THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

Thank you for reviving this thread. I've just had a fantastic hour re-reading every post and listening to some of the linked music. Currently playing What Goes On by The Velvets. I'm going to have to have a think about another album to post.

The day has started well.

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

Dusty In Memphis sold next to fuck all when it was released. It's now in the Library Of Congress... "Over time, Dusty in Memphis grew in stature to become widely recognized as an important album by a woman in the rock era."

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They say don't kick a man when he's down. Show me a better time.

Roxy Music - Roxy Music

It starts with the visuals. Obviously. Because Bryan Ferry was an art school boy. So it's a single LP but in a gatefold sleeve. The cover features a beautiful model shot in a 50s retro cheesecake style. The inside of the cover features photos of the band: Ferry looks sleazy, Mackay looks pretty, Manzanera looks like a sci-fi Manson, Simpson looks like a geography teacher, Thompson looks cute but Eno... Eno looks cool as fuck. Like Ming the Merciless had a child with David Bowie. All of 'em dressed and made up by Anthony Price.

The sleeve notes reference the Mannerist art movement (of course they do!) and also the Roxys, Meccas and Ritzs where Saturday nite (not night) came alive.

The music is a wonderful mix of a re-imagined past (30's Noel Coward, twisted 50s rock and roll and classic Hollywood glamour) and an invented hip, sci-fi future. With Eno given full range to be experimental.

Their next album (For Your Pleasure) is probably a better record and, after Eno left, the entire sound shifted to a more commercial style but this LP is great and so, so influential, both on the then-current arty end of the Glam scene but also on the punks to come.

Best track? Dunno. But try Bitters End on for size. Ferry giving it the full Jazz-age croon, with a cocktail party taking place behind him, reflecting the alcohol references in the lyrics. It certainly "Should make the cognoscenti think".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E76oQIHoX4Q

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

Tricky - Maxinquaye

Erstwhile Wild Bunch and Massive Attack member Tricky Kid drops the sobriquet, buys a cheap Akai S1000 sampler, enlists a schoolgirl on vocals, and goes mental in the studio.

This is a classic of that most dreaded of genres, trip hop. But don’t let that put you off. It’s a true masterpiece. This is yet another one that I played to death. Had it on repeat. As soon as it finished, it was straight back on. Much to my shame I haven’t listened to it for ages, and looking for something to listen to yesterday, chose this. If we’re being totally honest here, it doesn't hold up particularly well. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great piece of work, but the fact that it’s been years since I listened to it speaks volumes.

Anyway, Most of the stuff on here you’ve already heard. Mostly from Massive Attack. He’d written loads of stuff with them, but became disenchanted as he thought that his input wasn’t being given the acclaim that he thought it deserved. So he left. I say you’ve heard it before. What you’ve actually heard is versions. The opening track, Overcome, is Massive’s Karmacoma. In fact if you watch the video for Karmacoma Tricky is in it, doing exactly what he’s doing on his own version.

I strongly suspect that he’s hard work. The vocals are mostly by GCSE student, Martina Topely-Bird. Tricky can be heard mumbling away in the background, which adds to the overall feeling of dread that emanates from the grooves. There’s also guest appearances from Alison Goldfrapp, The Pop Group’s Mark Stewart, super producer Howie B, and most bizarrely of all, Boomtown Rats bassist Pete Briquette, among a host of others.

It’s certainly of it’s time. There’s an overwhelming sense of dread and oppression from start to finish. The themes and universally his dreadful upbringing (the album is named after his late mother Maxine Quaye), his experiences with both drugs and alcohol, and his chaotic lifestyle at the time.

Best track, Black Steel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZJTM03UByU

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They say don't kick a man when he's down. Show me a better time.

Motorhead. No sleep 'till Hammersmith.
The classic line up and all the best early stuff played live a blistering pace and volume. "We were at the hight of our success and excess" Lemmy commented.
All the tracks are awesome but my personal fave is 'we are the road crew' that Lemmy apparently wrote in a toilet because it was 'too noisy in the studio' I sh*t you not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FtVR7gdp5c

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment

Secondhand Daylight by Magazine (1979)

My favourite Magazine album - more mature than their debut, and more polished than its successor, it still sounds great today.
Devoto, Formula, Adamson and McGeoch at their finest, with an epic opener, a superbly sinister closer, and total brilliance from start to finish.

Feed the Enemy:
"It's always raining over the border,
There's been a plane crash out there..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwb-wBKN7MA

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APL Champion 2018 + 2025
APL Hall of Fame Champion 2024 + 2025
140 grounds - 78/92

'Can I expect my team to stay in the Championship when they have to train at a school when the weather is bad?'
'Every year we’re in League 1 is a year too long'
Pete W

REM - Automatic for the People

This isnt even REMs best album but is seminal to me and epitomised that period of my life. It was a behemoth of an album commercially and brought the band fully into mainstream and really showed off Stipes voice and Buck/Mills/Berry melodies. Stand out song for me is 'Try Not To Breath' although I imagine the vast majority would know it for ' Everybody Hurts'.

Listened to it again this weekend for the first time in maybe a decade and loved every second of it!

The magic of music that we love...

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I don't need your ill-informed, half-baked, idiotic opinions. I have plenty of those myself.

The Pixies - Doolittle

When I first heard this I didnt really understand what I was listening too. I knew I really liked the songs and the vibe but hadnt heard a band like it before.

Most of my friends at the time had never heard of The Pixies and when I played it in the car or whatever used to cop tonnes of abuse for 'listening to this shit' but I knew they were great and over time their greatness seems to have developed whereas at the time they seemed to gain no traction.

With hindsight, it may be the case that the Pixies paved the way for the likes of the Stone Roses, The Happy Mondays, The Charlatans etc.

Each track is epic but perhaps 'Debaser' is my favourite but that could change by the time I hit post!!

It's a very good album. I saw them at the bowl 84? 85? That was good too.

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment