Not Forgotten
Not Forgotten: Alice Cooper – Welcome to My Nightmare
Splitting from the Alice Cooper band when he did was a gamble for Vincent Furnier, but in retrospect, and probably at the time, the Detroit five piece had achieved all they could by 1974’s Muscle of Love, and the band had started on the downswing. Co-opting the name of the band for his solo career, Furnier solidified …
Not Forgotten: The Magnetic Fields – Realism
The level of self-imposed pressure that Stephin Merritt must have put on himself following the release of The Magnetic Fields’ four hour masterpiece, 1999’s 69 Love Songs, must have been immense. He smartly sidestepped the issue with the next album, 2004’s i, with its beautifully simple concept and alphabetical sequencing, however, where to go after that? I …
Not Forgotten: Brainchild – Healing of the Lunatic Owl
Purchased, simply because I was flicking through the racks at Record Collector, took one look at the cover and declared that, regardless of the music it contained, I simply had to own an album called The Healing of the Lunatic Owl, Brainchild’s sole long player to date delivers. Then again when you have the combination of a …
Not Forgotten: Grand Funk – Grand Funk
With a fuzz bass sound to die for high on their list of priorities, and critical adulation low, Grand Funk (Railroad) blazed a trail across America from the late 60s and way into the mid 70s, playing their crowd pleasers to packed out venues regardless of what the critics of the era had to say. Rising to …
Not Forgotten: Neil Young – Live Rust
One of the things that strikes you when you look at Neil Young’s extensive discography is just how many live albums he has put out over the years. No matter how much his muse has waxed and waned over the last thirty years, Young has always remained a brilliant live performer and his live albums …
Book Review: The Ballad of Jethro Tull
Despite being one of the biggest acts of the 70s, Jethro Tull are not a band that have ever enjoyed career reassessment and rehabilitation by subsequent generations. Sure, they have enjoyed steady sales to this day, and there has even been a string of hefty box set reissues which have seen their classic albums remastered …
Classic Compilation: Clifford T Ward – Gaye and Other Stories
The aging process is a strange thing and effects us all in different ways. Some of us barely notice it, there are those that do all they can to hold back the ravages of time, and there are those that accept it with a wry smile and open arms. There was a time when the …
Not Forgotten: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Willie and The Poor Boys
For years I unfairly dismissed Willie and the Poor Boys as one of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s weakest albums. I can’t explain why this was the case, as it came smack bang in the middle of the band’s red-hot streak through 1969 to 1971. Perhaps it was the slightly rootsier rocking which I reacted against, as if CCR decided …
Not Forgotten: Sparks – Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins
Sparks were in a weird position in the mid 90s. Once one of the most subversively inspirational acts, by the time Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins was released, The Mael Brothers has been overtaken both commercially and artistically by some of the very acts that they had inspired, most obviously Pet Shop Boys. From it’s sphincter tighteningly bad …
Not Forgotten: Supertramp – Crime of the Century
Few fans of the band wouldn’t argue that Crime of the Century is by far and away Supertramp’s best album.