Sunday 1 January 2017

2016 album review

A strange year for music as there seems to be quite a lot of stagnancy about and far too many of those 'greatest hits' type albums. But here's a list of my faves of this year anyway:


1. Station to Station - David Bowie
- he seems to have left his Ziggy Stardust years well and truly behind. A bit of a mish mash of long and shorter tracks but most of them are ace! Looking forward to the next one already which is apparently going to be made in Switzerland.



2. Timeless Flight - Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
No hits à la Come Up and See Me.. on this one but it's a grower. Didn't like their Beatles cover much though (not on here).







3. Blue For You - Status Quo
The Quo were on top form for this one and Rain should've got to no. 1. Pity I spilled a whole bottle of patchuli over the sleeve that night...Stinks a bit now. Might have to get the 8-track for the car.

4. Wings At the Speed of Sound - Wings (duh!)
Another corker from Macca and Linda and their mates, even though the singles were a bit soppy. Apparently he called round to Lennon's flat in NY in April but it didn't come to much cos Lennon was too busy looking after the baby.


5. Manfred Man's Earth Band - Roaring Silence
Wow .. just check out the full length version of Blinded By the Light!! It'll just blow your mind, man! That stupid punk rock rubbish will never be any better than this. Or the Quo.

6. A New World Record - ELO
Jeff Lynne and his orchestra just get better and better. They need to do a double album I reckon. In space.

7. Boxed - Mike Oldfield
It's a box set (geddit?) of his previous studio albums and some extra stuff but it's all been re-mixed in (wait for it) QUAD SOUND! This is the future, man. (Pity nobody's got a quadraphonic record player yet)

8. A Day at the Races - Queen
Their little gig in Hyde Park last summer must have been a real blast, and it certainly pulled a bigger crowd than that stupid Punk Rock festival in OXford Street or whatever. This new album is top stuff too. Somebody to Love was a great single but check out the opener Tie Your Mother Down...yeah!

9. Arrival - ABBA
OK, OK, ...Quo, ELO or Queen it ain't but these saucy Swedes can kick out a good tune when they want to (except for that Fernando single which was cr*p and thankfully not included here). Opening track: 'When I Kissed the Teacher' ! Naughty! (Check out those white boiler suits...phwooar!) Nice helicopter too.

10. Oxygene - Jean Michel Jarre (French import)
Some nice, spacey electronic music LP my cousin brought back from Paris cos he said it was all the rage over there. It'll never catch on here though - no songs, no lyrics...and it's French!









Well, that was my 2016 ... hope you had a good one guys. Looking forward to 1977 already.

Can I get back in the Tardis now?

Whoooossshhh.....