Your last listen

[Fretless]

Japan 'Tin Drum' (1981)



Sounding just mega with a nicely-preserved secondhand LP from the dark ages.

[CN211276]

Aerosmith - Aerosmith
Blackberry Smoke - You hear Georgia

[CycleCoach]

Fleetwood Mac 'Tusk' (1979)



When I started buying vinyl again there was one LP that I immediately knew had to be top of the list. The Mac's sprawlingly-expensive, coke-fuelled, anti-commercial artistic triumph that is the double-album 'Tusk'.
The three songwriters all get to explore without constraint: Stevie Nicks' epic dreamworks, Christine McVie's heartfelt ballads and Lindsay Buckingham's wacky weirdness. All mixed through each other in a breathless trip held together by the Himalayan foundations of the Fleetwood/McVie rhythm section.

Essential? Vital!

[CN211276]

Iron Maiden - The X Factor
Judas Priest - Turbo
Accapt - Balls to the wall

[Fretless]

Guilty pleasure time:

Christopher Cross 'Christopher Cross' (1979)



It's a warm and sunny Sunday morning, summer is here, so relaxing sounds are on the menu.

This is a 'love it or hate it' record that is syrupy-smooth on the surface but intricate and carefully-crafted underneath. It came in with a packet of cheapies that I bought via Discogs and brings back a specific set of memories.

End 70's / begin 80's (my late teens), my father was based in Hong Kong for work so that meant us kids travelling back and forth during school holidays. There was a predominance of US and Aussie music on the radio there with 'Sailing' by Christopher Cross being a big hit and I went out and got the LP. Getting it back to the UK in one piece was a worry, but it survived the trip. My mates at school were initially horrified by this Soft Rock monster, Punk was all the rage then. But some of them later went out and got copies themselves.

"I've got to ride, ride like the wind
to be free again ..."

Nostalgia trip.

[CN211276]

Iron Maiden - Virtual xi

[SteveTheShadow]

On the 1968 original vinyl:

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[SteveTheShadow]

More groovy double vinyl:

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[CN211276]

The Rolling Stones - Grrrr

[Fretless]

Simple Minds 'Real to Real Cacophony' (1979)



To everyone's surprise (well mine, anyway) Simple Minds second LP was a massive leap from the Roxy-Music-meets-Punk of their debut 'Life in a Day'. They followed Eno as an inspiration and made a record of quirky, spiky experimentation that still bewilders and entertains.

Later they would churn out hit singles and become huge - but no danger of that happening here.