Recent CD Purchases

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:34 pm

Mr. Average wrote:I like Funeral, But thought that the Elbow record "Leaders" was stronger, overall. Any recommendations on other Elbow albums? I think "Leaders" is a brilliant recording.

Cast of Thousands, their previous album, was the first one I got. It's maybe just a smidgen below Leaders in quality. Asleep at the Back, their first LP, might be a good place to go next.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 4:31 pm

All three definitely have very high points, but I would say Leaders is their strongest. Their live set, which was a well-selected Best Of, was pretty awesome. You have to get Asleep At The Back to hear Newborn, which was the song that first got me interested, though hearing it on CD would never compare to seeing it live, where it builds after, say 8 mins, to this huge wall of sound. I thought the roof was going to blow off the Brixton Academy. And then they cut it dead on the spot. Heartstopping. New LP due out later this year.

Even though there's a ban on CD purchasing here right now, as it was Valentine's Week and all, I went mad and got this:

I really like it. Original. Refreshing. Lovely voice. Great tunes. Wit. It's sold close on 2m copies worldwide, so she's making a name for herself.

Check her out. Fidelity is the one that got me hooked.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SGTDRztaCCw

http://hypem.com/search/spektor/1/

ReadyToHearTheWorst · Post by **ReadyToHearTheWorst** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 4:24 am

Recent splurge in Fopp, Edinburgh.

Backfilling:
Tom Waits - Closing Time
Randy Newman - Good Old Boys (2CD edition)
Roxy Music - Country Life
Joan Armatrading - Joan Armatrading
Kinks - Kinks

Less retro (but only just):
Amy Winehouse - Frank
Donald Fagen - Morph the Cat
Bob Dylan - Modern Times

Â£43 in total (wish the nearest Fopp wasn't so far away)

Mr. Average · Post by **Mr. Average** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 12:37 pm

"The Quintet - Herbie Hancock (featuring Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Tony Williams) Already own vinyl. $9.99 on CD well worth it.

"Seven Steps to Heaven" - Miles Davis , His first recordings with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams, so you can see the trail of synapse firing in the CD store. 1963. Tony was only 17 and Herbie and Ron were still kids.

"Brain Salad Surgery"- Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Like Tony, I too was a kid once. I loved thsi record in my youth. The packaging, price, and memories made it impossible not to buy this deluxe reissue. "Welcome Back my Friends to the Show that Never Ends..."

"I Trust You to Kill Me" - Rocco DeLuca and The Burden. If you can get through the mask, the guy is quite talented. Saw him Friday at a solo acoustic gig in Irvine. Chatted after because the acoustic homages to Robert Plant circa LZ I, II, III are fairly clear. Sure, he has a nice pop song receiving lots of airplay, but behind that ditty there is some very good dobro work and a refreshing approach.
Plus, the CD was free.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:35 pm

ReadyToHearTheWorst wrote:Â£43 in total (wish the nearest Fopp wasn't so far away)

My condolences. All towns should have a Fopp. Average price for your 8 excellent CDs under Â£4.50! For my part, it's a relief that I don't go to our local one unless I specifically make a journey. If it was near where I worked or lived or whatever, I would have serious temptation isssues. it's nice to have a plaace to buy things the day they're released and now that you're only paying marginally more than you would online.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:49 am

Paul Weller - Days Of Speed (Â£1.82 on eBay!).

ReadyToHearTheWorst · Post by **ReadyToHearTheWorst** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:25 pm

Otis Westinghouse wrote:All towns should have a Fopp.

Our prayers may have been answered:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manc ... 333163.stm

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:35 pm

Nice one! Here's hoping they don't overstretch and get ruined. They deserve success.

pophead2k · Post by **pophead2k** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 6:57 am

Social Distortion
The Police - Outlaws d'Amour
Peter, Bjorn and John

The first two are classics to fill out some holes in the collection, the third I like fairly well, although several of the songs go on about 2 min. past where they should have ended.

strangerinthehouse · Post by **strangerinthehouse** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 3:26 pm

Went to the local used cd store and found these for $6-7 a pop

Johnny Cash- American Recordings and Unchained
The Kinks- Kinks
M. Ward- Transistor Radio
Billie Holiday- Lady Sings the Blues
Husker Du- Zen Arcade
Tom Waits- Blue Valentines

Post by **BlueChair** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 3:30 pm

strangerinthehouse wrote:Went to the local used cd store and found these for $6-7 a pop

Johnny Cash- American Recordings and Unchained
The Kinks- Kinks
M. Ward- Transistor Radio
Billie Holiday- Lady Sings the Blues
Husker Du- Zen Arcade
Tom Waits- Blue Valentines

Great music overload!

strangerinthehouse · Post by **strangerinthehouse** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 3:43 pm

I know i went A little crazy but I been looking for most of these for a while except for the Kinks and M. Ward, those where kind of blind buys.

Mr. Average · Post by **Mr. Average** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:33 pm

"Neon Bible" - Arcade Fire
"Wincing the Night Away" - the Shins

ice nine · Post by **ice nine** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:32 pm

Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

Mike Boom · Post by **Mike Boom** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:34 pm

Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

Had you heard it before Ice? One of my favourite alltime albums and always a real trip to listen to all the way through.

ice nine · Post by **ice nine** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 12:46 am

Many years ago a friend made me a tape that included 'Carpet Crawlers' and I remember enjoying it. I have now listened to both CDs and they are both very good. Which of the other Genesis discs do you reccommend?

Mike Boom · Post by **Mike Boom** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 1:44 am

Well, Im a big fan of the early stuff, I would class "Selling England By the Pound" as essential, and would be the next one to get. The others I would recommend would be -

Foxtrot - (has the epic 20 minute "Suppers Ready")

Trick of the Tail - (first record after Gabriel left, commercial but brilliant)

Nursery Cryme - (3rd album, the first to really gel, the start of their peak)

Wind and Wuthering - (2nd album post Gabriel,their last peak studio album)

Seconds Out - (fantastic double live from 77)

- all their latter albums get increasingly commercial and then increasingly horrible, while "and Then There Were Three" is a fine album, and both "Duke" and ABACAB" have their moments and are both pretty good records, I would dare not go further.

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:04 pm

Follow up to the Rakes' brilliant debut Capture/Release. This (Ten New Messages) is not as relentlessly raucus as the first album, but is very good stuff. For a second album it stands up well.

migdd · Post by **migdd** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:33 pm

Don't Tell Columbus - Graham Parker

Simply the best record he has ever made.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 3:06 am

Sounds like it might need to be the first GP record I get since SOS.

The following has just arrived courtesy of CD-WOW:

Disappointment remainss that it doesn't contain something really new and exciting on it, although the surround sound DVD repeat of the whole of the CD is pretty thrilling if you have the gear (which I don't). This is my first time with it on CD, though, which is a thrill in itself. Nice booklet with some interesting new (to me) photos, and a wonderful chronology of his movements in 1974, which at the moment I'm working on as my Mastermind specialist topic.

Chrille · Post by **Chrille** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 9:32 am

Speaking of surround sound remasters, I noticed the Talking Heads cd/dvd editions were being sold at half price and instantly bought copies of 77, More Songs..., Fear of Music, Speaking In Tongues and Little Creatures (already had RiL). I have a surround system and these suckers sound absolutley fantastic

Bad Ambassador · Post by **Bad Ambassador** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 7:54 am

Otis Westinghouse wrote:Sounds like it might need to be the first GP record I get since SOS.

The following has just arrived courtesy of CD-WOW:

Disappointment remainss that it doesn't contain something really new and exciting on it, although the surround sound DVD repeat of the whole of the CD is pretty thrilling if you have the gear (which I don't). This is my first time with it on CD, though, which is a thrill in itself. Nice booklet with some interesting new (to me) photos, and a wonderful chronology of his movements in 1974, which at the moment I'm working on as my Mastermind specialist topic.

Can I ask two questions?
Firstly, does this definitely have a surround sound track on the DVD? It's not listed on their site, although I assumed it was an oversight.
Secondly, does it have any copy protection guff on the packaging? I only ask as my 'Ziggy Motion Picture' reissue boxset was rendered rather ugly by all of the copy protection logos on it.
Ta muchly.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 5:25 pm

1. Yes, the DVD menu has all of the CD, i.e. the 8 songs of YA, followed by the three familiar bonus tracks (John (Again), Who Can I?, It's Gonna + strings - which is playing as I type, good song, and strings work well, but I'm with Storm when he says the LA 5/9/74 LA bootleg version is better), plus 1984/YA and interview (sniff) with Dick Cavett, and audio choice of PCM stereo (whatever that is), Dolby 5.1 or DTS 5.1. Just trying to compare these. I do notice on headphones that DTS seems a bit odd as the voice is a bit too much to the right channel, though no doubt on the proper 5.1 gear this will envelope you incredibly - and in fact the separation of items in 5.1 seems amazing. the DVD sound on PCM stereo is definitely a step up on the CD audio. Apart from the obvious moan about lack of rarities, one thing that seems very odd and annoying is that Footstomping was broadcast on Cavett and isn't included, and Can You Hear Me? was recorded but not broadcast, and would have been a lovely addition. It also gets on my nerves that the DVD screens include, in addition to a rather nice menu treatment of the YA cover shot with swirling glittery effects, images from '76 and '78. That's just lazy and dumb.

2. Rarely for a Bowie release, no Copy Protection. they must have realised by now that evetyone has iTunes and protection is meaningless. there are, however, 7 fetching logos on the cover: 5.1 surround; Dolby Digital; PAL; dts; EMI; Abbey Road (!); DVD. Plus 'E' for exempt and the German thing you see on DVDs!

Any more questions?

Having been listening obsessively to his '74 output of late, it's amazing seeing him so close up on the Cavett show. Who is/was Dick Cavett? My only association is this show. Bowie even snorts at the end of lines on YA. There are some great moments in the lengthy interview, e.g. asking about books, 'What's on your coffee table right now?' - we can see the answer to that one, Dick! And poignantly, 'Can you see yourself at 60?' or the like, which Bowie is very amused by. He must have been thinking he'd be lucky to make it to 28 the shape he was in.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 5:56 pm

Actually, the dts is bleeding amazing. Examples: end of Win, snare sound takes on this dooming dimension you don't hear on the CD at all, even more amazing: Fascination has this deep samba-type drum sound going at the outset that is barely, barely there on the CD. Gonna have to check this with the Linn Sondek for comparison. But it seems, on regular stereo, like a significant remixing to get these sounds. There's also a very loud John Lennon at the end of Across The Universe saying something about dropping him in, totally not there on the CD.

Someone told me about hearing the Beatles Love on proper surround sound and being amazed by it. Brave new world. When I'm 80, we'll be able to play CDs and decide who or which instrument you want to be, so I can decide to be the guitar player and feel my hands on the fretboard, or to be inside the bass drum, or to be a string on the bass, etc.

Chrille · Post by **Chrille** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:05 pm

I just bought the last reissue of YA, so I'm not going to be picking this up yet. Waiting for a price drop.

Speaking of DTS Audio remasters. I recently got all the Talking Heads DTS-remasters and I've realised just how what a difference it makes. Coincidentally, Genesis are releasing special editions of all their albums and I'll be getting them all, even those many fans spit at

First out is a box including:
A Trick Of The Tail - One of their best
Wind & Wuthering - Never cared much for it, a few good tracks
Then There Were Three - Includes one of my faves, Down And Out, but other than that a dud, imo
Duke - A few great songs, but overall, just good, like this better than Wind...
Abacab - Dismissed by most, but this is one of my favourites. A bit silly, but fun and varied.

Can't wait for the box covering the Gabriel years!

Here's some more info:
http://www.genesis-box.com/