Not Forgotten: The Levellers – Mouth to Mouth
Mouth to Mouth was an almost totally unexpected return to form for the usually argumentative and finger-pointing Levellers, mainly due to the fact that they dialled down their argumentative nature and finger-pointing. Mouth To Mouth is also something of an oddity for the band, as on the whole protest songs are kept to a minimum …
Not Forgotten: Super Furry Animals – Radiator
Sometimes a band just gets it right. Prior to Radiator’s release in August 1997, only Super Furry Animals’ most optimistic and fervent fans would have put good money on the band’s second album transcending the stylistic restrictions of the failing Britpop scene that they were only tangentially associated with. Yet Radiator proved without a doubt …
Classic Compilation: Neil Innes – Re-Cycled Vinyl Blues
When is a compilation not a compilation? When it is an album padded out by a few contemporaneous bonus tracks. Except it isn’t, because those additional b-sides, singles and rarities are dotted around before, after, and even during the original album’s run time. There’s also the fact that Re-Cycled Vinyl Blues is almost everything that …
Album Review: Public Service Broadcasting – Every Valley
I must admit, Public Service Broadcasting had me going for a moment there. After their debut album Inform – Educate – Entertain wonderfully demonstrated that Willgoose, Wrigglesworth and Abraham could do exactly that with samples from archive footage and public information films and some cracking tunes, the more thematically linked The Race for Space disappointed …
Classic Compilation: Ed Harcourt – Until Tomorrow Then
Ed Harcourt was one of those artists that came tantalisingly close to mainstream success, but for whatever reason feel short and has spent the majority of his career being feted by a small and enthusiastic crowd of followers as one of the great ender-appreciated talents of his generation, while the vast majority of the record …
Classic Album: The Who – Who’s Next
Ambition and enthusiasm are great things, but sometimes you need to understand your limitations. Since The Who had released the cracking concept double album Tommy, Pete Townshend had come up with his next big idea for the next Who album, but he was unable to explain it properly to his band mates and other interested …
Classic Compilation: Marvin Gaye – The Very Best of Marvin Gaye
Of course it’s been said far too many times over the years that Marvin Gaye was one of the definitive voices of Soul, but it’s true. His vocals can seduce even a relative ignoramus like myself. He is quite simply a giant of the genre. It’s easy to just remember Marvin Gaye as the guy …
Classic Album: Def Leppard – Hysteria
The trials and tribulations on the road to releasing Hysteria have been well documented, and given the amount of work Def Leppard and producer Mutt Lange put into this album, it is perhaps no surprise that it sold in the eye-watering volumes that it did. What is more of a surprise is how little credit …
Classic Compilation: Free – The Free Story
There’s a load of stuff about The Free Story that just shouldn’t work. Released a little while after Free disbanded for the final time, yet just long enough for 50% of the band to enjoy huge success as 50% of Bad Company, and be able to ride that wave of success, there’s an inescapable whiff …
Album Review: Richard Thompson – Acoustic Classics II
Richard Thompson has been performing his particular brand of folk rock for the best part of five decades now, and his career has seen him regularly release critically acclaimed albums. Initially a founder member of Fairport Convention, he recorded a string of much celebrated albums with his then wife Linda throughout the 70s, and he …