Timbuk 3 - Greetings from TIMBUK3

I bought this when it came out for one song, "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" and by golly it was a dang good song. There was something really cool about the song with the sterile drum programming and the wicked harmonica. I always thought this was a huge hit, and the one time I watched Head of the Class, the song was featured on the episode. Apparently it was a moderate hit, but it certainly stuck with me.

Oddly this album has been joined at the hip with Georgia Satellites debut album as I remember picking them both up the same day, and I remember being disappointed with both albums after harvesting the shiny songs for my mix tapes.

I was probably harder on this one though. The album charged out with the two best songs on the album the aforementioned sunglasses song, and "Life is Hard" ( a song that felt to me like a companion piece to David & David's "Boomtown") and after that I just ran out of steam. I just didn't put the effort into actually listening to the songs. It didn't take long for this one to get shelved, and over the years "The Future's So Bright" got woven into the fabric of the '80s as another in a long line of great one hit wonders who made the decade so awesome.

It's been decades since I've listened to this, and probably the first time I've actually really listened to the songs. The first side still got me right away, those first two songs had the added emotional weight of nostalgia. They're still the best songs as far as I'm concerned, but the other songs on the first side were enjoyable. Pat MacDonald had something to say and he had a way with a phrase. Even the seemingly innocuous "Facts About Cats" was more fable than anything. After all, "Cats will be cats & cats eat birds."

It was the second side that felt like I was making fresh tracks in the snow. I probably only listened to it a couple of times, and it was likely a cursory review as I looked for something with a hook that sounded like an earworm. In other words here be dragons.

Oddly as I trying to read the lyrics and listen I find myself listening to this like I'm still 23 and I'm having to concentrate a little harder to get through this. Which makes it sound like I'm shitting on it. The opening track "Just Another Movie" is really cool, but I also know that it won't stick with me. "Shame on You" is a song that stood out but not because it was good. It was a weird hip hop rap thing, that felt like the extended break in "Rapture" by Blondie, where Barbara K does her best Deborah Harry. I suppose there are people who loved this, but for me it was a misfire that took me out of an album I was trying desperately to give a second change.

The album closes with "I Love You in the Strangest Way" an acoustic duet with Pat and Barbara singing in unison, it's an interesting song with a mandolin picking out a counter melody. It's a sparse and almost melancholy song. It was a fitting closer.

I'm not sure I've changed my opinion all that much. The songs I liked then, I like as much now. I'll admit I got more from the experience now than I did then, but it was superficial and I'll end up filing the album and remembering fondly the album for what it had more than I will for what it was lacking. It's unfair to say the songs were filler. They were dark and moody and if that was your thing this probably resonated with you. For me it was a trip down memory lane that included stops to a number of songs I'd forgotten and likely won't remember.

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTOs Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) who knows maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust - it seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight ahead pop, or rock. It was leaning to the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough the vocals reminded me of Mi

Saturday Night Fever - The Original Movie Soundtrack

It was going to happen sooner or later. Nostalgia is a cruel Mistress...she can dull the sharpest edges and over time can even soften the hardest of opinions. I found this in the dollar bin, and frankly at a dollar I was worried about what this would cost me. Not only from a monetary perspective, but my time, and more important my credibility. Fourteen year old me was screaming "Don't you dare. DON'T DO IT! Put it down. Walk away!" Then there was grey bearded me holding it and looking at it, thinking, "How bad could it be? I actually kind of like "Staying Alive" and me buying this record won't bring disco back, and no one will have to know I bought this." I pulled the album out of the bin, and carefully took out the records. They'd seen better days, and there were a couple of decent scratches that would no doubt make their presence known later. The jacket was in decent condition, and both of the albums had the original sleeves. I dusted the

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!

The first time I got this album it was a gift from my old roommate Otto. For a goofy little nebbish he would occasionally surprise me with some left of field musical treasures. Although, I still think he was reaching a little when he brought home the new "Led Zeppelin" album by Kingdom Come and forced me to listen to "Get it On" over and over again. I'd not listened to Mars Needs Guitars in a long, long, long time. The first thing that I jumped out at me was how David Faulkner's vocals reminded me of his fellow countryman Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil. I think the reason this never occurred to me was at the time I didn't have any Midnight Oil until Diesel and Dust in 1987. I'm not saying it was all the time, but there were a couple of songs where it stood out. Not a bad thing, just a thing. Even at the time this felt slightly out of step with what was going on in 1985. It seemed like everyone was using drum machines and synthesizers and having t

Old Enough to Forget

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