Old Enough to Forget

I snatched this up when I found it. Up and Down was released in '84 the same year "Live is Life" was a worldwide hit. Polydor repackaged the album, dropped a couple of songs from the European release and tacked on "Live is Life" which for those of us over here was a pretty good idea. I also suspect they subbed out the studio version of "Flyin' High" as well. Despite their success much of the band's catalogue was never released in North America, and even now the band has a surprisingly small digital footprint on the streaming platforms. The album is really good, and the title track "Up and Down" that opens the album is really strong with Herwig's soaring vocals and Ewald's tasty fretwork. The whole album is full of pleasant soft rock with hints of AOR and some progressive overtones. Knowing there are songs out there that were left off it makes me wonder what they were like. The nine songs here, seven studio tracks and two live ...

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...