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Lloyd Cole And The Commotions

Mainstream - 2023 Reissue

    Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Cole, Blair Cowan, Lawrence Donegan, Neil Clark and Stephen Irvine – were formed in Glasgow in 1982, where Buxton-born singer-songwriter Cole was studying Philosophy and English at the University of Glasgow -Their sound swam against the tide of shiny 80s synthesisers, offering intense, melodic, guitar-based pop, topped with droll words packed with literary references.

    By the time of Mainstream in October 1987, the group had taken a break and had spent time trying to find the right producer for their new material. Working with Ian Stanley, then fresh from the success of Tears For Fears' Songs From The Big Chair, the album allegedly cost ten times the budget of Rattlesnakes. Despite its 80s opulence – for example, guest appearances from Jon Hassell on trumpet, Tracey Thorn on vocals – it sounds untouched by the decade's excess. Its singles, My Bag, Jennifer She Said and From The Hip were all well received.

    TRACK LISTING

    My Bag
    From The Hip
    29
    Mainstream
    Jennifer She Said
    Mister Malcontent
    Sean Penn Blues
    Big Snake
    Hey Rusty
    These Days

    Lloyd Cole And The Commotions

    Easy Pieces - 2023 Reissue

      Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Cole, Blair Cowan, Lawrence Donegan, Neil Clark and Stephen Irvine – were formed in Glasgow in 1982, where Buxton-born singer-songwriter Cole was studying Philosophy and English at the University of Glasgow -Their sound swam against the tide of shiny 80s synthesisers, offering intense, melodic, guitar-based pop, topped with droll words packed with literary references.

      Given just how loved debut album Rattlesnakes was, it would have been hard for whatever followed to be received as warmly – yet Easy Pieces made a good first of it. It was to sell twice as many copies in its first two weeks as Rattlesnakes had to date, giving the group a Top 5 chart placing on its release in November 1985. Recorded with 80s super- producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, its first two singles, the brooding, gospel influenced Brand New Friend and the forever-jaunty Lost Weekend reached the UK Top 20.

      TRACK LISTING

      Rich
      Why I Love Country Music
      Pretty Gone
      Grace
      Cut Me Down
      Brand New Friend
      Lost Weekend
      James
      Minor Character
      Perfect Blue

      Lloyd Cole And The Commotions

      Rattlesnakes - 2023 Reissue

        Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Cole, Blair Cowan, Lawrence Donegan, Neil Clark and Stephen Irvine – were formed in Glasgow in 1982, where Buxton-born singer-songwriter Cole was studying Philosophy and English at the University of Glasgow -Their sound swam against the tide of shiny 80s synthesisers, offering intense, melodic, guitar-based pop, topped with droll words packed with literary references.

        Signing to Polydor Records, the group's debut single, Perfect Skin, was released in early 1984 followed in October of that year by their debut album, Rattlesnakes. Produced by Paul Hardiman with strings arranged by Anne Dudley, it became one of the most cherished albums of the 80s. Including further singles Forest Fire and the title track, the group found themselves as the darlings of the music press, at a time when a university education was still a relative rarity. Cole wasted little time in cramming cultural allusions in his material – listeners were introduced to a world of Norman Mailer, Eva Marie Saint and Truman Capote, all wrapped in delightfully written pop music.

        TRACK LISTING

        Perfect Skin
        Speedboat
        Rattlesnakes
        Down On Mission Street
        Forest Fire
        Charlotte Street
        2CV
        Four Flights Up
        Patience
        Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?

        McAlmont & Butler

        The Sound Of... - 2023 Reissue

          While the whole of the UK seemed to be mining the sound of The Beatles, Stones and The Who as Britpop slavishly paid homage to the 60s, The Sound Of McAlmont And Butler took its influences more from music of Dusty Springfield, Scott Walker, Andy Williams and Burt Bacharach while creating something unique and timeless

          Rock, indie, soul, jazz and folk all meld in an album full of beguiling momentsBernard Butler had risen to fame as guitarist with Suede, who he'd left in 1994. After six months of solo writing, he approached ex- Thieves singer David McAlmont at London's Jazz Café, with the bare bones of a song, Yes. McAlmont added lyrics, and the track soared to No 8 in the UK charts, becoming the sound of summer 1995. It is impossible to listen to Yes without breaking into a beaming smile. With this headstart, the duo recorded more sides together – the Top 20 hit You Do and attendant tracks. However, it ended as quickly as it had began. Never intended as a long- term arrangement, McAlmont & Butler were over by autumn 1995. Considering The Sound Of McAlmont & Butler is effectively a compilation of the duo's sessions as opposed to a planned work, it has a tremendous consistency. A lot of the tracks were recorded as bonus tracks for CD singles (the 90s equivalent of a B- side), and retain a spontaneous air alongside the huge production numbers of Yes, You Do and Disappointment.

          This re-issue faithfully replicates the original 1995 Virgin Records UK release with printed inner sleeve and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.

          TRACK LISTING

          Yes (Full Version)
          What's The Excuse This Time?
          The Right Thing 
          Although
          Don't Call It Soul
          Disappointment
          Interval
          The Debitor 
          How About You?
          Tonight
          You'll Lose A Good Thing
          You Do (Full Length)

          Big Country

          The Crossing

            Formed by ex-Skids guitarist Stuart Adamson in 1981 with old friend Bruce Watson and, from 1982, rhythm section Tony Butler and Mark Brzezicki, Big Country proved a fascinating proposition, adding punk, new wave and even new romantic elements to heavy, meaning-laden pop/rock with a passionate Celtic slant and fierce integrity

            Using effects, Adamson and Watson's chiming guitars evoked traditional Scottish instruments. This was unique and proved highly influential. Within a year of their first release, many existing bands began to emulate the group's sound. Nobody achieved it quite like Big Country.Released in July 1983, The Crossing is, for many, the band's greatest album. At once of its time yet completely out of step with what was then happening, its traditional, well-made songs and sounds took it to No. 3 in the UK charts and into the US Top 20. Produced by Steve Lillywhite, it features four of the group's best- known songs, In A Big Country, Fields Of Fire (400 Miles), Harvest Home and Chance.

            TRACK LISTING

            In A Big Country
            Inwards
            Chance
            1000 Stars
            The Storm
            Harvest Home
            Lost Patrol
            Close Action
            Fields Of Fire
            Porrohman

            Sandy Denny

            Like An Old Fashioned Waltz - 2022 Reissue

              More beautiful sadness for you! Sandy's 1973, third solo offering is rich with nostalgia. Not only are two of the songs covers from her father's record collection but Sandy's own tunes are heavy with romance, memory, loss and loneliness. There are five absolute anthems on this album and the singing is beautifully embroidered with subtle inflections and emotional nuances. It wasn't for nothing that Robert Plant named her as his favourite of all the British female singers. And this edition's unaccompanied take of "No End" has to be up there with her greatest ever performances.


              Out of print on LP for a number of years, this re- issue faithfully replicates the original 1974 Island Records UK release with its embossed gatefold sleeve and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.

              TRACK LISTING

              Solo
              Like An Old Fashioned Waltz
              Whispering Grass
              Friends
              Carnival
              Dark The Night
              At The End Of The Day
              Until The Real Thing Comes Along
              No End

              Sandy Denny

              Rendezvous - 2022 Reissue

                From the power chords that open it, 1977's Rendezvous aimed squarely at giving Denny her commercial breakthrough. It demonstrates an artist evolving. Gold Dust really underlines how Denny could be viewed as the British Joni Mitchell, and its late- night jazz funk backing (with Steve Winwood on clavinet) offers a beguiling glimpse of where Denny may have travelled next. Rendezvous closes with No More Sad Refrains, which updated her late 60s ballad style. As Denny died tragically young less than a year after the album's release, it became a poignant full stop to such a promising career.

                Long out of print on LP, this re-issue faithfully replicates the original 1977 Island Records UK release with lyric inner sleeve and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.

                TRACK LISTING

                Wish I I Was A Fool For You (For Shame Of Doing Wrong)
                Gold Dust 
                Candle In The Wind
                Take Me Away
                One Way Donkey Ride
                I'm A Dreamer
                All Our Days
                Silver Threads And Golden Needles
                No More Sad Refrains

                Sandy Denny

                Sandy - 2022 Reissue

                  Sandy's second solo LP in 1972 was a bit less folky and more singer-songwriterly than her debut. She'd duetted on "Led Zeppelin Four" with Robert Plant and come up with perhaps her stongest set of songs. The arrangements were more expansive and the sound more ambitious, which was just as well since a number of the songs dealt with the healing powers of music. As she said herself: 'I can't write happy songs'... so here's another lush, melancholic, autumnal record for all you dreamers and true believers.

                  Out of print on LP for a number of years, this re- issue faithfully replicates the original 1972 Island Records UK release with gatefold sleeve and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.

                  TRACK LISTING

                  It'll Take A Long Time
                  Sweet Rosemary
                  For Nobody To Hear
                  Tomorrow Is A Long Time
                  Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood
                  Listen, Listen
                  The Lady
                  Bushes And Briars
                  It Suits Me Well
                  The Music Weaver

                  Sandy Denny

                  The North Star Grassman And The Ravens - 2022 Reissue

                    After leaving Fairport Convention in '69, Sandy Denny made one record with her new group Fotheringay, and then this, in 1971, her first solo LP proper. The amazing Richard Thompson plays guitar and infact this album shares a similar, dense, drone-based tonality with his own debut solo effort. It's also a little idyosyncratic, truth be told, but there's still moments of unbelievable beauty here. 

                    Out of print on LP for a number of years, this re- issue faithfully replicates the original 1971 Island Records UK release with gatefold sleeve and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.

                    TRACK LISTING

                    Late November
                    Blackwaterside
                    The Sea Captain
                    Down In The Flood
                    John The Gun
                    Next Time Around
                    The Optimist
                    Let's Jump The Broomstick
                    Wretched Wilbur
                    The North Star Grassman And The Ravens
                    Crazy Lady Blues

                    Richard Thompson

                    13 Rivers

                      The 13-song set is the Grammy nominated artist’s first self-produced album in over a decade and was recorded 100% analogue in just ten days. It was engineered by Clay Blair (The War On Drugs) and features Thompson’s regular accompanists Michael Jerome (drums, percussion), Taras Prodaniuk (bass), and Bobby Eichorn (guitar).

                      13 Rivers is a bare-bones, emotionally direct album that speaks from the heart with no filters. “There are 13 songs on the record, and each one is like a river,” Thompson explains. “Some flow faster than others. Some follow a slow and winding current. They all culminate on this one body of work.”

                      A high water mark in an overwhelmingly impressive career, 13 Rivers was recorded at the famed Boulevard Recording Studio in Los Angeles. Previously known as The Production Workshop, which was owned by Liberace and his manager, the locale served as the site for seminal classics by Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Ringo Starr, and hosted the mixing sessions for Pink Floyd’s legendary The Wall.

                      Of the album, Thompson says, “The songs are a surprise in a good way. They came to me as a surprise in a dark time. They reflected my emotions in an oblique manner that I’ll never truly understand. It’s as if they’d been channelled from somewhere else. You find deeper meaning in the best records as time goes on. The reward comes later.” He continues, “I don’t know how the creative process works. I suppose it is some kind of bizarre parallel existence to my own life. I often look at a finished song and wonder what the hell is going on inside me. We sequenced the weird stuff at the front of the record, and the tracks to grind your soul into submission at the back.”

                      TRACK LISTING

                      The Storm Won’t Come
                      The Rattle Within
                      Her Love Was Meant For Me
                      Bones Of Gilead
                      The Dog In You
                      Trying
                      Do All These Tears Belong To You?
                      My Rock, My Rope / You Can’t Reach Me
                      O Cinderella
                      No Matter
                      Pride
                      Shaking The Gates

                      Richard Thompson

                      Electric - Deluxe 2CD Edition

                        One of the UK's most outstanding songwriters, and an astonishing guitar player whose versatility allows him to adapt his style as each song requires. After taking the bold step of recording his last album of new songs live, when it came to recording ELECTRIC, Thompson turned to Buddy Miller (Robert Plant, Solomon Burke, Emmylou Harris. Patty Griffin) to produce, recording at Miller's home studio in Nashville, TN.

                        The record was recorded as an electric trio with Thompson, drummer Michael Jerome and bassist Taras Prodaniuk, who also sings background vocals. Guests on ELECTRIC include the legendary Alison Krauss who joins Thompson on "The Snow Goose", while English singer-songwriter Siobhan Maher Kennedy (formerly with River City People) adds vocals on several tracks as well. Fiddle great Stuart Duncan also plays on the record; one of America's leading bluegrass musicians he played on recent albums by Robert Plant/Alison Krauss and Elvis Costello.

                        Richard Thompson

                        Electric

                          One of the UK's most outstanding songwriters, and an astonishing guitar player whose versatility allows him to adapt his style as each song requires. After taking the bold step of recording his last album of new songs live, when it came to recording ELECTRIC, Thompson turned to Buddy Miller (Robert Plant, Solomon Burke, Emmylou Harris. Patty Griffin) to produce, recording at Miller's home studio in Nashville, TN.

                          The record was recorded as an electric trio with Thompson, drummer Michael Jerome and bassist Taras Prodaniuk, who also sings background vocals. Guests on ELECTRIC include the legendary Alison Krauss who joins Thompson on "The Snow Goose", while English singer-songwriter Siobhan Maher Kennedy (formerly with River City People) adds vocals on several tracks as well. Fiddle great Stuart Duncan also plays on the record; one of America's leading bluegrass musicians he played on recent albums by Robert Plant/Alison Krauss and Elvis Costello.


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