The Household Clearance cds. Part 11.

 

George writes:

I am going to be more upbeat this week about the cds. And here’s the first one

:It features music from Riverdance, Lord of the Dance and Titanic, amongst other selections. Can  ANYONE on the bloody planet  be positive about this pile of absolute dross? I don’t even need to try because, joy of joy, there’s no cd inside!! How’s that for being upbeat? On a more sombre note, it’s cd 2, so I am slightly worried about what my hand will find in the box.

Now a cd single, again with the COSMOPOLITAN title, containing a pair of songs by Além Mar and a pair by Ciganos d’Ouro. (Beyond the Sea and The Golden Gypsies) Além Mar’s best known song is Deixa-me olhar (let me look…….(oo err missus)), and on this cd they give us a couple of earnest soft-rock ballads. The Ciganos d’Ouro initially played at gypsy events. No real surprise there, then. The two upbeat and lively songs here showcase the band’s “appealing sound”, a “fusion” of latin-music, balkan and fado styles. As you will hear, here:

(cd burner on this laptop still not working. And as it is 8 years old, bought 2nd hand, is likely to stay that way)

Next, is “Soccorro, eu gosto-te”. Or “Help, I like you”. Like in this instance means being fond of, hoping to have a relationship with or currently in one. The list of songs on the back are all Beatles songs, here they are performed by “Cavern Sounds”. Inside the sleeve I see that there are 23 cds in a series, with titles like “What a body”, “You’re as good as corn”, “next time I’ll give you flowers”, and some more mundane ones such as the “congratulations” (I’m only guessing but I don’t think it’s a set of covers of that Cliff Richard song). The inside sleeve contains something I think the previous owner wrote to her husband, because it begins “my dear husband” and it feels like snooping to read any more. So I did not. I just played the cd. Straightforward, faithful-ish to the originals, so unfortunately not terrible enough to sneer at. Time to move on…..

And, you’ll be glad to know, the final offering today. An album originally priced at €24.50, but the owner snapped it up for €3.47. It’s by Spray, and if you like your 1980s-style electro-almost-indie-pop, you’ll like this. Especially if you like it sung in Portuguese and at times slightly out-of-tune. Painting by Moonlight (the album by Spray, or João Carlo Neves to his granny) was quite the success here, in 1997, 22 weeks in the charts, and it’s just been remastered and re-released. I’ve not played that version, but I wonder if the vocals have been re-tuned.

I’d had enough by track 9, the initial promise of the first few tracks did not last. 

Spray - o nome pintado no luar

Spray - Sobre o mar (sinto ao longe esse teu olhar)

You’ve heard a lot worse than that!

(I played track 10, the final track on the album, for completeness)

More next week.

CC writes:

Does João Carlo Neves not play for Benfica?

I've heard worse than Spray. Further up this post for instance.