Well, no actually. This is the start of the decline of the great early eighties band Simple Minds. Unfortunately they started to get more and more boring, frankly speaking. From post-punk new wave to stadium rock. Boring. They may have been more successful, but to my ears they declined over the next albums and I lost track of them.
Continue reading “Simple Minds – Sparkle in the rain (1984)”
With such a horrible album cover, could this really be good? It turns out – no. This might very well be Neil’s weakest album ever. “Everybody’s rockin'” is at least good within its genre. “Landing on water” is made of everything that was rotten musically in the late eighties. The album is over-produced and it is shock-full of synthezisers. Neil is backed up by Danny Kortchmar and Steve Jordan plus a boys chorus. All three guys in “the band” are playing synthezisers together with drums or guitars.
Alphaville’s debut album “Forever young” is a fantastic late discovery of mine. I knew of the famous songs when I grew up but I was not into synth-music at that time. Alphaville like Soft cell, Depeche Mode and Howard Jones were bands I heard on the radio and at the occasional high school dance in my small home town, but I didn’t listen to their LPs back then. This is now rectified.
I am a Madonna fan! Maybe this comes as a surprise? Well, she is a cool lady. This is actually a case where I love the persona of the artist as much, if not more than, the music she delivers. She doesn’t give a fuck about what people think or say about her and I love her for that.
First of all I must say I adore the old style rustic porch of Daryl’s ranch in Colordao. The latest “Fireside sessions” take us to that very porch.
Daryl behind the camera, fiddling with the settings, Neil playing his heart out. This session focus on the ongoing unrest of the nation, people on the streets bleeding.
Continue reading “Neil Young – Fireside Sessions Porch Edition (2020)”
He had a ’84 International
In 1984 Neil didn’t release any new studio album. He and Crazy Horse had a recording sessions that didn’t result in any release (yet). Geffen Records sued Neil for not sounding like Neil Young, a lawsuit that ended with Neil winning and Geffen apologising. Later in the autumn of ’84 Neil embarked on a tour with the International Harvesters where he debuted a number of country songs. Now the table was set for “Old ways”, the album Neil wanted to do already in 1983.
Back in 1984 whilst in high school, I found new friends. It brought happier times and life long friends, but also an inflow of new musical influences. The Cure was one of the bands I discovered via Per and Anders and the other guys in the pack I started to run with.
I immediately fell in love with The Cure and hastily checked out their back catalogue. The new album was “The top”. It was not my favourite. After the stellar debut album they followed it up with three dark and really depressing albums, it was glorious, it was depp-rock. I still love that trio; “Seventeen seconds”, “Faith” and “Pornography”. After an off year that only produced a mini-album heavily influenced by New Order they came out with this bridge album before another impressive run of four albums beginning with “The head on the door”.
Absurdly enough I sold most of my vinyls in the early 90’s. I left my player at my parents house and switched to CDs. Ahh, these ugly small plastic discs with those silly small booklets. My old vinyl collection… Where did you go? How I regret it.
Luckily most of my favourite bands and artists have re-issued their discographies in very nice, however expensive, editions. For Marillion it is even better. They have by now released three out of four studio albums in very attractive vinyl boxes. Only Fugazi remain to be treated with such a nice thing. Restless I couldn’t wait, so I have bought the 2012 re-issue on 180 gram vinyl. The album is stellar, the sound quality is mostly really good, the cover is wonderful.
1983… Pink Floyd was not working and Roger dumped the guys, whomever were left. Rick had already left. Nick and Dave were let go. Roger picked up his other concept album idea, called in som substitute players and went to work. The result was the magnificent 1984 album “The pros and cons of hitch hiking” which turned out to be Rogers last really great work.
Continue reading “Roger Waters – The pros and cons of hitch hiking (1984)”
It is very entertaining to be a Neil Young fan. He change his mind as often as he makes plans. It’s a roller-coaster with a lot of waiting for albums that may or may not come out on time. It will be released in July is always the answer.
Recorded finished albums gets shelved and new stuff is done in days and released in a rush. He has an archive of unreleased stuff, both highly sought after studio material as well as a mother load of live stuff. One of the most famous unreleased albums is “Homegrown” from 1975. It was finished and almost out the door… The story is that when he was to play the record for the Band, he instead played songs from another album, “Tonight’s the night” that was recorded in 1973. So instead of releasing “Homegrown” in 1975 “Tonight’s the night” was let loose on the world. Neil said in an interview that he felt the “Homegrown” album was to personal…
