A Real Thing

A single released between albums 2 and 3, its erratic chorus giving something of an alternative, almost post-punk feel to it. I can understand how they felt this wasn’t right for the second album so held it over as a standalone single.

3. Uptown Girl

Not a cover of the Billy Joel song! It’s better than that, a rollicking ride through the realisation that a relationship isn’t what our protagonist thought it was so decides to go out and drown her sorrows, painting the town red in the process. My favourite track from the first album.

4. Whatever

The second single, Whatever appeared on the ‘Warm Blood’ EP, but was also felt good enough for the debut album. Some more nice harmonies in this one.

5. Best Left

Rounding off with my favourite track from the latest album. I actually wanted to include the title track somewhere, but just couldn’t find a place for it. Besides, that would make 11 tracks which is cheating. This song sounds like a good place to finish off.

If you want more, check out The Beths’ recent KEXP live session here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIC70Wyd5_U

The Robster

Cure

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #13

Standing On A Beach – The Cure (1986)

So….does it mean that Standing On A Beach coming in at #13, one place ahead of Singles Going Steady, is the more favoured record?

Absolutely not!!!

I couldn’t separate them in terms of preference, but a couple of things led to me putting The Cure just above Buzzcocks.

Firstly, the two sides of vinyl consist entirely of A-sides. Secondly, unlike the Buzzcocks compilation, Standing On A Beach was a commercial success, reaching #4 and selling around 100,000 copies. Part of this might have been down to a greater willingness of fans to now shell out for compilation albums, but it might also have had something to do with the fact that its contents spanned the period 1978-1985 and a number of the earliest 45s were increasingly hard to find.

There are 13 tracks all told. Side One goes from Killing An Arab (1978) through to The Hanging Garden (1982). For the most part, these seven songs represent The Cure at their most gothic – well, at least to that point in time, as there was more dark material later in the career. Only two of the tracks had actually made it into the Top 40 when originally released.

Side Two goes from Let’s Go To Bed (1982) through to Close To Me (1985) and generally represents the more commercially successful era of early Cure, with four of the six songs being top 20 hits.

I remember thinking at the time that the career-spanning compilation was perhaps a sign that Robert Smith & co were considering calling it a day. Just as well that I never went to a bookie and asked for odds, given that there have been a further seven studio albums and two more singles compilations in the ensuing years, not to mention remix and live releases and the countless tours that have been undertaken. Smith might now be 64 years of age, but he shows no signs of slowing up.

~~mp3: The Cure – Primary~~

Now….at this point I had intended to offer up Primary……but Dirk featured it recently as part of his wonderfully curated 111 singles series.

Primary is not one of their better known singles in that it peaked at #43 in 1981. It’s the one more than any other which highlights how close they were, melodically speaking, to the early-mid 80s Bunnymen. Or maybe that’s just me…….

Along with A Forest, this was regularly aired at the ‘dining room disco’ on Saturday nights at Strathclyde Students Union – that was the location where the playlist was eclectic and spanned the years whereas the upstairs Level 8, as well as being the hall in which bands played live, was also the disco where the pop hits of the day would be played. It was where many of us lay down our raincoats and grooved……

Primary, despite not making the Top 40, was responsible for The Cure’s first ever appearance on Top of The Pops.

And, as Dirk also mentioned, the song was made with two bass guitars and drums. No keyboards or six-string guitars…..just an innovative use of effects pedals.

So….instead of that, here’s one of the big hits. A song that is up there with the best 45s from the 80s.

mp3: The Cure – In Between Days

JC

Various

(BONUS POST) THE MEMORIES OF THE NIGHT BEFORE

Party-Lighting-Hire-Surrey

As is now the tradition on the first day of each month. 60 minutes of music that should allow you to shake your bodies down to the ground, before it all ends with a different type of anthem.

mp3: Various – Out In Clubland (Having Fun?)

Pet Shop Boys – Shameless
Placebo – Teenage Angst
Interpol – Slow Hands
Lush (feat Jarvis Cocker) – Ciao!
Arab Strap – (If There’s) No Hope For Us
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Messages
Kylie Minogue – Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
At The Drive-In – One Armed Scissor
Soft Cell – Bedsitter (12″)
De La Soul – Eye Know
Oui 3 – Break From The Old Routine
The Hardy Boys – Wonderful Lie
The Specials – Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)
Gorillaz (feat. Mark E Smith) – Glitter Freeze
Wire – Fragile
Aztec Camera– The Red Flag

Finishes just in time to allow you to catch the last bus home.

JC

Buzzcocks

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #14

Singles Going Steady – Buzzcocks (1981)

There was no way I couldn’t include this ‘greatest hits’ compilation in the rundown. Buzzcocks were one of the very best singles bands of the post-punk/new wave era. Their first two albums weren’t too shabby either, but both had their moments when things went a little bit off-kilter or too far on the experimental side to make for a perfect listen. Singles Going Steady, no matter which side of the vinyl you play, can make a justified claim for 10/10.

A reminder of what we are looking at here.

The album was pulled together by IRS, the band’s American label, to coincide with a tour of the USA and Canada in 1979. It consisted of all eight singles that had been released in the UK between 1977 and 1979. Side One of the album had them in chronological order, beginning with Orgasm Addict and ending with Harmony In My Head, while Side Two had all the b-sides, opening with Whatever Happened To? and closing with Something’s Gone Wrong Again.

It wasn’t initially readily available in the UK except on import, and it was only given an official release over here, in November 1981, after the band first break-up.

I didn’t know this until doing a bit of background research for today’s post, and I certainly wouldn’t have believed anyone who told me, but Singles Going Steady failed to hit the Top 100 on the album charts back in 1981. Six of the singles had been Top 40 – the exceptions were Orgasm Addict and I Don’t Mind – while the two studio albums from the same period had both gone Top 20. But, for whatever reason, there was no appetite at all for the compilation. It may well have been that diehard fans had picked it up on import, or maybe having copies of all the singles felt there was nothing to be gained from picking them up again in album form, but it’s a bit of a head scratcher.

As I mentioned earlier, it doesn’t really matter if you choose to play Side Two of the album to begin with. Indeed, there’s something to be said from doing things that way, as it delivers a lengthy but magnificent overture prior to the main act. Songs such as Noise Annoys and Lipstick would surely have been hit singles if released as A-sides, while Oh Shit! is one of the greatest anthems of its time, ninety-six seconds of adrenalin-fuelled pop-punk that was totally incapable of being aired on any radio station.

mp3: Buzzcocks – Oh Shit!

Pete Shelley once told an interviewer in the early days that his hope for Buzzcocks songs was that they could stand the test of time. I’m not sure if he quite managed that with all the later material, but there can be no doubts about the tunes on Side A of Singles Going Steady. And it’s all done and dusted in not much more than 20 minutes.

I had also forgotten that, in keeping with the ethos of the time, very few of the singles were actually included on any contemporary albums – I Don’t Mind was on Another Music In A Different Kitchen, while Ever Fallen In Love was included on Love Bites. Buzzcocks believed in the joy and perfection of 7″ singles, including the artwork and design.

mp3: Buzzcocks – Everybody’s Happy Nowadays

Except for those of you whose favourite albums have been missed out in this rundown……

JC

Wedding Present

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #15

The Wedding Present – Seamonsters (1991)

#15. Not too bad for an album that nearly didn’t make the cut. But then again, Take Fountain, the ‘comeback’ album in 2005 from The Wedding Present, would likely have occupied as lofty a position.

I’ve never shied away from the fact that I was late to The Wedding Present. By 1991, I did have a lot of what they had released, all bought in something of a hurry to make up for being so late – it was hearing Kennedy in a record shop that had finally got me hooked.

Seamonsters was to be their third studio album, but it was one that I knew was going to be totally different from what had come before, thanks to hearing songs they had played in session for John Peel in October 1990. It was one of those occasions when I later regretted not taping anything at the time- it just wasn’t something I was in the habit of doing – and furthermore this was a period when I wasn’t an avid listener to the show as I wasn’t long after moving into a flat with Rachel, and we were in those first throes of love where you seemed to be constantly joined at the hip – she must have been out visiting some of her friends that night as there would be no other reason as to why I could have been tuning into Radio 1 late in the evening.

Anyways, the noises which came out of the radio during the latter half of a song called Dalliance seemed to come from a completely different planet. It very much stayed with me, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it when It was finally put on the next album, which turned out to be May 1991.

I wrote about Dalliance when I pulled together ICA 7, describing it as a stunning and unexpected wall of sound that took the band to a whole new level in terms of fanbase and out of the realms of mere indie-pop.

But the very same words could be written about any of the ten tracks on the two sides of the vinyl. It is up there with as perfect an album as I have in my collection – which is not something I’ll be readily able to claim with some of the remaining 14 in this rundown.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Heather

Choosing to work with Steve Albini in a remotely located studio in rural Minnesota was a major gamble on everyone’s part, and it has to be admitted that the experience would lead to the fracturing of relationships and later changes in band personnel. The musicians clearly suffered quite a bit for their art, but from a purely selfish perspective, I’ll say it was a price well worth paying.

I’ll make no apologies for foisting two very intense and dark albums on you over consecutive days. I promise that tomorrow, the start of a new month and the actual one in which I will celebrate my 60th birthday, will have something a bit easier on the soul.

JC

David Bowie

(BONUS POST) : ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #020

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#020– David Bowie – ‚”Heroes” (RCA Victor Records ’77)

bowie

Dear friends,

aaah … Berlin, summer of 1977 – an island of fun in a desert of boredom!! No military draft, a vibrant atmosphere, no cold war in sight yet, the Soviets taking real good care of their protégés with a solid wall helping them to keep Western influence at bay! Fun, fun, fun for everyone – and who was there in those golden days, enjoying the big party? Yes, David Bowie and his chum Iggy Pop! On a working holiday, as you would call it these days, with Pop recording ‘Lust For Life’, the album, and Bowie recording, well, ‘”Heroes”’, the album, in the famous Hansa Tonstudios, located a stone’s throw away from the Berlin wall – Köthener Strasse in Kreuzberg actually.

And this location is of some importance for the story the song tells us: ‘”Heroes”’ was a produced by a chap named Tony Visconti. Also recording in a different part of the studio was Antonia Maaß with The Messengers, some jazz-rock-combo. If you listen closely, you can also hear her singing in the background on ‘”Heroes”’, in fact. Now, every once in a while, Bowie would stop whatever he was doing, and stare out of the studio’s window a bit, thinking whatever pop stars have to think about. And quite often he noticed a couple caressing right at the wall, always at the same place, directly below an East German gun turret. What Bowie couldn’t understand was why on earth – with so many nice and certainly more romantic places within the city – this couple would always meet there: underneath the bloody gun turret, probably with the NVA border guards above them jeering foolishly whenever they kissed!

Either way, that’s where they used to meet, for reasons only becoming obvious to Bowie a bit later: first the couple was unknown to him, but being a clever bloke, he quickly realized that whenever he saw them kissing down there at the wall, his producer and background singer were always absent. So the famous protagonists which ‘”Heroes”’ tells us about, were – as you will already have gathered – Tony and Antonia. With Tony – surprise, surprise – being married to Mary Hopkin at the time: that’s Mary Hopkin who did the damn awful ‘Those Were The Days’ back in 1968. I’m tempted to say that the sheer abomination of this song, at least in my book, might even justify a bit of betrayal to Mary!

So, that’s the story behind ‘”Heroes”’, friends. As far as I’m concerned, by and large everything else that could be said about this song has already been said elsewhere. Apart from the fact that all of the inverted commas above, which most surely you have been wondering about all the time, are there for a sense: the idea behind them was to create some ironic distance to the rather romantic and/or pathetic lyrics. So there you are …:

R-3424001-1509020866-1263

R-3424001-1509020869-7331

mp3: David Bowie – “Heroes”

And before you think: “Ah, no need to download this – I know it by heart!” … no, probably you don’t! Why? Because this is the radio-friendly 7” version, which you don’t hear all too often. Perhaps you have never even heard it, who knows, I mean: does radio-friendlyness still exist in the days of internet at all? Either way, this version here is cut down from 6:07 minutes to 3:32 minutes, which gives quite a new feeling to a song so well known. One of my all time favorites, this, in all of its versions!

Enjoy,

Dirk

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #16

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Let Love In (1994)

From the days when Nick Cave albums were greeted, in the main, by shrugs of indifference and the accompanying tours were played in regular sized venues with tickets very much at the affordable end of the scale.

I’m not going to use this occasion to say that the old days were the best, or that I begrudge the success that has come his way in more recent times. I’ve had a few chats with Adam from Bagging Area about Nick Cave, and I really understand why the releases of the past few albums have been so meaningful in terms of dealing with loss and grief in ways very few of us will ever experience, but my own preferences date back to the days before The Guardian and other broadsheet papers discovered there was lots to look into and analyse every time a Bad Seeds album was released. The tide began to turn with The Boatman’s Call in 1997, but the use of much of his music in the TV series Peaky Blinders (2013-2022) took it to a level none of us who had followed him from way back could ever have imagined.

This whole 60 albums thing has been an exercise in nostalgia and has provoked all sorts of memories of the different occasions when records were bought, videos/performances were watched on TV (and often recorded onto VHS tapes), shapes were thrown on dance floors and sweat was worked up at gigs. The Bad Seeds have brought immense amounts of pleasure at various halls in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London over an extended period of time, as their collective musicianship, no matter who happens to have been asked to come along for the ride on any particular tour, has been second to none. But I can’t ever see myself going to the 12,000 capacity or outdoor venues to see them….if it does turn out that the Usher Hall, Edinburgh gig in November 2013 was the last time, then it will have been one of the best, thanks in part to the great Barry Adamson being part of the Bad Seeds on the Push The Sky Away tour.

This was another band in which a number of releases were considered for inclusion in the rundown. But I’ve always edged towards thinking that Let Love In is his true masterpiece.

In some places, it delivers a very menacing sound, over which Cave delivers some of his best gothic poetry. At other times, there are love songs, some of which are straight forward, while others are downright creepy. There’s a lot of dark and self-deprecating humour on the album, the sort that really only becomes apparent after a few listens. It also has this:-

mp3: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Red Right Hand

For decades, one of the most loved songs in the entire back catalogue. It was played on most tours and, without exception, rapturously received. One of the hidden gems, so to speak. These days, thanks to its association with the antics of the fictional Shelby family, it is now, without any shadow of a doubt, the best known of all his songs. It is one of many highlights of an outstanding album.

I remember reading a review of Let Love In at the time, and one particular phrase jumped out at me. I’ve done a bit of digging, and it turns out it was penned/typed by Phil Sutcliffe for Q Magazine in May 1994.

“If Leonard Cohen made Iggy Pop pregnant, he’d give birth to Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.”

Indeed.

JC

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #17

Lloyd Cole and The Commotions – Rattlesnakes (1984)

It’s often said that any singer or band’s debut album, no matter how long the ensuing career proves to be, is their best and most enduring. It’s a case that can be backed up by the fact that a fair number of the records in this countdown were debuts.

The thing is, Lloyd Cole and The Commotions would later release two more hugely enjoyable albums post-debut. Lloyd Cole as a solo artist, is just about to release his 13th solo record, while there was also one further album under the name of Lloyd Cole and The Negatives. While a couple of the solo releases have been a tad on the experimental or lo-fi side, all of them have much to offer, as hopefully highlighted by various posts on this blog over the years.

But, and given the fact that many of the songs have, to popular acclaim, been kept in the live sets over the past almost 40 years, there is no doubt that Lloyd’s devoted fans are near universal in the view that Rattlesnakes is his very best.

It’s an album very much of its time and place. Glasgow in 1983/4 seemed to be the most amazing place to live, with its musical scene seemingly scaling all sorts of new and exciting heights. Every gig seemed to be packed with A&R reps coming up from London in the hope of finding ‘the next big thing.’ The big bands came and played the Apollo, but there were also so many other fantastic venues such as Tiffany’s, Night Moves and The Plaza, while the student unions at Glasgow and Strathclyde University, Glasgow Art School and Glasgow School of Art were also very much part of the ‘indie’ touring circuit. There were also an increasing number of modern city centre pubs that were far removed from the traditional boozers in which anyone could drop in and spot an established or aspiring musician, actor, painter, poet or comedian, with the Rock Garden and Nico’s being near the top of such lists.

Lloyd Cole and his band were a big part of the buzz. The frontman, although not from the city, was at one of its universities. Copies of some demos were in circulation and it was apparent that the frontman had somehow found Glasgow’s best guitarist and keyboard players and persuaded them to join his band, while he’s recruited a rhythm section that wasn’t shabby. We were only a couple of years removed from the Postcard era and the enthusiastic amateurism that had been involved in the early recordings, but The Commotions, and many of their peers in the city, were now ensuring .professionalism and skilled playing was very much to the fore.

The strange thing is…..the songs weren’t huge commercial successes. Debut single Perfect Skin reached #26, but the two follow-ups didn’t hit the Top 40. The album did spend four months or so in the charts between October 84 and February 85, but mostly at the lower end.

And yet, everyone I knew seemed to own a copy of the vinyl. Like a few other acts who have already been in this rundown, along with others still to feature, this was a band for the student population, or the 80s bedsit generation as it has been dubbed – and of which I am a proud card-carrying member.

It’s all too easy to get nostalgic about the past, but I wouldn’t swap my era for any other. And I’m certainly incredibly happy that my student years of 81-85, and in particular the last two when I was living in shared accommodation with friends, coincided with such a high point in the city’s musical history. Rattlesnakes was the soundtrack to so much of what went on, and as such, it’ll always be one of my favourite albums until the day I take my final breath.

mp3: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Charlotte Street

JC

Pet Shop Boys

PET SHOP BOYS SINGLES (Part Nineteen)

up-2pet

2009 opened up with the Pet Shop Boys being given the Outstanding Achievement Award at the Brit Awards, and invited to perform at the close of the ceremony.

A month later, on 16 March 2009, a new single is released.

R-1691622-1237234801

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Love etc.

A jaunty and upbeat number that was co-written with Xenomania, an English-based songwriting and production team that has been part of countless pop hits since their breakthrough with Girls Aloud back in 2002.

It has a poppy sing-a-long chorus and was just the latest example of PSB going off in a direction that nobody really expected. I’m not convinced it’s their finest ever moment, but there’s no disputing that it’s one of those that would get an audience clapping along to. But there’s a sense that this is one more akin to the disposable pop market, and maybe that’s as much to do with the co-writers rather than Neil and Chris.

If the hope had been to deliver a major return to the singles charts, and let’s not forget the Brits Award appearance a few weeks earlier would have offered a higher profile than they had enjoyed for a few years, then it didn’t pay off. It entered at #14 and disappeared within three weeks….I’m guessing Radio 1 proved to be immune from its charms.

It was issued across a range of formats, including a CD single, a CD remix single, an iTunes single and an iTunes EP. Oh, and a 7″ picture disk as the an early indication that a vinyl revival was on its way.

CD single

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Gin and Jag

This is one of those songs which benefits from repeated listens. It might initially feel like a bit of a downbeat plodder, but the nature of the music really does match the nature of the lyric. It’s one of those that could, ostensibly, work well in the great short stories series. It’s worth explaining that Gin and Jag is a bit of slang, most often used to have a dig at upper-middle class people from the south of England whose lifestyles centre around ostentatious displays of wealth.

Don’t stare at the setting sun
and say youth is wasted on the young
Don’t stare at the setting sun
and say youth is wasted on the young

Pour another gin, love
and go easy on the tonic
Tonight I’m in a frisky mood
I’m going supersonic

Boredom deplores a vacuum
A sentiment I applaud
There’s a lot of room at the inn tonight
but I trust you won’t be bored

This is quite a view, you must admit
some would pay the earth
Be careful with that decanter, dear
Do you know how much it’s worth?

I made a pile and got out quick
I never got a gong
for services rendered but it’s not a case
of where did it all go wrong?

When we chatted on the internet
I was looking for more than a friend
In my day I was quite a catch
I wish you’d seen me then

Young and single, free and easy
handsome in my prime
“Grab it while you can” is my advice
Don’t waste your bloody time

Never married, no kids that I know of
Didn’t want a litter
Might have been a mistake, I admit
but you don’t want to end up bitter

Yes, I had a few golden years
Times I won’t forget
But don’t write me off as an old has-been
It’s not all over yet

I know my taste isn’t everyone’s
I’m a little too Gin and Jag
If you don’t want to give it a go tonight
you may as well pack your bag

When we chatted on the internet
I was looking for more than a friend
In my day I was quite a catch
I wish you’d seen me then

Don’t stare at the setting sun
and say youth is wasted on the young
Don’t stare at the setting sun
and say youth is wasted on the young

iTunes single

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – We’re All Criminals Now

Another deceptively good b-side, and IMHO, far superior to the actual single, offering a commentary on the increased used of CCTV surveillance within everyday life.

Just a week later, the tenth studio album, Yes, was released. Coming it at #4, it delivered their best chart position since Bilingual back in 1996, but as was very much the case these days, didn’t hang around for too long and was outside the Top 100 after five weeks.

R-3798246-1344852361-5364

The second single to be lifted from Yes was released on 1 June 2009

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Did You See Me Coming?

Yup…..that’s Johnny Marr on guitar again to offer his assistance as the duo again a chase of summer pop perfection. Fair play to everyone for keeping things going after all these years, but this is the sort of song that just washes over me. As I said a couple of weeks back, this is a period of time in which I wasn’t giving much attention to PSB, and while there’s been a couple of b-sides that have made me sit up all these years later, I don’t think I really missed out on things.

Bear with me on how this one was released.

CD 1 with two songs. CD maxi-single with three songs. 12″ vinyl. Three (yup, count them!!!) digital bundles with different mixes as additional songs, along with the opportunity to enjoy the Pet Shop Boys Brit Awards Medley as had been performed earlier in the year. All told, there were three new tracks that hadn’t featured on Yes.

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – After The Event
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – The Former Enfant Terrible
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Up and Down

What I like about these three as a collective is that they are all very obviously PSB songs, but they are all quite different in style, tempo and delivery. The duo clearly still cared about their craft and showed no signs of wanting to reach the stage where any old rubbish would do for b-sides, and while some of the CDs and digital bundles did go very heavily on the remix side of things, there was much to be gained from seeking out the b-sides, and fair play to them for bringing them altogether on a later compilation.

There was one final bit of product before the year was out.

914054a0d2d34db818b646459d34e744

Christmas was released on 14 December. It was a five-track EP consisting of a new version of a track previously released as a fan club single in 1997, a new version of a song lifted from Very, a cover of a song by Madness, a remix of the cover and a medley involving one of their old hits with a more recent one by Coldplay.

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – It Doesn’t Often Snow At Christmas (new version)
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – All Over The Word (new version)
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – My Girl

The most interesting thing is that if you weren’t aware of the original, you’d very much be thinking My Girl was a PSB original.

The Christmas EP entered the charts at #40. Not that we knew it at the time, but it proved to be the last PSB single/EP to get into the Top 40.

I suppose I better:-

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Viva La Vida/Domino Dancing

I’m saying nothing.

JC

Unwinding Hours

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #357: THE UNWINDING HOURS

The-Unwinding-Hours

From wiki :-

The Unwinding Hours were a Scottish alternative rock band formed in 2008 by former Aereogramme members Craig B. and Iain Cook. The band released their self-titled debut album on 15 February 2010 and Afterlives in 2012, as well as several tour/live EPs.

The duo announced their project in August 2009 with the following statement: “We used to play in a band called Aereogramme. That may or may not matter to you. Just thought I’d mention it”

The band made their live debut at Celtic Connections in January 2010, performing at Chemikal Underground‘s “15th Anniversary” concert. They played their first headlining show to a sold-out crowd in Stereo, Glasgow, on 5 March, opening with the words “We are The Unwinding Hours. And we’re going to start with the end”, before playing the closing track from their debut album. For some of their gigs, the base duo of The Unwinding Hours added musicians Graeme Smillie (guitar), Brendan Smith (keyboards) and Jonny Scott (drums).

The band has not been active since 2013, with Iain Cook focusing on Chvrches and Craig B. releasing solo material as A Mote of Dust.

Here’s the opening track from Afterlives

mp3: The Unwinding Hours – Break

JC

Clash

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #18

The Clash – London Calling (1979)

Often cited as one of the best and most important albums of the 80s was, in fact, released on 14 December 1979, just seven days after its title track has been released as a single.

For all that The Clash were a massively popular band in the UK at the end of the 70s, their records never really sold in hugely massive quantities. Until one of their songs was used to soundtrack a jeans advert in 1991 (and thus find its way to #1 when re-released), London Calling delivered their best ever singles chart position when it reached #11 in the middle of January 1980.

The parent album, as you can see from the sticker that was attached to the front of it, cost £5, which was actually superb value for a double album, but was still a bit more expensive than most other records sitting in the racks. How else to explain that while previous release Give ‘Em Enough Rope had debuted at #2, London Calling did no better than #9. It is true that the busy Christmas market wouldn’t have helped matter in terms of a chart position, but the album only stuck around for 20 weeks all told, which in those days was almost like the blink of an eye – for instance, Regatta De Blanc, which was released by The Police in October 1979, would enjoy a 74-week stay in the charts.

The Clash, however, had credibility and kudos well beyond any of their peers. It’s quite strange looking back at things now, just how far removed their music was in comparison to what had been recorded for the self-titled debut album some two-and-a-half years previously. The sound of a punk rock band had been replaced by a confident rock band, one that wasn’t afraid to hide away from its many influences.

One of my later flatmates in Edinburgh in the mid-80s had been a punk in a large village on the outskirts of Glasgow. He told me that London Calling had been a really difficult record to love when it was released. He was 16-years old and all he really wanted was loud and fast guitars, over which should ideally be shouted incomprehensible but angry sounding lyrics. The new album by The Clash had been too polished in many places for his liking.

Worse than that was the fact that his slightly older sister, whose tastes veered towards the standard rock fare of the mid 70s onwards, thought that the album was a classic and had taken great delight in telling her sibling that the double album was all the proof you needed that punk was dead and that the only way to have longevity and success in the music industry was through being able to play. I can only imagine the arguments which broke out in that household back then…….

But, it is very much the case that London Calling changed everything for The Clash. It’s an album that enabled the breakthrough in America, something which none of their punk/new wave contemporaries from the UK managed to achieve without turning into some sort of comic book parody…..and yes, I’m thinking of you Billy Idol.

As with Parallel Lines, there’s a few songs that have proven not to quite have the same timelessness as others, which is the reason it appears slightly lower in the rundown than I anticipated when pulling it together.

This, however, is timeless.

mp3: The Clash – Clampdown

JC

Blondie

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #19

Blondie- Parallel Lines (1978)

Here’s one that was sitting in the Top 10 when I began pulling this series together, but has slipped a little bit as I re-played a number of albums in their entirety for the first time in years.

There’s a huge amount to love about Parallel Lines. It really is that moment in history when those of us who loved listening to new wave music but would be just as happy and comfortable dancing to disco music found a perfect match. (I can’t say dancing in a discotheque, as I was still of an age where school or church halls would have to suffice). Oh, and being a mid-teen heterosexual also meant that Blondie‘s lead singer was the stuff of dreams, dry, wet or otherwise.

Parallel Lines was played a lot in the house I grew up in. It wasn’t the biggest of houses, and I shared a room with two young brothers and while I didn’t always have the space to myself to play my records (most of which were 45s), there was a stereo system in the living room that I’d take ownership of on those occasions when neither my mum and dad were at home.

Come 1983 and through to 1985, I lived in a couple of student flats – the first one being owned by the University (three sharing) and the other by a private landlord (six sharing the bills plus at least two/three others at all times). Music and VHS tapes were the epicentre of life in both homes. Most of time, it would be newly released singles and albums that would be put on the main turntable in the communal area, but it wasn’t always easy to find something that went down well with everyone living in the flat, especially the second one whereso many minds had different tastes. On quite a few occasions, Parallel Lines kept everyone content….it really is the sort of record that nobody can complain about.

It’s an album that I didn’t play much for a long time, from say 1990 onwards. It was always there, and it would get a spin every few years, but it was far from being on regular rotation. Having said that, no matter how long it had been since I last heard it, I still knew every word and piece of instrumentation off by heart.

It’s still an excellent record. In particular, its four smash singles are of a quality that is hard to beat. The thing is, there are eight other tracks spread across its 40 minutes, some of which now, from the passing of time, seem a bit one-dimensional and border on the dull, which is why it found itself slipping down the rundown, albeit it has cosied into a place in the Top 20.

mp3: Blondie – Picture This

The first, and least successful, of the singles has proven itself to be the most enduring as far as I’m now concerned. It wasn’t always like that, and indeed in a few weeks or months time, I’ll most likely be telling myself that Heart of Glass is the one to top them all.