The whole point of this blog is to listen to the vast array of CDs I already possess, but I'm buying them at a rate which means the older ones are being pushed aside for the new purchases, especially if I've been internet shopping after a drink, when there's little or nothing on the TV. So here's yet another Porcupine Tree CD, their 10th studio album, and their last one before a decade long hiatus. What could be more prog than a 2 CD set, where the first CD is a 55 minute lon

This album, Lambchop's second, was a recent late night EBay purchase, and the earliest of the band's albums that I so far own. It's a collection of very gentle, laidback songs, which envelop the listener, like a warm bath, while drinking a cup of hot chocolate. without too many of the songs standing out as greats. The arrangements are lush and easy to enjoy while remaining understated, at times with smooth string arrangements, although perhaps the recorder accompaniment to th

As a nerdy sixth form Genesis obsessive, I was ambivalent about Gabriel's debut solo album and probably didn't investigate it until a couple of years later, enjoying what I heard. Later still, I picked up my own copy, but it's only recently via Ebay that I've replaced it on CD. So nearly half a century on, how has it held up? Frankly, a bit of a curate's egg. Moving from a band noted for 23 minute whole side epic tracks and sprawling double concept albums (both of which Gabri

When I was at school, Roxy Music passed me by, despite being taken with their early singles, Virginia Plain and Pyjamarama. So, there's a world of 1970s Roxy waiting for me to visit and see what I missed. My reticence is due to my finding Brian Ferry ( schoolboy football contemporary of Everton hero, Howard Kendall ) a singularly unappealing character, with his love of fox hunting and support for the Conservative Party. But, from the world of Roxy, I've embraced (metaphorica

Bought many moons ago, this second solo album from Bob Mould has long been regarded as one of his most bleak and impenetrable, and one which only gets a very infrequent outing. Certainly it has a sound closer to the darker sections of Husker Du than to Mould's previous album, Workbook, which was at times quite light and poppy. He's joined on this album by bassist Tony Maimone (from Pere Ubu) and drummer Anton Fier (Pere Ubu and Golden Palaminos), giving a real power to the so

A recurring theme throughout all aspects of the art and entertainment world is how far one separates the artist as a person from their body of work. Given the petulant, self obsessed, supporter of racist politics and serial canceller of gigs and walkout merchant that Morrissey has become (or always was, but now he doesn't need the money..?) I wasn't relishing revisiting his albums. There isn't even the consolation, as with Smiths CDs, of knowing that three quarters of the hea

This is the second album in an Original Album Series box set which I bought many years ago, and have only just got round to listening, I'll admit that I felt I'd be just going through the motions with some 2 or 3 star generic jazz, which didn't really have much impact, but I was very wrong indeed. It's really rather good, and I doubt if my words can do it justice. Haitian Fight Song starts with a bass solo (as is allowed when the band leader is a bassist), but it isn't reall

Someone in Market Harborough seems to be going off Richard Hawley, one album at a time, and I'm the beneficiary of their gradual donation of the CDs to Oxfam. This 2015, his 8th solo album, is a much lower key production than previous albums, particularly compared to the previous album Standing At The Sky's Edge. It's an album which displays the slower, gentler side of Hawley, mostly written while recovering from a broken leg and slipped disc, and a lot of the songs do sound

In the early/mid eighties I owned a few Pete Townshend albums, preferring them massively to The Who's output, certainly at that time. But until a visit to my local Oxfam this afternoon, I'd only managed to procure a compilation album on CD. So this is a reunion with an old friend, rather than seeking out pastures new, but none the worse for that. It's said that Roger Daltrey was unhappy that some of these songs weren't presented to The Who, particularly the first track, the (

This one was bought in a sale long ago, and I'm surprised to find the release date as recent as 1998. It's a compilation spanning the years 1968-1986, broadly, but not wholly chronological. And, if I'm honest, it's the sort of compilation that I've enjoyed, without sending me to scour the CD shelves for more. If my local charity shop has a Martyn CD on the racks, I'll probably give them a couple of quid out of interest (perhaps I need to look in the folk section more), but he

I bought this last week for a quid in a charity shop, and I'll be honest, my expectations weren't high. When Ian Curtis died and the remaining three members of Joy Division decided to carry on as New Order, I appreciated that it wasn't going to be the same band. I saw the band at an early (April 1981) gig in Sheffield, coming away unsure of what I'd heard. I bought Movement soon after release in late 1981, and felt that it was promising, and that the Joy Division sound was s

Fifty pence in a charity shop last week brought me this compilation by jazz bassist Stanley Clarke. The shop assistant seemed miffed that I rebuffed her offer of 3 CDs for a pound, on the basis that there wasn't anything else I'd subject my ears to, on the shelves. Clarke is a name I'd been aware of as a well regarded jazz bassist, without really hearing any of his stuff. The album draws from the era from 1974's Stanley Clarke album to his 1990 collaboration with Zappa alumn

Hawley's latest album appeared in the HMV sale, so I snapped it up a couple of weeks ago. No longer naming his albums after sites in his native Sheffield, I can certainly confirm from how I was addressed as a barman and post office worker by men and women alike, while a student in Sheffield, that In This City They Call You Love was certainly accurate at the start of the 1980s. On this album, Hawley has kept things short and sweet - a dozen songs in just over 40 minutes, and m

Every three years or so, a new HMHB album comes along with Nigel Blackwell's wry observations on anything that impinges on his consciousness, to a bouncy tune in three minutes or thereabouts. This most recent album (their 15th) jumped out of the racks of HMV's sale at me a couple of weeks ago. And, as ever, this is a collection of listenable pop/rock songs, replete with pithy one liners, bizarre trains of thought, obscure cultural reference and some utter madness. There's onl

Yet another eBay impulse purchase, and it's my first foray onto Swedish death metal. Back and white album cover? Check Gloomy misty picture on cover? Check Band name in a Gothic script? Check This is the band's fifth studio album, and their first collaboration with Steven Wilson (yes, him again) who handles some of the gentler vocals and some piano. Strap in and prepare yourself for what's to come. I've been far more impressed with this. Perhaps not an epiphany, but I'd forgo

Ah, the "is it an EP or an album" dilemma strikes again. 4 tracks weighing in at 29 minutes could go either way, but the band refer to it as an EP. In any case, I'm only claiming to be reviewing CDs, so that's my get out. This one was a recent eBay purchase for a couple of quid, continuing my PT / Wilson interest. Opener Nil Recurring is a solid heavy prog instrumental, displaying the juddering bass so beloved of prog, with the hand of Fripp and his guitar trickery making it

I picked this up recently in a local charity shop for a couple of quid. Back in the 1970s. Peter Tosh was probably the only reggae artist other than Bob Marley, that I was aware of, even then only knowing the title track. Indeed, reggae wasn't a genre on my radar while at school, and I only became really aware of it when it became popular alongside punk later on. There are some interesting tracks on this album, but a lot of it feels like generic easy reggae listening. The ope

This is another album taken from a box set of 'original album classics', bought about ten years ago on a whim, and consisting of the Mahavishnu Orchestra's first five albums. This is the second of these albums, released in 1973. Mahavishnu Orchestra was, of course, the band led by son of Doncaster, John McLaughlin, who had cut his teeth in the 1960s in the influential Graham Bond Quartet, as well as playing with Georgie Fame and Brian Augur, then after moving to USA, with Mil

I was given this as a Christmas present soon after release, and remember being taken by surprise, as I'd had no idea of its release until it emerged from Santa's sack in 1981. It 's always hard to know how to view compilations/previously unreleased demos which follow an artist's untimely death. Were Factory cashing in on their lost asset, or were they meeting the demand for more, which would otherwise have been exploited by lower quality bootlegs from dubious sources? This wa

This is the 3rd of a 5 CD 'classic albums' set, picked up for a couple of quid at a boot fair a decade ago, and I've been lukewarm so far about the erstwhile Genesis guitarist's solo efforts. This one is no exception. Where it's good, it's genuinely enjoyable, where it's bad, almost unlistenable. And the determinant of this seems to be whether the piece is instrumental or has lyrics. Hackett is a strong composer, but his lyrics aren't particularly interesting and nor is his v