Paul Young - The Secret Of Association (1985) - €10,00

 

The Secret of Association is the second studio album by the English singer Paul Young. Released in 1985, it reached number one on the UK album charts and the Top 20 in the US. The album spawned the hit singles "Every Time You Go Away" (a #1 hit in the US and #4 in the UK), "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down" (#9 UK, #13 US), "Everything Must Change" (#9 UK, #56 US), and "Tomb of Memories" (UK #16). 

In 1984, Paul Young scored a couple of medium-sized U.S. hits with "Come Back and Stay" and "Love of the Common People" from his album No Parlez. In 1985, however, with his stellar album The Secret of Association, the British singer gained his highest level of commercial success with several hit singles, most notably his chart-topping cover of Daryl Hall's "Every Time You Go Away," which was miles better than the original. Featuring lush orchestration and Young's signature, soulful vocals, this album remains the singer's best, and one of the better albums of the 1980s. Other notable tracks include his wicked take on "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down," the gorgeous "Everything Must Change" (which almost sounds like a country song), and the popular album tracks "Soldier's Things" and "Tomb of Memories." Note, however, that the radio versions of all three singles released from this album are not the versions included here. 

No matter how Young may be perceived (mainly as a producer's puppet that couldn't write his own songs and ergo had to rely on a substantial amount of cover versions to keep his career afloat), he's always had a fantastic set of pipes and seems to be singing from the heart, and in the case of the slightly sappy yet self-penned "Everything Must Change", managed to come up with a bona-fide classic. Augmented by Pino Palladino's flashy yet imaginative basslines and Laurie Latham's kitchen sink production, this is a record that was fully deserving of its no. 1 status.

Though the second half is less exciting than the first and Young isn't much of a songwriter (much of side two was co-written by him), this is still a very enjoyable, emotional rollercoaster ride of an album. Variety abounds, every song is different, meticulously arranged, overproduced to the extreme, but certainly never boring. "Secrets" updates "No Parlez"'s winning formula with some grit and menace, which pays off particularly well on the opening track and "Playhouse".  

Side A

A1. Bite The Hand That Feeds - 4:31  

A2. Every Time You Go Away - 5:23  

A3. I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down - 5:05  

A4. Standing On The Edge - 4:38  

A5. Soldier's Things - 6:21  

Side B

B1. Everything Must Change - 5:35  

B2. Tomb Of Memories - 3:53  

B3. One Step Forward - 3:42  

B4. Hot Fun - 4:26  

B5. This Means Anything - 3:13  

B6. I Was In Chains - 5:42 

Notes

Release: 1985

Format: LP

Genre: Blue-Eyed Pop

Label: CBS Records

Catalog# CBS 26234

Vinyl:  VG

Cover:  VG

Prijs: €10,00

Paul Young - Between Two Fires (1986) - €10,00

 

Between Two Fires is the third solo album by the English singer Paul Young. Released in October 1986.

Three singles were taken from the album; "Wonderland", "Some People", and "Why Does a Man Have to Be Strong", though none of these made the UK Top 20 unlike Young's previous singles. "Wonderland", written by Betsy Cook who also provided backing vocals on the album. 

"Some People" reached #56 in the UK and #65 in the U.S., while "Why Does a Man have to be Strong" reached #63 in the UK. After the numerous covers contained in the previous two works, Between Two Fires contained many more self-penned compositions, and Young actually co-produced, co-wrote and co-arranged most of the tracks. 

Despite popular belief to the contrary the 1980's were much like the 60's in terms of musical developement. That is in the sense that months,not merely years made an enormous different. Take Paul Young for example. What it felt like for him after he made  Secret of Association  bore precious little to how it felt when he recorded this follow up album. Any semblance of big instrumentation with lots of gating,electronic effects and heavy synthesizers had suddenly gone very much out of the pop mainstream. Especially if your music was of the soulful bent. Interestingly enough the way Paul Young was going during this time was a similar direction to that of Prince during that time,toward a live band oriented sound that embraced elements of psychedelic soul.

The album starts out with "Some People",which along wih "Wonderland" have this thick,uptempo rocking soul to it. There's little gloss except for accents here and there. Paul helps this out by writing/co-writing every song here with a strong sense of reflection and thoughtfulness reflecting more adult matters and relationships. "War Games" is an excellent song. Could be about romance or politics actually much like "Respect" has has this thick psychedelic funk groove to it and an unusual melody. "In The Long Run" and "A Certain Passion" ride less on rhythm and more on these low bubbling bass lines and a softly percussive effect. The ballads "Wasting My Time" and the title song are straight of the Sam Cooke era gospel drenched soul ballad attitude which Paul brings to life even more so. The final song is the intense,upbeat horn funk of "Wedding Day",my personal favorite on the album.

One thing about this album is that it really helps you realize there's a big difference between melodic music and melodic pop music. In pop you tend to have melodies that tend to be crafted to sound as close to perfect as humanely possible together. That's where hit songs tend to come out of. These songs all have melodies. But they aren't as heavily crafted. Some of the melodic ideas on this album seem to spring out into similar ones. They are definitely designed not just to show how far Paul Young could extend his voice,but how his band could handle themselves musically. This is one of those few very commercial sounding albums that isn't a big hit parade. Paul Young had always had a strong artistic vision behind what he did. And was lucky enough to extend it into big pop success. Here he just sings and writes from his mind and heart. And it really does work.

Side A

A1.  Some People - 4:43

A2.  Wonderland - 4:58

A3.  War Games - 4:18

A4.  In the Long Run - 4:19

A5.  Wasting My Time - 5:18

Side B

B1.  Prisoner of Conscience - 4:22

B2.  Why Does a Man Have to Be Strong? - 4:21B

B3.  A Certain Passion - 4:12

B4.  Between Two Fires - 3:48

B5.  Wedding Day - 4:56

Notes

Release:  1986

Format:  LP

Genre: Pop

Label:  CBS Records

Catalog#  450150-1

Vinyl:  VG

Cover:  VG

Prijs: €10,00

Paul Young - No Parlez (LP)

Side A
A1. Come Back and Stay (4:57)
A2. Love Will Tear Us Apart (5:01)
A3. Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home) (5:18)
A4. Ku Ku Kurama (4:20)
A5. No Parlez (4:54)

Side B
B1. Love of the Common People (4:56)
B2. Oh Women (3:34)
B3. Iron Out the Rough Spots (4:47)
B4. Broken Man (3:55)
B5. Tender Trap (4:31)
B6. Sex  (4:49)

Release: 1983
Label:  CBS Records
Catalog#  CBS 25521

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