Not Forgotten
Not Forgotten: Billy Bragg – Life’s a Riot With Spy vs Spy
Is it an album? Is it an EP? To be honest Life’s a Riot With Spy vs Spy is 35 years old now, and still no one is entirely sure how to classify it. What is not up for the debate is that it heralded the arrival of Billy Bragg to a music scene that …
Not Forgotten: The Replacements – Hootenanny
Even this early in their career The Replacements seemed determined to represent the everyman and be utterly relatable to their audience, who by and large were kids from the suburbs just like they had been just a few short years before. While The Replacements’ 1981 debut, the gloriously sloppy Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out …
Not Forgotten: Goldfrapp – Black Cherry
From the opening electronic beats of “Crystalline Green”, it was obvious that Goldfrapp’s sophomore album was not going to be a retread of their well received debut. Gone is the epic glacier of sound that represented Felt Mountain, with Black Cherry being something more, a tinnier and grimier sound more attuned to the body (specifically …
Not Forgotten: Half Man Half Biscuit – CSI: Ambleside
I must admit it, on initial listening on the day of its release I was deeply disappointed in CSI: Ambleside, having fallen head over heels for the hook-laden charms of its predecessor, Achtung Bono. By comparison Half Man Half Biscuit’s 2008 magnum opus just didn’t seem to have as much to offer in the way …
Not Forgotten: World Party – Bang!
Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time. Having served time in The Waterboys during their most consistently good period, Karl Wallinger realised that his musical ambitions would inevitably find themselves at loggerheads with Mike Scott’s own at some point in the future, so he had left that band …
Not Forgotten: Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – Nightingales and Bombers
The sixth and final album recorded by the original Manfred Mann’s Earth Band quartet, Nightingales and Bombers was also released prior to the new line up’s cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Blinded by the Light” pushed them towards greater commercial acceptance. Despite the change of vocalist from Mick Rogers to Chris Thompson and the addition of …
Not Forgotten: The Soundtrack of Our Lives – Extended Revelation For The Psychic Weaklings Of Western Civilization
Extended Revelation For The Psychic Weaklings Of Western Civilization is a cumbersome title, but then again Extended Revelation For The Psychic Weaklings Of Western Civilization is a cumbersome album. Like its predecessor, it weighs in at over an hour, and struggles to contain the musical inventiveness of The Soundtrack of Our Lives. If you think …
Not Forgotten: Led Zeppelin – How the West Was Won
Legend has it that Led Zeppelin were the best live band of the 1970s. For far too long the only official example of this for those of us that weren’t there at the time was the lackluster The Song Remains the Same soundtrack album which just showed how self-indulgent Led Zeppelin could be. This was …
Not Forgotten: Pixies – Surfer Rosa
It’s the way Dave Lovering’s drums crash in. Then there’s that Kim Deal bass line that walks in just the wrong side of sexy, and the riff. My word, that riff. And the incessant rhythm guitar that just doesn’t stop. The Black Francis’s vocals come in delivering those weird lyrics. And the whole thing sounds …
Not Forgotten: Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
Sometimes an album leaps out at me from an act’s discography and captures ‘the moment’ for me. The Seldom Seen Kid was that album through the first few months of 2009. It’s not like Elbow reinvented their sound to appeal to a wider audience, they had just honed their craft to a point where their …