Eric Clapton: Behind The Sun - 1985


1985 wasn't a great time for music, was it? Phil Collins seemed to be dominating everything and guess what? Yes, he produced this album, giving it that BIG, crashing eighties drum sound in places. 

While not as bad as some of the synthesiser-drenched offerings from his contemporaries at the time, there is still a feeling of "another Eric Clapton album and one that bowed to contemporary musical trends" about it, which was a problem all established artists suffered from by the mid-eighties and beyond. It differs in this respect from its blues rock/country rock predecessors. 

The successful single Forever Man was one of the album's best cuts, and the slightly Peter Gabriel-ish/world music-influenced See What Love Can Do was a fine single too. The slightly synthy but still punchy and soulful She's Waiting was a fine track too as was the classic Clapton blues of Same Old Blues (not the J.J. Cale song but a Clapton original) and Knock On Wood was covered acceptably. It All Depends and Tangled In Love are good ones too. It is a much better album than the next one up...

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The Ohio Players: Skin Tight - 1974

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Roxy Music: Roxy Music - 1972

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"Is this a recording session or a cocktail party?" - Dr. Simon Puxley   For many people, Roxy Music mean  the Radio Two stalwarts of  Jealous Guy, Love Is The Drug, Avalon, Dance Away  and  Oh Yeah! , performed by Bryan Ferry in a white tuxedo and played in lounge bars throughout the land.  For others, however, it is the strikingly innovative band that exploded on the scene with the single  Virginia Plain  in the late summer of 1972 that floats our boat.  They are a band of two distinct halves, like Fleetwood Mac (actually they had three) - the pre 1975 incarnation and the post hiatus one of 1979 to 1983.  I like both of them, as it happens, but it will always be the early years, those five great albums and the singles that do it for me.  In 1973, along with David Bowie and Mott The Hoople, there was nothing my fourteen year-old self liked better. I found a danceable solution to teenage revolution..... Did anyone really know what h...
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Jr. Walker & The All-Stars: Rainbow Funk - 1971

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  The soulful quality continues unabated, this time with more added funk, on another excellent offering.   It begins with an instrumental version of the hit single  Way Back Home  (the vocal version would appear on the next album). It just sounds great - the saxophone and the general vibe is just sublime. I am running out of superlatives in writing these reviews!  Up next is another stone cold Jr. Walker corker in the stonking sax-laden soul/pop of  Take Me Girl I'm Ready  - the first Jr. Walker single I ever bought. It is a wonderful tune. Classic Motown. However, it doesn't always make "best of" Motown lists and it should make every single one.  The group's cover of  Traffic 's   Feelin' Alright   is bluesy and funky, as you would expect. There really isn't much that they can't cope with. This was 1971 and it was the beginning of the era of funky "message" protest songs from artists like  Marvin Gaye ,  The Temptations ...
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Tom Waits: Small Change - 1976

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  This was the album which saw the voice deepen and get more deliberately (seemingly) croaky and brought out many writers' gargling with concrete/razor blades/broken glass quotes. It certainly gave Waits an unforgettable, once heard, never forgotten character.  Backed here by a jazz trio of saxophone, bass and drums, along with some string orchestration, Waits' piano and whiskey paeans to night time street low life images and characters are reaching their first peak.  Just listen to the marvellous strains of  Tom Traubert's Blues  (later covered convincingly by Rod Stewart). I love the song and its multifarious images - I never, ever tire of it. Waits apparently wrote it after a night on the whiskey - it certainly did the job. What a song. A candidate for his best ever.  "Good night to the street sweepers, the night watchmen, the flame-keepers, and goodnight Matilda too."  My goodness, Waits could pen some lyrics. The old jazzy vibe is still there too ...
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Fleetwood Mac: Then Play On - 1969

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  This album, from September 1969, the last to feature  Peter Green  and barely featuring  Jeremy Spencer  saw  Fleetwood Mac  shift direction away from searing, guitar-driven, gritty blues to a slightly more psychedelic, laid-back, hippy style.  The blues is still there in a lot of the guitar sound, but there is definitely far more of a hippy dreaminess to the group's sound now. It is the beginning of the more gentle rock sound that featured on the series of albums that would take the band up to their huge sea change in 1975.   The sound on the album is ok, but it is not quite as good as on the previous albums. It could probably due with losing a couple of tracks as it is a bit sprawling, but that is nit-picking, really. The cover also gives a clue as to the future direction, as it has gone very proggy.  Two  Danny Kirwan  tracks from the  English Rose  album from earlier in the year appear again -  One Sun...
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Miles Davis: Sketches Of Spain - 1960

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ELTON JOHN: Intro & Quick Album Links

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U2: Songs Of Innocence - 2014

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"We got some of the songs halfway up the hill, three-quarters of the way up the hill. A lot of times, we just couldn't get them up to the top of the hill" - Bono   Coming five years after their previous album ,  No Line On The Horizon , this album seriously ran the risk of being just "another U2 album". You almost got the impression that they felt they had to put something out to keep up their "best band in the world" reputation, but had sort of lost their mojo in creating it.  This album had a slight sense of trying too hard to come up something about it, but its is not without its good points, however.  The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)  is a big, muscular industrial chugger and nothing like The Ramones, of whom it is supposed to be a tribute to. It is quite dense with a few crashing guitar parts, but it is certainly no breakneck punker.  Every Breaking Wave  is an insistent, bassily beautiful slow burner, with a fine, tender, clear vocal from Bono. Th...
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BOB DYLAN: Intro & Quick Album Links

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My history with Bob Dylan begins  with only a vague knowledge of him in the 1960s. I was brought up largely on British chart pop, so Dylan sort of passed me by, unlike The Tremeloes or Manfred Mann.  I first became aware of him properly with the 1973 single  Knockin' On Heaven's Door  which I bought aged fourteen. Next up for me was  On A Night Like Thi s from  Planet Waves . Thus began an exploration into his back catalogue that found me seeking out the single releases of  Like A Rolling Stone  and  The Times They Are A-Changin' . I was hooked, line and sinker.   Lucky was I that Dylan's next release was  Blood On The Tracks . You can't ask for much better for my proper introduction into Dylan's albums.  Thereafter followed a wonderful journey into the great sixties albums, and  Desire ,  Street Legal  and  Slow Train Coming . Pretty soon I had everything he had released to date and subsequently bought...
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Phil Spector: Phil Spector's Greatest Hits

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An essential collection of early 60s rock 'n' roll Heaven here. No question about it.   The classics simply don’t stop.  Ronnie Spector ’s timeless voice on  Be My Baby   and  Baby I Love You   still sends shivers down my spine and always will. Then there is  Darlene Love ’s vocal on  He’s A Rebel  and  LaLa Brook s on  Da Doo Ron Ron  and  Then He Kissed Me .   The Righteous Brothers '  You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'  and  Unchained Melody .  The bottom line is that these are simply some of the best pure pop records you will ever hear. Is there a better intro than that on  Baby I Love You  - and when  Ronnie 's  "whoh-oh"  comes in, I am almost in tears every time. Not quite, but you know what I mean. Just wonderful. One of the best records ever made. Period.   There’s more -  Uptown ,  Not Too Young To Get Married ,  He’s Sure The Boy I Love , Do I Lo...
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