Oh! You Pretty Things

 

As is my want when I am on holiday I picked up the latest Mojo magazine with the accompanying CD Oh! You Pretty Things billed as 15 tracks which explore the chamber pop legacy of Hunky Dory as it looked quite interesting.

However, after I couple of listens I must say that I am pretty underwhelmed which is disappointing as the artists listed by and large looked promising.

Never fear though, you can always rely on Aimee Mann to come up with the goods. Good For Me is taken from her 2017 album Mental Illness her 9th album and as things stand her last.Winner of the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album 2018.

I can't say that I am at all familiar with Destroyer  a band from Vancouver fronted by Dan Bejar. Crimson Tide a song from their 2020 album Have We Met has sufficiently intruiged me to try and find out more about them.

I've never really been a fan of John Grant and have nothing by him apart from the occassional download here and there but I must confess that I rather enjoyed The Cruise Room a song from his recently released album  Boy From Michegan

Maybe some of the others will grow on me.

Aimee Mann - Good For Me

Destroyer - Crimson Tide

John Grant - The Cruise Room

From When Rod Was Good

 

It is generally accepted , round these parts at least , that anything by Rod Stewart from the Mercury Years (1969 - 1974) is worth having and that anything else is probably best avoided. Perhaps it is because on these albums he is accompanied by  members of The Faces.

My second Whithorn acquisition was the 4th of the 5 Mercury releases 1972's Never a Dull Moment which is in really good condition considering it has a fairly complicated three way gatefold and is just a year short of  the half century.

Only  An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down and Smiler required to complete the set. I also have the compilation Sing it Again Rod  and the  excellent double CD compilation Handbags and Gladrags which both cover this period.

I'm glad to say that this one made it home unscathed.

Rod Stewart - Lost Paraguayos

Rod Stewart - You Wear it Well

Car Boot Calamity

 

I've a Car Boot Calamity to report. No, nothing to do with Car Boot Sales .I would need to get up far to early to pick up any decent vinyl from there.

When we were away for a few days we visited a pop  up shop in Whithorn. Mrs CC came away with a painting by the proprietor and I came away with two albums in good condition for 3 quid a piece. So far so good.

When we were leaving I packed them stacked flat on top of the suitcases in the boot. However, on arriving home I was mortified to discover that City to City by Gerry Rafferty had a big chunk out of the cover as the picture above shows. Fortunately the vinyl had escaped  being damaged by literally milliemetres. It looks as though at one of the stops on the way home the car boot has been shut on it. Nobody so far has claimed responsibility.

Gerry Rafferty - Right Down the Line

Gerry Rafferty - Stealin' Time

Just an American Boy

 

2021 Charity Shop Purchases 52 - John Cougar - The Collection

In October last year Mrs CC came in with a couple of singles by John Couger namely Jack and Diane and Hurts So Good here

I have never knowingly heard anything else by him so I thought that a punt of 50p for a cheap and cheerful CD called the Collection in the BRICC shop in Ballantrae was in order.

Although the CD on Castle is from 1986  (probably on the the back of Jack and Diane) it seems to concentrate on the mid 70's when he was starting out and being billed as John Cougar as opposed to John Mellencamp or even John "Cougar " Mellencamp.

It's pretty basic stuff including a number of covers and what I would describe as Springsteen lite attempts at stadium anthems. Oh, and a bit of patriotism thrown in for good measure.

Mrs CC seems to like it otherwise it would not be a keeper

John Cougar -American Dream

John Cougar - American Son

The Boy With The Arab Strap

 

2021 Charity Shop Purchases 51  -Belle and Sebastian - The Boy With The Arab Strap

The Boy with the Arab Strap the third album by Glasgow band Belle and Sebastian from 1998 on the Jeepster label has an album and song title which would have graced Rol's excellent Snapshots #200 

Named after fellow Glasgow band Arab Strap, as opposed to the sexual device, and a title which did not go down well with Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton despite them being friends of the band.

The album cover is a photograph by Stuart Murdoch of fellow band member Chris Geddes.

For good measure I've also gone for another song with a musical namecheck for good measure. With lead vocals by Stevie Jackson as opposed to Stuart Murdoch the song Seymour Stein is a reference to the legendary founder of Sire Records home of the Talking Heads, Ramones and Madonna amongst others

I think that I now have all the essential B&S albums.

Belle & Sebastian - The Boy With the Arab Strap

Belle & Sebastian - Seymour Stein

The Rising

 

2021 Charity Shop Purchases 50 - Bruce Springsteen - The Rising

A pre-holiday visit to the charity shops in Glasgow's Shawlands district saw a couple of purchases.

One of them was, I'm afraid, was another Bruce Sprinsteen album. The Rising was bought to replace a burn only to find out when I got home that I didn't actually have it!

From 2002 on Columbia as per usual it is his 12th studio album his first studio album in 7 years (the previous one being The Ghost of Tom Joad) and the first with the E Street Band for 18 years.

I hadn't been aware up until now that it was his  response to the 9/11 attacks in 2001 although it seems than many see it as a universal anthem of resilience and hope and let's face it we could all do with some of that.

Now I need to find some space on the shelves given that it actually isn't replacing anything!

Bruce Springsteen - The Rising

Bruce Springsteen - My City of Ruins

Keep it Together

 

The Missing Records Haul - The Sunshine Delay - Keep it Together

The final CD in the Missing Records Haul is Keep it Together a 2011 album by Edinburgh Country Band The Sunshine Delay which I think may be self -released.

They are probably one of the acts that I've seen live the most as in the late 90's/early 00's when I was in my gig going prime any Americana act playing King Tuts were invariably supported by them, The Felsons or The Radio Sweethearts.

I have an eponymous mini CD album from 2001 and  a CD single Country Crush from 2002.

The 2011 line up is Paula McKee (vocals, acoustic guitar), David McKee (vocals,bass), Iain Barbour (guitars, lap steel) and Brendan O'Brien (drums)

A decade on the sound is maybe a bit more polished and mature than there earlier stuff and maybe slightly more mainstream.

One I shall be retaining for nostalgic purposes.

The Sunshine Delay - Slow Day For Love

The Sunshine Delay -King of the Small Town