Well, things have been bustling in the house over the last little while. Mainly the boys took over the basement between semesters and that meant I more or less lost the use of the turntable while they played games to all hours of the night. I still manage to get some time in and relax but I've been tasked with a number of spring things too ... the driveway and back patio won't pressure wash themselves ... This time out is another collection of odds and sods. A couple of these were new to me and a few of these I'd not heard in years and years. Without further adieu I present to you the tenth iteration of Stylus over Substance ... no jumping, I don't want to skip the record. Rick Springfield - Tao (1985) The Kinks - Word of Mouth (1984) Streetheart - Quicksand Shoes (1980) Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Dancer with Bruised Knees (1977) Kansas - Vinyl Confessions (1982) Rick Springfield - Tao (1985) This was one of the more overlooked albums by Rick Springfield. I bough
I remember this album, or at least the two songs I most closely associated with the album: "Looking For Clues" and "Johnny and Mary." The first was quirky and the second was very new wave. I love the second, and was perplexed by the first. Over the years Robert Palmer would come to exude cool, but to me he would forever be the geeky guy holding up a magnifying glass who was looking for clues. Of course that's not entirely accurate either. When I found a copy of Clues I was pretty stoked to go back and hear what was going on back in 1980. The album opens with "Looking for Clues" and it's hard to imagine that it's been over four decades since the song came out. It's still so good. Chris Frantz from Talking Heads played bass drum on the track. The next song "Sulky Girl" was a straight ahead rock song in the same sort of vein as "Bad Case of Loving You" which sort of made sense, and I suspect this is what people were expect