Secrets” (1979), “Clues” (1980) and “Maybe It’s Live” (1982) by ROBERT PALMER - A Review Of His 5th, 6th and 7th Solo Albums – Now Reissued And Remastered By Edsel Of The UK Onto A Deluxe 2CD Set In 2013.

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"…You’ll Know Me Better…" 

After stints with THE ALAN BOWN in the Sixties, DADA in 1970 and three albums with VINEGAR JOE (featuring Elkie Brooks) between 1972 and 1973 – ROBERT PALMER was finally ready to go Solo. I’ve already reviewed Volumes 1 with "Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley" and "Pressure Drop" and Volume 2 with "Some People Can Do What They Want" and "Double Trouble". This 2CD reissue on Demon's Edsel label celebrates the next stage – his 5th, 6th and 7th albums.

UK released 26 August 2013 - Edsel EDSK 7039 (Barcode 740155703936) breaks down as follows:

Disc 1 (71:38 minutes)
Tracks 1 to 11 are his 5th studio solo LP "Secrets" – UK released June 1979 on Island ILPS 9544
Track 12 is a BONUS TRACK - the 12" Mix of "Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor Doctor" – it was originally featured on the "Addictions" Best Of LP and CD in 1989 as a 'Remix'
Tracks 13 to 20 are his 6th studio solo LP "Clues" – UK released August 1980 on Island ILPS 9595

Disc 2 (48:14 minutes):
Tracks 1 to 3 are BONUS TRACKS – "Good Care Of You" (Non-Album B-side of the November 1980 “Looking For Clues” 12" Single on Island WIP12 6651), "Johnny And Mary (Alternate Take)" and "What Do You Care (Alternate Mix)"
Tracks 4 to 13 are his 7th solo LP – the live set "Maybe It's Live" – UK released April 1982 on Island ILPS 9665

Fans will also know that outside of the "Gold" anthology on Universal – Palmer’s Island catalogue has been languishing without remasters for decades. Although it doesn’t say who mastered these album at Universal – they’re licensed from the Music Giant and the sound quality is leagues ahead of the dull Eighties discs we’d had for years. One reviewer is ranting on about MP3 files but I don't hear anything of the sort - and if these are sourced from Universal's 2006 remasters for "Gold" then they are vast improvements on what we had before.

The outer card wrap is generic to all these Edsel reissues and certainly gives the whole thing a classy feel. The chunky 32-page booklet is substantial – pictures of the albums, recording studio shots, colour publicity stuff, lyrics to both albums, live photos in colour and black and white, affectionate and knowledgeable liner notes by CHRIS JONES – (same as all the others) it’s a bang-up job done.

I loved "Secrets" as a whole album – it's chockers full of great tunes done in his Soulful Funky Rock style. "What's It Take" (lyrics above) has graced many a Seventies Fest CD-R of mine while Jo Allen’s brilliantly catchy Motels rock of "Jealous" is the same. Speaking of Rock – his cover of Moon Martin's "Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor Doctor)" is a bona fide smash. But again it's his interpretations of Todd Rundgren's gorgeous "Can We Still Be Friends?" and Andy Fraser's (of Free) equally melodic "Mean Old World" that impress - "Mean Old World" managing to be upbeat and hopeful when talking about tough domestic stuff.

1980's "Clues" seemed to anticpate the sound of the decade ahead and took a quantum leap into electronics and succeeded. I can remember being in a London nightclub when the DJ let rip "Looking For Clues" – the floor just went mad – bopping themselves into a lather. And his "Johnny And Mary" is truly one of 'the' great Eighties singles – up there with Kate Bush, Talk Talk and Prefab Sprout. Gary Numan fans will also dig the two collusions on here – “I Dream Of Wires” and the jerky electronic finisher “Found You Know”.

The live set "Maybe It's Live" always left me cold and re-hearing it now doesn’t change that. The band may be tight but the vocals are awful – way back in the mix and the whole feels like contractual crap that everyone can do without.

The 3 bonus tracks are interesting – especially the 'Alternate' of "Johnny And Mary" where more layers of synths are audible as is his still-working-out-the-lyrics mumbling. The B-side “Good Care Of You” is a great fan addition and goes some way to rescuing Disc 2 from the dreadful live set.

I’ve always thought Robert Palmer was a class act – not just as singer – but also as a vessel for other people’s songs – and the two studio sets on these 2 CDs provide wads of both. But the overall show has to docked a star for that unnecessary turkey on Disc 2…

Having said that - there’s a lot of primo Robert Palmer on here for the money and I for one am glad to be rehearing it in such style…

“21 Grams” on BLU RAY – A Review Of The 2004 Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Film

"…Forgive Me…"

21 Grams on BLU RAY

Like a freight juggernaut carrying the poisoned cargo of a screwed-up past and a tormenting temptation-filled-present - ex convict Jack Jordan is a train wreck waiting to derail yet again - only this time in spectacular fashion. At the hands of Preacher John (the ever stunning Eddie Marsan) Jack has at least discovered God ("Jesus gave me that truck...") but he seems to be slowly losing everything else - his freedom, his job and his family.

Mexican Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu had made the brilliant "Amos Perres" in 2000 and it went a long way to drawing in huge talent like Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and especially Benicio Del Toro (as Jack Jordan). Not conventionally structured - 2004's "21 Grams" uses the device of back and forward in time flashbacks to offer up a story of accidents and loss and extreme pain and how ordinary people cope with it (or not as the case may be).

The structure is odd and at times grating - but it brilliantly unfolds the story so you slowly twig what's happened and to whom. One minute Jack Jordan is clean-shaven happily waving to his friends by his pick-up - the next he's in a prison shower again with a towel around his neck (and he isn't trying to clear up his zits). Sean Penn's character Paul River's is wheezing on a ventilator while he sneaks a cigarette from a pill bottle stash in the bathroom in one scene - then is healthy and immaculately suited in the next scene as he ogles a woman in a swimming pool (Naomi Watts) he seems overly interested in for a married man. One moment he's raising a glass of wine with his friends celebrating an organ transplant that has literally saved his life - the next Paul is lying in a hospital bed looking battered with tubes in his mouth - ruminating on the size of the bodyweight you lose when you die (the film's title).

In between all of this we keep returning to a father (a brilliantly subtle Danny Huston) on his mobile to his wife. He is clearly not paying enough attention to his two young daughters giddily chasing a bird on the footpath ahead of him. As the three pass out of shot - leaves are blown ahead as a familiar-looking truck races past - and a few moments later (still out of shot) there's an ominous screech of tyres...

While Sean Penn is typically magnetic - the movie belongs to Benicio Del Toro who straddles it like a malevolent colossus. In the 'Making Of' the Director says you need only point the camera at him and magic will happen - worlds going on behind a glance. Yet somehow (and there are repulsive scenes with his family) Del Toro fills his tattooed enraged Jordan with such gravitas that you empathise with his gradual loss of faith rather than judge him. In one scene he begs a startled man to kill him - end his torment - and you don't for a second think that he doesn't really mean it.

But special praise should also go to the women who are simply astounding and in some cases act the showier male names off the frame. Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Sean Penn's wife Mary Rivers obsessed with having a child even if their relationship is disintegrating - while Melissa Leo plays the wife of the God-obsessed Jack Gordon trying to keep him out of jail and her family together (both are simply superb). But it's Naomi Watts who blows you away. There is a scene where she has to go the hospital to check on her husband and two daughters only to be given unfathomable news. As a parent you physically shake and ache with her harrowing disintegration (she's that good). The only other times I've ever seen this sheer acting power is in "Bright Star" about the life of poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne that has Abbie Cornish give the same kind of mind-blowing performance (see review) and Marion Cotillard's unbelievable performance in the Edith Piaf biopic "La Vie En Rose".

With a 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio (the full screen is filled) 'adequate' best describes the BLU RAY picture quality. It isn't great by any stretch of the imagination featuring many indoor and night scenes with an ever-present pallor of grain. Shooting was all about feel and immediacy - and prettily framed suburbia was never going to be part of the equation. But I'd still say that the power of the watch quickly dissipates any qualms on that front. The only subtitle is English for the Hard Of Hearing.

There's also a great "In Fragments" Making Of where the Director gets all the cast and crew to throw red roses in the air at the start of shooting and white roses when they finish. Each of the principal actors get spots and they're praise and love of the work is palatable. Icing on the cake is Gustavo Santaoialla's stunning score of electric and acoustic heavy guitar strums (like a Mexican Ry Cooder). Gustavo also embellished "Babel" and "The Motorcycle Diaries" with the same emotion-tugging power.

Nominated for 2 Oscars and 5 Baftas - "21 Grams" is visceral cinema peopled with a plethora of actors giving 1000% to a script they know is hard-hitting yet somehow real world redemptive. Inarritu would go on to make the equally brilliant "Babel" and the seriously harsh "Biutiful".

In 2014 you can pick up the stunning “21 Grams” for five quid or less on BLU RAY - and that's a skydiver well spent in my book...

"The Socks" by THE SOCKS (2014 Debut Album on Small Stone Records) - A Review by Mark Barry...

Here is a link to Amazon UK to get this CD at the best price:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00HE0OPF0

Hailing out of France but sounding like they're steeped in the spirit of 1991 US Grunge, Seventies British Heavy Metal and Prog and even New European Psych - "The Socks" make a hell of an angry racket. And in the case of "Some Kind Of Sorcery" (the lead off single) they have been clearly snorting Nirvana's "Nevermind" and Black Sabbath's "Master Of Reality" on a nightly basis.

"Next To The Light" has that great phased Ozzie vocal (similar to "Planet Caravan") and it's as commercial (dare we say it) as this album gets. I can hear this beauty getting serious airplay.

Personal favourites include the choppy guitar-rock of "Gypsy Lady" with its heavy Stranglers bass and keyboard lines while the six and half-minute finisher "The Last Dragon" with its smoky guitars and Mellotron swirl would do many a Vertigo Spiral band proud (May Blitz and Linda Hoyle's Affinity jump to mind). I bet it slays them live.

Similar in vein to Black Rainbows, Karma To Burn and Mars Red Sky - The Socks have made a slammer of a debut and Julien Meret's vocals are going to make Kurt Cobain and Chris Cornell fans sit up and take serious notice. Well done…

"Some People Can Do What They Like" (1976) and "Double Fun (1978) by ROBERT PALMER - A Review Of His 3rd and 4th Solo Albums – Now Reissued And Remastered By Edsel Of The UK In 2013 - A Review by Mark Barry...

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1976

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"...Takes Every Kinda People..."

After stints with THE ALAN BOWN in the Sixties, DADA in 1970 and three albums with VINEGAR JOE (featuring Elkie Brooks) between 1972 and 1973 – ROBERT PALMER was finally ready to go Solo. 

I've already reviewed his 1974 debut "Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley" and its sexy 1976 follow up "Pressure Drop". This 2CD reissue on Demon's Edsel label celebrates the next stage – his 3rd and 4th solo albums from 1976 and 1978.

UK released 26 August 2013 - "Some People Can Do What They Want/Double Fun" by ROBERT PALMER on Edsel EDSK 7038 (Barcode 740155703837) is a 2CD Compilation that offers 2LPs Remastered onto 1CD - it breaks down as follows:

Disc 1 (38:41 minutes):

Tracks 1 to 10 are his 3rd Solo LP "Some People Can Do What They Like" – UK released October 1976 on Island ILPS 9420

Disc 2 (35:01 minutes):

Tracks 1 to 9 are his 4th Solo LP "Double Fun" – UK released March 1978 on Island ILPS 9476

The outer card wrap is generic to all these Edsel reissues and certainly gives the whole thing a classy feel. Fans will also know that outside of the "Gold" anthology on Universal – Palmer's Island catalogue has been languishing without remasters for decades. Although it doesn't say who remastered these album at Universal – the sound quality is great – a huge improvement over the dull Eighties discs we'd had for years. 

One reviewer is ranting on about MP3 files but I don't hear anything of the sort - and if these are sourced from Universal's remasters for "Gold" then they are vast improvements on what we had before. The 28-page booklet is substantial – pictures of the albums and rare singles, studio shots, colour publicity stuff, lyrics to both albums, affectionate and knowledgeable liner notes by CHRIS JONES – it's a bang-up job done.  

Having relocated to the Bahamas and with his 2nd album "Pressure Drop" only just released to the shops in April of 1976 – Palmer was already under pressure to produce another album immediately. Hence only two songs on "Some People…" are originals – the other 8 are hastily worked out covers. But cobbled out of nothing – the album is brilliant - and perhaps one of the great lost Funk-Rock nuggets of the mid Seventies.

It opens with a Bill Payne original (of Little Feat) "One Last Look" and not surprisingly Palmer makes a return to the mighty Feat on Lowell George's fab "Spanish Moon". Two absolute belters however come in the shape of drummers – his pal Alan Powell (the backbeat behind Vinegar Joe) co-writes the brilliantly funky "Gotta Get A Grip On You (Part II)" while legendary Kansas sticks man James Gadson (Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye, The Jungle Brothers and later with Beck and Paul McCartney) gives us the stunning "What Can You Bring Me". An old Harry Belafonte Calypso hit "Man Smart, Woman Smarter" was funked up and lifted as a single on Island WIP 6345 but it made few inroads. The album ends on a high note though with his own fabulously groovy "Some People Can Do What They Like" featuring Old Grey Whistle Test Theme type harmonica wailing from Greg Carroll. The album scraped the Top 100 in the USA. Commercially things fared better next time around…

I recall first hearing the stunning groove of "Every Kinda People" – a song penned by Andy Fraser of Free (lyrics above). I bought the single immediately and played it to distraction (there is a Remix of "Every Kinda People" on the 1999 Universal CD compilation that is not included here – would have made a good bonus track). With a two year layoff Palmer contributed 7 originals to the superbly crafted 10-track "Double Fun" album – the other two covers being "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks and "Night People" - a new contribution from his old New Orleans pal and genius songwriter Allen Toussaint.

The boppin' "Best Of Both Worlds" sees Reggae seeping into his funky style – the same with "Love Can Run Faster" only featuring more piano. Again Richie Hayward, Bill Payne and Paul Barrere of Little Feat are all over the tracks on Drums, Keyboards and Guitars respectively. Things take a string-plucked change with the lovely "You Overwhelm Me" – a great Palmer melody.  And it ends well with the "Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor Doctor)" funk-rock of "You're Going To Get What's Coming" which is just great.

I’ve always thought Robert Palmer was a class act – not just as singer – but also as a vessel for other people’s songs. On this reissue you get a whole lot of both. Bluntly there's a hunk of quality Seventies Funk-Rock-Soul-Reggae on offer here for not a lot of your hard earned.

Get this fabulous double-CD in your life and you’ll find yourself sneakin’ those other titles into your shopping basket too. I miss him…

"The Innocent Age" by DAN FOGELBERG - November 1981 Double-Album on Full Moon and Epic Records with Joni Mitchell as a Guest (September 2012 UK Beat Goes On 2CD Remaster of the 1981 Double-Album) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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LET'S GO CRAZY - 80ts Music On CD

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Classic Albums, Compilations, 45s

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"...Wealthy The Spirit…"

I purchased these superb sounding Dan Fogelberg 2CD reissues by Beat Goes On Records of England way back and have been meaning to review them ever since. 

I've covered Volume 1 "Home Free" (1972) / "Souvenirs" (1974), Volume 2 "Captured Angel" (1975) / "Nether Lands" (1977) and Volume 3 "Twin Sons Of Different Mothers" (1978) / "Phoenix" (1980) in separate reviews. Here are the details for Volume 4 that deals with his expansive and brilliant double-album from 1981 that featured a rare guest spot by Joni Mitchell on duet vocals. To details...

UK released 10 September 2012 - "The Innocent Age" by DAN FOGELBERG on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1073 (Barcode 5017261210739) is a 2CD set of Remasters that make up the 17 tracks of his 7th vinyl album (a 2LP set) "The Innocent Age" - first issued November 1981 in the USA on Full Moon KE2 37393 and in the UK on Epic EPC 88533.

Discs 1 (39:40 minutes):

1. Nexus [Side 1]

2. The Innocent Age

3. The sand And The Foam

4. In The Passage

5. Lost In The Sun [Side 2]

6. Run For The Roses

7. Leader Of The Band

8. Same Old Lang Syne

Disc 2 (40:50 minutes):

1. Stolen Moments [Side 3]

2. The Lion's Share

3. Only The Heart May Know

4. The Reach

5. Aireshire Lament [Side 4]

6. Times Like These

7. Hard To Say

8. Empty Cages

9. Ghosts

Like the other reissues in this superb series - the packed 24-page booklet is excellent - all artwork reproduced, lyrics, full credits and liner notes in this case by noted writer DAVID WELLS. With the lovely outer card wrap/slipcase it automatically feels like a classy presentation. But the big news for fans is the fabulous remasters. ANDREW THOMPSON at Sound Performance in London has done the deed (he's handled large numbers of BGO's reissues) and his transfers on this 2CD set are beautifully handled. On to the music...

It opens with a belter "Nexus" and a rare cameo appearance on duet 'descant' vocals by JONI MITCHELL. The guitar solo in the song combined with the vocals still sends me to this day (lyrics above). Respectfully dedicated to the Buffalo Springfield, track 2 "The Innocent Age" is pure Fogelberg magic where he plays all the instruments and employs lovely harmony vocals from BF original band member RICHIE FURAY.

The album was a smash (it hit Number 6 on the charts - rare for a double) and spawned 4 hit singles - "Same Old Lang Syne", "Hard To Say", "Leader Of The Band" and "Run For The Roses" (with Al Perkins on Steel Guitar). Other favorites include the Emitt Rhodes acoustic funk of "Stolen Moments" and the gorgeous ballad "Only The Heart May Know" featuring an aching vocal duet with EMMYLOU HARRIS. "The Reach" is equally as beautiful ("it's father and son...it's the way it's been done...") - the melody and lyrics reduce me to tears every time. Wonderful stuff really - all of it...

I posted a note on Dan Fogelberg's website when he sadly succumbed to cancer in December 2007 - yet another teenage hero of mine gone to the great gig in the sky.

Luckily this and all the other beautiful-sounding 2CD reissues in this superb Beat Goes On series do his musical legacy proud. Well done to all involved and RIP you lovely songsmith...