The Stranglers - Aural Sculpture

This is The Stranglers 8th album and the second for Epic Records. It was a more mellowing sound of the band although some of the lyrics to the songs showed they had lost none of their bite. The tracks were recorded in Brussels the previous year and into early 1984 and was produced by the now very much in demand Laurie Latham, thanks to his work on the Paul Young debut album. This album was quite a departure for the band, after the last album which had more of a European sound, this album was the first one to have a three piece horn section on. The lead single off the album was Skin Deep, which was a great keyboard featured track which managed to get to number 15 in the UK charts but the following two singles fared less well. The album came out in November 1984 and reached number 14 but also helped the band gain a following in Europe.

As typically Stranglers, I originally had the album on cassette, at the end of the album was a short explanation and screams from the band before it went into a game for the ZX Spectrum. It was the Aural Quest, where you had to complete parts of the game to build parts of an ear. I never completed the game as it was always a pain to load up onto the computer, but when it worked, you had to think how would one of the band think, their strange humour featured too, it was a nice added touch to the album. Have a listen to the album on Spotify, it is quite a departure from the previous Punk and New Wave sounds, you'll probably enjoy it. Skin Deep is one of my favourite tracks, along with North Winds Blowing, Souls and No Mercy. Here's the sleeve

Alice Cooper - From The Inside

I'm not a huge Alice Cooper fan, although I saw him live in the late 80's and he was awesome, but I really like this unbelievably over looked album by Alice. Released in 1978 it was a concept album based about his stay in a New York institution for his alcoholism. This is a raw Alice, with help from Elton John's side kick Bernie Taupin and a couple of Elton's band mates, they helped create an album with each track with a storyline of a situation and character who he had met in the institution. From The Quiet Room about a guy in a padded cell to avoid self harm (also my favourite track on this album), with Millie And Billie which is a tale of two lovers which one is married who kill her husband to be together. There's Nurse Rosetta about a nurse that tuned on the inmates with a verse describing just what happens when he sees her! There is also the single How You Gonna See Me Now about an unsure Cooper wondering how a partner will treat him once he is freed. The single was a fairly big hit in the US but only managed 61 in the UK charts.

The album didn't chart in the UK which is a real shame as I think it is a classic. The album artwork was great too, featuring opening doors on the front cover and doors on the back which opened too all revealing Alice in various shots of the institution. To me, when I listen to this album it seems such a personal album but also bringing the other inmates to life too, where those people he sings about really there? I think it also a lot more of a softer rock album with, dare I say strings added to a couple of tracks! An album I think should be listened to from start to finish and follow the story to the final track singing about the inmates in Inmates (We're All Crazy). Originally released on Warner Brothers, try and listen to it if you can as it is a shame it wasn't such a bigger hit. Here is the sleeve from the cd!

The Human League - Dare

I really love this album. This was the first CD I ever bought, even before I had a player to play it on! I bought the vinyl copy as a picture disc in December 1981 and played it several times and just thought it was a great pop album. It contains four hit singles, The Sound Of The Crowd, Love Action, Open Your Heart and the worldwide smash Don't You Want Me. It was released in October 1981 and later in 1982 in America and couldn't be any different than the previous two albums by the band.

The original line up of The Human League, split up in late 1980 (the other 2 members went to form Heaven 17) and with Phil Oakey guiding the band wanted to be more of a pop band than the electronic group the old band was. Virgin wanted hits from the band so they recruited Suzanne Sully & Joanne Catherall to salvage a European tour. Virgin put them with producer Martin Rushent and the result was Sound Of The Crowd which was a decent hit reaching 12 in the UK charts, Virgin were happy and making the album went ahead.

Love Action was released in the summer of 1981 and climbed to number 3, Open Your Heart reached number 6 and was used to market the albums following release. Dare went straight to number 1 in the album charts and at the end of 1981 Don't You Want Me was released. This song ended up being the biggest selling single in the UK in 1981 and also the Christmas number one of that year too! Not bad for a song that Phil Oakey didn't think was a hit, they even put it at the end of the album as they didn't think of it that much, it ended up being a worldwide smash!

The Human League rode the success of the album well, but came the day they had to follow it up. Not many bands can follow such a successful album and they realised that. I remember watching an interview with Martin Rushent and he said it was an album of the time, one that just came together. When it came to record the follow up they struggled as they didn't know how they came up with Dare, it just happened! Martin Rushent was working on remastering Dare and rumours of extra unreleased tracks that were recorded for the album were getting sorted, but Martin died before the project was sorted and I read that his son was concidering taking on the project, fingers crossed he does! Here is the classic album sleeve, an idea taken from Vogue magazine!

George Michael - Older

George's third album was released in May 1996 and hit the number 1 position straight away. It spawned 6 singles that all reached the top 3 in the UK in 1996 - 1997. It was such an adult album for him, gone are the pop songs from the past and in came more serious pop tunes, with more of a darker and sad feel to the songs. Also I have always thought, it was George's coming out album, with references to one night stands in Fastlove, affairs and Russian roulette in Spinning The Wheel, also the way he began to dress was pushing towards the gay scene. Strings were brought in to contribute to he new sound as well as a jazz feel to some of the tracks. Released on Virgin records it became the labels fastest selling album ever and to date has sold just under 2 million copies in in Britain.

The first single to be released off the album was Jesus To A Child, which if I am honest I didn't like when it was a single but I grew to love as an album track. It was the next single and the great video for Fastlove that I really liked. It's a track I never get tired of listening to, a real feel good number! The next single was Spinning The Wheel which got to number 2 as girl power was just starting up here and the Spice Girls stopped it getting to number 1. Older was released in early 1997 with new tracks added and one of my fave tracks was I Can't Make You Love Me which I thought should have been a single on it's own. It was recorded live and the audience was dubbed off the track that was on the Older single and went to number 3. Star People 97 had a remix to push it to number 2 and the final single was You Have Been Loved which came with The Sweetest Thing 97, another remixed track which also got to number 2.

I've listened to the album myself when I've been really down, listened to it in the dark with just the music for company and I just love it. It's the only George Michael album I really like, I bought the follow up but it wasn't a patch on this although there was a couple of good tracks on it. If you get a chance to have a listen to it, I recommend it as it is such a good listen, if you already have the album, dig it out and give it another listen, you'll enjoy it!

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Arcade Fire have always been favourites with the critics and when they released this, their third album the praise was heaped onto the band. The album, was inspired by the upbringing of two of the band members, Will & Win Butler in a suburb in Houston, Texas. It was recorded in Canada and New York and when the band finished a track, they pressed it onto a 12'' acetate and used it for the master for the CD, therefore the album and CD sound both the same! The sleeve for the album featured 8 variations of the cover too!

Released in the UK in August 2010 it went straight to number 1 in the UK and the US charts and won a Grammy the following year and a Brit for Best International Album. In June 2011 they released an expanded version of the album with a couple of extra tracks and a dvd about the album.

It is an album I never tire of listening to, it has got some great songs on, my faves being Suburban War, Sprawl II and Month Of May but don't take my word for it, go give it a listen!

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Tomorrow (January 28th) sees the release of a deluxe version of Rumours celebrating the 35th anniversary of the album coming out. As everyone knows the album when originally released was a masterpiece and has sold around 40 million copies, so expect that number to rise from tomorrow.

It is amazing really when you read about how the album was recorded amongst the relationships in the band breaking down, the McVie's had just divorced and only talked to each other about music. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were in an on off relationship too. These troubled times come through in many of the lyrics and John McVie suggested the title of the album as he reckoned that everyone in the group was writing about each other in the band. To learn more about this classic album I suggest you look on Wikipedia, the full detailed story is there and it is quite a read!

Several singles were released off the album but didn't really do a great deal here in the UK as everyone was buying the album, which helped push it to the top of the charts. Over the years each track off the album has become a classic in it's own right and I think all the tracks at one point were often played on the radio.

My story of the album came in mid 1985, I had been staying with friends just outside of London. I had taken my Walkman with me for the journey home and I remember saying to my friend that I would like to buy a cassette for the bus ride home but couldn't think of one I wanted. She suggested Rumours as it was such a good album as she had a copy, so I bought it, I didn't play it till I was on my way home. When I started listening to it, I realised I knew the album, never heard the album before but all the tracks were often on the radio but never knew who it was. I loved it and played it several time that ride home so when I listen to the album it reminds me of that time!

Here is the cover of this classic album

Julee Cruise - Floating Into The Night

Probably most well known for singing Falling (from Twin Peaks) Julee recorded Floating Into The Night in 1989 with David Lynch & Angelo Badalamenti after she had previously recorded a song for Lynch's Blue Velvet movie. David Lynch also used some of the album's music for his Industrial Symphony No 1 in which he filmed Julee singing on stage.

When David Lynch was filming Twin Peaks he used 2 tracks off this album in the show, plus Falling (the instrumental version was the theme to the show). The album is full of dreamy vocals with a darker side to the lyrics typical David Lynch I guess. Rocking Back Inside My Heart was the second single off the record but didn't really do a lot in the charts but the album went silver in the UK. It is a gorgeous album to listen to, heart tugging songs, full of emotions with a twist in the lyrics. One of the best songs is Into The Night, but the album always gets a full play!

Judas Priest - Unleashed In The East

Venturing into heavy metal, this was the first metal album I really listened to and it just blew me away. The sheer power from the music, the amazing vocals of Rob Halford and those awesome twin guitars of KK Downing and Glen Tipton made this album make me want to listen to more of this Heavy Metal that was slowly making noise in the charts amongst the new wave and punk bands.

Unleashed In The East, or Unleashed In The Studio as it is sometimes is known, is a very polished live album, that's why it has a maybe unfair extra title as it does sounds like a heavily overdubbed live album. Everything on the album sounds so clear, but Rob Halford has said that it is a totally live album but he had to overdub his vocals in a live setting as the original concert vocals (which were recorded from 2 shows in Japan) had been damaged. There are a couple of really good covers on this album, Fleetwood Mac's Green Manalishi and a great version of Joan Baez Diamonds And Rust featuring Rob's soaring high vocals and the trademark twin guitars. Released in 1979 the album hit the UK Top 10 and started Judas Priest on a world wide domination of the metal scene.

The Latest Album

The latest album was bought today, on CD. Words And Music by Saint Etienne, is a really good album of pop tunes and a great sleeve of street names made from and refering to pop songs, how many can you find! The opening track on the album when I heard it really rang home for me, Sarah describes how she listens to the songs in her bedroom, learning the pop charts, record labels, well I could go on but I just thought I did that and it was just an odd little thing I did, but it sure made me feel better when I realised all of us who are into music did it! The albums second track I've Got Your Music is my fave off the album but give it a listen if you can, it is the life of a music lover set in music

The First Album

Here's a couple of scans of albums from the collection. This one is my first ever album, which was bought for me back in 1972. You can say it almost spawned the idea for the Now's series that are around today! 20 Fantastic Hits is a compilation of the hits of the day including Sweet, Donny Osmond and T Rex and more and is quite a good compilation. The only thing really is that one or two of the tracks are slightly edited due to them squeezing as many tracks on as possible!