Not Forgotten: The Moody Blues – In Search of the Lost Chord
The Moody Blues were in an interesting place when their third album, In Search of the Lost Chord, was released in August 1968. With their roots in the mid-60s Brum-Beat movement, their second single, a cover of “Go Now” hit the top of the singles chart, prompting the release of a tie in album. Follow …
Not Forgotten: The Sensational Alex Harvey Band – Next
After years of trying to find the right musical vehicle to transport him on to the charts, by 1973 Alex Harvey had apparently found the backing band he had been searching his entire adult life for. Teaming up with rockers Tear Gas to form the appropriately named Sensational Alex Harvey Band, their debut album Framed …
Not Forgotten: Electric Light Orchestra – On The Third Day
Prior to On the Third Day, The Electric Light Orchestra looked to be in jeopardy. With co-leader Roy Wood having departed part-way through sessions for the band’s second album, and both of their albums to date being weighed down by some of the stodgiest of stodgy prog rock, things were not exactly looking promising. There …
Reissue: Semisonic – Feeling Strangely Fine
Whatever happened to Semisonic? One minute some were considering them to be the next big thing in American rock music, and the next, well they just disappeared. So what happened? In the mid 90s, when there was a surplus of post-grunge cash sloshing around record companies, Minneapolis power pop act Semisonic somehow found themselves signed …
Not Forgotten: R.E.M. – Up
There was something about R.E.M.’s Up that rang alarm bells with me from the moment I heard that it was going to be released. Like many of their fans in the UK, I had got into R.E.M. during the early 90s, at the point where they were at the height of their commercial powers, and …
Classic Album: The Who – Quadrophenia
After his failure to realise his full ambition ambition with Lifehouse, Pete Townshend must have been doubly determined to get his next concept album made and for it to be an all round improvement on The Who’s conceptual high-water mark, Tommy. It needed to have a complex narrative, have all the trademarks of a landmark …
Not Forgotten: Jethro Tull – This Was
For those that are familiar with the more complex and progressive output of Jethro Tull from the 70s, a first listen of their 1968 debut album, This Was, can come as quite a shock. Although it has always been obvious that Tull were influenced, at least in in some part by the blues, the fact …
Not Forgotten: Traveling Wilburys – Traveling Wilburys, Vol.1
In concept The Traveling Wilburys were superb. Bob Dylan was in the process of recovering from a decade long slump, George Harrison was back in the public eye after far too long away, while Roy Orbison was back in the public eye after an even longer absence, and while his band mates were going through …
Not Forgotten: The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow
From its brightly coloured, die-cut artwork, there’s something about Chutes Too Narrow that has always struck me as cartoon-like. I don’t mean that in a bad way, after all cartoons aren’t as tightly-bound by logical linear narratives as other forms of story telling, which in turn means that the suspension of belief is almost a …
Box Set Review: Mott the Hoople – Mental Train (The Island Years 1969-71)
Before “All The Young Dudes”, before Top of the Pops appearances, before David Bowie, Mott The Hoople were a brilliant live act that arguably struggled to transfer the tremendous energy that they generated on stage to the studio. It’s not that they didn’t try, indeed, they recorded four solid albums that were met with mass …