I picked this one up in Harborough Market a couple of weeks ago, but have only just got round to listening. It was an album I was aware of, and interested to hear the post-folk Martyn. I have to say, it's been a pleasant listening, without anything earth shattering. It definitely marks a shift towards jazz from Martyn, evident from the extensive electric piano from Tommy Eyre and the liquid bass of John Giblin. The album opens with the laidback, gentle Some People Are Crazy,

Despite my teenage Genesis obsession, this was an album that never actually came into my possession, until a few weeks ago at Harborough Market for a small sum. This is often viewed as their first real prog album - their debut the previous year, From Genesis To Revelation had been a flop, and they quickly escaped the clutches of Jonathan King, returning to complete school, before reforming in September 1969. While there's certainly hints at what is to come, most of it is a di

This is the final CD from the charity shop haul from Stamford a couple of weeks ago, Siouxsie's first (yes, I was surprised, too) and so far only solo album sans Banshees. It's another one that I didn't approach with high expectations, and might even have stayed there, had my wallet not already have been out. My initial impressions are entirely predictable, There's little of the energy from Banshees' days, (and who can blame her - I don't have 1978 energy any more either), t

My Bowie education continues with this, his first studio album of the 21st century, picked up cheap in Stamford a couple of weeks ago. My expectations weren't high - I wasn't aware of this album being singled out for praise at the time, so expected a bit of 'Bowie going through the motions'. And how wrong I was. I've listened three or four times now, and enjoyed it more with each listen. Nothing stunningly groundbreaking, nor any attempt to set or follow trends - just a colle

The first episode of Floored Genius, released the previous year, was pretty much a best of Teardrop Explodes and Cope's solo work up to then, while this compiles a series of BBC Sessions, mostly from 1983-6, the earliest days of Cope's solo career, with a couple of later ones tacked on the end. This had sat on the CD racks at Oxfam in Market Harborough, hopelessly overpriced (more than double the Discogs median price) until a reduction forced it into my grubby mitts. So, let

In my defence, it was only a quid, I had my wallet out already, and I did enjoy Wakeman's 1970s work with Yes. In Wakeman's defence, these pieces were written for a series of 'futuristic films' and never intended as stand-alone compositions. Described as a 'series of virtuoso digital and analogue keyboard playing' suggests to me that the writer of the sleeve notes values Wakeman's keyboard talent (which isn't in any doubt) and crisp production - neither of which can be faulte

Next to the Hawkwind album (previous review) in the charity shop in Stamford was this weird looking CD with a very Gong like sleeve. Possibly from the same donor who had tired of Space Rock? Ozric Tentacles make their debut on this blog, and in my ears, despite them long being on the 'ought to give them a listen' list. This album, their debut studio album (they had self-released half a dozen cassette only albums before) really feels like a series of extended jams, some faster

Stamford in Lincolnshire on a sunny Friday afternoon is a pleasant place. Plenty of unpretentious eateries, a decent and varied market, and a plethora of charity shops with CDs for sale cheap. Only the British Heart Foundation had a decent haul, with the next five for six quid, kicking off with this album. I'm always going to pick up a cheap Hawkwind CD, even if, as I suspect it's a cash-in compilation of dubious provenance. Thus was this purchase, with many well known songs,

I grew up in the 1960s where space travel and the moon landings were as exciting a real life adventure as a young boy could imagine. We really thought that it was a first step to conquering the whole solar system, little imagining it would be nearly 50 years after Apollo 17 before Artemis would return to the moon (and not even bother landing!) And as a young prog enthusiast, what could tickle me more than a concept album based on the 1960s space race? PSB's first album tested

I went through a right old Primal Scream phase at the start of the 2000s, and I've no idea why. Possibly having hit 40 and wanting to still convince myself I was cool. When I saw them in 2013 I was a bit more halfhearted, but strong drink had been taken, and I was ejected from Liverpool's Echo Arena (in the politest possible way) after climbing over a barrier to get to the main floor rather than going the long way round. This is their debut album from 1987, and my first thoug

The debut album from Witton Gilbert's finest has long been something I've been fond of. I heard it at about the same time as it's follow up, the altogether more slickly produced and successful Steve McQueen and on the whole felt more drawn to its naivety and verbosity. I haven't listened to it for years, so let's find out. It's an enjoyable listen, with reservations. I'm finding the wordplay simultaneously engaging, annoying and impenetrable. None more so than the disjointed

There aren't many albums that I remember being moved by hearing something genuinely new, but Portishead's debut album, Dummy, was one. Inexplicably, and unexpectedly, I don't actually own that album, so our first visit to Portishead is their second album, the eponymous Portishead. As you'd expect, the notes I made on listening to this are full of words like brooding, sinister, haunting, dark, and it's certainly an album which offers 45 minutes of atmosphere, experience, rathe

The Pogues' first two albums contained a combination of folk classics / traditional songs, with most original songs written by Shane MacGowan. By this fourth album, MacGowan's drinking and drug taking had taken its toll, and only 6 of the 14 songs here are MacGowan compositions, with several of the rest having seemingly no input from MacGowan. It's clear that the band were getting used to the idea that their front man might not be a reliable basis on which to build a career,

Another Ebay trawl delivered this CD - originally a single track destined for the Down The Upstair album, which took on a life of its own, was released as two 12" singles in 1992 and 1993, with four phases of the voyage. These were gathered together in one package in 2000, while this is a slightly later CD issue. So technically, you could argue that it's a CD single most discographies describe it as a compilation, albeit a compilation of just two singles, weighing in at over

I've persevered longer than I should have with some bands, and this is probably the last chance for Jethro Tull. They weren't a thing among my peers at school, and my only exposure to them was a cassette of the Living In The Past compilation borrowed from Liverpool record library, which clearly didn't resonate with me. I recently picked up a 5 CD 'album reissue' series for less than a pound per disc, and wasn't expecting much, since it was the late70s to 80s albums. What I'v

I do tend to avoid buying compilations, but on seeing this for 99p in a charity shop, it was always coming home with me. It's a selection of Bowie's UK singles (an incomplete selection) from 1969 - 1985, his most commercially successful period for hit singles. It was released in 1990, as a replacement for the long deleted compilations ChangesOneBowie and ChangesTwoBowie, as a double LP, and this CD version is that double, with three tracks left off to fit it to a CD. There ar

A few weeks ago I picked up a Jethro Tull album series, for under a fiver, and having listened to one, I'm not relishing the rest. It was with similar misgivings that I bought a Steeleye Span series, from the same set, for a similar price, although perhaps a little more hopefully, since this does seem to contain albums from the most successful part of their career. While I'm partial to a bit of folk-rock on occasion, it's generally those where the rock side dominates the soun

More charity shop purchases continue for the next few, and this one continues my gradual acceptance that the Beatles might have had some impact on modern popular music. This album wasn't officially released at the time in UK, the soundtrack to the Magical Mystery Tour being released in UK as a double 45 rpm EP. In the USA, however, it was released as an album, with one side being the Magical Mystery Tour , and the second collecting together the 1967 Beatles' singles. This is

A trip to the local Oxfam this weekend yielded a few results, and for some reason I was in the mood for a punt, so parted with a quid for this, knowing little about the band. Fountains Of Wayne founded in New York City in 1995, and this, their third album was, apparently their breakthrough in commercial terms. After one listen, it seems to consist of mercifully short pop songs, which are perfectly OK, but display little which sets them apart from thousands of bands doing simi

Latest Porcupine Tree exploration is their 1996 album, Signify, the fourth album released under this banner, but the first with a settled band, rather than just Steven Wilson and guest musicians. I must admit this has been the most difficult of their albums so far, for me, but it's grown on me with each playing, and I now think I get it. So, what's going on here? We open with a piece of ambience over American spoken word, before the first longer piece, Signify , a powerful g