Glen Campbell - Reunion: The Songs Of Jimmy Webb 1974 (2001 Capitol Records, remastered) Flac & mp3@320

It doesn't really matter if Glen Campbell was Jimmy Webb's best interpreter or if Webb gave Campbell his best songs -- in other words, it doesn't matter who helped the other more -- because it doesn't change the essential fact that the duo fit each other so naturally. Webb's intricate, idiosyncratic compositions sounded warm and accessible in Campbell's hands, while the songs revealed Campbell's musical range and ambition. Other singers had big hits with Webb's songs and Campbell made tremendous music with other people's songs, but there was something special about their collaboration that was evident on their big hits of the '60s: "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Wichita Lineman," "Galveston," "Where's the Playground, Suzie?."

These songs provided the background for Reunion, the 1974 album where Campbell and Webb reunited for a set of Webb songs. Well, that's not exactly accurate, since Webb never produced or arranged the hits Campbell had in the '60s, and the record isn't entirely written by Webb, since it features Susan Webb's "About the Ocean" and Lowell George's "Roll Um Easy" (here retitled "Roll Me Easy")

 

So, this marks the first time that Webb arranged a full album of Campbell's, along with providing the majority of the songs, a move that in many ways made this closer to a Jimmy Webb record than a Glen Campbell LP. Certainly, it favored Webb's idiosyncrasies, particularly his elliptical songs with winding melodies and no straightforward songs.

Not a song here outside of "Roll Me Easy" announces itself as a potential single (which very well may be why this tremendous song was added to the play list, particularly as the first single, since it might be the easiest way into the record for most listeners). Since most of the songs share a similar easy mid-tempo pace and have similar lushly interwoven arrangements, it's not necessarily the most accessible of Campbell's records; it doesn't set out to alienate, it's just that Webb's songs and arrangements call for close listening, which is precisely why it's an album beloved by Campbell/Webb connoisseurs.

So, it's not entirely surprising that the record didn't make much of an impression, certainly nothing close to their big hits of the '60s, but rather that it's become a cult item, with some fans regarding it among Campbell's best work. And, in many ways, they're right. Reunion has a quiet power that grows with repeated listenings since it does indeed showcase Webb at his best as songwriter/arranger and Campbell as an interpretive singer.

But this is very much a record for the dedicated, those that are already convinced of the strengths of both men, because it reveals its gifts slowly, and even when they're out in the open, the songs are so delicately, if exquisitely, crafted they're best appreciated by listeners with an eye for detail. Those listeners will surely find Reunion among Campbell's best work, and it is certainly among his most consistent and ambitious records, but it's just a little too reserved to play to an audience outside of the already converted.(S.T. Erlewine, allmusic)

This is one of his best albums as a whole but it's hard to claim that because Glen Campbell's body of work is huge and there were a lot of great albums he recorded in more than fifty years. Nonetheless, for me personally it is one of his best efforts. How can i give reasons for my claim? The most touches me the arrangements of the songs and how Campbell perform the vocals in the songs. The songwriting here is on a very high level for this kind of music and all this things together working like a precise clockwork on an emotional flat. And this album touch me very very close if i listen to it in the right moment and/or situation. I think that's it why i rate this album on a very high rank in my personal Campbell album charts. Okay folks, enough said. I hope you like it as much as i do and will have fun with the album.

Enjoy
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A Collection Of Rare '60s British Psychedelic And Mod Era Singles: Various Artists - A Perfumed Garden 1965 -1973, Vol.2 (2003 Past & Present Records) Flac & mp3@320

Here is the second volume of ''Perfumed Garden''. I hope you enjoy this truly fine collection of rare sixties singles. Tomorrow the next volumes will follow and the complete artwork.

Have fun
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Marshall Crenshaw - Field Music 1983 (1983 Warner Brothers) Flac & mp3@320

Following his critically acclaimed 1982 debut and successful single "Someday, Someway," Marshall Crenshaw returned with the following year's greatly anticipated Field Day. Crenshaw doesn't fall prey to the sophomore jinx, delivering nine more brilliantly crafted pop/rock originals and a terrific cover of the Jive Five's "What Time Is It?"

Though the record meets the high standard that Crenshaw, his brother Robert Crenshaw (drums) and bassist Chris Donato, set with the first album, many had trouble warming up to producer Steve Lillywhite's dense, more muscular production, especially Robert's explosive snare and bass drum. But while it may lack its predecessor's immediate sparkle and charm, Field Day is equally infectious. It also shows a newfound depth and maturity in Crenshaw's writing, which Lillywhite's sound reinforces. Like Marshall Crenshaw, the majority of Field Day deals with time-honored themes of loves lost and found, albeit from a slightly less innocent viewpoint, much like the lyrical growth of the Beatles in late 1964, early 1965, or Buddy Holly's "True Love Ways" and "Learning the Game." Previously, he would move on and "find someone better" or "feel the need to go "Rockin' Around in N.Y.C."

Now, he's willing to "try with all [his] heart every day," seeing a night on the town as a "duty" that must be done before slipping back into comfortable domesticity and responsibility. Crenshaw realizes now that even true love "makes demands" amidst the fun and summer evening walks. This album brims with deceptively simple, pure pop pleasures that continue to unfold with repeated listens. Though Field Day didn't match the commercial promise of the first album, it was the perfect second step in Marshall Crenshaw's artistic evolution. (allmusic)

Great second album, great songs, great artist. Highest score!
Enjoy
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A Collection Of Rare '60s British Psychedelic And Mod Era Singles: Various Artists - A Perfumed Garden 1965 -1973, Vol.1 (2003 Past & Present Records) Flac & mp3@320

This volume of truly rare British singles of the psychedelic and mod eras contains 17 cuts that are so hard to find that some music historians of the era have never seen or heard them. This is the third time this volume -- first of the original two -- has been released; it initially appeared on vinyl only in the early '80s, and was released on CD in 1991 -- also when Vol. 3 first appeared.

No, it's not Children of Nuggets, nor is it Electric Sugar Cube Flashbacks, but there is some great stuff here -- all of it is at least worth hearing: Vamp's "Floatin'," Open Mind's "Magic Potion," and Nimrod's "The Bird" are just three examples of a slew of psychedelic and mod tunes to be found here.(allmusic.com)

I want post in the next days this wonderful 5 disc collection full of singles from the sixties with psychedelic, garage and mod style sounds. Today i post the first two volumes and the other three volumes will follow in the next days. It's with complete artwork that i post in the next days as well.
Have fun
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Dutch Pop from the Seventies: Greenfield & Cook - Second Album Lp (1973 Polydor) Flac & rar

Maybe some of you know this guys from the wonderful ''The Golden Years Of Dutch Pop'' series where the guys were released with an own 2 disc album this year. I think it's too early to post it here and Universal Records would surely not like it. But here is their second album from 1973 called ''Second Album''. The album deliver a very own sound of pop rock from the seventies. Hope you will like it.

Have fun
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Del Shannon - Drop Down And Get Me 1981 (1998 Varese Sarabande Records) Flac & mp3@320

Released in 1981, this little gem was produced by Tom Petty and features the Heartbreakers as backing band of choice. The result is an album that updates Shannon's sound without putting him through any embarrassing, then-current commercial ploys (to Shannon's eternal credit, he looks younger on the cover than he did when he had "Runaway" out).

He sounds great as well, writing nine of the 12 tracks assembled and turning in bang-up readings of Don Everly's "Maybe Tomorrow," the Rolling Stones' "Out of Time" and Phil Phillips' classic "Sea of Love," which became Shannon's final Top 40 hit. Added to the original issue are the inclusion of two bonus tracks that were U.K.-only releases: "Cheap Love" and "Help Me," both produced by Shannon himself.(allmusic.com)

The album is one of his very good works. Here is not one filler on the album and the production by Tom Petty is comfortable reluctant. He give Del Shannon a lot of space for the expression of his personality in the songs. This, the very good songwriting by Del Shannon and the very well selected covers together with the performance of Del Shannon and the Heartbreakers make this a very very good album in my opinion.

Enjoy it
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A Great Man Is Gone: Glen Campbell The Big Bad Rock Guitar Of Glen Campbell 1965 (2016 Olday Records CD) Flac & mp3@320

You all surely heard the sad news, Glen Campbell has died. Glen Campbell, the indelible voice behind 21 Top 40 hits including "Rhinestone Cowboy," "Wichita Lineman" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," died Tuesday. He was 81. During a career that spanned six decades, Campbell sold over 45 million records. In 1968, one of his biggest years, he outsold the Beatles.

I feel very sad about that, and that had happened to me only to a few musicians before. I thought about this today morning and asked myself why it comes that close to my heart. Maybe it is because i realized that this man probably is the guitar player i have heard the most in my life. Not because he was my number one role model as a guitar player but he had played on so much songs we all know and a lot, really a lot are favourite songs of me. This thoughts come to my mind and i think i was never before that conscious about that. I searched the web this morning, looked pictures, read stories about his career, his life and his disease. I have a nostalgic feeling and i think it is because his music touched my life the whole time. Often unconscious, sometimes conscious. I hope and wish that he is now at a better place. 
Thank you, Glen Campbell.

Here is ''The Big Bad Rock Guitar Of Glen Campbell'' from 1965. Hope you will like it.

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The Beach Boys - Summer Days (And Summer Nights) 1965 Mono (Mini LP PT-SHM Universal Japan 2014) Flac & mp3

Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) was a bit of a regression from the success of Today!, lapsing back into that distressing division between first-rate cuts and lightweight also-rans that characterized their pre-1965 albums. The difference is that the very best tracks were operating on a more sophisticated level than the 1962-1964 classics. "Help Me, Rhonda" was a number one single and would be their last Top 40 exercise in sheer fun for a while. More impressive was "California Girls," with its symphonic arrangement, glorious harmonies, and archetypal statement of Californian lifestyle. Subpar efforts like "Amusement Park U.S.A." and "Salt Lake City," throwbacks to the empty-headed summer filler of previous days, will disappoint.

The answer song, "The Girl from New York City," and the cover, "Then I Kissed Her," are well done but don't break new ground. Yet a couple of cuts are among their most essential LP-only efforts. "Let Him Run Wild" is a soulful ballad with a great Brian Wilson falsetto vocal. "Girl Don't Tell Me," with its gorgeous melody, fine lead vocal debut from Carl Wilson, and subtle depiction of romantic rejection and disappointment, may be the best obscure pre-Pet Sounds Beach Boys track.(allmusic.com)

This is the first Beach Boys post here on the blog. And not a bad one :-). It's in original mono and i wish you fun
Cheers
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Sixties Garage By The Music Explosion - Little Bit O' Soul The Best of the Music Explosion 1966 -1968 (2002 Sundazed) Flac & mp3@320

One-hit-wonder Ohio garage band that reached number two in 1967 with "Little Bit O'Soul," a great gutsy pop/rock number with a classic bass-organ riff. Whatever personality they may have had was coated in the studio by producers Jeffrey Katz and Jerry Kasenetz, who would soon help create bubblegum with acts like the 1910 Fruitgum Co. and the Ohio Express.

The Music Explosion didn't have nearly as juvenile a sound as those groups, but they never latched onto another piece of material nearly as attention grabbing as "Little Bit O'Soul," entering the Top 100 only once more with the tiny hit "Sunshine Games."(allmusic.com)

Fine psychedelic garage act from the mid sixties with different influences like soul, pop, rock, and psychedelia. The band was better as some critics wrote.

Enjoy
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At Request: Irish Punk Giants: The Undertones - The Undertones 1979 (2004 Sanctuary Midline, remastered) Flac & mp3

What is a perfect album? One could make an argument that a perfect album is one that sets out a specific set of artistic criteria and then fulfills them flawlessly. In that respect, and many others, the Undertones' 1979 debut is a perfect album. The Northern Ireland quintet's brief story is no different than that of literally dozens of other bands to form in the wake of the Clash and, more importantly, the Buzzcocks, but the group infuses so much unabashed joy in their two-minute three-chord pop songs, and there's so little pretension in their unapologetically teenage worldview, that even the darker hints of life in songs like the suicide-themed "Jimmy Jimmy" are delivered with a sense of optimism at odds with so many of their contemporaries.

There's no fewer than three all-time punk-pop classics here; besides that song, the singles "Teenage Kicks" and "Get Over You" are simple declarations of teenage hormonal lust that somehow manage to be cute instead of Neanderthal; perhaps it's Feargal Sharkey's endearingly adenoidal whine, or the chipper way the O'Neill brothers pitch in on schoolboy harmonies, like a teenage Irish Kinks. All of the other 13 songs, even the 47-second blip "Casbah Rock," are nearly to that level of brilliance, with the frenetic "Girls Don't Like It" a particular standout. (excerpt from allmusic.com)

Top notch punk album. But not just a punk album, maybe it is yet more a pop album that connect the best of both worlds punk and pop. Anyway a real great album.
Enjoy
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At Request: The Sugar Stems - Only Come Out At Night 2014 (Dirtnap Records) Flac & mp3

Playing an engaging and energetic fusion of '70s style power pop and '60s garage rock, the Sugar Stems formed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2007. The group features several veterans of the local music scene: lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Betsy Heibler and bassist Stephanie Conard had both been members of the Flips, while drummer Jon Heibler had played with the Teenage Rejects, the Catholic Boys, Tuff Bananas, and Sticks 'n' Stones. After a handful of low-key acoustic gigs, the Sugar Stems played their first proper show in May 2008, with Zach Byrne (ex-Goodnight Loving) on lead guitar. Byrne soon left the group, and the guitar spot was taken over by Drew Fredrichsen (a veteran of the Leg Hounds and the Jetty Boys), completing the Sugar Stems' definitive lineup.

In 2009, the Sugar Stems made their recorded debut with a single for Bachelor Records, "Beat Beat Beat" b/w "Crybaby," and the band's first full-length release, The Sweet Sounds Of, followed in 2010. In 2012, the band completed their second album, Can't Wait; it was originally released in Germany by Screaming Apple Records and in Japan by Dream On, while in 2013 it made its American debut via Dirtnap. The Sugar Stems introduced keyboard player Andy Harris on their third studio effort, 2014's Only Come Out at Night (once again released in America by Dirtnap), while a live LP, Sugar Stems 'n' Friends, came out through Dusty's Medical Records.(allmusic.com)

In some songs the band can't persuade me. For me it's too sweet (Baby Teeth) but without good candy if you know what i mean. Songs like ''Tell the Truth'' go in the right direction in my opinion. Also ''Elm Tree Eulogy''. All in all to me it's an average album. But tastes are different.

Have fun
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At Request: The Merrymakers - Bubblegun 1997 (1999 Big Deal Records 2 Disc US Version) Flac & mp3

By this point in their career, it seems as if the duo of Anders Hellgren and David Myhr should have four or five acclaimed releases under their belts and be household names in the world of pop music. Bubblegun, however, is only the Merrymakers' second full-length album (and their first in the U.S.), though they have been making unabashedly joyous and pretty pop since 1991. Their first album, No Sleep 'til Famous, brought the comparatively innocent and clear-eyed pop of the '60s into the '90s via a sophisticated and clean production. The band does the same on Bubblegun, crafting a set of songs that sound as if they could all be singles.

Undoubtedly, many of them would have been hits in the era from which they glean their influences, but the Merrymakers are not a retro act; they simply write gorgeous, catchy pop songs that are universal, transcending both time and place. Very rarely anymore do choruses explode out of speakers and simply envelop the listener with pure pleasure as do songs such as "Saltwater Drinks," "Troubled Times" and "Superstar." The songs, though they are incredibly melodic and crisply produced, are not in the least vapid. There is an edginess to many of the tracks, and lyrically, the Merrymakers do not shy away from difficult themes: "Monkey in the Middle" and "Superstar" deal with fading fame while the theme of lost love is all over the album ("April's Fool," "Sad," "Ms. Demeanour"). Never, though, does this cause the music or listening experience to drag or grate. Former Jellyfish frontman Andy Sturmer helps out on production on a few songs (and co-wrote a couple cuts), and he is a perfect match for the band
.

Since this is the band's first American release, Big Deal has added a bonus to the package: a second CD containing five songs from their first album. Those songs have a slightly more trippy feel to them but shine just as brightly as the songs on the first CD. It makes for a virtually flawless pop album: in a perfect world, Bubblegun would make the Merrymakers a household name.(allmusic.com)

This is the US release with the bonus disc for the US market with five songs from their first album. Some big names involved here in the production and songwriting. It's a fine Power pop album with '60s influences.
Have fun
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