Most exciting album release of 2015?

Evening all,

I bought two records this week and as you can guess - one of them I have been waiting for, for about 3 years now.

Its by a man named John Grant and its his third studio album as a solo artist entitled 'Grey Tickles and Black Pressure'.

It's rather delicious and I'm having great fun listening to it - I did do an unboxing video which I shall post you youtube in the near future but a review video will be forthcoming as well. Let me digest the album fully first. So what style is it - haunting baritone vocals over synth pop (in places) tracks. Plenty of anger and rage mixed with beautiful melodies and unexpected harmonies. Everyone should hear this man sing. I was lucky to see him just over a year ago in a relatively small venue and he was just mesmerising.




The only other album bought this week was a 1980 release by Gary Numan called 'Telekon' for £1. Only a quid for a lovely slab of 80's synth tastic hits!! I was equally as happy that the original poster and fan club leaflet were in the sleeve, not bad at all for the measly price that I paid. More to follow on this as it needs a good clean.

A (busy) week in the life....

Good evening.

A lot happening in the world of music for me this week so where to start...... ah yes VINYL!

I bought three disks this week, all completely different.

1. Manic Street Preachers, Cooking - cleaning - flower arranging. This is a white label promo released in 2010 and limited to 300 pressings - finding these is like finding hens teeth. I found mine from a work colleague who sold it to me for £20.... bargain. The LP itself is a double full of remixes from the Journal for plague lovers album - of which I'm quite fond. Only had the chance to listen to the first disk so far but I'm happy with my purchase. Oh and its signed by the band as well - bonus!
2. David Bowie, Space Oddity (40th anniversary picture disk reissue). A number of 40th anniversary disks have been issued to mark the releases of some of Bowies seminal singles - this being the most recent. Space Oddity itself was released in 1969 b
   ut re issued in 1975 where it became his first number 1, so this is an anniversary reissue of a reissue.... I have most of the disks previous to this so I had to also get this. It is a good looking disk to be honest (see picture). I will never play this disk as I have both tracks that are issued but instead I am collecting the disks (like 5000 others!) as they are lovely items. £9.99 from my local independent retailer - £1 more than amazon but I'd rather keep them in business.
3. Ennio Morricone, A fistful of dollars/for a few dollars more soundtrack. Not an original but a 1970 pressing with the highlights of each film on each side. I love Morricone's compositions and have played this through several times already letting the atmospheric scene setting take me in. The final scene of For a Few Dollars More is one of my favourite scenes of all time and the music is a huge part of that. If you've never seen the film, the last 10 minutes make the whole thing worth it. Amazing value for 99p!!!

Playing on the turntable this week has been lots of Manic Street Preachers, Genesis and a Shorty Rogers which I picked up a few weeks ago. I'm very excited to be going to see Snarky Puppy in concert in Bristol tomorrow - should be a great gig.

Stay classy....

Bowie depression...

It's official, I am depressed. The latest reissue from Bowie has finally landed and I can't really justify forking out £185 for it. I've had to content myself with listening to all of my Bowie albums on an almost constant cycle over the past 3 days.

I think therefor it's only right that I provide my top 5 Bowie albums...

5 - 'The Next Day'

When I first heard this a few years ago I wasn't convinced - now I am. There's a real energy and anger breaking through on some of these tracks. 'Where are we now' is a beautiful reflective song and the title track and vale times day are full of vitriol. I love it!

4 - 'Aladdin Sane'

Not one of Bowies easiest albums to listen to but I'm a fan none the less. The title tracks bizarre piano solo is tweaking at the insane but the album is a quality offering overall. The 4 singles from the album are great with my favourite being drive in Saturday.

3 - 'Hunky Dory'

A huge selection of great songs again with the obvious highlight being 'life on Mars' - probably by favourite Bowie song bar none. The album is less coherent than his next offering (which tops my list) and has a few low points. Lots of highs though - this one gets spun a lot...

2 - 'Lets Dance'

Again there are more than enough hit singles on this album - side A contains some crackers in the form of 'modern love, let's dance and china girl... Is there a better A side out there? The production is great and Nile Rogers brings a lot to the table with this album.

1 - 'The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the spiders from Mars'

Is there a bad track on this whole album? I think not. From the first track to the last the quality is undeniable, I love every single minute of this album. Highlights for me include the emotion of 5 years, the proggy guitar solo in moonage daydream not forgetting the big hits on the album.

There an honourable mention here for '1966' a collection of Bowies pre RCA songs that was re-pressed for record store day last year. This list is by no means exhaustive and all of my Bowie LPs get regular spin time.

Almost 2 years since my last confession....

Good evening,

It is no coincidence that 2 years have passed since my last blog entry and my youngest daughter will be turning two years old in 3 days time. Those children do take up a lot of time and space don't they.

Rest assured my collection has grown constantly and I have added some absolute gems to my collection.

I have also started a youtube channel with the aim of uploading a brief (5-10 minutes) album review of some of my favourite albums as well as some that are a little harder to find. I have recorded three of these reviews and they can be found on my channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDGO7t_V5kuGnyQ7hmf_pJg

recent additions (this week) to my collections are:

1. Oscar Peterson - West Side Story. Lovely old verve pressing - a bit tatty but plays great. Classic Peterson trio playing very good arrangements of the Bernstein tunes.
2. Shorty Rogers - Plays Richard Rogers. East coast big band jazz, original 1957 pressing sounds great. Big sound and obvious harmonies but a great listen none the less - the cover is brilliant as well.
3. Frank Sinatra - Sings Cole Porter. Capitol pressing with flip back sleeves, not yet listened to but the track listing is great and the vinyl looks clean and tidy.
4. Stan Getz - Captain Marvel. This has been played - post drug addiction Getz with a tidy trio, crazy solos and interesting compositions. Really enjoyed this but will have to give it another listen carefully soon.
5. Ben Webster - Saturday Night at the Montmartre. The opposite of the Stan Getz, relaxed, mellow, lyrical phrasing (typical Webster) on a label called 'Black Lion' which I've never heard of. Excellent breakfast record.
6. Chet Baker - The touch of your lips. Later Chet Baker with a trio, as you'd expect a high quality delivery but Chet sounds tired in the vocal numbers
7. Ella Fitzgerald - Rogers and Hart songbook. Not yet played. This is a cheap 1 disk mfp pressing (not an original verve) but none the less contains tracks I'm yet to own.
8. Herb Albert - Under a Spanish moon. Unplayed, in mint condition with some interesting personnel - will spin soon and report back

In total I paid £15 for all of the above - very pleased with myself and enough listening to keep myself occupied for a good long while.

Other recent additions include a green copy of 'super ape' by Lee Scratch Perry which I'm rather fond of and will be getting a review video at some point.

Thanks for reading and I promise to blog a little more regularly from here on.....