Old Enough to Forget

Another one of those, "I wonder what this sounds like" albums I found in a bin. It was still shrink wrapped which is always fun. The cover didn't yield a release date, but this looked mid '80s and the guys looked like they were going to sound like ABC or Depeche Mode ... or worst case Duran Duran, or worster case, they'd be a boy band.  You know what they say about judging a book by it's cover. Well, in this case I got more or less what I was hoping for. From the opening notes of "Let Her Fall" this was that dreamy blend of rock and synth-pop. It had a lot of guitars, and there were times I got hints of INXS and Simple Minds ... of course I could have easily said it sounded like a-ha and Pseudo Echo and I'd still be right. First (The Sound of Music) was the band's debut, and it came out in '87 and by this time the '80s had developed a sound and Then Jerico knew what they were doing. Now, as much as I'd like to write a love letter...

I was too young to remember The Poppy Family, although over the years some of their songs, "Which Way You Going Billy?" and "Where Evil Grows" have become part of the great Canadian musical tapestry.  To me though Susan Jacks was the lady who sang, "I Thought of You Again" a song that appeared on Canadian Mint a K-Tel compilation that also included "Where Evil Grows" and "Seasons in the Sun" songs that were connected although at the time I had no idea. I never really thought much of Susan Jacks outside of this one song. I never forgot the song, but it was just part of a memory from another time. When I heard of her passing a couple of years ago it made me sad.  A few months ago my wife and I went to Victoria to hang out for the weekend and go for the world's most expensive high tea at The Empress Hotel. It was also a weekend where an atmospheric river savaged the southern coast of BC. Vancouver was hit pretty hard and my buddies ba...

File under: TLDR Note to the reader. First sorry, second not really, but I am sorry I don't have the ability to edit. Oh happy Valentine's day.  To celebrate let's take a gander at Meat Loaf's 1977 Bat Out of Hell. Over forty three million people disagree with me but for decades I thought this album was, and continues to be, one giant disappointment. I'll be the first to admit that despite decades of baggage the overwhelming power of nostalgia managed to erode even the hardest of convictions and I found that Bat Out of Hell was one of those albums I wanted to have in my collection, but I wasn't looking all that hard. It was an album I knew more about than I actually knew about. So at this moment in time I'm still holding firm on my long held opinion. But before I get into things, it's time for some meanderambling blurbage ... I remember seeing the cover when I was a kid and thinking it was the single greatest cover I had ever seen. What wonders were to b...

A shorter entry this time. I figured since I've done a couple entries featuring Goose Creek Symphony I didn't need to rehash a lot of stuff and repeat myself.  After I'd streamed the band's debut I was intrigued by the alchemy of hippy dippy rock and roots so I set out to find their albums and in short order I'd picked up the four records they released in the '70s. I didn't listen to them in chronological order I initially skipped this one in favour of hearing Words of Earnest because that one had "Mercedes Benz" and "Guitars Pickin', Fiddles Playin'" the song my aunt told me about. I was flipping through my records, and I realized I'd not listened to all of my Goose Creek Symphony albums. I was in the mood for something a little different and I had an image in my head about Welcome to Goose Creek would sound like, and ... I ... was ... wrong.  It wasn't a bad surprise at all ... just not what I was expecting. The album ...

I had heard of them from my buddy Dave back in the day. Dave was pretty dialed into what was happening in Christian music and generally had decent taste. By '86 my interest in a lot of CCM (for the unwashed that stands for Contemporary Christian Music) because most of what I was hearing was inferior. I know Larry Norman asked, "Why should the devil have all the good music." He wasn't entirely right, but he was close enough to bury most of what passed for music being sold in Christian Bookstores. One the hallmarks of being Christian was trying to copy what was popular in "secular" music. The problem was there was a lag of about five or more years. Of course I'm generalizing, there were a handful of bands that were just plain good, but for me most was borderline awful. Around this time some smaller aggressive labels started to pop up.  Frontline was one of them and the acts they were signing were actually contemporary. The problem was for them to be market...

Opus' Solo was one of those albums I found while looking through the online store of a little brick and mortar I liked to pop into every now and again. They used to have a few locations and over the last couple of years the other stores have shuttered, and the last survivor is a little father away and is a special trip. Anyway, they have a really solid online store, and the navigation is awesome and honestly they have a decent selection. One of the things I like to do is check for still sealed items and if they're cheap enough I'll load a cart and then go pick it up. This last time there were a couple of items that looked intriguing enough to take a chance on. Solo was a German import that was still sealed, although over the years something spilled on the cover and seeped into the packaging. It's a small stain only visible on the back top right. When I went to clean the record there was a fair bit of PVC mist which was irritating but it is what it is. The things been in...