Surprising Good Records
- Thread starter IdleRich
- Start date
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
Theme For Great Cities is an all-time classic. among other things, one of the best tunes - in a very crowded field - exemplifying early 80s "left-field" dance tracks
another cool early Simple Minds track. I'm under the impression that their early LPs are in general pretty good? Drowned out by their later arena rock years
I hate the Steve Miller Band almost as much as the Eagles but this is another genuine left-field classic as played by people like Levan, Mancuso, Harvey etc
checks pretty much all my boxes - dubbed out, psychedelic guitars, endless propulsive groove. bonus: ends with 2+ minutes of rainstorm, 25 years before Burial got around to it.
another cool early Simple Minds track. I'm under the impression that their early LPs are in general pretty good? Drowned out by their later arena rock years
I hate the Steve Miller Band almost as much as the Eagles but this is another genuine left-field classic as played by people like Levan, Mancuso, Harvey etc
checks pretty much all my boxes - dubbed out, psychedelic guitars, endless propulsive groove. bonus: ends with 2+ minutes of rainstorm, 25 years before Burial got around to it.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
a surprising number of late 70s novelty disco records are quite legit. another Garage track. gets deep af (in the disco til dawn sense) in the second half.
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
same deal as above, big Garage track. bit later on, definite proto-house vibe. produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards.
IdleRich
IdleRich
You're right about early Simple Minds, I've got a couple of early albums and they each have their moments. League of Nations is another cool one. Kinda like a sketch, pretty basic but punky-funky if I'm remembering it right.
Macho City is a good call, it's been compiled a few times so you don't need to buy the album which is otherwise pretty poor...
Gonna check the other suggestions when I get in later, cheers.
Macho City is a good call, it's been compiled a few times so you don't need to buy the album which is otherwise pretty poor...
Gonna check the other suggestions when I get in later, cheers.
Leo
Well-known member
interesting thread: not one-hit wonders but cases where artists have a cool track that comes out of left field, atypical for them. hmm...
can't say I dislike everything by kiss (the version of "deuce" on "alive" deserves its own room in the RnR hall of fame) but don't care for 99% of their stuff...except for this. a trashy 1979 cash-in on the disco trend, obvious pastiche but with big hooks and well done, not miles away from vintage hi-NRG/Italo. co-written by desmond child.
can't say I dislike everything by kiss (the version of "deuce" on "alive" deserves its own room in the RnR hall of fame) but don't care for 99% of their stuff...except for this. a trashy 1979 cash-in on the disco trend, obvious pastiche but with big hooks and well done, not miles away from vintage hi-NRG/Italo. co-written by desmond child.
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IdleRich
IdleRich
I mean I guess Paul McCartney may have been involved in a few pretty good records over the years but that one (along with Temporary Secretary of course) reversed a downward trend. In fact the whole album is pretty cool. One of the tracks has a line "Don't go chasing waterfalls" which was recycled later of course.
blissblogger
Well-known member
they were great!
it's more a case really of how surprisingly shit the later stuff is - like, how could they plummet so low?
Empires and Dance is the lost art-rock classic, very unusual like-nobody-else sound, great lyrics and vocals - a cinematic Euro travelogue, overloaded by sensation and stimuli vibe
(but the album before it is also really good - Real to Real Cacophony)
then after Empires, they get a bit more stadium widescreen with Sister Feelings Call and Sons and Fascination, but still loads of terrific tunes - "love song", "sweat in bullet", "the american"
slight shift towards pop with New Gold Dream, a great album - singles "Promised You A Miracle" and "Glittering Prize" just fabulous
back towards stadium-land with Sparkle In the Rain but still good epic tunes like 'Up on the Catwalk' and 'Waterfront"
but even after the Breakfast Club hit (written by Keith Forsey not the band) they still had moments - 'All the things she said' etc
after that it just gets horribly bloated and literal with an unwieldy element of social concern added
firefinga
Well-known member
I didn't know of this track until a couple of years ago when I stumbled across it on some mix I heard. I then checked the playlist and was really surprised to see this was from Cat Stevens!