Belle And Sebastian [2008] The BBC Sessions

[01] The State I Am In
[02] Like Dylan In The Movies
[03] Judy And The Dream Of Horses
[04] The Stars Of Track And Field
[05] I Could Be Dreaming
[06] Seymour Stein
[07] Lazy Jane
[08] Sleep The Clock Around
[09] Slow Graffiti
[10] Wrong Love
[11] Shoot The Sexual Athlete
[12] The Magic Of A Kind Word
[13] Nothing In The Silence
[14] (My Girl's Got) Miraculous Technique



amg: Belle and Sebastian cut their first BBC session for the Mark Radcliffe Show in July of 1996 just a few months before their seminal If You're Feeling Sinister album was released. The four songs they recorded were live and intimate versions of three of the record's best tracks: "Like Dylan in the Movies," "Judy and the Dream of Horses," and "Stars of Track and Field." Hearing these songs (as well as "The State I Am In," from Tigermilk) in such a raw and unadorned state (complete with vocal wavers and assorted bum notes) isn't a revelation now, though one can imagine people tuned in to their radios that night were thrown for a loop, but it is pretty great. Of course, the songs are amazing, but just as impressively, Stuart Murdoch's vocals are heartbreakingly sincere and soulful, and the band definitively belie their image as shamblers by sounding tight and together. If they had never written or recorded more than just these four songs, they still would be legendary, but luckily they didn't quit while they were ahead and kept recording and releasing brilliant pop music. They also continued making trips to the BBC studios and The BBC Sessions collects songs recorded there between 1996 and 2001. The track list is made up of mostly album tracks and singles (highlights being an insistent "Sleep the Clock Around," a folky take on "Wrong Love," and a truly beautiful "Slow Graffiti") but the real treat for fans is the inclusion of the group's 2001 session for John Peel, for which they trotted out four songs that hadn't been released previously (or since) on record. Any one of them could have comfortably fit on a single, EP, or album and a couple even qualify as lost treasures: "The Magic of a Kind Word" pits Isobel Campbell's breathy vocals in the quiet verses against rich group harmonies in the insanely sunny choruses, and ends up as one of the band's brightest and lightest tunes that just could have been a hit single, "(My Girl's Got) Miraculous Technique" has a wonderfully relaxed groove built on samples and fleshed out with some wonky synth squiggles and lovely harmony vocals by Campbell and Stuart. It was Campbell's last recording made with the band and she really shines. That session alone is worth the price of the disc, and when you add the 1996 session, it becomes damn near essential for Belle and Sebastian fans. [A deluxe edition of the release includes a bonus disc containing a raucous live show from 2001 recorded in Belfast. The fans were rowdy and spend much of the set whooping and hollering, which makes the sound less than pristine, but also gives the listener at home a sense of just how rapturously the band's fans receive their heroes. The band by this point has become a rock & roll machine, able to turn in a convincing version of Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town" but also dial it way down for the ballads. An unexpected highlight of the show features a guy named Barry being fished out of the crowd to front a loose but surprisingly together take on the Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for the Man." Most people would be OK to stick with the regular version of The BBC Sessions, but the bonus disc is worth hearing at least once for true fanatics.]
(amg 8/10)

Bon Iver [2008] For Emma, Forever Ago

[01] Flume
[02] Lump Sum
[03] Skinny Love
[04] The Wolves (Act I And II)
[05] Blindsided
[06] Creature Fear
[07] Team
[08] For Emma
[09] Re: Stacks
[10] Flume (Acoustic Version)



amg: Bon Iver is the work of Justin Vernon. He isolated himself in a remote cabin in Wisconsin for almost four months, writing and recording the songs on For Emma, Forever Ago, his haunting debut album. A few parts (horns, drums, and backing vocals) were added in a North Carolina studio, but for the majority of the time it's just Vernon, his utterly disarming voice, and his enchanting songs. The voice is the first thing you notice. Vernon's falsetto soars like a hawk and when he adds harmonies and massed backing vocals, it can truly be breathtaking. "The Wolves (Acts I & II)" truly shows what Vernon can do as he croons, swoops, and cajoles his way through an erratic and enchanting melody like Marvin Gaye after a couple trips to the backyard still. "Skinny Love" shows more of his range as he climbs down from the heights of falsetto and shouts out the angry and heartachey words quite convincingly. Framing his voice are suitably subdued arrangements built around acoustic guitars and filled out with subtle electric guitars, the occasional light drums, and slide guitar. Vernon has a steady grasp of dynamics too; the ebb and flow of "Creature Fear" is powerfully dramatic and when the chorus hits it's hard not to be swept away by the flood of tattered emotion. Almost every song has a moment where the emotion peaks and hearts begin to weaken and bend: the beauty of that voice is what pulls you through every time. For Emma captures the sound of broken and quiet isolation, wraps it in a beautiful package, and delivers it to your door with a beating, bruised heart. It's quite an achievement for a debut and the promise of greatness in the future is high. Oh, and because you have to mention it, Iron & Wine. Also, Little Wings. Most of all, though, Bon Iver.
(amg 8/10)

Bluetones [2006] Bluetones

[01] Surrendered
[02] Baby, Back Up
[03] Hope And Jump
[04] Head On A Spike
[05] The King Of Outer Space
[06] Thank You, Not Today
[07] My Neighbour's House
[08] Fade In / Fade Out
[09] The Last Song But One
[10] Wasn't I Right About You



amg: At the height of Brit-pop in 1996, few would have pegged the Bluetones as a band that would stick around for a decade, but persevere they have, weathering a fall from fashion around the time of their second album Return to the Last Chance Saloon, and then soldiering on through, building a loyal audience without ever really changing or registering on a pop culture radar. Just because they were out of the spotlight doesn't mean they were making bad music; it just meant that they had become a working band, slowly and steadily working on their craft through albums and tours. That steady work pays off on their fifth album, simply titled The Bluetones. Not that this 2006 record is different from what they've done before — this is very close in spirit and sound to their 1996 debut, Expecting to Fly — but they've stripped away the neo-Madchester flourishes of their early work and the artier dalliances of their turn-of-the-century records, leaving behind a good, straight-ahead guitar pop band. As always, the Bluetones' biggest asset is their sheer likeability — they're a group of normal guys, something they celebrate on the funny, charming "Baby, Back Up" where they admonish a new girlfriend with "I thought you were cool, but you are just weird." And that's the Bluetones' appeal in a nutshell: they are neither weird nor cool, they are what they are — a tuneful, unpretentious guitar pop band, and this album showcases them at their best. There are plenty of hooks and harmonies, jangly guitars and catchy choruses, all capturing the Bluetones' modest gifts at their very best. Even if it's not necessarily a record that's compelling, it's hard not to smile as it plays, and it's hard not to admire the fact that the Bluetones have stuck through the ups and downs in their career to become a thoroughly reliable, completely likeable guitar pop band — particularly because there are far fewer of those in 2006 than there were in 1996.
(amg 8/10)

Billy Joel [2005] Piano Man - The Very Best Of Billy Joel

[01] Tell Her About It
[02] Uptown Girl
[03] Don't Ask Me Why
[04] Piano Man
[05] New York State Of Mind
[06] The River Of Dreams
[07] It's Still Rock And Roll To me
[08] We Didn't Start The Fire
[09] Goodnight Saigon
[10] My Life
[11] She's Always A Woman
[12] She's Got A Way
[13] Scandinavian Skies
[14] An Innocent Man
[15] Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
[16] Only The Good Die Young
[17] All About Soul
[18] Honesty
[19] Just The Way You Are



amg: This international collection of highlights from the East Coast native's prolific career takes its choicest bits from Columbia's three hugely successful Greatest Hits compilations. Piano Man: The Very Best of Billy Joel may just skim the surface of Joel's large reservoir of material, but it's hard to argue with the end results. All of the radio hits, minus some of the more obscure ones like "Allentown," "Pressure," and "Matter of Trust" are dutifully represented. From "River of Dreams" and "We Didn't Start the Fire" to "Piano Man" and "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant," this skillfully paced compilation, which also includes a ten-track DVD, is about as good a single-disc Billy Joel primer as one is likely to find.
(amg 8/10)

Buzzcocks [2003] Buzzcocks

[01] Jerk
[02] Keep On
[03] Wake Up Call
[04] Friends
[05] Driving You Insane
[06] Morning After
[07] Sick City Sometimes
[08] Stars
[09] Certain Move
[10] Lester Sands
[11] Up for the Crack
[12] Useless



amg: On-stage, the reunited Buzzcocks have been a consistently superb live act since Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle began making the rounds again in 1989, but the second edition of the band hasn't had quite the same degree of success in the studio. While Trade Test Transmission and All Set certainly had their moments, neither was up the standards of the group's 1977-1980 glory days, and 1999's Modern was by any standards a severe disappointment. So it's encouraging to report that Buzzcocks, the band's fourth studio set since their reunion, is the strongest album this band has created since returning to active duty. If Shelley and Diggle have moved past teenage angst into the divisive confusion and frequent bitterness of adult life in their lyrics (as well they should have), their songwriting has also developed a hard-edged clarity and flinty intelligence that suits they new material well; and longtime fans will doubtless prefer the two Pete Shelley/Howard DeVoto collaborations here over the brave but muddled electronic experiments of their Buzzkunst album. Musically, this is tough, propulsive music which rocks with a direct and spirited pulse that lacks a dash of the jangle of their pioneering pop-punk singles but boasts a muscular gravity which suits the songs very well indeed. And the production by bassist Tony Barber serves the material well, giving the band a sleek but thick sound which suits both the hooky melodies and the chunky roar of the guitars. If Buzzcocks doesn't reinvent this band, it does give their approach a bit of an overhaul, and the results make for an album which holds onto their strengths while lending a more mature perspective to their work; hard to imagine Green Day or Rancid having anything this interesting up their sleeve 27 years down the line from their first recording.
(amg 8/10)

Boz Scaggs [2001] Dig

[01] Payday
[02] Sarah
[03] Miss Riddle
[04] I Just Go
[05] Get On The Natch
[06] Desire
[07] Call That Love
[08] King Of El Paso
[09] You're Not
[10] Vanishing Point
[11] Thanks To You



amg: Boz Scaggs returns to the arena in the thoroughly modern Dig, four years after his much-acclaimed return to traditional R&B on Come on Home. This takes no small bit of courage for an artist like Scaggs, who has reveled in obscurity for most of the '80s and '90s. Come on Home won the man all sorts of critical platitudes for making unfashionable roots music in a highly unlikely time. It showed, of course, in that the record sold barely respectably. Dig is, if anything, a hyper-modern take on R&B. Scaggs and co-producers David Paich (who co-wrote virtually all the material here) and guitarist Danny Kortchmar have embraced modern production, recording, and mixing techniques in the same way Scaggs did on Silk Degrees (whose part two this is definitely not). The result is simply a very fine adult contemporary take on rhythm & blues that showcases Scaggs in the finest voice he's given us in decades, a solid batch of tunes, and very few irritating elements. Scaggs' use of hip-hop methodologies in tracks like "Desire," with Michael Rodriguez's programming, is subtle enough to add atmosphere to an already beautiful song. The tune is a ballad so smooth and streetwise, so late-night in feel and sentiment, the timberline drum program just underlines the spooky guitars and Scaggs' sweet crooning; in fact, his voice here sounds better than it ever has. There are other modernisms that Scaggs employs here that would have been better left on the cutting room floor, such as his insistence on rapping on "Just Go," where he sounds like a Wal-Mart cross between Frank Zappa on "Dina Moe Hum" and Tom Waits from Bone Machine. But there are only a couple of moments like that; his blues roots manifest themselves well on "King of El Paso" and his embrace of Latin-tinged pop suits him well on "Call That Love." While it's a slick record in typical Scaggs fashion, it's a slim cast of characters who pull it all off — mainly Scaggs, Paich, and Kortchmar (who is as fine a guitarist as ever), with guests like Ray Parker, Jr., pedal steel god Steve Lukather, and jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove Jr. lending their hands in various spots. For a guy everybody said was in the hallmark of memory, Boz Scaggs is making remarkably refreshing and compelling music. Dig is mature enough to resonate well with his aging audience, and it's slick and polished enough to catch the ear of pop radio programmers. With precious few rough spots, Dig is a pop triumph by a sleight-of-sound master.
(amg 8/10)

Bob Geldof [2001] Sex, Age & Death

[01] One For Me
[02] 6,000,000$ Loser
[03] Pale White Girls
[04] The New Routine
[05] Mudslide
[06] Mind In Pocket
[07] My Birthday Suit
[08] Scream In Vain
[09] Inside Your Head
[10] 10:15



amg: There's no evidence here that political beatification has mellowed Bob Geldof. If anything, his message has grown more apocalyptic, even as his music broadens to a degree unprecedented in his own catalog. The title gives a pretty clear picture of what this is all about. Whether viciously dismembering some withered media icon on "One for Me" or desiccating a relationship addiction that borders on necrophilia in "Pale White Girls," Geldof maintains the highest pop standards of lyrical expression and musical setting. A punk energy, broken down at times to techno/tribal components or filtered through shimmering electronica, permeates each performance. The rhythm track to "Scream in Vain" deserves special mention, with its segues from a pumping house-style synth bass drum through various atmospheric moments and, for a moment, some Clash-like fist pumping. Geldof refers to other works — a Dylan paraphrase, a sampled fragment from "Get Off of My Cloud" — not to distract from any weaknesses in his vision, but to fit into its strengths. All this finesse serves a righteous, primal anger. Dramatic contrasts in dynamics, and a vocal that veers from beatnik poetry to a searing shout that somehow recalls both Prince and John Lennon, convey a bleak picture in "Mudslide," built on a metaphor of bugs being burned in an electric trap. This song, like everything else on this album, is about rage and resistance against those who succumb too easily to life's suffocations. Perhaps the essence of the album lies in the almost incoherent fury of "Inside Your Head," in which he throws subtlety against the wall and screams, "What the f**k's going on inside your head?" With its blunt scatology set against what sounds like a roomful of oblivious chowhounds in a café, Geldof goes eyeball to eyeball with his real enemy: all among us who nestle ourselves into the bosom of mendacity. Sex, Age & Death bashes at the door and demands attention; only fear keeps us from letting it in.
(amg 8/10)

Ben Harper [1999] Burn To Shine

[01] Alone
[02] The Woman In You
[03] Less
[04] Two Hands Of A Prayer
[05] Please Bleed
[06] Suzie Blue
[07] Steal My Kisses
[08] Burn To Shine
[09] Show Me A Little Shame
[10] Forgiven
[11] Beloved One
[12] In The Lord's Arms



amg: Burn to Shine presents proof positive that you can always distill the essence of rock & roll down to a solitary man alone with his guitar and conscience. It sounds inventive yet firmly rooted in the blues-rock singer/songwriter/guitarist tradition of Taj Mahal and of Neil Young and Cat Stevens at their most confessional. Harper's guitar with falsetto vocal in "The Woman in You" even suggests a Curtis Mayfield tune in the hands of Prince. "Steal My Kisses" is one of those uncluttered, radio-friendly rock shuffles that simply makes you bob your head and feel better. Even Harper's detours — like the wobbling New Orleans shuffle with the Real Time Jazz Band, "Suzie Blue," and charred Black Sabbath metal in "Less" — prove worth exploring. Other cameos include guitarists David Lindley and former Bob Marley sideman Tyrone Downey. Burn to Shine is a minor masterpiece that may prove to be not so minor.
(amg 8/10)

Boston [1997] Greatest Hits

[01] Tell Me
[02] Higher Power
[03] More Than A Feeling
[04] Peace Of Mind
[05] Don't Look Back
[06] Cool The Engines
[07] Livin' For You
[08] Feelin' Satisfied
[09] Party
[10] Foreplay - Long Time
[11] Amanda
[12] Rock & Roll Band
[13] Smokin'
[14] A Man I'll Never Be
[15] The Star Spangled Banner - 4th Of July Reprise
[16] Higher Power (Kalodner Edit)



amg: Since Tom Scholz is such a slow worker, there were only four Boston albums between the group's 1976 debut and this Greatest Hits collection in 1997. That may mean that there isn't much music to compile, as the reliance on their biggest-selling album, Boston, suggests, but that doesn't matter for most casual fans, since Greatest Hits gathers all of their best songs, from "More Than a Feeling" to "Amanda," on one compact disc. For the collector, the record isn't quite as appealing, even if it contains three new songs as bait. These three songs simply don't deliver the melodic punch or guitar crunch that distinguishes the group's best work. It's nice to hear original vocalist Brad Delp on "Higher Power," but "Tell Me" is slight, and an instrumental version of "The Star Spangled Banner" is nearly an insult. So, for the devoted, Greatest Hits is a mixed bag, but for less dedicated listeners, it may be all the Boston they need.
(8/10)

Ben Harper [1995] Fight For Your Mind

[01] Oppression
[02] Ground On Down
[03] Another Lonely Boy
[04] Please Me Like You Want To
[05] Glod to Me
[06] Burn One Down
[07] Excuse Me Mr.
[08] People Lead
[09] Fight For Your Mind
[10] Give A Man A Home
[11] By My Side
[12] Power Of The Gospel
[13] God Fearing Man
[14] One Road To Freedom



amg: Fight for Your Mind fully embraces Ben Harper's influences (Dylan, Marley, Havens, and Hendrix) into a complete sound while simultaneously broadening his thematic and musical palette. Oliver Charles' tactile drumming and Leon Mobley's percussion work give a sparkle to Harper's music that was absent on his debut. Songs like "Gold to Me" and "Excuse Me Mr." show Harper growing as a poet, approaching ideas via more subtle avenues. The single "Ground on Down" and epic jam "God Fearing Man" capture some of the explosive energy of his live performances. The latter makes allusions to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," and that's exactly what Harper does — allows his trademark Weissenborn guitar to scream out to his audience. The only misstep on this album is his sophomoric weed anthem "Burn One Down," but one might argue that a little tarnish adds character.
(amg 8/10)

Billy Squier [1995] 16 Strokes - Best Of

[01] The Stroke
[02] In The Dark
[03] My Kinda Lover
[04] Emotions In Motion
[05] Everybody Wants You
[06] She's A Runner
[07] Rock Me Tonight
[08] All Night Long
[09] Eye On You
[10] Love Is The Hero
[12] Don't Let Me Go
[13] She Goes Down
[14] Tied Up
[15] Facts Of Life
[16] (L. O. V. E.) Four Letter Word



amg: All of Billy Squier's best material is dished out on 16 Strokes, from the simplistic contagiousness of "The Stroke" to the Van Halen-like fervency of "Tied Up." His rock & roll flamboyancy, a mix of hard but not heavy guitar riffs wrapped around spirited just-for-fun three-minute outpourings, was best established through his singles and not the entirety of his albums. Squier's wild, sexually inundated feistiness is best represented here on a compilation, where the sleekness of "Everybody Wants You" is found in the same place as the naughty "She Goes Down." Both "In the Dark" and "My Kinda Lover" from 1981's Don't Say No pop up here, as does his smoothest of songs, "Emotions in Motion" from the album of the same name. His later songs from the early '90s don't include the catchy grandeur or congenial rock hollowness of his first three albums, but their appearance on 16 Strokes is the best place to hear them. Efforts like the bombastic "Don't Say You Love Me" or the transparent sincerity of "Facts of Life" still harbor Squier's greasy vocal approach, but work better here as the conclusion to a singles anthology than as the end of an album's worth of this song type. The keyboard-drenched "Rock Me Tonite" is another highlight here, as is the breakneck pace of "All Night Long," the two best outcrops from 1984's Signs of Life album. This collection may not be as indulgent as his two-disc best-of, but it's more than enough for anyone who's interested.
(amg 8/10)

Bush [1994] Sixteen Stone

[01] Everything Zen
[02] Swim
[03] Bomb
[04] Little Things
[05] Comedown
[06] Body
[07] Machinehead
[08] Testosterone
[09] Monkey
[10] Glycerine
[11] Alien
[12] X-Girlfriend



amg: Bush's grunge-by-the-numbers is certainly well-produced. Under the guidance of Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley — the kings of early-'80s British pop — Bush turn in an album that follows all the rules and sounds of American hard rock, specifically Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Their songwriting isn't terribly original, nor is it particularly catchy. What makes "Everything Zen" and "Little Things" memorable is the exact reproduction of all of Nirvana's trademarks, only with a more professional execution. In other words, all the guitars keep rhythm perfectly and Gavin Rossdale doesn't shred his throat when he sings, he projects from his diaphragm. As far as pop craftmanship goes, it's actually quite impressive.
(amg 8/10)

Bob Geldof [1993] The Happy Club

[01] Room 19
[02] Attitude Chicken
[03] The Soft Soil
[04] A Hole to Fill
[05] The Song Of The Emergent Nationalist
[06] My Hippy Angel
[07] The Happy Club
[08] Like Down On Me
[09] Too Late God
[10] Roads Of Germany (After BD)
[11] A Sex Thing
[12] The House At The Top Of The World



amg: Irish singer Bob Geldof's third solo set, The Happy Club, finds him again being produced by Rupert Hine, although he and Pete Briquette lend a hand. Geldof eschews the guest star-laden turns of his prior albums and settles with a set band line-up, with World Party's Karl Wallinger the only name guest. While not quite the triumph of his previous outing, The Happy Club is still an engaging release through and through. Drawing on his love for Motown, the album is an often upbeat, ebullient affair starting with the lead track "Room 19," complete with "sha la las, " hand claps, and comical lyrics about cryogenics. Other standouts include the gentle, lovely "The Soft Soil," the singalong slice of neo-psychedelic pop "My Hippy Angel," and the catchy title track. Thought-provoking lyrics wrapped in some great melodies, The Happy Club is mature, adult pop/rock that doesn't forget to have a good time.
(amg 8/10)

Blondie [1991] The Complete Picture - The Very Best Of Deborah Harry and Blondie

[01] Heart Of Glass
[02] I Want That Man
[03] Call Me
[04] Sunday Girl
[05] French Kissin' In The USA
[06] Denis
[07] Rapture
[08] Brite Side
[09] (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear
[10] Well, Did You Evah!
[11] The Tide Is High
[12] In Love With Love
[13] Hanging On The Telephone
[14] Island Of Lost Souls
[15] Picture This
[16] Dreaming
[17] Sweet And Low
[18] Union City Blue
[19] Atomic
[20] Rip Her To Shreds



amg: This import CD is one of the best Blondie and Debbie Harry compilations for original music, unless one is looking for remixes and rarities. The 20-track disc covers the years 1977-1990, and includes "Heart of Glass," "Call Me," "French Kissin' in the U.S.A.," "Rapture," "Atomic," "The Tide Is High," and others. Very solid song selection (and track order). First released in 1993, the current version has superior sound quality. Casual fans will most likely choose Best of Blondie [Chrysalis], as it only has the best of Blondie. But some of Debbie Harry's songs will please the casual fan, so Complete Picture may be a better alternative than the more expensive Platinum Collection for the adventurous shopper.
(amg 8/10)

Big Audio Dynamite [1991] The Globe

[01] Rush
[02] Can't Wait - Live
[03] I Don't Know
[04] The Globe
[05] Innocent Child
[06] Green Grass
[07] Kool-Aid
[08] In My Dreams
[09] When The Time Comes
[10] The Tea Party



amg: The Globe marked the beginning of the second chapter in Mick Jones' Big Audio Dynamite venture and their biggest commercial success in the U.S. With Jones the only member remaining onboard, The Globe is the sound of a reinvigorated BAD, with the engaging "Rush" becoming a surprise Top 40 hit. There are plenty more worthy tracks, including the buoyant "Can't Wait/Live," the title song (which also charted), and the poignant "Innocent Child," which makes good use of a sample from Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight." The songwriting is some of Jones' strongest in some time, and The Globe was possibly the strongest effort of Big Audio Dynamite (in any incarnation) and certainly their best work since their debut.
(amg 8/10)

Birthday Party [1989] Mutiny - The Bad Seed

[01] Sunny's Burning
[02] Wildworld
[03] Fears Of Gun
[04] Deep In The Woods
[05] Jennifers Veil
[06] Six Strings The Drew Blood
[07] Say A Spell
[08] Swampland
[09] Pleasure Avalanche
[10] Mutiny In Heaven



amg: Collecting the two EPs onto one disc, this release also includes two rough mixes from the Mutiny sessions as a bonus. "The Six Strings That Drew Blood," also later recorded by Cave's Bad Seeds, is a quick brawler like many a past Party classic, Cave hitting a strangled falsetto at points as the group rips along. "Pleasure Avalanche" works on the slow grind trip; Cave husks his vocals over a nicely creepy arrangement from the rest, calling for the titular situation in question with increasing desperation.
(amg 8/10)

Bread [1985] Anthology Of Bread

[01] Make It With You
[02] Dismal Day
[03] London Bridge
[04] Anyway You Want Me
[05] Look What You've Done
[06] It Don't Matter To Me
[07] The Last Time
[08] Let Your Love Go
[09] Truckin'
[10] If
[11] Baby I'm-A Want You
[12] Everything I Own
[13] Down On My Knees
[14] Aubrey
[15] Diary
[16] Sweet Surrender
[17] The Guitar Man
[18] Fancy Dancer
[19] She's The Only One
[20] Lost Without Your Love



amg: Originally released in the UK in 1977 as the Sound of Bread and as ^Anthology) in the United States, this is a solid collection for these soft rock giants of the early '70s. Contained within are all of their hits, plus some delectable gems unknown to those familiar with Bread only from the radio. This set begins with "Make It With You," which hit the number one spot in 1970, and ends with the group's last Top Ten hit, "Lost Without Your Love" from their reunion album of 1977. Other Top Ten hits include "If," "Baby I'm-a Want You," "Everything I Own," "It Don't Matter to Me," and "Guitar Man," which reached number 11. The popular songs have held up well, but perhaps the most interesting cuts here are the lesser-known ones, like "Dismal Day," "Down on My Knees," and "The Last Time." David Gates and company had quite a run, and this anthology shows why.
(amg 8/10)

Big Audio Dynamite [1985] This Is Big Audio Dynamite

[01] Medicine Show
[02] Sony
[03] E=MC2
[04] The Bottom Line
[05] A Party
[06] Sudden Impact!
[07] Stone Thames
[08] Bad



amg: Elbowed out of the Clash, Mick Jones responded forcefully with Big Audio Dynamite, a modernist audio-terrorist outfit whose 1985 debut, This Is Big Audio Dynamite, seemed all the more futuristic when compared to Joe Strummer’s reductionist retro rejiggering of the Clash on Cut the Crap. Strummer may have been intent on shedding every experimental element of the Clash’s prime, but Jones, in collaboration with longtime friend filmmaker Don Letts, picked up where Sandinista! left off, anchoring BAD in dance and rap, building the group’s debut on layers of samples and drum machines. As is often the case, what was once forward-looking seems inextricably tied to its time in retrospect and the clanking electro rhythms, Sergio Leone samples, chicken-scratch guitars, bleating synths, and six-minute songs of This Is Big Audio Dynamite evoke 1985 in a way few other records do. Nevertheless, BAD’s boldness remains impressive, even visionary, pointing toward the cut-n-paste masterpieces of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and since Jones did not abandon his innate gift for hooks — if anything, he found ways to create rhythmic hooks as well as melodic ones — it’s quite accessible for an album that is, at its core, avant-rock. [Legacy’s 2010 double-disc expansion of This Is Big Audio Dynamite remasters the original eight-track LP and adds a second 12-track CD. Befitting BAD’s futuristic dance bent, almost all of these are 12" remixes of the album’s singles — “Medicine Show,” “E=MC2,” and “The Bottom Line” — including no less than four previously unreleased mixes — and there’s also the outtake “Electric Vandal,” plus the B-sides “Albert Einstein Meets the Human Beatbox” and “This is Big Audio Dynamite,” with every last one of these 12 songs extending the modernist sampledelia of the album proper.]
(amg 8/10)

Big Country [1983] The Crossing

[01] In A Big Country
[02] Inwards
[03] Chance
[04] 1000 Stars
[05] The Storm
[06] Harvest Home
[07] Lost Patrol
[08] Close Action
[09] Fields Of Fire
[10] Porrohman



amg: With producer Steve Lillywhite at the helm, Scotland's Big Country managed to deliver earnest, socially conscious arena anthems in a similar vein to U2 and the Alarm. The twist was their trademark bagpipe sound, achieved through the use of E-Bow. The unique sound of "In a Big Country" garnered the band considerable attention and a Top 20 single in the U.S. The Crossing, however, is an album whose richness goes beyond the single. The more subdued "Chance" is more sparse and its personal lyrics are every bit as heartfelt as the more populist-inclined anthems like the wonderful "The Storm" or the thundering "Fields of Fire." The lyrics are straightforward and, despite the grand themes of many of the tracks, manage to steer clear of being overly pretentious. While this album earned the band a gold record, Big Country's sound and image (reinforced by the members tartan, checked shirts) resulted in them being tagged a novelty and they never duplicated their initial success in America.
(amg 8/10)

Birthday Party [1981] Prayers On Fire

[01] Zoo-Music Girl
[02] Cry
[03] Capers
[04] Nick The Stripper
[05] Ho-Ho
[06] Figure Of Fun
[07] King Ink
[08] A Dead Song
[09] Yard
[10] Dull Day
[11] Just You And Me
[12] Blundertown
[13] Kathy's Kisses



amg: It should come as no surprise that there is an album in Nick Cave's oeuvre called Prayers on Fire; a fascination with the dark, (self-)destructive side of religion is more than evident in his later work with the Bad Seeds. While there might not be any of the explicit Biblical imagery on Prayers on Fire that Cave would later ejaculate, the title of the album is apt, and its aptness is revealed almost immediately. Over the tribal thud of floor toms, shards of trebly guitar, the throb of an organ, and even a creepily out-of-place trumpet come the possessed, chant-like vocals — not an incantation to any god, but to "Zoo-Music Girl." It's the religion of depraved sexuality, bestial urges, and sadomasochism. "We spend our lives in a box full of dirt/I murder her dress till it hurts/I murder her dress and she loves it," howls Cave, echoing Leonard Cohen and finally concluding with the berserk plea, "Oh! God! Please let me die beneath her fists." Meanwhile, Cave sounds like he's actually being assaulted by the music, emitting horrific gasps and primitive grunts. And this is only the first track. On the next two tracks, language itself is violated and found inadequate. Words collapse upon themselves in "Cry," with Cave tossing out self-annihilating binaries like "space/no space," "fish/no fish," "clothes/no clothes," and "flesh/no flesh." On "Capers," penned by Genevieve McGuckin, semantics are made into sausage — words are chewed up and regurgitated as warped neologisms: "gloomloom," "clocklock," "paperparrent," "diehood." The lyrics for "Figure of Fun" aren't even printed in the booklet; instead, merely "obsessive, deadpan, moribund, seasick, etc." And perhaps that best sums up Prayers on Fire's graveyard poetry. The rest of the album is a subterranean labyrinth full of "sand and soot and dust and dirt," peopled by bizarre characters like Nick the Stripper and King Ink, and replete with images of murder, decay, blood, and Kafka-esque insects. Then, of course, there's Cave himself, the literate ghoul with an impressive vocal range who just stepped out of a B horror flick, trying to parry the intensity of the music like an Iggy Pop wasted on goth pills. But be careful not to overlook his subtle sense of humor and his awareness of the camp — there are also chickens to be counted, nuns inside his head, and Fats Domino on the radio. With Mick Harvey being the only future Bad Seed on hand (Anita Lane also contributed one set of lyrics), the music here foreshadows Cave's later work without quite resembling it (with the exception of his first album). The Birthday Party are closer to Joy Division (only more theatrical), the Pop Group (only spookier), or Pere Ubu (only more percussive). Though present on most of the tracks, the moody piano that would dominate much of Cave's solo work is never really prominent here. Instead it's the squiggles of Rowland Howard's guitar dodging the blows of the furious rhythm section that distinguishes the Birthday Party. Oppressive and unrelenting, Prayers on Fire is highly recommended for those aspiring to advanced states of dementia.
(amg 8/10)