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

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