This was a charity shop find last week, an album I wasn't previously aware of. Lou Reed's final solo album before his 2013 death wasn't some biting satire on US politics, nor some reflection of New York low life, it was this album of ambient meditation music. Apparently, Reed needed some music to accompany his Tai-Chi and meditation, so composed it for himself. Friends asked for copies, and eventually he issued it. The sounds are pretty much as you'd expect, very relaxing, an

A recent charity shop visit unearthed the next trio, this one probably the most mundane, accessible (and cheapest) of the three. It's REM's 1988, sixth studio album, the one before they became world megastars (7 of their next 8 albums were no 1 in UK), and the earliest one I've heard. On first listening, I was unimpressed, and went in search of various "REM albums ranked" pages online, only to find that my reticence was shared by many other listeners, the album rarely featuri

Last of the recent Harborough Market haul (£20 for the last seven CDs reviewed, which I didn't think was too shabby!) is this 2005 Brian Eno release. We can go back to the older stuff on the shelves after this (except I did visit a charity shop yesterday...) This feels like a return to the 1970s for Eno, in the sense that it's a mixture of eleven songs / instrumentals, rather than much longer pieces which he's arguably become better known for, and it's a very easy listen, wit

The penultimate CD bought in Market Harborough last week is David Bowie's 1983 album with the help of Chic's Nile Rodgers on production. It's another step on my Bowie journey, so let's dance. Actually, let's not. It's not a pretty sight. I haven't heard this album before, but I'm familiar with the first three tracks, all of which were hit singles. Modern Love , is alive, exciting and frantic, and kicks off the album in style, followed by the co-write with Iggy Pop (and also o

We're still ploughing through the Harborough Market purchases, this one the second Pink Floyd CD in the pile. Released in 1977, as I was doing my A levels, and had yet to understand punk, I never got to know this album in a way I had its predecessors, and only caught snatches of it at sixth form parties (quickly to be removed by some girl wanting to dance to the latest disco pop hits). Since those girls seemed to want little to do with me, I wasn't sympathetic. Or perhaps the

This was part of the Harborough Market haul - Brian Eno's 2014 collaboration with Underworld's Karl Hyde, a name I wasn't previously aware of. From the start, it feels like a piece of minimalist loveliness. Return has a repeated two chord guitar theme, which seems to slide in and out of phase with an ambient backing vocal and a lovely Eno song, all the time, the sound filling up over the nine minutes, as bass, synths and the kitchen sink are added. On DPF the pair are joined

I hadn't ever heard this album, although I knew of it. I wasn't aware of how close to the Syd Barrett era this was (the first album the band did with no input whatsoever from Barrett), and had thought it to be much later in the band's career (similar time to Obscured By Clouds ). This was yet another Harborough Market bargain. As I've said before, I'm not sure a soundtrack is meant to stand up on its own, rather than just enhance a film, and I'm equally unsure that this one d

I remember eagerly awaiting hearing this at the time, and not really knowing what to make of it when I did, By the time I 'got it', I'd bought it on vinyl, but it was only last week I finally replaced it on CD. I has for a long time been on my mental list of those to pick up when I saw it, so to get it at a knock down price felt good. And it's every bit as good as I remember. Opening with Theme, there's a lazy, slow, slightly reggaefied Wobble/Walker rhythm line, Levene's scr

Another trip to Harborough Market's second hand CD stall yielded quite an array of treasures, which will be looked at over the next week or so. One of them was this 1973 double album (as a 2CD set), Yes's follow up to the classic Close To The Edge. Bill Bruford has escaped from the frying pan of Yes to the fire of King Crimson, to be replaced by Alan White, formerly of the Plastic Ono Band. After the success of Close To The Edge, everyone in the band had a musical idea, every

Can you hear Talvin sing sang Half Man Half Biscuit in 2003, about Anglo-Indian dance and world musician. Well, I hadn't, so I bought this album for a quid in a charity shop, about a decade ago. I've finally got round to listening to it. It's a fusion of dance, drum & bass and Indian instrumentation and themes, which at times works, and at times doesn't. If I'm honest, not of these genes fusing are particularly to my taste, but there are some interesting sounds. My peaks are

This is a medieval / classical / folk album on the American jazz label Windham Hill, which the charity shop I worked in accepted as a donation, along with many similar (possibly from someone who reviewed such things). They didn't sell, and after one periodic cull were about to be thrown out, when I offered them a home for a token donation. Of those I've listened to, there isn't yet one I've liked or hated. Until now. Can you guess which way this is going to go? Surprise, surp

Someone bought this for me, knowing that I enjoy an occasional Led Zeppelin album, and had enjoyed a gift of a Plant and Page album. In all honesty, a collaboration with Alison Krauss didn't fill my heart with anticipation and glee, and I'm not sure I've listened to it until now. Plant has one of the great English rock/blues voices, while for me, Krauss seems to have the generic country and western sound, making her singing indistinguishable from lots of other very competent

I've finished catching up with recent purchases and feel I can listen to what I want for a bit, so I pulled this Fall compilation from the shelves and stuck it in the CD player. I seem to remember picking this up in a sale in Canterbury's short lived Fopp outlet many moons ago, but not to listening to it much. So, what do we have here? It's a compilation of tracks from 1990s albums The Infotainment Scam, Middle Class Revolt , live album The Twenty Seven Points and Cerebral C

This is my second purchase from Off The Record , a truly fantastic shop in centre:mk which raises funds for Willen Hospice in Milton Keynes, and continues my gradual accumulation of albums by Sheffield crooner, Richard Hawley. The first impression of this album is that it has a much bigger, fuller sound than earlier albums, and for me, that's a big plus. It's much more of a rock album than some of the more country and western tinged earlier releases. The gauntlet is laid dow

Number one in Britain and successful in the States, So round the table me and label bosses contemplate, You've got to get a second home and hang with Chrissie Hynde, And get yourself some Ray-Bans, 'cos boy you know it's time, For your Eno, Eno collaboration... So wrote Half Man Half Biscui t , but this is where it all started, Brian Eno's 1973 collaboration with King Crimson's Robert Fripp. In a visit to Milton Keynes last week, there's a fantastic hospice shop in Centre:MK

I've no idea, where or when I bought this, and even less of an idea why. Most of the rap stuff I'd heard, I'd found thoroughly unlistenable, with a few exceptions. Grandmaster Flash's The Message resonated as social commentary, but the glorification of crime, drugs and the casual misogyny of most of the genre rendered it unlistenable to me. So, I'm a little conflicted by this album, since most of the music is wonderfully laidback and smooth, while some of the lyrical content

This 2006 solo album by Blur guitarist Coxon (he's the nerdy speccy one, not the drumming Labour councillor or the cheesemonging David Cameron lackey), was picked up in a charity shop out of curiosity. I actually thought I had two Coxon albums, but one seems to be missing. There's a series there - Albums I Was Sure I Had But Can't Find. I've reviewed at lest three of them! This was one I approached half-heartedly, but this is the point of this blog, to give a listen beyond th

As featured in the smash film The Blues Brothers apparently, there's no information about when the tracks on this low budget, out of copyright, not a penny to Calloway or his family, compilation. Picked up for a quid in a charity show, no doubt, I'm not sure it's seen the inside of a CD player until now. So, taking it for what it is, a low budget, poorly recorded mono compilation of 1930s and 1940s big band music, it's actually far more engaging than I'd expected. Highlights

I picked this up on EBay many moons ago, but was well aware of the original source of these pieces. It's a compilation of the Go+ 12" single which was given away with the first 15,000 of XTC's Go 2 album, and Take Away/ The Lure Of Salvage, released between Drums And Wires and Black Sea, under the name "Mr Partridge". Virgin refused to release it under the XTC name, as it would have counted as one of the albums in their restrictive contract. The first five tracks are all d

A quick pop into the local charity shop last week saw an addition to the Neil Young shelf (now at 21 albums - as said before, more due to his longevity, prolific output, and the frequency his CDs are given to charity shops, than any devotion to the great Canadian). This one is a real, no nonsense rock album. No histrionics, no profound masterworks, just rocker after rocker, with Young's love of a good jam with Crazy Horse (Frank Sampedro, Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina) indulg