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| Searchers - It's the Searchers
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(Pye NPL-18092 UK-64 VG+ 275:-)
The Searchers were one of the most popular British Invasion bands in the mid 60's and this is perhaps their best studio album, with classic hits like "Needles and Pins" and "Don't throw Your Love away". It also features some of their best LP cuts, on which they applied their famed harmonies to American material that was both strong and obscure.
Original UK MONO pressing; the vinyl has a few superficial marks - the sleeve has a previous owners name on the back.
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| Shades of MacMurrough - Carrig River
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(Polydor 2908.007 Ire-73 VG+ 1250:-)
Hailing from Ferns in Co. Wexford Shades of MacMurrough formed in 1971. Comprised of Mary and Josephine O'Neill and Paul Kavanagh they specialised in close harmonies and accompanied themselves on 6 & 12 string guitars, spinet, autoharp, tin whistle and bodhran.
Released in 1973 "Carrig River" has been long held as an acid folk holy grail and is a mellifluous blend of sublime vocal harmonies and subtle instrumentation.
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| Shok Paris - Steel and Starlight
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(IRS Records ILP-460452 Hol-87 375:-)
Shok Paris was a blip on the 80s metal radar, managing three albums that were decent but definitely second-tier in the grand scheme of things.
They’re most famous for the over-the-top vocals of frontman, Vic Hix. The man sounded like Blackie Lawless hopped up on discount Super Soldier Formula and 5 Hour Energy while trying to channel Danzig and Messiah Marcolin simultaneously.
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| Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge over Troubled Water
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(Columbia CQ-30995 US-72 VG+ 300:-)
No one can say Simon & Garfunkel went out with a whimper. The popular duo's 1970 swan song is an involving mix of sweeping epics ("The Boxer," the title track) and breezy throwaways (a live cover of the Everly Brothers' "Bye Bye Love," the rock & roll trifle "Baby Driver"), Bridge was one of the most popular albums of its era. What's particularly striking about this collection is how brightly lesser-acclaimed songs like "So Long Frank Lloyd Wright" and the gorgeous "The Only Living Boy in New York" shine.
1972 US Quadrophonic pressing.
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| Simon, Paul - Concert in the Park
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(Warner 26737-1 Ger-91 VG+ 375:-)
Throughout his solo career, Paul Simon has loaned his unique songwriting voice to a host of different global and ethnic musical styles. Simon's cross-cultural pollinations work so well because he makes sure that his musical interests match his personal vision.
Paul Simon returned to the scene of one of his most distinctive successes with Simon & Garfunkel on August 15, 1991. This time, roughly 600,000 people turned out to watch a set stuffed with classic hits and intermingled with newer numbers.
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| Simon, Paul - Negotiations and Love Songs
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(Warner Bros 925789-1 EU-88 SS 500:-)
In his career, Paul Simon has had an impeccable ability to bring together melody and lyric with various global styles, creating some of the smartest pop around. Ever since he left behind the rigid musical borders of Simon & Garfunkel's folk-rock, Simon has built upon that fertile base. And as NEGOTIATIONS AND LOVE SONGS, a Warner Brothers-era greatest hits compilation, clearly shows, Simon expanded his cultural horizons and sent his musical appetite into overdrive to separate his compositions from those of his contemporaries.
Rare promotional vinyl in a single pocket picture sleeve and housed in a custom title printed cloth sleeve which remains stitch sealed around the edges - an unusual promo rarity!
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| Simone, Nina - Black Gold
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(RCA Victor LSP-4248 Ger-70 VG+ 275:-)
Black Gold indeed – as the album's a real classic from Nina, one of the excellent sets she cut in the early 70s!
The style here is even hipper than her late 60s work on Philips – with a mixture of open-ended jazz and soul that's best summed up in the album's extended reading of "Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair", and a great version of "To Be Young Gifted & Black", which was written by Weldon Irvine, who's probably playing piano here with Nina.
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| Simple Minds - Ghost Dancing
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(Mixeye 198-60128 Bel-86 VG+ 300:-)
From their beginnings as a raw, glammed-up New Wave band in 1977 to their complex Alternative Rock of the present, Simple Minds has maintained a dramatic flair and a deep complexity in their constantly changing sound.
Side A to E: Copenhagen, Tuesday 28th Jan. 1986.
Side F: Sydney, Friday 9th Dec. 1981.
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| Simple Minds - Selfluminous
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(Mixeye 240-31984 EU-84 VG+ 300:-)
From their beginnings as a raw, glammed-up New Wave band in 1977 to their complex Alternative Rock of the present, Simple Minds has maintained a dramatic flair and a deep complexity in their constantly changing sound. Jim Kerr's vocals leap effortlessly from raw Punk raspiness to urgent emotional release while the rest of the band pits guitar distortion against saxophone leads and vaulting Gospel vocals against bubbling Synth Pop keyboards.
This 2LP set was recorded at Falkonerteatret, Copenhagen, on March 26th, 1984.
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| Sir Lord Baltimore - Kingdom Come
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(Mercury SR-61328 US-70 VG+ 800:-)
Melding the heavy bluesy riffing of Black Sabbath's first two albums with dynamite Zepplin-esque guitarwork, "Kingdom Come" is a fiery debut from this Brooklyn-based trio.
There is absolutely no question whatsoever that Sir Lord Baltimore lives and dies by the strength of guitarist Louis Dambra, who is hands down one of the best guitarists of the entire decade and deserves your fucking respect. His bluesy Page-esque freakouts are essential to the sound, and basically every highlight on here exhibits a monster riff, nutty soloing, or both.
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| Smiths - Louder than Bombs
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(Rough Trade ROUGH-255 UK-88 VG+ 800:-)
A special collection done for the US market after the first great run of albums by The Smiths – a double-length set that's partly a best-of, and mostly a collection of all the wonderful songs the group issued on their various singles and EP releases in the UK – none of which were originally released in America!
As such, the album's a crucial component to the group's catalog – especially if you weren't buying their singles back in the day – and is filled with as much greatness as all their other albums of the period.
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| Soft Machine - Softs
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(Harvest SHSP-4056 UK-76 VG+ 300:-)
Soft Machine are an English rock and jazz band from Canterbury formed in mid-1960's.
"Softs" is the first Soft Machine album which featured a guitarist that leads the band and the first Soft Machine album having the Jazz Rock style fully developed. On "Softs" John Etheridge takes over the guitar duties from Allan Holdsworth. While he might barely ring a bell to anybody, he is nonetheless totally capable of filling Allan's shoes.
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| St John, Bridget - JumbleQueen
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(Chrysalis CHR-1062 UK-74 VG+ 400:-)
For several years in the late '60s and early '70s, Bridget St. John was one of the leading lights of the British folk scene, a gifted vocalist and guitarist who also wrote intelligent, impressionistic songs that impressed many of her contemporaries.
Bridget St. John's final album fell somewhere between vintage British folk-rock and the kind of singer/songwriter approach used by an early Joni Mitchell. A low-key, agreeable affair of sophisticated romantic ruminations.
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| Starr, Ringo - Sentimental Journey
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(Apple PCS-7101 UK-70 VG+ 300:-)
Sir Richard Starkey MBE, known professionally as Ringo Starr, achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles.
"Sentimental Journey" is the debut studio album by Ringo Starr, released in 1970, as the band was splintering apart. Although Starr was the third member of the group to issue solo work (after George Harrison and John Lennon), "Sentimental Journey" is notable for being the first non-avant-garde studio album by a member of the band.
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| Stills, Stephen - Manassas
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(Atlantic SD2-903 US-72 VG+ 400:-)
A sprawling masterpiece, akin to the Beatles' "White Album" and the Stones' "Exile on Main St" in its makeup, if not its sound.
Rock, Folk, Blues, Country, Latin, and Bluegrass have all been styles touched on in Stephen Stills' career, and the skilled, energetic musicians he had gathered in Manassas played them all on this album. What could have been a disorganized mess in other hands, though, here all gelled together and formed a cohesive musical statement.
Original US pressing; complete with printed innersleeve and fold-out poster.
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