Old Enough to Forget

Oh boy here we are with the twelfth instalment of Stylus Over Substance. What was supposed to be the short bite sized impressions of stuff I didn't feel like waxing all nonsensical over and wasting too many words.  I've not always been successful, or coherent. Does it really matter? Probably not, you're either in, or you're out. It's all good. Sometimes it's better. I'm still working my through the piles of records I got for Christmas, and the additional pile I just got for Father's Day will eventually get my attention. Sit back, put your feet up, let's celebrate the fifty five other entries that came before, and get to the next five. Howard Jones - Action Replay (1986) Martha and The Muffins - Trance and Dance (1980) Terry Jacks - Y'Don't Fight the Sea (1975) Barney Bigard & "The Pelican Trio" - Barney Bigard & "The Pelican Trio" (1978) The Alpha Band - Spark in the Dark (1977) Howard Jones - Action Replay (19...

I have always like Al Stewart. From those early hits there was something about his style of writing and his vocals that just seemed to get me right in the feels. Chris de Burgh was the same for me, but it was really only those two Rupert Hine albums in the early '80s I liked. Whereas with Mr. Stewart I'd sort of followed at a distance for a long time - at least the songs on the radio. Then after his 1980 release 24 Carrots that had "Midnight Rocks" there was radio silence. It wasn't until 1984 he'd emerge with Russians & Americans and I don't remember anything at all being played on the radio. Which was a shame, as this was a really cool album, and it had tapped into the very real tensions that were omnipresent in the early '80s. The songs here as you'd expect aren't typical pop songs. Al was a dense writer and for those used to a chorus, hook and may be a bridge before being bashed with a hook again this was harder to follow. It wasn...