Chaka Khan - Chaka (1978) - €6,00

Chaka is the debut solo album by singer Chaka Khan. It was released on October 12, 1978 through Warner Bros Record label. 

Still very much an integral part of Rufus, Chaka Khan set the charts on fire with her debut solo release. The first single was the R&B chart-topper "I'm Every Woman," an Ashford & Simpson track with Khan lighting up the lyric with her tantalizing vocals. "Life Is a Dance," the second release, doesn't quite compare to its predecessor, but it still made the R&B Top 40. 

The sentimental ballad "Roll Me Through the Rushes" is poetically engaging, and despite never being released as a single, it became a mainstay of radio. 

Although Khan had much credibility from her association with Rufus, this album demonstrated that the dynamic vocalist could hold her own ground alone. 

Two singles were released from Chaka, the first being her anthemic solo debut "I'm Every Woman", one of Khan's signature. 

The album also features the ballad "Roll Me Through the Rushes", never commercially released as a single but still receiving considerable airplay in 1979, as well as Khan's cover version of Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made To Love Her", re-titled "I Was Made to Love Him".

Side one
1.  I'm Every Woman  (4:05)
2.  Love Has Fallen on Me  (4:52)
3.  Roll Me Through the Rushes  (4:42)
4.  Sleep on It  (4:21)
5.  Life Is a Dance  (4:20)

Side two
1.  We Got the Love  (3:27)
2.  Some Love  (5:50)
3.  A Woman in a Man's World  (3:56)
4.  The Message in the Middle of the Bottom  (4:15)
5.  I Was Made to Love Him  (3:23)

Notes

Release:  1978

Format:  LP

Genre: Soul

Label:  Warner Bros. Records

Catalog#   BSK 3245 

Vinyl:  VG

Cover:  Licht Beschadigd

Prijs: €5,99

Depeche Mode - Love In Itself (1983) - €7,99

"Love, in Itself" is Depeche Mode's ninth U.K. single and the final single from the album “Construction Time Again”. Studio Side recorded at the Garden Studios, London, and mixed at Hansa Mischraum, Berlin. Plays at 45rpm. Live Side recorded at Hammersmith Odeon, 25 October 1982 by Mobile One. Mixed at Blackwing.
"Just Can't Get Enough" became a hit of its own in the Netherlands in early 1985. It wasn't released as a separate single, so it was the 12" single (L12Bong4) that entered the Dutch chart. Officially it wasn't allowed in the singles charts as the 12" had been sold (and priced) as a mini-LP in the weeks before that. But due to its popularity on the radio, "Just Can't Get Enough" was allowed to enter and duly became Depeche Mode's biggest Dutch hit of all time.


Side one
1.  Love, in Itself (2)  (4:18)
2.  Love, in Itself (3)  (7:15)

Side two
1.  Just Can't Get Enough (live)  (5:35)
2.  A Photograph of You (live)  (3:21)
3.  Shout! (live)  (4:39)
4.  Photographic (live)  (3:56)

Notes

Release: 1983 

Format:  Mini Album

Genre: Electronic

Label:  Mute Records

Catalog#  585003

Vinyl: Good

Cover: Good

Prijs: €7,99

John Watts - The Iceberg Model (1983) - €10,00

The Iceberg Model (1983). This project incorporated Dexys Midnight Runners' brass section, strings, improvisations and experimental techniques usually associated with modern classical music.A step down from his first solo effort and also a change in style. 

More keyboards than before and Watts adds saxophones. It kicks off with 3 killer tracks: "Interference", "Man in someone else's skin" and "I smelt roses (in the underground)". 

No rock, but horns and also some african percussion. John was experimenting with a new sound, and although i gave the record a lot of listens, i never got the hang of it. 

Especially the closing song "Iceberg model" is an instrumental and a cacophony of horns and keyboards and weird sounds. 

After that the rest of the album is a bit of a let down, but still more than enjoyable for fans of Fischer-Z. 

Side one

1.  Interference   (5:33)

2.  Man in Someone Else’s Skin   (2:56)

3.  I Smelt Roses (In the Underground)   (3:56)

4.  I Was in Love with You   (3:36)

5.  Money and Power   (4:57)

Side two

1.  The Prisoner’s Dilemma   (4:45)

2.  Mayday Mayday   (3:44)

3.  Menagerie Makers   (5:02)

4.  A Face to Remember   (3:58)

5.  Iceberg Model   (4:08)

Notes

Release: 1983

Format:  LP

Genre:  New Wave

Label:  EMI Records

Catalog#  1C 064-07699

Vinyl:  VG

Cover:  VG

Prijs: €10,00

Genesis - A Trick Of The Tail (1975) - €10,00

A Trick of the Tail is the seventh studio album by English progressive rock band Genesis. It was released in January 1976 on Charisma Records and was the first album to feature drummer Phil Collins as lead vocalist following the departure of Peter Gabriel. It was a critical and commercial success in the UK and U.S., reaching No. 3 and No. 31 respectively.

Following Gabriel's decision to leave the band, the remaining members wanted to carry on and show they could still write and record successful material. The group wrote and rehearsed new songs during mid-1975, and listened to numerous audition tapes for a replacement frontman. They entered Trident Studios in October with producer David Hentschel to record the album without a definitive idea of who was going to perform lead vocals. After the search for a singer proved unfruitful, Collins was persuaded to sing "Squonk", and the performance was so strong, he sang lead on the rest of the album.

Upon release, critics were impressed by the improved sound quality and the group's ability to survive the loss of Gabriel without sacrificing the quality of the music. The group went out on tour with Collins as frontman and Bill Bruford as an additional drummer, and the resulting performances in the US raised Genesis' profile there.

After Peter Gabriel departed for a solo career, Genesis embarked on a long journey to find a replacement, only to wind back around to their drummer, Phil Collins, as a replacement. With Collins as their new frontman, the band decided not to pursue the stylish, jagged postmodernism of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway -- a move that Gabriel would do in his solo career -- and instead returned to the English eccentricity of Selling England by the Pound for its next effort, A Trick of the Tail. 

In almost every respect, this feels like a truer sequel to Selling England by the Pound than Lamb; after all, that double album was obsessed with modernity and nightmare, whereas this album returns the group to the fanciful fairy tale nature of its earlier records. Also, Genesis were moving away from the barbed pop of the first LP and returning to elastic numbers that showcased their instrumental prowess, and they sounded more forceful and unified as a band than they had since Foxtrot. 

Not that this album is quite as memorable as Foxtrot or Selling England, largely because its songs aren't as immediate or memorable: apart from "Dance on a Volcano," this is about the sound of the band playing, not individual songs, and it succeeds on that level quite wildly -- to the extent that it proved to longtime fans that Genesis could possibly thrive without its former leader in tow. 

Side one

1.  Dance On A Volcano   (5:54) 

2.  Entangled   (6:26)  

3.  Squonk   (6:29)  

4.  Mad Man Moon   (7:35) 

Side two

1.  Robbery, Assault And Battery   (6:16)     

2.  Ripples  (8:06)   

3.  A Trick Of The Tail  (4:34)    

4.  Los Endos    (5:46)

Notes

Release: 1976

Format: LP 

Genre: Prog-Rock

Label: Charisma

Catalog#  6369974

Vinyl:  VG

Cover:  VG

Prijs: €10,00

Journey - Captured (2LP) (1981) - €20,00

Captured is Journey's first live album. Recorded during their Departure Tour, it was released on January 30, 1981 on the Columbia Records label. The album reached No. 9 on the Billboard 200 albums chart^[2] and went on to sell two million copies.

This album was recorded during the band's "Departure" tour in 1980. Tracks 1 to 4 were taken from a performance recorded at The Forum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on August 8, 1980. Tracks 5 & 6 were from the performance at the end of the tour in Koseinenkin Hall, Shinjyuku, Tokyo, Japan on October 13, 1980 and tracks 7 to 16 came from two shows at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan on August 4 & 5th 1980. 

The song "Dixie Highway" had not previously been (nor was it subsequently) recorded on any Journey studio album. Closing the album is the lone studio track, "The Party's Over (Hopelessly in Love)," which was released as a single.

After spending the better half of the '70s as an ersatz prog band given to Neal Schon's noodling, never-ending solos, low record sales, and muddling about on the marginal rock circuit, the members of Journey certainly welcomed the phenomenal chart success and arena tours that came their way in the late '70s. 

With Captured, a live double-disc from 1980, the newly crowned kings of AOR show off like a formerly fat girl at prom. "Separate Ways" and "Faithfully" were still a few years away, but the band had plenty of hits by this time and they blast through them all, including a blistering version of "Any Way You Want It." 

The band are in rare form and vocalist Steve Perry uses Captured as his coming out, while the thousands of diehards sweating in the blistering sun give the album an underlying hum of energy that tops even Perry's. 

In the liner notes, the album is dedicated to AC/DC lead singer Bon Scott, who died in February 1980. Scott is referred to as "a friend from the highway," as AC/DC had supported Journey the previous year on their "If You Want Blood" tour.

This was the last Journey album for keyboard player and founder Gregg Rolie. 

Side one
1.  Majestic   (0:41)
2.  Where Were You   (3:22)
3.  Just The Same Way   (3:37)
4.  Line Of Fire   (3:25)
5.  Lights   (3:30)
6.  Stay Awhile   (3:15)

Side two
1.  Too Late   (3:44)
2.  Dixie Highway   (6:51)
3.  Feeling That Way   (3:14)
4.  Anytime   (4:27)

Side three
1.  Do You Recall   (3:26)
2.  Walks Like A Lady   (7:05)
3.  La Do Da   (7:02)

Side four
1.  Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'   (5:14)
2.  Wheel In The Sky   (5:03)
3.  Any Way You Want It   (3:39)
4.  The Party's Over (Hopelessly In Love) [studio recording]  (3:43)

Notes

Release:  1981

Format:  2LP (Gatefold)

Genre:  Hardrock

Label:  CBS Records

Catalog#  88525

Vinyl:  VG

Cover:  VG

Prijs: €20,00

Status Quo - Live! (2LP) (1977) - €20,00

Live! is the first live album by British rock band Status Quo. The double album is an amalgam of performances at Glasgow's Apollo Theatre between 27 and 29 October 1976, recorded using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio.

"The worst album we ever made," said guitarist and singer Francis Rossi. "I always thought we were better than that. Rick Parfitt and I were left to mix it, and we went through the recordings of the three nights we played, only to pick the first one." "I disagree with my old pal there," countered Parfitt. "There are bits of the live album that still give me goosebumps."

The album includes a typically extended version of "Forty Five Hundred Times". "The first part of the song was the song, but we'd make the extra bits up…" recalled Parfitt. "You'd just know when to get softer and then take it somewhere heavier. It was incredible. You'd be swept away by this rollercoaster of music. The only way to end it was to nod, 'Shall we finish it here?'"

Recorded, with perfect timing, just as Status Quo hit their live peak, 1977's double Live! album is, contrarily, a timeless reminder of just how much power and excitement was bound up in the band through the mid-'70s -- and on, in fact, into the early '80s. 

It would be several years before Status Quo turned into the faintly embarrassing cabaret singalong that scarred the latter years of their career, a fact that Live! broadcasts via a picture-perfect snapshot of the last calm before that particular storm. 

Touring to support 1976's Blue for You (U.S. title Status Quo) album, the band is still reaching back to the dawn of the decade for material. "Junior's Wailing" and "In My Chair" both date back to the tentative days of 1970, as the band prepared to slide from psych to boogie without knowing whether there was even an audience for such a shock. 

The fact that there was, of course, would be celebrated with some of the most visceral singles of the decade. "Roll Over Lay Down," "Rain," "Don't Waste My Time," and, most impressively, "Caroline" all slough off well-loved 45s, to be transformed into veritable showstoppers, while the LP epics "Forty-Five Hundred Times" and "Roadhouse Blues" receive marathon workouts that all but defy gravity. 

The mid-'70s were a golden age for double live albums, and from Frampton Comes Alive! to Thin Lizzy's Live and Dangerous, the era is littered with what now rank as classics. 

Live! effortlessly takes its place alongside those most hallowed of halcyon howlers, and no matter what else Status Quo might have become in later years, this is what they sounded like before that happened. 

Side A

A1.  Junior's Wailing   (5:20)  

A2.  Backwater / Just Take Me  (7:35)  

A3.  Is There A Better Way   (4:28)  

A4.  In My Chair   (4:07) 

Side B

B1.  Little Lady  / Most Of The Time  (6:50)  

B2.  Forty-Five Hundred Times   (17:10) 

Side C

C1.  Roll Over Lay Down   (6:07)  

C2.  Big Fat Mama   (5:00)  

C3.  Caroline Drum Solo   (6:35)  

C4.  Bye Bye Johnny   (6:18) 

Side D

D1.  Rain   (4:50)  

D2.  Don't Waste My Time   (4:55)  

D3.  Roadhouse Blues   (14:23) 

Notes

Release:  1977

Format:  2LP (Gatefold)

Genre:  Hardrock

Label:  Vertigo Records

Catalog#  9286728

Vinyl:  VG

Cover:  VG

Prijs: €20,00

Fine Young Cannibals - Fine Young Cannibals (1985) - €10,00

Fine Young Cannibals were a British rock band formed in Birmingham, England, in 1984, by bassist David Steele, guitarist Andy Cox (both formerly of The Beat), and singer Roland Gift (formerly of the Akrylykz).

Fine Young Cannibals is their debut album released in 1985. The album features the UK #8 debut hit single "Johnny Come Home". This success did not continue with the next single, "Blue", which languished at #41 in the UK. 

When Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger split from the rest of the English Beat to form General Public, guitarist Andy Cox and bassist Dave Steele originally advertised on MTV for a new lead singer for the Beat. 

When that didn't pan out, Cox and Steele hooked up with the unique vocalist Roland Gift and the trio formed the Fine Young Cannibals, issuing their self-titled debut album in 1985. Along the lines of early Everything But the Girl (the two groups share a producer, Robin Millar) with a heavier Motown influence, the songs on Fine Young Cannibals are uniformly strong. 

The singles "Johnny Come Home" (a plea to a runaway that sounds like the Beat's ska stripped down to its tense and obsessive essentials) and "Blue" (one of the more oblique and successful anti-Margaret Thatcher tracks of its era) are terrific, but album tracks like the casually devastating "Funny How Love Is" and the manic "Like a Stranger" (which incongruously ends with a female chorus shrieking "You've been too long in an institution!" repeatedly while Gift tries out his Otis Redding impression) are even better. 

The album's highlight, though, is a reworking of "Suspicious Minds" (with backing vocals by Jimmy Somerville) that, while it doesn't replace Elvis' version, certainly takes the song into an interesting new direction. Although often overlooked in the wake of their massively successful follow-up, The Raw and the Cooked, Fine Young Cannibals is a powerful and satisfying debut. 

The album's cover art came in two variations. The original U.S and Canadian releases on I.R.S. Records had a blue-tinted cover; most other versions, such as the U.K. release on London Records, have artwork tinted in red. 

Side A
A1.  Johnny Come Home  (3:35)  
A2.  Couldn't Care More  (3:30)  
A3.  Don't Ask Me To Choose  (3:05)  
A4.  Funny How Love Is  (3:28)  
A5.  Suspicious Minds (3:56) 

Side B
B1.  Blue  (3:31)  
B2.  Move To Work  (3:26)  
B3.  On A Promise  (3:06)  
B4.  Time Isn't Kind  (3:12)  
B5.  Like A Stranger  (3:28)

Notes

Release: 1985

Format:  LP

Genre: Blue-Eyed Soul

Label:  London Records

Catalog#  828004-1

Vinyl:  VG

Cover:  VG  

  

Prijs: €10,00 

Nena - ? (Fragezeichen) (1984) - €10,00

? (Fragezeichen) (German for "Question mark") is the second album by German pop rock band Nena and the third studio album to feature its lead singer, Gabriele "Nena" Kerner. It was released on 27 January 1984, just a few months before the band's first international album 99 Luftballons, which contains songs from their debut album Nena (1983) and this album, some of them re-recorded with English lyrics.

Like its self-titled predecessor, this album was produced by Reinhold Heil and Manne Praeker of Spliff.

In appearance, the second Nena album again bears typical hallmarks of a new wave act: a shadowy band photo on a black background on the cover and nothing more than a question mark as its title. However, as with the debut album, the music has little to do with actual deconstructionist strategies or new wave's typical intent to disturb. In fact, it is even further removed from that than its predecessor, which was driven by forceful songs and Nena's almost masculine singing approach on that occasion. The opening "Rette Mich" does pick up from there, but the rest of the album contrasts the debut by being much more romantic. 

Love and longing are the main subjects, with Nena's voice conveying a touching vulnerability that suits the wistful mood of the album perfectly. The music veers even closer to the magical sounds of '70s Baroque rock, which there had also been hints of on the first album. 

The song structures, however, retain an '80s simplicity, with writing credits spreading out even more evenly between all five bandmembers in various combinations, retaining their general tendency toward classy, beautiful pop melodies. 

Its tender atmosphere makes it truly special among Nena's albums. The title track, first launched as a surprisingly laid-back single in late 1983, features lyrics by Nena herself about the emotional to and fro (and acceptance) of one's own contradicting desires, and despite its lack of musical excitement, the song took on an anthemic quality for Nena's fans. 

In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, the album consolidated the band's stature as the unsurpassable success story of the moment. 

Moreover, the concentration of the media on Nena significantly drained attention away from the German new wave scene in general, and by year's end there was a consensus that the drive to commercialize new wave in Germany had actually finished it off as a genuine movement. 

Side A
A1.  Rette Mich  (3:17)  
A2.  ? (Fragezeichen)  (4:28)  
A3.  Das Land Der Elefanten  (3:42)  
A4 . Unerkannt Durchs Märchenland  (3:21)  
A5.  Küss Mich Wach  (2:43)  
A6.  Lass Mich Dein Pirat Sein  (4:51) 

Side B
B1.  Ich Häng' An Dir  (4:13)  
B2.  Sois Bienvenu  (3:22)  
B3.  Keine Antwort  (3:18)  
B4.  Der Bus Is' Schon Weg  (0:15)  
B5.  Es Regnet  (4:45)  
B6.  Der Anfang Vom Ende  (3:53) 

Notes

Release:  1984

Format:  LP

Genre: Neue Deutsche Welle

Label:  CBS Records

Catalog#   25870

Vinyl:  VG

Cover:  VG

Prijs: €10,00

Christopher Cross - Another Page (1983) - €10,00

Another Page is Christopher Cross's second studio album, recorded in 1982 and released in early 1983.

Christopher Cross had a lot to live up to following his self-titled debut album, which had sold a million copies (now up to four million), spawned four Top 40 hits, including the number one hit, "Sailing," and won him five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year (the last two for "Sailing"), and Best New Artist. So, he took three years to make Another Page, which, unsurprisingly, sounded a lot like its predecessor. Cross concentrated on smooth pop arrangements, over which be sang greeting-card romantic sentiments in an innocent, Brian Wilson-like tenor. 

No one would confuse the result with anything truly heartfelt, or with real rock & roll, but Cross' soothing approach was still good enough to put two of his songs, "All Right" and "No Time for Talk," into the Top 40 and earn a gold record certification. 

Then, nearly a year after the album's release, TV soap opera General Hospital began featuring the maudlin ballad "Think of Laura," and Another Page suddenly had a third single, this one a Top Ten hit.

All songs written by Christopher Cross, except "Deal 'Em Again", co-written by Michael Maben, and the bonus track "Arthur's Theme," co-written by Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen.

 

Side A

A1. No Time For Talk - 4:22   

A2. Baby Says No - 6:04   

A3. What Am I Supposed To Believe - 4:22   

A4. Deal ‘Em Again - 3:10   

A5. Think Of Laura - 3:22  

Side B

B1. All Right - 4:18   

B2. Talking In My Sleep - 3:34   

B3. Nature Of The Game - 3:55   

B4. Long World - 3:32   

B5. Words Of Wisdom - 5:52 

Notes

Release:  1983

Format:  LP

Genre:  Soft Rock

Label:  Warner Bros. Records

Catalog#  923757-1

Vinyl:  VG

Cover:  VG

Prijs: €10,00

XTC - English Settlement (1982) - €10,00

English Settlement is the fifth studio album and first double album by the English rock band XTC, released 12 February 1982 on Virgin Records. It marked a turn towards the more pastoral pop songs that would dominate later XTC releases, with an emphasis on acoustic guitar, 12-string electric guitar and fretless bass. 

In some countries, the album was released as a single LP with five tracks deleted. The title refers to the Uffington White Horse depicted on the cover, to the "settlement" of viewpoints, and to the Englishness that the band felt they "settled" into the record.

XTC recorded the album at The Manor Studio in Oxfordshire with producer Hugh Padgham, the engineer of their previous two LPs. 

Compared to the band's previous releases, English Settlement showcased more complex and intricate arrangements, lengthier songs, lyrics that covered broader social issues, and a wider range of music styles. 

Several new instruments within the band -- Dave Gregory's Rickenbacker 12-string, Andy Partridge's new acoustic guitar, and Terry Chambers' new drum synthesizer, along with Colin Moulding's fretless bass -- set the tone for English Settlement, an album that moved away from the pop gloss of Black Sea in favor of light, though still rhythmically heavy, acoustic numbers with more complex and intricate instrumentation. 

There are plenty of pop gems -- "Senses Working Overtime" stands as one of their finest songs -- but the main focus seems to be the more expansive sound; most of the songs are drawn out to near-epic length, ultimately taking away some of the songs' impact. 

Despite several terrific tracks, English Settlement seems more a transitional album than anything else, although the textural sound of the album is quite remarkable, indicating the direction they would take in their post-touring incarnation. 

Principal songwriter Andy Partridge was fatigued by the grueling touring regimen imposed by their label and management, and believed that pursuing a sound less suited for live performance would relieve the pressure to tour. Three singles were issued from the album: "Senses Working Overtime", "Ball and Chain" and "No Thugs in Our House". 

Side A
A1.  Runaways  (4:33)  
A2.  Ball And Chain  (4:30)  
A3.  Senses Working Overtime  (4:50)  
A4.  Jason And The Argonauts  (6:05)  
A5.  Snowman  (5:12) 

Side B
B1.  Melt The Guns  (6:31)  
B2.  No Thugs In Our House  (5:09)  
B3.  Yacht Dance  (3:54)  
B4.  English Roundabout  (3:48)  
B5.  All Of A Sudden (It's Too Late)  (5:19) 

Notes

Release:  1982

Format:  LP

Genre:  New Wave

Label:  Virgin Records

Catalog#  204446

Vinyl:  VG

Cover:  VG

Prijs: €10,00

Godley & Creme - Freeze Frame (1979) - €10,00

Freeze Frame is a 1979 album by Godley & Creme. The album was recorded at Nigel Gray's Surrey Sound Studios, Leatherhead, Surrey. The cover art, designed by Hipgnosis, identifies the duo as 'Godley Creme'

This album made use of a couple of technical innovations which gave it a unique sound. "I Pity Inanimate Objects" contained a distinctive vocal treatment in which the notes are seemingly obtained by altering the pitch of pre-recorded voices. In an interview for The Idler magazine in 2007, Kevin Godley explained how that song was realized:

Recently, I played I Pity Inanimate Objects from Freeze Frame and I remembered how and why we actually did that. The idea was driven by a new piece of equipment called a harmoniser. It's used in studios all the time these days as a corrective device to get performances in tune, but this early version came with a keyboard. You could put a sound through a harmoniser and if you wanted an instrument or voice to hit a certain note that it hadn't, you could play that note on the keyboard. So we got to thinking, 'Let's forget about singing for the moment. What happens if I vocalize these words in a monotone - do an entire song on one note - and get Lol to play my vocal on the harmoniser keyboard?' That was the experiment. It worked pretty well. Predated Cher's digital gurglings by a few years. I don't know where the lyric came from. Maybe because the harmoniser was inanimate.

In the same interview, Godley was asked whether he and Creme used the Brian Eno/Peter Schmidt 'Oblique Strategies' chance cards:

No, we used dope. (Laughter.) Dope Strategies. There's only one card and you use it as a roach. The way we recorded the Brazilia track on Freeze Frame harked back to first year art college techniques. There was this great teacher who, in order to free up your mind, would say, 'OK, I want you to blindfold yourself, and you to tie your right arm behind your back, you stand on one leg... Now paint!' In other words, he would create obstacles for you to overcome as you did what you usually did. Painting whilst blindfolded frees you because you don't know what you are doing. What we did with Brazilia was, after we made a simple rhythm track, each of us - including Phil Manzanera - would come in independently and record something we wanted to hear. I would go in one evening to tape my vocal bits and pieces, then Lol, and then Phil, with none of us hearing what the others had done. Then we played it all back to see what happened: 'AAAARGHH! WHAAAAT?' [...] The take that's on the album is it. Obviously with things that almost worked we had to slide 'em left or right a bit or clean out of sight. It's an interesting process, the element of chance.

Some tracks also used the Gizmo, a mechanical device invented by Godley, Creme, and John McConnell (professor of physics at the University of Manchester) to give a guitar a bowed effect like a violin. The device used keys which, when pressed, allowed rotating wheels to touch the guitar strings.

Side A
A1.  An Englishman in New York  (5:37)
A2.  Random Brainwave  (2:38)
A3.  I Pity Inanimate Objects  (5:24)
A4.  Freeze Frame  (4:47)

Side B
B1.  Clues  (5:24)
B2.  Brazilia (Wish You Were Here)  (6:11)
B3.  Mugshots  (3:55)
B4.  Get Well Soon  (4:38)

Notes

Release:  1979

Format:  LP

Genre:  Art Pop, Experimental

Label:   Polydor Records

Catalog#  2442166

Vinyl:  VG

Cover:  VG

Prijs: €10,00

Alice Cooper - From The Inside (1978) - €10,00

 

From the Inside is the eleventh studio album by Alice Cooper, released in 1978. It is a concept album about Cooper’s stay in a New York sanitarium due to his alcoholism. Each of the characters in the songs were based on actual people Cooper met in the sanitarium. 

With this album, he saw the addition of three former members of the Elton John band: lyricist Bernie Taupin, guitarist Davey Johnstone and bassist Dee Murray.

From the Inside was hardly Alice Cooper's best-selling or most accessible album. An intensely personal account of his recovery from substance abuse, it tends to be one of his most abstract efforts and lacks the immediacy of Billion Dollar Babies, Welcome to My Nightmare, or Alice Cooper Goes to Hell. There are no rock anthems here à la "School's Out" or "18" and no celebrations of shock value like "I Love the Dead" or "The Black Widow." Instead, the singer honestly documents the way he confronted his demons and emerged victorious. Sometimes, this introspective effort is too self-indulgent and intellectual for its own good, but at its best as on "How You Gonna See Me Now", From the Inside is as riveting as it in inspiring. 

The lead single from the album was “How You Gonna See Me Now”, an early example of a power ballad, which reached number 12 in the US Hot 100 chart. A music video was also created for it. 

The ‘Madhouse Rocks Tour’ in support of From the Inside lasted from February to April 1979 and saw all songs from the album as regular parts of the setlist except “Millie and Billie”, “For Veronica’s Sake” and “Jackknife Johnny” Since 1979, however, songs from From the Inside have rarely been performed live, with the only cases being “Serious” on the 2003 ‘Bare Bones’ tour, “Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills” on the 2005–2006 Dirty Diamonds Tour, “Nurse Rozetta” on the ‘Descent into Dragontown’ and ‘Theatre of Death’ tours, and “From the Inside” between 1997 and 1999 and on the late 2000s ‘Theatre of Death’ tour.

The album cover is a centre parting gatefold with Alice Cooper's face on the front. It opens up into a triple page image of a lunatic asylum. In the top left corner is a door with a sign above that reads "the quiet room"; this is a hidden flap that opens to reveal Cooper, sitting in a padded cell with a straitjacket by his feet. 

On the inside of the flap there is a message that reads "Inmates! In memory of Moonie", a nod to Cooper's old drinking buddy Keith Moon, who was the drummer for rock band the Who. The picture of Cooper in the cell is printed on the inner sleeve along with the song lyrics. 

On the rear of the album is a picture of the back of an asylum building with the track listing on the double doors, which open to show all the inmates stampeding down the corridor, waving papers in the air stating their release. Both the images hidden by flaps were printed on the inner sleeve. 
The album was adapted into a comic book, Marvel Premiere #50.


Side A
A1.   From the Inside   (3:55)
A2.   Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills   (3:38)
A3.   The Quiet Room   (3:52)
A4.   Nurse Rozetta   (4:15)
A5.   Millie and Billie (with Marcy Levy)   (4:15)

Side B
B1.   Serious   (2:44)
B2.   How You Gonna See Me Now   (3:57)
B3.   For Veronica’s Sake   (3:37)
B4.   Jackknife Johnny   (3:45)
B5.   Inmates (We’re All Crazy)   (5:03)

Notes

Release:  1978

Format:  LP

Genre:  Rock

Label:  Warner Bros. Records

Catalog#  WB 56577

Vinyl:  VG
Cover:  VG

Prijs: €10,00

Sweet - Level Headed (1978) - €10,00

Level Headed is the sixth album by Sweet. Different versions were released by Polydor in Europe and by Capitol in the US, Canada and Japan.
The album features "Love Is Like Oxygen", the band's last single to hit the top 40, peaking at #8 in the US and #9 in the UK. The single version of "Love Is Like Oxygen" is substantially shorter than the album version. A second single, "California Nights", was released from the album but only reached #76 in the US.
This was the last album to feature the classic Sweet lineup, as Brian Connolly departed around a year after the album's release, in order to embark on a solo career. The remaining trio of Steve Priest, Andy Scott, and Mick Tucker continued on and delivered three more albums before breaking up in 1981.

Sweet struggled to earn credibility as album artists and/or score hits after finally wresting themselves free of songwriting/production team Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman in the summer of 1974. They turned out a few albums before achieving both goals with Level Headed. The album gave them their final Top Ten hit with the dreamy "Love Is Like Oxygen," a single that suggested that its accompanying record was a trippy mainstream pop record.
Instead, it was one part of an ambitious sonic mosaic where Sweet tried a little bit of everything, cloaking it all in a neo-prog aesthetic.
If it was hard to hear the candy crunch of early Sweet on "Love Is Like Oxygen," it seems like "Little Willy" in comparison to the rest of Level Headed, where the group runs wild in the studio. Throughout the first half, they indulge in catchy pop, dressing it up with mild psychedelia, elongating melodies with breezy harmonies and studio swirl.
This is just a teaser for the second side, where they delve deep into album rock weirdness, trying on classical-inspired art rock with "Anthem No. 1" and "Anthem No. 2," waltzing along with the Europop "Lettres d'Amour," and livening the proceedings with "Strong Love," a horn-spiked disco tune.
Certainly, this is not classic-era Sweet, but that's precisely what's good about Level Headed -- they're off-kilter and adventurous, occasionally stumbling but always making interesting music on an album that's anything but what the title promises.
If Level Headed didn't spawn another hit, so be it -- it remains one of Sweet's most fascinating albums, compared to both what came before and after. Yes, it was "Ballroom Blitz," "Fox on the Run," and other early hits that influenced the pop-metal of the late '70s and '80s, but for hardcore Sweet fans, Level Headed is a gem to treasure.


Side A
A1.  Dream On - 2:52
A2.  Love Is Like Oxygen - 6:57
A3.  California Night - 3:42
A4.  Strong Love - 3:27
A5.  Fountain - 4:44

Side B
B1.  Anthem No. I (Lady of the Lake) - 4:12
B2.  Silverbird - 3:27
B3.  Lettres D’Amour - 3:28
B4.  Anthem No. II - 1:04
B5.  Air on ‘A’ Tape Loop - 5:54

Notes

Release: 1978

Genre:  Glam Rock

Format:  LP

Label:  Polydor Records

Catalog#  2344100

Vinyl:  VG
Hoes:  VG

Prijs: €10,00

Bryan Ferry - In Your Mind (1977) - €10,00

In Your Mind is the fourth solo studio album by English singer and songwriter Bryan Ferry. It was his first solo album of all original songs.

As Ferry's first solo all-original LP effort, released after Ferry's band Roxy Music went on a four-year hiatus, it was supported by an extensive tour.

With Roxy Music set aside for the time being, Ferry took the solo plunge with an album of totally original material. 

As such, the underrated In Your Mind makes a logical follow-on from Roxy's Siren, especially since usual suspects -- Thompson, Manzanera, Wetton, and many more -- assist him in the brief eight-song effort. While lacking early Roxy's long-gone freakouts In Your Mind still burns more fiercely than both the later solo and group albums, at least on certain tracks - like Siren, it balances between rockier and smoother paths, most often favoring the former. Ferry's lyrics remain in his own realm of intelligent, romantic dissipation, and are some of his best efforts. 

The strong opener "This Is Tomorrow" starts with Ferry and keyboards before moving into a big, chugging full band arrangement and a wistful chorus: "This is tomorrow callin'/Wish you were here." When Ferry aims for a calmer mood, rather than stripped-down melancholia, he lets everyone play along. Sometimes the arrangements almost swamp the songs, but "One Kiss'" combination of female backing vocals, sax, and straight-up rock for instance, make it a great woozy, end-of-the-night singalong before the bars close. 

There are a few blatant misfires -- "Tokyo Joe" has the chugging, dark funk/rock beat down cold, but the lyrics play around too much with Asian stereotypes (and let's not mention the opening gong and all too obvious attempts at "atmosphere" via the strings). 

On balance, though, In Your Mind remains the secret highlight of Ferry's musical career, an energetic album that would have received far more attention as a full Roxy release. 

Side A

A1.  This Is Tomorrow  (3:40)

A2.  All Night Operator  (3:08)

A3.  One Kiss  (3:35)

A4. Love Me Madly Again  (7:26)

Side B

B1.  Tokyo Joe  (3:55)

B2.  Party Doll  (4:32)

B3.  Rock of Ages  (4:31)

B4.  In Your Mind  (5:18)

Notes

Release: 1977

Format: LP 

Genre: Pop, Rock

Label: Polydor Records

Catalog# 2310502

Vinyl: VG

Cover: VG

Prijs: €10,00

Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run (1973) - €4,99

Band on the Run is the third studio album by the British–American rock band Paul McCartney and Wings, released in December 1973. It was McCartney's fifth album after leaving the Beatles in April 1970. Although sales were modest initially, its commercial performance was aided by two hit singles – "Jet" and "Band on the Run" – such that it became the top-selling studio album of 1974 in the United Kingdom and Australia, in addition to revitalising McCartney's critical standing. It remains McCartney's most successful album and the most celebrated of his post-Beatles works.

The majority of Band on the Run was recorded at EMI's studio in Lagos, Nigeria, as McCartney wanted to make an album in an exotic locale. Shortly before departing for Lagos, however, drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Henry McCullough left the group. With no time to recruit replacements, McCartney went into the studio with just his wife Linda and Denny Laine. In addition to playing bass, McCartney also played drums, percussion and most of the lead guitar parts himself. 

On arriving, it was discovered that the studio was below standard, and conditions in Nigeria were tense and difficult; the McCartneys were robbed at knifepoint, during which a bag containing unfinished song lyrics and demo tapes was taken. 

After the band's return to England, final overdubs and further recording were carried out in London, mostly at AIR Studios. 

Band on the Run is generally considered to be Paul McCartney's strongest solo effort. The album was also his most commercially successful, selling well and spawning two hit singles, the multi-part pop suite of the title track and the roaring rocker "Jet." 

On these cuts and elsewhere, McCartney's penchant for sophisticated, nuanced arrangements and irrepressibly catchy melodic hooks is up to the caliber he displayed in the Beatles, far surpassing the first two Wings releases, Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway. 

The focus found in Band on the Run may have to do with the circumstances of its creation: two former members quit the band prior to recording, leaving McCartney, wife Linda, and guitarist Denny Laine to complete the album alone (with Paul writing, producing, and playing most of the instruments himself). The album has the majestic, orchestral sweep of McCartney's Abbey Road-era ambition, with a wide range of style-dabbling, from the swaying, acoustic jazz-pop of "Bluebird" and the appealing, straightforward rock of "Helen Wheels" to the wiry blues of "Let Me Roll It" and the swaying, one-off pub sing-along "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)." 

Though it lacks the emotional resonance of contemporaneous releases by John Lennon and George Harrison, McCartney's infallible instinct for popcraft overflows on this excellent release. 

Side A
A1.  Band on the Run  (5:10)
A2.  Jet  (4:06)
A3.  Bluebird  (3:22)
A4.  Mrs Vandebilt  (4:38)
A5.  Let Me Roll It  (4:47)

Side B
B1.  Mamunia  (4:50)
B2.  No Words  (2:33)
B3.  Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)  (5:50)
B4.  Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five  (5:27)

Notes

Release:  1973

Format:  LP

Genre: Pop, Rock

Label:  Apple Records

Catalog#  5C 062-05503

Vinyl:  Lichte Gebruikerssporen

Cover:  Voorkant Beschadigd

Prijs: €4,99