The Album Review Club - Week #122 - (page 1438) A Black Mile To The Surface – Manchester Orchestra

bennyboy said:
One of them that i got out of the library at the time and never came close to recording on tape or paying a fine for a late return.
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This selection was never mailed to the home address as part of "buy 10 albums/cassettes for 1 cent" under the various aliases that can possibly exist for a teenager to game the system, but we won't discuss any more of that either.
 
threespires said:
That's much better than I thought they had done. I always got the impression that the 'second british invasion' was a bit of a marketing scam and consisted mostly of lots of bands having the odd single doing well rather than sustained success for the majority of them, aside from the likes of The Police. I should be less cynical.
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In 1983 30% of US record sales were by Brits. It started with Pop Muzik by M, Human League, Duran Duran...even Billy Idol counted!!

Blame MTV.
 
shoot that poison arrow through my heaaaaaart!

Listened to their 'Best Of' Album many moons ago and enjoyed it . Nice pick.

*Speaking of which! 10 years ago. blimey.

forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk

Album of the day - ABC (Look of Love – The Very Best of ABC)

Look of Love – The Very Best of ABC is a compilation by UK dance-pop group ABC. Although essentially a reissue of greatest hits package Absolutely (which was released in 1990), the album featured two new songs by Fry titled "Peace and Tranquility" and "Blame". A companion DVD, along with a bonus...
forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk
 
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BimboBob said:
ABC - Lexicon Of Love

For my choice this time out we are travelling back to the weird and wonderful times that were 1982. A year dominated by a trip to the Falklands, the IRA blowing stuff up, a strange number of aircraft crashes, Villa winning the European Cup, an old ship being raised and for our American cousins the Lakers winning the NBA Finals. Whatever that is.
It was a heady year indeed but looking back one of my biggest memories was of a gold shiny suit majestically posing it's way through an episode of Top Of The Pops. It was elegant. It was suave. It looked the epitome of cool. Attached to said suit was a man who looked the part. Effortlessly preening his way around the stage with foppish hair miming to something a little different. It had strings, it had a groovy bass line. It had a quiet piano bit. It had some rather good lyrics. It demanded a trip to the local record shop.

As with most albums I bought around this time I took it to my mate Matthew's house. His parents were rich. They had a music room. With sofas. His Mum kept up the supply of orange squash and biscuits regularly. And best of all they had a stonkingly big stereo which we could play at whatever volume we liked. Along with Martin and Charlie, the original fab four, we would get comfy, try not to stare at Matthews Mum's cleavage when she popped in, and play an album in it's entirety. Whilst making what we thought were pithy and intelligent comments. We didn't always agree, which was a good thing, I remember a great argument about Upstairs At Eric's by Yazoo which end with me farting on Charlies head and the ensuing big bundle. I was right though, it was an album half full of fillers and half full of great songs.
We all agreed on Lexicon Of Love. It was an astounding debut record, from it's orchestral start and finish to it's amazing production, thank you Mr Trevor Horn, the whole album had us captivated. And the lyrics...oh the lyrics, they spoke to us. Especially me with my complete lack of dedication to girlfriends. Kiss a girl at the local youth club/ park/ school toilets, go "out" with her and then get dumped a week later as I preferred playing football and mucking about with the fab four. I could never work out why though as I did fall in love very easily. Or what I thought was love. The conversation usually had the same theme...did you kiss xxx at the youth club last night? Yup. She'll dump you by the weekend. Oh...who's turn in goal?

Looking back now not a lot has changed, I still think this album is a fantastic offering and one I listen to at least once a month, the lyrics are probably amongst the best of the era, especially on "All Of My Heart", and the production is as lush as ever. I have given up farting on mates heads though. Which can only be a good thing.


Original album rules apply although I suspect spotify will offer up deluxe or digitally remastered versions if fucking about with the original is your bag.



Enjoy!
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Nice pick Bimbo. To add to the IRA/music tales, I was in London October 1981 to see ZZ Top when they blew up the Wimpey restaurant. I was only 18 at the time and mobile phones were still to be the scourge of society. I did have the sense to call my parents to tell them I was okay, but being told by police to vacate the area was a scary experience.
ZZ Top were immense - false beards and oversize foam stetsons were de rigueur!
ABC will bring back a few memories of smoky pubs and video juke boxes…
 
BimboBob said:
In 1983 30% of US record sales were by Brits. It started with Pop Muzik by M, Human League, Duran Duran...even Billy Idol counted!!

Blame MTV.
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Quite surprised by that percentage, clearly wasn't paying enough attention. I know a few like Duran Duran had prolonged success but I always thought most of the others like the Human League had a couple of hits and that was it but evidently not.

My main recollection of 82 was leaving the highly dysfunctional school I went to. Being verbally abused in the street by both my ex French and Chemistry teachers shortly after the exam results came out (weird what you can remember). Trying and failing to ferment revolution, including getting punched for flogging newspapers on Civic Centre and going off to Loreto sixth form to find it had a significantly better class of young lady than I had previously been exposed to. I'm sure other things will come to me at some point. Good choice this.
 
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