Not Forgotten
Not Forgotten: Eels – Electro-Shock Blues
Electro-Shock Blues might very well be one of the bravest albums ever released. Although Mark Oliver Everett (a.k.a E) had released a couple of solo albums prior to Eels’ debut, 1996’s Beautiful Freak had the tastemakers throwing about wildly optimistic missives about Eels being the great hope for the future of American rock music. After …
Not Forgotten: Bruce Springsteen – The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle
Even after four and a half decades, there’s still something oddly lovable about The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. I guess it’s the fact that it really tries to be something we all want it to be. Ultimately though, like anything that tries too hard, it fails to reach the goals it …
Not Forgotten: Mansun – Six
Twenty years later and the shock of hearing Six for the first time still stays with me. I’d already heard the single “Legacy”, which was one of the best things I’d heard in years, and I’d also stumbled across “Television” on a front-of-music-magazine CD and that was a bit weird. Regardless of this, and as …
Not Forgotten: XTC – Mummer
1982s English Settlement had achieved a lot for XTC. Their first top ten album was also home to their first top ten single, and they seemed poised to be one of the key acts for the rest of the 80s. Then, with the worst possible timing, Andy Partridge’s long latent fear of live performance came …
Not Forgotten: Neil Young – Tonight’s the Night
The opening title track starts with the saddest piano notes you’ve ever heard, droplets of sorrow falling onto a lake of melancholy, and you quickly start to realise that this isn’t the same Neil Young that sent endless numbers of music fans to sleep with the bland Harvest, this is a Neil Young dealing with …
Not Forgotten: Warren Zevon – The Wind
The Wind is a difficult album to review, as the fact that Warren Zevon passed away barely a couple of weeks after it’s release casts a long shadow over it. It is an album which will forever be linked to his death and as such, it’s difficult to assess it on its own merits. Indeed, …
Not Forgotten: They Might Be Giants – Severe Tire Damage
It’s probably fair to say that there are mixed opinions when it comes to Severe Tire Damage. An album of largely live performances, of the two studio tracks, one is one of They Might Be Giants’ undisputable classics, “Dr Worm”, the other is a short and sweet instrumental acting as a bridge between “Dr Worm” …
Not Forgotten: The Supernaturals – A Tune a Day
Released in 1998, The Supernaturals’ A Tune a Day followed the same trajectory as a large number of sophomore Britpop efforts did, in that it failed to match the commercial impact of the act’s debut, leaving their record label wondering if they had a future with them. What made it stand out from the pack …
Not Forgotten: Billy Joel – An Innocent Man
Billy Joel is a musician who has always been capable of greatness. The Stranger is a brilliant slice of singer songwriter greatness, and Cold Spring Harbor is a genuinely pretty album that remains ripe for rediscovery. He could even knock out a novelty hit like “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” with insolent ease. …
Not Forgotten: Pugwash – Play This Intimately (As if Among Friends)
Sometimes it’s just nice to discover an act that you weren’t expecting. I first encountered the name of Pugwash when I stumbled across footage of Pugwash main man Thomas Walsh fronting Matt Berry and his backing band to deliver a storming version of Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die”, but it took my longer than …