The glittering prize isn't alive and kicking

I've never been a big fan of Simple Minds but having watched a documentary about them on YouTube recently I wanted to expand my collection a little. I already own a box set of "Street Fighting Years" and the "Glittering Prize" compilation on compact disc, but I hadn't really heard many of their other albums. 

 

I soon managed to order a 5 CD set that included most of their output on Virgin records and enjoyed it very much. However, when I went in search of older material such as "Empires and Dance", "Real to Real cacophony" or "Life in a day" I found them very hard to find. I would occasionally see FLAC files or old vinyl for sale, but getting your hands on a CD at a reasonable price can be quite hard. 

Even when physical media is being issued by record companies it comes at a premium price. Yes I would like to own "Sparkle in the Rain" on CD but I don't need a £75 four disc box set. Equally I am not prepared to shell out the seemingly random figure of £105.71 for a twenty year old copy of "Empires and Dance". 

As a customer in search of physical products the choice seems to be between deluxe editions designed for hardcore fans or paying exorbitant prices on the second hand market. All I want is an unadulterated CD with the ten album tracks. 

And the issue isn't limited to Simple Minds. Thomas Leer's masterpiece "The Scale of Ten" hasn't been available on CD for twenty years and is long overdue a reissue (ironically I would buy a 5 CD box set for £75 of this album) - but I'm not sure we will ever see it in physical form again. Swathes of Thomas Dolby's back catalogue aren't being issued on CD currently and let's not even start looking at Gary Numan's oeuvre. No, the world has moved on from physical media and it makes me sad.

Mike Oldfield CD releases

Whilst writing a recent post about "Platinum" - I began to wonder when Mike Oldfield's back catalogue was first released on compact disc in the UK. Unfortunately I couldn't find an answer on the internet - so decided to see if I could find out myself. 

As I began this work I started to make lots of notes and tried to edit them into some sort of post for this blog. Unfortunately the text read like a stream of consciousness and it was boring for me to read, let alone anyone else. 

Instead of a long post about my Mike Oldfield research I have decided to simply present the results. If you can fill in the blanks then do let me know. I've tried to work from contemporary sources and cross reference where I can.

Sources:

Dark Star https://www.mikeoldfield.org/ Fan site that led me up a few cul-de-sacs but also helped get some of the chronology right

Official Charts https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/ Authoritative but not too much depth of information. Helped corroborate probable release dates

Music Week archive at Worldradiohistory.com An absolute mine of information - shame all records for 1983 are missing. My go to resource.

Discogs Like any community led site, the data is subject to the vagaries of those that contribute, but is generally very useful for images

"Mike Oldfield Every Album, every song" (2020) Ryan Yard Highly recommend book written by someone who knows the subject matter intimately and understands music theory. Also manages to not be patronising.

Pet Shop Brilliance

This week marks the release of "Nonetheless", the 15th studio album by Pet Shop Boys. I have to admit I was a little apprehensive about this record as some of Neil and Chris's more recent albums haven't been good. I find "Hotspot" really quite grating and "Super" sounded like it was thrown together with little care or attention. The last album I really enjoyed was probably "Electric" but this didn't seem to stop me pre-ordering "Nonetheless" in about seven different formats (not all of them have arrived yet)

We have already heard the singles "Loneliness" and "Dancing Star" and I would rate them as middling (I found "Loneliness" particularly disappointing). However, the other tracks on this record are so good it almost makes me think the boys chose the worst songs to be singles in some perverse act of sabotage.  

Songs that had the potential to sound cheesy ("The Secret of Happiness") sound amazing in the hands of James Ford. The first time I heard "Feel" and "Bullet for Narcissus" I was delighted as there are some great melodies woven around traditional octave basslines and Kraftwerk inspired beats. If you don't understand the genre you might miss the point of "The Schlager hit parade" and some might find elements of "Why am I dancing?" a little repetitive, but there are no horrors on the scale of "Wedding In Berlin" or "Hold On" here.

Make no mistake this is a great album and I consider it their best effort since "Yes" in 2009. In fact I'll go one step further and say I haven't enjoyed a PSB album as thoroughly since "Very". Personally I am delighted they have moved away from Stuart Price and enrolled the brilliant James Ford to produce - everything sounds fresh yet familiar and the production compliments the compositions perfectly.

Predictably the least likely single on the album, "A New Bohemia" is slated to be released next - but it does have one of my favourite lyrics, "My life is a mess, like an unmade bed".

1. Loneliness 3/10                        6. A new Bohemia 7/10

2. Feel 8/10                                   7. The Schalger hit parade 7/10

3. What am I dancing? 7/10          8. The Secret of happiness 6/10  

4. New London boy 7/10               9. Bullet for narcissus 7/10

5. Dancing Star 5/10                      10. Love is the law 6/10

Rediscovering lost....fakes

This post is not part of the 'One record at a time' series but an occasional post that came about due to a recent development.

I've noticed an influx of rare CDs being sold on eBay recently (they pop up on Amazon too). Various sellers seem to be offering multiple copies of brand new discs, all of which are rare and highly sought after. Some of these listing are "Buy Now" for inflated prices and some are auctions. The same seller often tries both tactics if they have enough copies.

One of the unfortunate side effects of Wendy Carlos's private nature is that she has stopped issuing her music and there have been no CDs pressed since the excellent East Side Digital releases of the early 2000's. I own four or five of these discs and wished I had bought more when I had the opportunity. The relative paucity of Carlos CDs means that second hand prices tend to be a inflated and some of the rarer releases command quite high prices. Therefore, the opportunity to buy a copy of one of these albums for £10-15 at auction seems too good an opportunity to miss.

Out of curiosity I decided to buy a copy of both volumes of "Rediscovering Lost Scores" and see what turned up. I had a suspicion I would be buying a fake CD but wanted to see for myself. Buying a CD also allowed me the opportunity to hear this music and, on the outside chance the discs were genuine, I would have a real rarity. Once the package arrived I eagerly opened it only to be immediately confronted by two poorly printed sleeves that screamed, "I am counterfeit". Yes, if it looks too good to be true then, it most certainly is.

It seems some enterprising CD pressing plant has created counterfeit copies of many rare CDs and these are now circulating in the marketplace. Whilst distinguishable from the real deal, these CDs are very good fakes. Whoever made these discs has even gone to the trouble of copying the matrixes of the original discs and the booklets have been reproduced in their entirety. Having paid this much attention to detail you would have thought they would be able to reproduce the correct font for the barcode, but this is one of the telltale signs of these counterfeit discs.

Having listened to the CDs I am pleased to have heard Wendy's music and consequently I don't feel ripped off. I have paid my money and got the music I wanted. Yes the CDs are a bit sub standard in terms of production quality, but they do the job. So who has been hurt by this apparent act of piracy? Is there an issue here?

Obviously the principle complainant in this situation would have to be Wendy herself. I have no idea what is going on in Wendy's life or why she seems to have disengaged with the music business but she has left a void. None of Wendy's music is available on digital platforms and no physical media has been produced for the better part of twenty years. Therefore it is inevitable that someone will see a money making opportunity and release her music. It is fairly easy to find websites with ".ru" domain addresses that will let you download her music as mp3 files and I suspect these discs were also pressed in the same nation. Yes, music piracy is unethical and illegal, but it is inevitable if Wendy refuses to make her music available.

The second issue with this situation is that I see people paying the inflated "Buy Now" prices of £60 for these CDs. I would assume that people are only paying this price as they believe the discs to be genuine. I had an inkling of what I was getting into and don't feel too aggrieved, but if I had paid a premium price, I would not have been pleased.

So the next time you see one of Jean-Michel Jarre's "Radiophonie" series or a copy of "Medium Rare" by Foo Fighters going cheap on eBay, you can be pretty sure it isn't kosher.

Let's get physical

For those of us who treasure physical media, it is the best of times and the worst of times. I have noticed a number of recent releases that, rather disgracefully, have had no physical release at all (Booka Shade I'm looking at you). Whilst on the other hand there are hundreds of lavish vinyl releases (and a good many re-releases) that, whilst sold at a premium, continue to fly the flag for physical media.

The only area of music retail that I can see dying is the compact disc. Nobody is buying them and people seem to be disposing of their CDs en masse without a second thought. I can go online or walk in a charity shop and replace hundreds of my 'lost' CDs from the 1990s for next to nothing. This is great for filling holes in your collection, but no help for new releases.

I had cause to reflect on this situation the other day when a CD I bought still had a price ticket on. This vintage £1.99 price tag was from the chain Our Price circa 1998.

In the 1990s a trip into the city was essentially a tour of the record shops for me. First visit the two HMV stores, up the road to Our Price and quick look through a couple of independent shops before the longer walk to the fantastic labyrinth that was the Virgin Records store. I can't deny that seeing the Our Price logo made me nostalgic for those days.

By chance I was walking through the city the day after I received the CD in question and decided to walk to the last bastion physical music sales: HMV. And guess what? It was closed. I don't mean I visited outside of opening hours, I mean it was shut for business. Gone. And just like that my youth evaporated.

But I don't buy many NEW CDs anymore. I tend to buy vinyl and use the download code. When I do buy CDs I order them online as it is cheaper and more convenient that going to HMV. The days of me walking into a record store and emerging with £100 of CDs have long since gone.

So, yes, I helped kill HMV. I helped kill the CD. They have disappeared like grains of sand through my fingers and they took my youth with them.

Split agenda

"Agenda" is the new Pet Shop Boys EP and it seems to have created something of a 'Marmite divide' in Pet Shop Boys fans. For my part, I have stalled on issuing my verdict as I have been so perplexed by the whole thing.

The 4 tracks were issued across 4 days via YouTube as 'lyric videos'. The first time I heard the initial offering "Give Stupidity a Chance" I was bitterly disappointed. To my ears, this track was just "Winner" rejigged into a faintly satirical jibe at Donald Trump. I hated it.

The second track to be released was "On Social Media" and this represented a slight improvement. I enjoyed the more electronic and dance orientated sound here. Whilst some of the lyrics were quite clever, the track still only felt like b-side filler grade when compared to the heights we know the boys are capable of.

By the third day I wasn't holding out much hope. Even the title "What Are We Going To Do About The Rich?" made me roll my eyes. A whole EP full of barbed, satirical, left leaning lyrics from a pair of multi millionaires wasn't really doing it for me. Yes, Neil and Chris have back catalogue littered with political commentary and witty observations; but a whole EP full of it was not for me. Happily the music on this track wasn't a complete loss and there were some fine moments of aural stimulation.

Most listeners seem to regard the final track "The Forgotten Child" as the standout cut here, but I was a little bored by it. Thankfully this song isn't a social polemic, but by the time I had waded through the preceding material I had little time for it. A victim of being tarred with the same brush.

Then I began to read with astonishment that some people were actually enjoying this crap. The aural disintegration of my favourite band was happening right before my ears and all I could see were like minded people dancing round the funeral pyre. What was going on?

The answer came when I ditched YouTube and downloaded the digital files. Suddenly, I found these songs transformed from grubby little caterpillars into beautiful butterflies (or at least exotic moths). Ditching the f***ing awful visuals and giving the music my full attention had a transformative effect.

So for any Pet Shop Boys fan struggling to come to terms with "Agenda" try LISTENING to it. Give it your full attention and then make your judgement. Don't base your opinion on some crappy 192kbps stream that is accompanied by terrible visuals that keep shoving the lyrics in your face. Consume this music as you did when you made your judgements about "Please", "Introspective" or whatever releases you love by the boys. I'm sure that if we were all to give these tracks a level playing field they will stand up.