Cock Robin - Cock Robin

I'm not sure why I filed Cock Robin away as rubbish. There was a bit of buzz when this was released in '85 and I'm sure I saw a video on MuchMusic but honestly have no memory at all. I do, though, remember watching The Tonight Show that year when they were the musical guest and wasn't impressed. I don't remember the band, but somehow I can remember they were on the show. Sounds like me.

The other day I figured it was a good day to go visit Krazy Bob and see what treasures he'd seeded his discount bin with. Sometimes it's a cornucopia of sonic goodies, and other times it's like he decided it was time to dump all of his Hammond organ dance records. It was a banner day and I picked up a dozen records that were all in amazing shape. You guessed it, among them was the debut release by Cock Robin.

The band was centred on vocalists Peter Kingsbery and Anna LaCazio, and they were supported by Clive Wright on guitar and Louis Molino III on drums, both of whom would be gone by the band's second album. This isn't to take a steamin' dump on their contributions. I really liked the guitar work on the album. Clive's textures were a big part of what I really liked here, and the drums were solid.

Anyway, if I was to boil it down, it was probably Peter's band as he was principal songwriter and vocalist.

Probably not the way I intended to start this one but I'm sort of committed now. This was the first record I played of the dirty dozen I'd picked up and cleaned. I was actually really curious to see what this was like, and my first impression was really positive. So much so that I started to question myself and wonder if it was Cock Robin at all - maybe it was Lone Justice ... but no, they weren't on The Tonight Show and Cock and Lone only share an "O" and don't sound alike.

This was curious, as frankly Cock Robin was exactly the kind of '80s pop I liked. While "When Your Heart Is Weak" charted in the States, I don't remember the song at all from the radio or T.V., which is surprising as it's pretty good. The album did crack the top 75 but didn't have legs. While the band was mostly overlooked in North America, they found significant success in parts of Europe, scoring a number one hit with "The Promise You Made" - probably my favourite song on the album - and a top-five single with "Thought You Were On My Side," the album's opening track.

Having two complementary vocalists allowed the band to play a little with convention and avoid the curse of the duet. They would sometimes sing in a call and response manner, and other times contribute harmonies, or they'd just stand out front and be a lead vocalist. Peter had that great '80s tone, and Anna's voice was a little harder to pin down. She sort of reminded me of Cyndi Lauper mixed with Aimee Mann. Trust me, that's a good thing.

I was also pleasantly surprised at how good the album sounds. I love records where the bass is forward in the mix, especially when it helps drive the songs forward. I'm really glad I managed to find this one as it finally corrected a long-held opinion about a band who deserved a better fate.

This was really good, and if you like mid tempo '80s pop music with a bit of a twist you need to give this one a spin or two.

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...

Billy Rankin - Growin' Up Too Fast

Growin' Up Too Fast was never widely released on CD (if at all), and it was one of the albums I really wanted to get back after a basement flood wiped out my vinyl collection in the '90s (when no one really gave a shit about records, and my insurance gave me a couple hundred bucks for an appraised $10,000 collection). Way back in 1984, my (dearly departed and greatly missed) buddy Dave let me borrow his cassette copy, which included a bonus track of "Get It On (Bang A Gong)." When I eventually bought the album, I didn't know it was a bonus track, or even what a bonus track was. If that sentence was hard to read, just go back and skim it. I'm sure you'll get the gist. I'd find out later Billy was an off-and-on-again member of Nazareth and wrote some absolutely killer songs for them. At the time, though, all I knew was this guy laid it out cold with the opening cut, "Baby Come Back," then proceeded to lay down one killer tune after another bef...

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 BTO's 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) - so 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 toward the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough, the vocals rem...

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