| | Billy Bragg Volume 2 CD Billy Bragg Discography of CDs
The first four years of Billy Bragg's recording career (1982 to 1986) were a blur of record releases that established the froggy-voiced "Bard from Barking" as perhaps the most powerful and engaging political songwriter to emerge since the "folk scare" of the 1960s. From 1988 on, however, Bragg had the difficult task of living up to his own legacy, and that proved to be no small task; as he stylistically outgrew the rough electric guitar and vocal textures of Brewing Up with Billy Bragg and Life's a Riot with Spy vs. Spy, Bragg didn't display the same immediate skill at "proper" record-making and took his time growing comfortable with the craft of the studio, and while he never ran out of things to write and sing about, as the 1980s faded into the 1990s his songs lost a certain amount of the sharp wit and keen focus that was second nature on his early records. (It also became clear the material was coming a lot more slowly, to boot.) This period of Bragg's career is documented on Volume 2, the second box set compiled from Bragg's back catalog, featuring expanded versions of four albums: 1988's Workers Playtime, 1991's Don't Try This at Home, 1996's William Bloke, and 2002's England, Half English. While none of these albums can be called bad, very little of what's featured on this set matches the consistent quality of the records compiled on the similar Volume 1 box, and even the best of the records featured here (Don't Try This at Home) falls slightly short of the wit and fire of Bragg's salad days. That said, while one has to pick and choose to find the pearls on Volume 2, they are certainly there, and Bragg has been generous with the bonus material on this set. Each album is accompanied by a bonus disc of demos, outtakes, single sides, and the like, and each is full of pleasant surprises for the completist (though they never quite equal the quality of the original albums) and offer an interesting look at how these albums came together. Volume 2 also comes with a book featuring song lyrics, credits, and an essay from Bragg's longtime manager, Peter Jenner, as well as a DVD that includes a show by Bragg and his band the Red Stars taped for the BBC at London's Town and Country Club in late 1991, as well as highlights from a spring 2006 gig in Bragg's hometown of Barking, Essex, with Bragg joined by former Faces keyboard man Ian McLagan. Each of the expanded albums included in Volume 2 has also been released individually, and some fans may prefer to pick and choose rather than buy the entire set, but as a whole, Volume 2 documents Billy Bragg as he struggles to balance musical and emotional maturity with the passion of his political ideals; the results may not be as engaging as Volume 1, but there's still a fascinating story to be found in this collection. ~ Mark Deming Volume 2 Review
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Purchase Volume 2 CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Tom Waits Early Years Vol. 2 CD (1993)
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| | Muddy Waters Folk Singer CD (1964) Remastered
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Ultradiscs are mastered from the original master tapes using Mobile Fidelity's proprietary mastering technique, then plated with 24-karat gold and housed in a stress-resistant lift-lock jewel box.
"You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had" and "The Same Thing" did not appear on the original version of FOLK SINGER. They were recorded at a separate session in April 1964, three months after FOLK SINGER was released.
The title and cover photo of this 1963 recording were an attempt to cash in on the burgeoning American folk revival, but this is pure acoustic blues. Muddy began his career as a Robert Johnson-style solo acoustic performer, and the tunes on FOLK SINGER hark back to those days. He's accompanied sparsely by Willie Dixon, ...
| | Philipp Fankhauser Talk To Me CD (2004)
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Talk To Me is the title of the latest album from Philipp Fankhauser, the highly regarded blues artist based in Thun, Switzerland, and his first for Memphis International Records. Fankhauser is well known to European audiences but he is also familiar to North Americans as a result of his role as guest vocalist with the band of the late blues great Johnny "Clyde" Copeland. While the bulk of Talk To Me is comprised of l Fankhauser originals it does include two Johnny Copeland compositions and Shemekia Copeland, Johnny's daughter and a renowned star in her own right, penned the liner notes. "Philipp will always be very special to the Copeland family; his music is special for just about everyone," she wrote.The album includes a version of "Members Only," a song that was an R&B hit for Bobby Bland in the 1980s and produced for Fankhauser by Dennis Walker (Robert ...
| | Billy Bragg Volume 1 CDs (2006) Bonus DVD; Reissue; Remastered; Box Set
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Even devoted Billy ...
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Composer: Deuter.
| | Danny Kirwan Second Chapter CD (1975) With Book; Limited Edition; Digipak
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The first solo album from Fleetwood Mac singer/songwriter Daniel David Kirwan has the future producer for Human League and Buzzcocks, Martin Rushent, utilizing those skills here, as well as engineering. The sound is crystal clear, and a feather in the cap for Rushent as well as Kirwan. It starts off with an uncharacteristic "Ram Jam City," which has more Lindsey Buckingham sounds than one would expect, especially since the two guitarists come from two different musical worlds. "Odds and Ends" is more lighthearted, the kind of music Paul McCartney toyed with on The White Album's "Rocky Raccoon." What Second Chapter immediately sets forth is the importance of Kirwan as a pop artist, and how, despite Fleetwood Mac's success after he left, his sounds could still have been ...
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| | Herman's Hermits Their Greatest Hits CD (1973)
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When all is said and done regarding the most influential power pop bands of the '60s, Herman's Hermits and Tommy James & the Shondells emerge as the clear-cut winners for the same reason: Their music was so diverse and well constructed that it showed the different dimensions of a genre that inspired music smart enough to respect its roots which, in turn, inspired music too hip for its own good -- the modern rock movement that was not half as much fun as "the new wave," or as essential as anything found on ABKCO's perennial release of Herman's Hermits' Their Greatest Hits.
That Peter Noone and Tommy James were masterful interpreters of perfect and succinct little musical episodes is one big part of it, the song selection being the other master stroke. "Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" opens this 16-song collection, every tune coming in under 180 seconds except for the cover of the Skeeter Davis classic "The End of the World," which comes in at exactly three minutes. The fine art of the hit single is here in all its glory, Graham Gouldman represented twice with two exquisite melodies, "No Milk Today" and "Listen People." Try getting both songs out of your head after a listen, pop that the word infectious was created for and totally different from the Carole King/Gerry Goffin classic "I'm into Something Good" and the Carter/Lewis gem "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat." As with any Tommy James compilation, you have to admire how great the voice of Peter Noone is with so much varied material. "I'm Henry the VIII I Am" is just so different from Ray Davies' "Dandy," both not sounding anything like the sublime remake of Sam Cooke's "(What A) Wonderful World." It's a dazzling array of chord changes, textbook production technique authored -- not followed -- by Mickie Most, and colorful notes coming together with majesty that the many this music inspired are hardly able to touch. These short musical passages are the prototypes and the reason that the arguably greatest moment, "There's a Kind of Hush (All Over the World)," is rarely covered, given the contrast when you play it next to those ...
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| | Enter Shikari Take To The Skies CD (2007)
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Yet another unsigned band joining the ranks of artists making names for themselves by self-promotion on the Internet via the MySpace website, Enter Shikari released their debut album, Take to the Skies, which featured several of the band's singles and EP tracks, albeit in re-recorded versions. Enter Shikari were not afraid to test their music on a live audience, however, managing to sell out London's Astoria Theatre, and prior to the release of Take to the Skies they had built up a loyal-enough following to ensure a high chart entry when the album was finally released. Imagine an album that was a mixture of hardcore trance ...
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