From an old record box: Sade – No Ordinary Love
For years that refrain of “this is no ordinary love/no ordinary love” held an enduring fascination for me. In hindsight I probably should have left it to memory. I should have listened to all the ways in which Sade’s music was described: this was a purveyor of super-slick, super-polished, slinky pop-soul and I was hoping …
Album Review: Taylor Swift – 1989
I’d intended to go in one direction when I began writing this, that being to just do a straight up review of the record. As it is I’ve ended up going in quite another, taking detours with Billy Bragg, the AMAs, the Spotify row, Bob Harris’ ‘My Nashville’ documentary, and Taylor. ‘1989’ is a high-profile …
From an old record box: The Wedding Present – 2, 3, go
“Ride white horses today ! Buy a red Chevrolet ! Let’s go swim the Zambezi Let’s do it just cos it’s easy !” Fans of Saturnalia and Wedding Present completists may all wonder why I’m so excited about this. ‘2, 3, go’ (catalogue number fry 048) has been around since ’96. It’s well-established in …
From an old record box: Babybird – Goodnight
It was 1996, and I was in the Lake District for a summer holiday with a friend’s family; music was key in-car entertainment and one of the principal tapes in the stereo of that lovely old red Volvo 240 estate was a selection of live cuts from Radio 1’s Mark and Lard show. At the …
From an old record box: Cecil – The Most Tiring Day
Between 1997 and 1998 the airwaves of Durham were treated to the finest radio show known (and now lost) to humanity: the Al, Nick and Jonny show. Broadcasting on Purple FM immediately after something called ‘The Culture Bunker’ and before MC Merkin, the show featured colossal indie hits, comedy adverts, amateur talent and, in March 1998, …
From an old record box: Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon (Original Soundtrack)
A Motown martial arts movie ? You heard. In 1985 Berry Gordy produced what ace critic Roger Ebert described at the time as a “great near-miss”. It managed to gross $25m according to wikipedia but it has largely been ignored by history. Ebert also said “my guess is that ‘The Last Dragon’ will be a …
From an old record box: The Mission – Hands Across The Ocean
It’s another product of the ‘Jive Alive’ era. I can’t think how else I would have ended up listening to this goth-indie-classic rock-folk mash-up of a band. Only a few years earlier I can remember filling out Smash Hits Polls uniformly trashing anything with a hint of gloom or rock. Worst bands and songs dominated by …
From an old record box: Belly – Seal My Fate
It has become a consistent starting point for the old ‘old record box’ articles. I wonder how the disc in question has come to gather dust – physically and virtually, absent until now from my electronic jukebox. For this particular vinyl I think it’s a case of hard luck and bad timing. I’d loved 1993’s ‘Feed …
From an old record box: Tori Amos – Cornflake Girl
In amongst some pretty bonkers material from a pretty bonkers career, the ‘Cornflake Girl’ b/w ‘Sister Janet’ single is still an impressive box of lyrical frogs. Atlantic catalogue number A7281 (East West Records 7567-87281-7) was released in the UK in 1994. It’s one in a long and impressive series of superbly-designed sleeves; the artwork for …
From an old record box: R.E.M. – Orange Crush
“I’m only a person, with Eskimo chain I tattooed my brain all the way Won’t you miss me? Wouldn’t you miss me at all?” My love for R.E.M. has been constant since first seeing the video for ‘Losing My Religion’ on MTV in 1991. I was soon scrimping the cash together to buy the tape of …