Dadawah- Peace & Love Brian Eno- Before & After Science St. Vincent- All Born Screaming Pet Shop Boys- Nonetheless Alice Cooper- Welcome To My Nightmare (2024 AP 45 RPM RM) Steve Conte- The Concrete Jangle Mick Ronson- Play Don't Worry (Kevin Gray Master)
Nick Lowe- Party Of One (This is Nick Lowe’s best record. Dave Edmunds/Nick Lowe reunion. A few certified Nick Lowe classics that still get performed live. Paul Carrack. Jim Keltner. Ry Cooder. Bill Kirchen. Ray “Freaking” Brown. Rick Astley! SHTING-SHTANG! Need I say more after “SHTING SHTANG?”)
The Zutons- The Big Decider James Booker- The Piano Prince Of New Orleans: Live, Hamburg 1976 Bob Marley & The Wailers- African Herbsman Juliana Hatfield- Sings ELO
Mance Lipscomb- Texas Sharecropper & Songster Earl King- Street Parade U-Roy- Version Galore Paul Weller- Wake Up The Nation The Kinks- The Village Green Preservation Society (Kevin Gray Stereo Master) The Who- Live At Leeds The Jam- The Gift St. Vincent- All Born Screaming Todd Rundgren- The Hermit Of Mink Hollow Leon Russell- S/T (Kevin Gray Master)
New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars- Tipish (First album in 15 years! And it's a good one!)
Billy Nicholls- Would You Believe? (Legendary "lost" album, though easy enough to find on CD these days. Been a while since I gave this a spin. Still great.)
St. Vincent- All Born Screaming (First listen, pretty perfect Side One. Side Two, not so much. Still, so much better than her last. I imagine it will be a grower.)
Aerosmith- Toys In The Attic (It caught my eye.)
Paul McCartney- McCartney (Never gets old.)
The Beach Boys- Sounds Of Summer (2021 Stereo Mixes, Sides A, D, I & J) (Just watched a clip of The Lemon Twigs performing an encore of "Good Vibrations" from their show on 4/25. Unreal! Put me in a Beach Boys mood.)
The Black Crowes- Happiness Bastards (Still ain't tired of this one.)
Tin Men- Live From The Jazz Fest Blues Tent, 2024 (A brilliant, hilarious and manic set, as usual.)
Todd Rundgren- Second Wind (Not one of my faves, but a friend texted me this morning, said he was listening and really digging a lot of it, so I decided to do the same. And I did, actually. More than enough solid tracks.)
Neil Young & Crazy Horse- Fu##in' Up (Only...ONLY because I love "Ragged Glory"did I even bother. I gave it four songs. Pointless. Ragged live versions of already ragged studio tracks. Meh.)
Leyla McCalla- Sun Without The Heat (Def a keeper.)
John Boutte- Live From The Jazz Fest WWOZ Jazz Tent, 2024 (Typically fun set from John, with covers of Ron Sexsmith's "God Loves Everyone" and Allen Toussaint's "Brickyard Blues" and his usual crowd faves. Wish I was there.)
Pet Shop Boys- Nonetheless (Every PSB album is guaranteed to have at least three or four pop gems, but this one is different. Only one pass so far, but it was a really good pass. Weak start, but things picked up with Track Three and did not let up. Looking forward to another spin. Best record in a while.)
Paul Weller- Studio 150 (Paul knows how to do a cover! Lotsa good ones.)
Junior Murvin- Police & Thieves (I realize that this is a reggae classic...but I don't like it. I've tried numerous times. It's Murvin's falsetto. It doesn't work for 40 minutes. One song, like the title cut, and it's fine. But, a whole record gives me the twitch.)
Tinted Windows- S/T (I didn't think this record was anything special when it first came out, but people seemed to love it. Now, all these years later, it gets a vinyl release for Record Store Day, so I decided to go in again. It still leaves me cold. Third rate Fountains Of Wayne. What am I missing?)
Electrafixion- Burned (Another RSD release that I had totally forgotten about. Can't say I remembered anything about this album when I put it on, but I really enjoyed it. Great stuff. Like Echo & The Bunnymen with bigger balls.)
Pearl Jam- Dark Matter (Still loving this.)
The Candy Butchers- Play With Your Head (Revisiting, since I don't recall liking this record. I still think it's quite dull for the great Mike Viola.)
Adrian Belew- Here (One of his best.)
V/A- Darker Than Blue: Soul From Jamdown, 1973-1980 (One of the greatest comps of all time, reggae covers of soul hits. Every track a winner.)
Julie Driscoll- 1969 (If you've never heard this record, it's time. Very special.)
Bash & Pop- Friday Night Is Killing Me (Giving this a farewell spin. Sold it this week. I know it's not the 'Mats but it is still in my Top 5 'Mats albums.)
Roxy Music- Stranded (Still in Roxy mode, I guess. This. My third fave Roxy album. Very, VERY underrated.)
V/A- Licensed To SKA: Studio One 007 (Hitting a lot of my faves today. Another brilliant collection, especially if you're a James Bond fan.)
Gene Clark with The Gosdin Brothers- (Kevin Gray Stereo Cut) (Had to go in again after yesterday's discovery. A beautiful pressing of an amazing record.)
Ian Hunter- All-American Alien Boy Ian Hunter- Defiance Part 2, Fiction (RSD Edition w/bonus tracks) Lou Reed- Coney Island Baby Nilsson- Nilsson Schmilsson The Ventures- Walk Don't Run Vol.2 Tommy McCook & Bobby Ellis- Green Mango (I have been searching for a copy of this for years. And whenever I play it, I want that copy more than before. If any of the six of you reading this has a nice vinyl copy for under $60, I'll buy it.)
V/A- Niney The Observer Presents Lightning & Thunder "Stunning sounds from the first three years of Niney The Observer on
record – a huge amount of rare singles from back in the day, served up
in a double-length package that features 22 tracks on CD for the first
time ever! The mix of modes here is incredible – and a real
demonstration of that made creative genius that made Niney such an
important force in the studio and in front of the microphone – as lots
of these tracks have really unusual inflections, odd arrangements, and a
way of putting over a weird sound that most folks think was only
invented by Lee Scratch Perry."-----LOVE IT!
