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

There are some artists you just feel you ought to like, and Father John Misty is one of these. I'd liked what I'd heard on the radio, and had been delighted when he was the special guest, when daughter took me to a recording of Stephen Colbert's Late Show, while we were in New York a couple of years ago. I bought three of his albums a couple of years ago in an HMV sale, based on the previous exposure, and was lukewarm, while seeing the depth, about this album's predecessor, I

I guess I picked this up in a sale round about 2000, along with a couple of other Doors albums. They passed me by at the time, and even by the end of teenage years, I was probably only aware of Riders On The Storm , and barely aware of Morrison's dead pop star cult hero status. So, what of the band's 1967 debut, which started the legend? In case you didn't know, it's a great album. It hits you between the eyes from the beginning, with the powerful Break On Through, it has the

This is certainly the first Elvis Costello album I bought on CD, rather than vinyl, possibly one of the earliest CDs I bought, and it has a special place as an album that always seemed to be in the background at the time our son was born (3 months after the album's release). It was also the last Costello release I bought automatically on release, and the only new release in the 5 years from 1986-91. The songs on the album are all familiar old friends, perhaps now lacking the

I remember picking this up in a boot fair for a quid or so, about twenty years ago, thinking I'd found the Julian Cope Holy Grail. I'd heard of the legendary Skellington but had never heard the album. This 1993 CD reissue brings together the original 1989 album with Skellington 2 , its follow up. So here's the tale. Disillusioned with the process of record making after the interminable sessions for My Nation Underground , Cope took mates Donald Ross Skinner (guitars, keyboar

Possibly the least played of the early Bad Seeds albums and the only one not to chart in UK, it's easy to see why this album isn't a go-to when one fancies a dose of Nick Cave. I bought this about 25 years ago, when in the depth of my Nick Cave obsession, determined to collect everything the band had done. Perhaps its status as the forgotten album is underserved. Certainly, it's deep in 'the heroin years' and the darkness of the album makes it an uneasy listen, but there's c

Was Captain Beefheart a spent force by the late 1970s? Certainly, this and subsequent albums are referred to as a "late resurgence". This album, released in USA in 1978, but not until the following year in UK (I own the 1986 CD re-release), doesn't get taken from the shelves that much, so we'll let it have its place. I often feel that if you get / like a Beefheart album on the first listening, you haven't really listened. There's a Beefheart way of doing things which takes a

The only addition to the CD racks from Santa this year, was the debut album from Steven Wilson, my most recent obsession. I also received Wilson's book, which is a reasonable read, but he's a far better musician and composer than writer! This album was meant to be a diversion from his band, Porcupine Tree, where he didn't have to consider other band members' input, a decade earlier Porcupine Tree itself being a diversion from No-Man, his band with The Album Years podcast col

At 26 minutes, this is on the cusp of "is it a single or an album?" territory, but I'm counting it as the latter. While the whole concert was later released on CD after Buckley's untimely death in 1997, this is the original four track release. It's very much a solo performance, with a couple of songs to appear on Grace a year later. Mojo Pin is strong, sounding very much like you'd expect a solo version to sound, knowing the band version from the album, and it's followed by

For 40 years now, I've been (mostly) at one with Billy Bragg politically and musically, and this 1991, perhaps one of my favourites, arguably marks a change from lone troubadour to band leader. The CD has 16 songs, and was released just as we transitioned from vinyl to CD, hence the 60 minutes of music for the price of a single album boast. And it's packed with music biz chums like REM, Kirsty MacColl, Johnny Marr and old mate Wiggy, so let's crack on. I've long contended tha

This was picked up for next to nothing despite my ambivalence about Afro Celt Sound System 1, and has only had rare outings, for reasons which become apparent after a couple of listenings. The fusion of traditional Celtic music / African beats and 90s dance sounds interesting on paper, and when this works, it really works, but too much just doesn't work for me. Opener Release has the sublime voice of Sinead O'Connor holding it aloft, and it's a decent song, spoiled only for

This album, picked up second hand long ago, claims to be an EP, but as it weighs in at something over half an hour, it's not the shortest thing considered here, so it's an album to me. I've long enjoyed Barry Adamson's work, right from his Magazine and Bad Seed days, and I've picked up a lot of his solo stuff, and some is very good indeed. One features among the 5* ratings on this blog, which regular readers will know, aren't handed out lightly (I think it's only 29 out of th

This is a bit of an odd one. I had heard the first single, I'm not sure where, because I don't tend to listen to radio stations playing chart sounds, then saw this album, just released, in a boot fair sale for a quid. I picked it up, listened, quite liked it, then put it away for over twenty years until now. My minimal research (and looking at the cover) tells me they're still going, and at the time, were a 25 piece band, 10 of whom just sang, giving the band their big choral

More tales from the depths of the Canterbury rabbit hole. In the early 1990s. all four participants in this album had their own bands, and were struggling to get work. They had approached the organiser of the Le Mans Jazz Festival, who broached the idea of putting together this 'all star' band, which he felt would attract interest. So it's a short lived, one tour project featuring Hugh Hopper (Soft Machine) on bass, Phil Miller (Hatfield and the North and National Health) on