Teitur "Stay Under the Stars" (2006)

Stay Under the Stars
release date: May 1, 2006
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,72]
producer: Martin Terefe
label: Arlo & Betty Recordings - nationality: Faroe Islands, Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Don't Want You to Wake Up" (4 / 5) - 2. "Louis, Louis" (4 / 5) (live) - 3. "You Get Me" - 4. "I Run the Carousel" - 8. "Umbrellas in the Rain" - 9. "Boy, She Can Sing!" - 12. "All My Mistakes"

2nd studio album by Teitur follows three years after Poetry & Aeroplanes. The debut was promising and it received positive reviews but simply failed to produce the commercial success Universal Records had hoped for. For whatever reasons, Teitur didn't extend his contract with the American giant and instead he established his own label, Arlo & Betty Recordings to ensure future album releases. Stay Under the Stars is distributed by the Danish label Playground (and later reissued by Edsel Records).
Musically, it's close to his debut, perhaps more subtle with less chamber pop feel and even more acoustically driven. The songs are still there and it comes out as a pretty fine follow-up very much on par with a fine debut. Only I find it slightly bettering the debut by being a more coherent release.
Recommended.

Frank Zappa / The Mothers of Invention "Freak Out!" (1966)

Freak Out! [debut]
release date: Jun. 27, 1966
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5]

Track highlights: 3. "Who Are the Brain Police" - 4. "Go Cry on Somebody Else's Shoulder" - 7. "Wowie Zowie" - 9. "Any Way the Wind Blows" - 12. "Trouble Every Day" - 13. "Help, I'm a Rock"

Studio debut album released by The Mothers of Invention. Actually, the band members had named the band The Mothers, it was the record company (Verve Records) who added the 'of Invention' to the name. This album is highly experimental and the musical style is unpreceded as Zappa wrote the majority of the tracks as his own combination of classical upbringing with musique concrete (Stockhausen, Varèse, Cage) and experimental, psychedelic art rock bringing it all together in satiric texts criticizing the consumer mentality of America in 1960s as a wake-up call to what is termed pop. Some of the songs like "Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder" and "Wowie Zowie" are almost traditional doo wop, "Any Way the Wind Blows" sounds like The Beatles together with Beach Boys, "You Didn't Try to Call Me", and "Trouble Every Day" are like The Who meets Hendrix, whereas "Who Are the Brain Police", "Help, I'm a Rock" and "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet" are out-of-this-world-experiments by Zappa and noting else! The album secured Zappa a considerable crowd of fans, partly in Europe, partly in USA, but a vast majority simply didn't buy his albums, perhaps because the music is highly original and experimental drawing on modern classical compositional theory. Anyway, it's not really music you put on as background sound for a romantic dinner. It's something that needs a mature ear, and broad acceptance. No wonder The Beatles were able to experiment a lot on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), this album inspired many, including The Fab Four. The album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".

Van Morrison "Moondance" (1970)

Moondance
release date: Feb. 28, 1970
format: cd (1991 reissue)
[album rate: 4,5 / 5] [4,52]
producer: Van Morrison, Lewis Merenstein (exec. pro.)
label: Warner Bros. - nationality: Northern Ireland, UK

Tracklist: 1. "And It Stoned Me" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "Moondance" (4 / 5) - 3. "Crazy Love" - 4. "Caravan" (5 / 5) (live from The Last Waltz concert with The Band) - 5. "Into the Mystic" (4 / 5) - 6. "Come Running" - 7. "These Dreams of You" - 8. "Brand New Day" - 9. "Everyone" - 10. "Glad Tidings" (4 / 5)

3rd solo album by Van Morrison is once again with Lewis Merenstein, although, Van has already put himself in charge of the production. The album is the natural stylistic follow up to Astral Weeks, but it also combines a new simpler soul element with his singer / songwriter, celtic folk and jazz feel.
Although, his contemporaries didn't experience it exactly like that, Astral Weeks was his great break-through album as a solo artist, and the album where he came out perfectly on his own terms and in his own combination of celtic folk, and as a singer / songwriter. However, the album wasn't met by enthusiasm, and Morrison decided he'd try to make music that people would have a bigger chance to relate to. Moondance released 1½ years after Astral Weeks is a continued sublime journey in his newfound own combo of folk, jazz and singer / songwriter with the change that his new album has less focus on celtic folk and in addition reflects a bolder soul element, which by no means makes it a lesser interesting release. It's simply one of his best albums and a must-have in any collection of modern singer / songwriter, pop / rock, and folk-oriented music. I simply love this album, and like its predecessor it's naturally enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".

1970 Favourite releases: 1. Creedence Clearwater Revival Cosmo's Factory - 2. Van Morrison Moondance - 3. Neil Young After the Gold Rush

Frank Zappa

~ ~ ~

Frank Zappa: (birthname: Frank Vincent Zappa; Dec. 21, 1940 - Dec. 4, 1993) was born in Baltimore (MD), USA, and died in Los Angeles, USA, from incurable (prostate) cancer. He's son of a French-Italian mother and Italian father (from Partinico, Sicily).
I believe, I must have been about 14 when I heard of Frank Zappa the first time. My elder brother had bought the Sheik Yerbouti (1979) album, and I remember that I really enjoyed "Bobby Brown" and "The Sheik Yerbouti Tango". Apart from that, I just thought it was really weird music. It didn't fit with ABBA or Boney M or Deep Purple, which must have been the most adult hard rock I listened to at that time just before realizing punk rock came about. The '79 album was also the first album that I got. When my brother moved to his own apartment, he gave me a big bunch of his old vinyl albums, including this brilliant gem.
Zappa is almost pseudonymous with The Mothers of Invention as he wrote, composed and conducted their music before studio recordings. Band members of The Mothers of Invention (1965-69): Frank Zappa (guitar, vocals), Ray Collins (vocals, harmonica, percussion, 1965-68), Roy Estrada (bass, vocals), Jimmy Carl Black (drums, percussion), Henry Vestine (guitar, 1965-66), Don Preston (keyboards, piano, Moog, 1966-69), Elliot Ingber (guitar, 1966), Jim Fielder (bass, guitar, 1966-67), Bunk Gardner (saxophone, woodwinds, 1966-69), Billy Mundi (drums, percussion, 1966-67), Jim 'Motorhead' Sherwood (saxophone, woodwinds, tambourine, 1967-69), Ian Underwood (piano, keyboards, woodwinds, 1967-69), Arthur Tripp (drums, percussion, 1967-69), Lowell George (guitar, vocals, 1968-69), Buzz Gardner (trumpet, 1968-69), Don 'Sugercane' Harris (violin, 1969). For a few years he established the band Ruben and the Jets (1967-68) with members of The Mothers, and he played with Captain Beefheart in the mid '70s calling themselves Zappa/Beefheart/Mothers.
Throughout his career, Zappa was often referred to as some kind of 'acid wreck' of the '60s and a left-wing provocateur who wrote unamerican texts, or wrote and said what was characterized as harmful matter because of his satiric texts on American consumerism. However, in his last 10 years as a musician he experienced how most of America praised him as one of the 20th century's most important American composers.
[ wikipedia has extensive info on Frank Zappa ]

~ ~ ~

BEST OF 1964:Getz / Gilberto "Getz - Gilberto (feat. Antônio Carlos Jobim)" (1964)

Getz / Gilberto (feat. Antônio Carlos Jobim)
release date: Mar. 1964
format: cd (1997 Verve Master Edition)
[album rate: 5 / 5]
producer: Creed Taylor
label: Verve Records / PolyGram / MGM - nationality: Brazil - USA

"So Danço Samba"

Iconic bossa nova jazz album by Stan Getz and João Gilberto.
The album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".

Elvis Presley "Elvis Sings Hits From His Movies - Volume 1" (1972)

Elvis Sings Hits From His Movies - Volume 1 (compilation)
release date: 1972
format: vinyl
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]
producer: various
label: RCA Camden - nationality: USA

Best of compilation by Elvis Presley.
The album is one my first acquisitions from the mid-70s.

Teitur "Poetry & Aeroplanes" (2003)

Poetry & Aeroplanes [debut]
release date: 2003
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: Rupert Hine
label: Universal Records - nationality: Faroe Islands, Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Sleeping With the Lights On" - 2. "I Was Just Thinking" (4 / 5) (live) - 3. "You're the Ocean" (4 / 5) (live) - 4. "Poetry & Aeroplanes" - 5. "Josephine" - 10. "Shade of a Shadow" - 11. "To Meet You"

Studio debut album by Teitur [ˈtaitʊɹ] (aka Teitur Lassen). The album is recorded in both Los Angeles and in Spain and on it feature several established studio musicians. Prior to this, Teitur had released albums with the Faroese band Mark No Limits (1996), and later with the project band Sólin og Regnið (2002). This is a folk pop and most of all singer / songwriter album with predominantly acoustic and some chamber pop music.
It's a quite strong and promising debut that I keep returning to.
Recommended.

C.V. Jørgensen "T-Shirts, gummisko & terylenebukser" (1975)

original cover

T-Shirts, gummisko & terylenebukser

release date: 1975

format: *cd (2004 remaster)

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,18]

producer: Nils Henriksen

label: Frituna - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Louis Band" - 2. "På en fortovsrestaurant" - 5. "Flik-flakker" - 8. "Pak dit grej"

2nd studio album by C.V. Jørgensen and the follow-up to En stynet strejfer (1974) originally C.V.'s second and final on the label Hookfarm. The album is his first with actual producer credit, attributed guitarist Nils Henriksen (from the band Culpeper's Orchard), who would also later produce the sequel, on which he got a more significant part, but with this album he actually initiated his career as a record producer. The backing band is largely identical to the musicians from the debut. Per Wium has taken over the role as guitarist from Ivan Horn, but both bassist Erik Falck and drummer Gert Smedegård participate here. Although, Nils Henriksen contributes on slide and electric guitar, his role here is primarily as producer, whereas on later albums he took a more prominent part in Jørgensen's backing band playing guitar and keyboards. Incidentally, the album's title is a line from the first track, where the words come in a different order: "...han rendte fremmedgjort rundt på Vesterbro iført T-shirts terylenebukser og gummisko".

Musically, Jørgensen's first two albums are closely related in that both are clear expressions of psychedelic rock, and they also both take their point of departure from roots rock and folk rock, as characterised by The Band, Neil Young, Little Feat, and Dylan in particular. At the same time, both albums also point in several directions - sometimes they are experimental and bold psychedelic expressions, where you hear hints of inspiration from Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, and Cream), at times you'll notice an influx of funk rock, and at other times the music is characterised more by straightforward folk rock and country rock, which sometimes makes the band sound like a Danish copy of British and American idols. With this album, Jørgensen introduces a more distinctive narrative style of his own towards more positive stories with a touch of irony in portraits of people like himself: artists on the road, young people doing nothing or who are searching for their path in life, or when he outlines the daily life of common people.

T-Shirts, gummisko... was promoted with the release of the single "Flik-flakker" which didn't come close to a national success. However, the album clearly helped establish C.V. Jørgensen as a new Danish songwriter worth keeping an eye on, and the album paved the way for a better record deal. It's not an album that has aged particularly well, and in the main it mostly sounds like Jørgensen and band, who are attempting to make a Danish version of what international names have already established. Still, the album is a clear evidence of the development that C.V. has started, and especially with tracks like "På en fortovsrestaurant" and "Pak dit grej" it points quite nicely in the direction of the much more original and solid third album, Storbyens små oaser (1977), where he demonstrates a new high level in contemporary Danish rock songwriting.

The album was released with two different covers: the first edition had a 'beach' front cover (à la Neil Young On the Beach), whereas a later edition came with a 'portrait' cover.

*included on the compilation De 2 første ['The first two'] (2004), a 2-cd-release containing Jørgensen's first two albums.

'portrait' cover

The Fools "Psycho Chicken" (1980) (single)

Psycho Chicken, 7'' single
release date: 1980
format: vinyl / digital
[single rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,38]
producer: Richard Bartlett
label: EMI America - nationality: USA

Tracklist: A) "Psycho Chicken (Beeped)" - - B) "Psycho Chicken (Clucked)"

Single release by Boston-founded American new wave band The Fools and its parody of the song "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads from 1977.

Lise Westzynthius "Heavy Dream" (2002)

Heavy Dream [debut]

release date: Sep. 9, 2002

format: cd

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,04]

producer: Rune Schjøtt, Henrik Balling, Nikolaj Nørlund, Lise Westzynthius

label: Auditorium - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 1. "Based on a True Story" - 2. "Heavy Dream" - 5. "Still Life in Sthlm" - 8. "Élite" - 10. "The Spectral Psalm"

Studio album debut by Lise Westzynthius after the indie-pop band Luksus disbanded in 2001 and its two vocalists Westzynthius and Mikael Simpson initiated solo careers. Westzynthius shortly played with Nikolaj Nørlund in his project-band Rhonda Harris - and she takes part of the album The Trouble with Rhonda Harris (2001), and Simpson debuted in May 2002 with the self-released album Os to + lidt ro 2002.

Heavy Dream is more quiet than what Luksus played, and comes out as something quite original in an electronic art pop style with focus on singer / songwriter material - actually, much in the same way as Simpson examined on his debut. Westzynthius sings in a light, delicate, spheric vocal, which doesn't vary much from the track to track, and in the span of the album, it both proves fine and giving, although, it also appears with too little to offer on its own terms. At times she does sound a bit like Nina Persson from The Cardigans. Heavy Dream is nevertheless an approved debut, and Westzynthius is definitely an artist to look out for.

David Bowie "Hunky Dory" (1971)

Hunky Dory
release date: Dec. 17, 1971
format: cd (2007 remaster)
[album rate: 4,5 / 5] [4,28]
producer: Ken Scott
label: EMI Japan - nationality: England, UK

Tracklist: 1. "Changes" (5 / 5) - 2. "Oh! You Pretty Things" (4 / 5) - 3. "Eight Line Poem" - 4. "Life on Mars?" (5 / 5) - 5. "Kooks" (3,5 / 5) - 6. "Quicksand" (4 / 5) - 7. "Fill Your Heart" - 8. "Andy Warhol" - 9. "Song for Bob Dylan" - 10. "Queen Bitch" (4 / 5) - 11. "The Bewlay Brothers" (4 / 5)

4th studio album by David Bowie, who is also credited as assistant producer, is Bowie's first album on RCA Victor. The album signals a new beginning - and is by many considered his first major album, as it's his first actual art rock and glam rock album, which in a way combines his strengths as pop singer and artsy psychedelic pop performer in a new shape of art and glam. Here, one will hear inspiration from Dylan, The Velvet Underground as well as the old British baroque pop and the new extravagant glam rock as embodied by Marc Bolan. The album has been lauded, not only as one of Bowie's best, but also one of the best pop / rock albums of modern ages. Time (magazine) includes the album in its "All-Time 100 Albums" list, and it appears on many such best of lists. The album is naturally included in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die", and it was Bowie's first commercial success as it went as high as to number #3 on the national albums chart list.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 5 / 5 stars ]

Pink Floyd "Meddle" (1971)

Meddle
release date: Nov. 13, 1971
format: cd (reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]
producer: Pink Floyd
label: Harvest Records (org. release) / EMI (reissue) - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "One of These Days" (4 / 5) - 3. "Fearless" (4 / 5) - 6. "Echoes" (4 / 5)

6th studio album by Pink Floyd sees the band continue its experimental style with progressive rock. The album is less psychedelic and much tighter putting it more on level with the Deep Purple album Fireball (1971). The track "Echoes", which was the only composition on the B side of the original vinyl album with its near 24 min. playing time, is one of the band's great iconic tracks, and one pointing much to the music found on Dark Side of the Moon (1973) as well as to the album Wish You Were Here (1975). "Fearless" is another great track on the album, and perhaps also made famous due to the incorporation of the Liverpool FC anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone". I recall my older brother playing this track particular loud as he was a Liverpool fan. The cover art is designed by Hipgnosis.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Blender 4 / 5, Rolling Stone Album Guide 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Deep Purple "The Book of Taliesyn" (1968)

The Book of Taliesyn
release date: Dec. 1968
format: cd (2011 remaster)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,96]
producer: Derek Lawrence
label: Victor Entertainment, Japan - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Listen, Learn, Read On" - 2. "Hard Road (Wring That Neck)" - 7. "River Deep, Mountain High"

2nd studio album by Deep Purple originally released by Tetragrammaton in Dec. '68 actually had its first release in the US - as was the case for the debut album - and it wasn't released in the UK until another six months later, in Jun. 1969 on Harvest Records. Although, rather close to the release of the debut, the style is already quite different on this as there has been left more room for progressive rock experimental rock and psychedelic rock on this.
The first two tracks are closely related to "Hush" on the predecessor but the overall sensation is a more original band with ideas beyond just covering the time-typical Hendrix universe. In the aftermath, the most appraised track on the album is undoubtedly the Ike and Tina Turner (with Phil Spector) cover "River Deep, Mountain High", which here in the original version is a completely other track with a running time of more than 10 minutes and showcasing the band's taste for experimental and progressive rock.
With the album, Deep Purple prove to be a band in strong progress. They're not just pale imitators of Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane, but they also stumble along that treacherous no rules- experimental road where you easily find yourselves in a dead end street. There's still room for parts that sound like founded on the blues rock style of Hendrix, but there are also compositions that point more to (Frank Zappa and) The Mothers of Invention and Pink Floyd (track #5, "Shield" and track #6 "Anthem") and then there are even bits that sound like inspired by The Walker Brothers, The Beatles and Neil Diamond, which all together makes it a (more than) difficult mish-mash of styles and genres.
It's definitely not all bad, I just never found the long progressive and experimental styles the most interesting parts of late 60s and early 1970s rock to be that exiting.

Interpol "Turn on the Bright Lights" (2002)

Turn on the Bright Lights [debut]
release date: Aug. 20, 2002
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,12]
producer: Peter Katis, Gareth Jones
label: Matador - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. [untitled] (4 / 5) - 2. "Obstacle 1" (5 / 5) - 3. "NYC" (4 / 5) (live 2003) (live at Glastonbury 2005) - 5. "Say Hello to the Angels" (4 / 5) - 6. "Hands Away" - 8. "Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down" - 9. "Roland" - 11. "Leif Erikson" (4 / 5)

Studio debut album by Interpol. This album launched and soon dominated the post-punk revival wave that took place in the new millennium. I had double feelings about the album but eventually accepted it as a classic. The thing is, they would not have been able to make this music without Joy Division and Kitchens of Distinction (some would add a few others as well), however, that's how music is made. An artist listens to something that inspires and then goes on to create his/her own work despite what one might find of reminiscences. The critical reception of the album was generally positive, although, some tend to bring up the sources of inspiration and by that points to a lesser original creation. This is great music and the point is, this is not simply copying or new versions of 10 or 20 year-old music, but one may find the sources of inspiration in several tracks, and so what?! When I first listened to "Say Hello to the Angels" (after the first 40 secs), I couldn't help but thinking of The Smiths and their song "This Charming Man" but really, it's different song, and Interpol's track is another ball game. The music director Floria Sigismondi worked with the band on several music videos, e.g. "Obstacle 1" is a nice example. I really enjoy the voice of Paul Banks and the guitar play of Daniel Kessler, who has a great blend of fine guitarists' sound.
[ allmusic.com 5 / 5, NME 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ]

2002 Favourite releases: 1. The Streets Original Pirate Material - 2. Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights - 3. Johnny Cash American IV: The Man Comes Around

Interpol

~ ~ ~

Interpol: is an American band formed in New York, 1998. Members: Paul Banks [aka Julian Plenti] (vocals, guitar), Daniel Kessler (aka Daniel Alexander Kessler [birth name], guitar), Carlos Dengler [aka Carlos Andres Dengler [birth name], aka Carlos D., (bass, 1998-2010), Sam Fogarino [aka Sam Fog] (drums, 2000-present). Former members: Greg Drudy (drums, 1998-2000). Live members: Brandon Curtis (keyboards, vocals, 2010-), Brad Truax (bass, vocals, 2011-). Interpol initiated their career playing post-punk revival and has moved to a style that is harder to categorise but may be labelled alternative indie pop / rock. The band has occasionally lived through rather quiet periods but kept releasing new material over the years. The vocalist, Paul Banks, released his solo album debut as Julian Plenti Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper with a more art pop styled sound, and has released his second solo album under own name, Paul Banks (2012) - a combination of post-punk revival and art pop, thus embracing the styles embraced by Interpol and his first solo release.

~ ~ ~

David Bowie "David Bowie [Space Oddity]" (1969)

David Bowie [Space Oddity]
release date: Nov. 4, 1969
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,96]
producer: Tony Visconti
label: EMI Japan - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Space Oddity" (5 / 5) - 2. "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed" - 4. "Letter to Hermione" - 7. "An Occasional Dream" - 10. "Memory of a Free Festival"

2nd studio album by David Bowie and the first to be produced by Tony Visconti. The album was originally released on Philips Records as David Bowie. In 1972, after Bowie had signed with RCA Records, RCA reissued the album as Space Oddity (leaving out track #3, "Don't Sit Down").
Now with Visconti as producer the sound appears tighter, more energetic, and Bowie has moved away from the Britishness of baroque pop, which was quite typical for the period, and instead he has fused the album with blues rock elements and more straight-forward compositions founded on more traditional rock & roll instrumentation - perhaps influenced by a more American traditional style, also delivered by The Rolling Stones. Fleetwood Mac and The Who. The obvious hit on the album is "Space Oddity", which was Bowie's first hit song making it to number #5 on the national singles chart list, however, the remaining songs are somewhat distanced from that single, and the album comes out as a bit unfocused without a clear style or direction. Some tracks are pure blues rock compositions with what appears as a distinct The Doors inspiration, whereas other tracks are more subdued psychedelic pop songs completely without the rock tension.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ]

Stiff Little Fingers "Inflammable Material" (1979)

Inflammable Material [debut]
release date: Feb. 2, 1979
format: vinyl (ROUGH 1) / digital
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,82]
producer: Geoff Travis, Mayo Thompson, Doug Bennett
label: Rough Trade Records - nationality: Northern Ireland, UK

Track highlights: A) 1. "Suspect Device" (4 / 5) - 4. "Wasted Life" (4 / 5) - 5. "No More of That" - 6. "Barbed Wire Love" (4 / 5) - - B) 1. "Law and Order" (4 / 5) - 3. "Johnny Was" (4 / 5) - 4. "Alternative Ulster" (5 / 5) - 5. "Closed Groove"

Studio album debut by Northern Irish punk rock band Stiff Little Fingers is also the first full-length album on newly-established record label, Rough Trade (founded by Geoff Travis). SLF was not from Republic of Ireland but from Belfast, Northern Ireland, a centre of political conflict in the early 80s, which may be heard on many of their songs. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Jake Burns, lead guitarist and backing vocalist Henry Cluney, bassist and backing vocalist Ali McMordie, and drummer Brian Faloon - the same quartet, who began as Highway Star, a Deep Purple cover band. Inspired by the new punk rock movement the four changed the band name to Stiff Little Fingers, which was a song on British punk rock band The Vibrators' debut album Pure Mania (1977).
Inflammable Material is the first that I listened to and also bought with the band. I had been too late (and too young to know) to pay attention when Ramones, The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Damned and everyone else kicked off the punk rock revolution, so it was pretty neat to be there when one of the major bands of the genre kicked off at a later point. Like "real" punk rock, SLF sang about politics, the generation cleft, and had a strong social dimension - and much like Ramones, they also sang about love, which was nice BUT not really part of the punk rock movement, despite the fact that most bands did it, one way or another. "Suspect Device" (their first single, released Feb. '78) switch it on like fire and gasoline. Jake Burns screams his lungs out in his characteristic spitting and rusty manner, punching the message right in your face, and it's clear from first scratch on that these guys play for a mission. Most tracks are only a little more than 2-3 minutes but "Johnny Was" is quite unusual for a punk rock band. It runs 8 mins. and is a heavily altered cover version of a song performed by Bob Marley & The Wailers (written by Rita Marley). This version was nearly always included when SLF played live and really exemplifies how the band played at another level than the majority of punk rock bands at the time. "Alternative Ulster" both sets the place and time. Yeah, it may sound outdated today, and I don't listen to it more than once a year, and although, it's not the band's best studio release, it's certified musical history.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

[ brief history ]

Sods "Minutes to Go" (1979)

Minutes to Go [debut]
release date: Feb. 1979
format: digital (1997 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: Poul Bruun
label: EMI Records - nationality: Denmark

Tracklist: 1. "R.A.F." - 2. "Television Sect" (promo video) - 3. "Pathetic" - 4. "Police" - 5. "Flickering Eyes" - 6. "Suicide" - 7. "Transport" - 8. "Copenhagen" (live 2011) - 9. "Ghost City"

Studio debut album by the Danish punk rock pioneers Sods originally released by Danish label, Medley Records. The band is a quartet consisting of lead vocalist Steen (Birger) Jørgensen, guitarist Peter Peter [aka Peter Schneidermann], bassist Knud Odde (Sørensen), and with Tomas Ortved (Larsen) on drums. Eight out of a total of nine tracks are written by Sods - with the end-track, "Ghost City", a cover-version of a track by Suicide written by Alan Vega and Martin Rev. The running time is just below 30 mins, an album on the shorter side of 'long playing' albums, but for late '70s punk rock this wasn't unusual. The '97 cd re-issue contains an additional six tracks, lengthening the running time to approx. 40 mins. (4 tracks have a running time over 4 mins, 8 tracks are all under 2 mins.).
Somewhat late, Minutes to Go has come to be known as the first real Danish punk rock album - and a fine uncompromising first attempt. The style is hardcore punk, styled after the British punk of later bands like Charged GBH, UK Subs, Killing Joke, fused with early expressions as exemplified by Sex Pistols and Stiff Little Fingers and American new tendencies in punk like no wave and art punk as personified by Suicide and Lydia Lunch.
I was rather fond of this, although, I only ever had a copy on cassette.

Deep Purple "Shades of Deep Purple" (1968)

Shades of Deep Purple [debut]
release date: Jul. 1968
format: cd (2011 remaster)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,18]
producer: Derek Lawrence
label: Victor Entertainment, Japan - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "And the Address" - 2. "Hush" (5 / 5) - 8. "Hey Joe" (4 / 5)

Studio debut album by Deep Purple released on Tetragrammaton Records in the US released Sep. 1968 on Parlophone Records in the UK. The band consists of Rod Evans on lead vocals, Ritchie Blackmore on guitar, Jon Lord on organ, and backing vocals, Nick Simper on bass and backing vocals, and with Ian Paice on drums.
The track "Hey Joe" is an early 1960s song written by Billy Roberts, which already had been covered by several artists. Jimi Hendrix probably made the best known version, which appears on his debut album from 1966, and that is the version that Deep Purple basically covers in their own version. The music on this is somewhat unique. The style is psychedelic rock and hard rock, and the inspiration is clearly Jimi Hendrix. Having said that, the band succeeds in altering that American blues rock based sound into a more hard rock universe with both room for Hammond organ and electric guitars. Another inspiration source is most likely Jefferson Airplane. Some praise the album as a huge source of inspiration but it really is a big pot of styles put together. The first two tracks and the last one are all heavily influenced by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, whereas track #3 "One More Rainy Day" mostly just sounds like Neil Diamond, Scott Walker, and The Kinks with its bold baroque pop style; track #4 "Prelude: Happiness" is an experimental progressive rock fusion track; track #5 "Mandrake Root" starts out as The Doors blues rock but ends more as experimental psychedelic piece, and track #6 "Help!" is a Lennon / McCartney cover that only adds a bit of psychedelia to the the classic song; track #7 "Love Help Me" is more of The Who meets The Kinks meets Rolling Stones, thus making the album a bit of a melting pot of styles and influences.
I don't find it all that original, although, it has its moments in the highlighted tracks.