Cockney Rebel - Human Menagerie
Debut of fairly strange, heavily Bowie-indebted art-glam outfit. Leader Steve Harley would hit later on with "Psychomodo" and "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)", but on this one it was the dramatic, orchestral "Sebastian" that was the single.
Kevin Coyne - Marjory Razorblade
The late Kevin Coyne's voice takes a while to get used to - he sounds like Van Morrison mated with a goat that's got its leg caught in a barbed wire fence - but once you accept it there's a great deal to appreciate here. "Lovesick Fool" is a straight R&B rave-up, and everything else is varying degrees of oddball caught between sensitive folk and driving rock & roll. The kind of artist you wish was more popular, but you know exactly why he isn't.
John Prine - Sweet Revenge
Prine was getting groomed for some kind of new-Dylan folkie stardom until the commercial fuck-you of this third album, which went more towards country than he'd ever done before. "Dear Abby" harkens back to the sly joke-songs of his debut's "Sam Spade", but elsewhere it's lyrically bleak and bitterly wiseass. That hungover pose on the cover seems absolutely appropriate for the music. This and
Bruised Orange are my two fave Prine albums.
The Band - Moondog Matinee
In its truncated first pressing,
Moondog Matinee was easily dismissed as a lightweight oldies stopgap - a warning sign that The Band had reached creative stagnation. However, the (remastered) reissue adds a handful of extra tracks that were originally recorded for the album but were cut for god-only-knows-what-reason, and the truth has finally been bared.
Moondog Matinee is an amazing covers album, with The Band matching or improving on the original versions of each track. It's wonderful to hear the usually dour band in such a rollicking mood. They rock, they boogie, they cry in their beer, and they bring their unmatched emotional depth to an absolutely pristine collection of songs. Quite possibly one of the most underrated albums in rock history.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Next
Stunning, and not a little bit depraved. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band's second album,
Next, is a 7 song masterpiece of attitude, swaggering from the unhinged, chaotic blues of "Swampsnake" into the singalong scuzz of "Gang Bang" and imploding into the stoner drone of "Faith Healer" - and that's just side one. The flip side features the AC/DC-on-crank of "Giddy Up a Ding Dong", the truly weird "Vambo Marble Eye", and the three part 50's-ballad-to-punk-bamalama epic "Last of the Teenage Idols". And sitting amongst all this madness is an empathetic, unlikely version of Jacques Brel's cabaret classic "Next". And it all sounds as daisy fresh as it did thirty years ago.
The Sweet - The Sweet
North American debut that compiled great Chinn/Chapman singles with some band originals. "Blockbuster", "Little Willy", "Wig Wam Bam", and "Hellraiser" are here, but so are "Spotlight" and "New York Connection" for the deep cut masochists.
Slade - Sladest
The first Slade greatest hits comp, which is to say the ONLY Slade greatest hits comp. "Cum Feel the Noize" and "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" are here, in case you only know the songs from those Quiet Riot abominations.
