not forgotten
Not Forgotten: Bernard Butler – People Move On
When former Suede guitar botherer Bernard Butler announced he was going solo after a short but troubled collaboration with Soul singer David McAlmont, I barely blinked. I was actually pretty ignorant of his career up to then actually. I had heard that he had quit Suede just before the epic and gloriously overblown Dog Man …
Not Forgotten – Sparks – Exotic Creatures of the Deep
Following up the undisputed best album of your career must be an unenviable task. There was no way that Oranges & Lemons was ever going to be a match for Skylarking, Desire was no Blood on the Tracks, i, as brilliant as it is, will always suffer in comparison to 69 Love Songs, Guerrilla would …
Not Forgotten – Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Top selling musicians these days have it easy. The average recording artist is expected to release a new album once every two years, maybe one a year if they are a new artist. Back in the early 70s it was a given that at least one album a year was the acceptable rate, that way …
Not Forgotten: Brendan Benson – The Alternative to Love
2005 was an odd year for power pop, when three big names released albums of new material. As fate would have it these much anticipated releases by Teenage Fanclub, The Posies and Big Star were solid, but at the end of the day they were just preaching to the converted. Just the same skillful playing …
Not Forgotten – Gene Clark – No Other
You know something, sometimes it’s okay to not succeed. Sometimes you put every ounce of energy and emotion at your disposal into achieving your goal and still you fail. Sometimes the level of effort you have put into something only becomes evident months, years, maybe even decades after the event, thus offering retrospective redemption to …
A Buyers Guide to The Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah) Band
Way back in the mid 90s there was a radio documentary about The Bonzo Dog Band. Co-bandleader Vivian Stanshall had passed away in recent years in tragic circumstances, so it was a nice tip of the hat to an act that contemporary audiences had dismissed as a mere novelty act responsible for nothing more than …
Not Forgotten – The Magnetic Fields – i
After the Herculean epic that was 69 Love Songs, The Magnetic Fields were due a rest. A mere five years later they offered up a splendid and economical follow up in the shape of i, a smaller album on a smaller theme, the theme being the ninth letter of the alphabet. Yep that’s right, all …
NOT FORGOTTEN – JELLYFISH – BELLYBUTTON
The early 90s were an unexpectedly fertile time for power-pop. The Posies blended harmonies and overloaded guitars with dreams of joining Big Star, Matthew Sweet proved it was possible to be a power-pop solo artist, Del Amitri were a little more rock, but were more than welcome to sit at the table, Crowded House were …
NOT FORGOTTEN – WARREN ZEVON – WARREN ZEVON
There are some albums where you can actually hear the substances that went into their creation. This album is much like Hotel California and Rumours and pretty much every LA rock album recorded in the late 70s, in that they all sound big, flashy and possibly suffered a little from having too much money thrown …
NOT FORGOTTEN – NEIL YOUNG – TIME FADES AWAY
As this alphabetic odyssey of overlooked albums draws to an end I look back on the last few weeks and have to admit I’ve surprised myself about some of the albums that I’ve selected to celebrate (Billy Joel’s Cold Spring Harbor?) and even discovered a gem that I myself had previously overlooked (the great Songs …