As I write this in October 2024 it is exactly fifty years since B.T Express's debut single "Do It ('Til Your Satisfied)" both topped Billboard's US R&B listings and received its UK release on Pye International 7N 25666. The single didn't quite manage to top Billboard's "Pop" listings but it did hold the #2 spot for two weeks!! I could have sworn it was a UK chart-hit as well as I remember hearing it being played a lot on the radio but somehow it missed out.

This CD contains all the tracks from the LP that was rushed out to capitalise on the success of the single plus the 7" edits of "Do It ('Til Your Satisfied)" and its follow up "Express" (a tune that also topped Billboard's US R&B Chart as well as getting to #4 on the magazine's "Pop" Hot-100 chart). "Express" DID manage to chart in The UK at a respectable(ish) #34, but probably outsold many a Pop-Top-20 hit as a lot of its sales would have been through specialist Soul/Disco/Funk shops that didn't report to the folks who compiled the charts.,. the L.P. versions of these two tunes on this CD sound to me to be the same as the "Long" versions that were on the "B" sides of their respective singles.

B.T. Express were one of a number of popular New York City based self-contained Disco/Funk/Soul/R&B bands that emerged around 1974 (the clue is in the name as "B.T. Express" stands for "Brooklyn Transit Express") and I was spurred into buying this CD after hearing some of the lesser known tracks being played on a splendid "early '70s" Soul/Funk radio show called "The Soul Power Lunch Hour" that goes out every weekday at Midday EST on WQSV in Staunton, Virginia (that's usually at 5PM where I live in England where I can pick it up via "The Net") ... try it, you'll like it!!

Fifty years on all the tracks stand up very well and still sound VERY fresh and not rushed at all ... apart from the relentless, insidious funk of their two major hits, standouts for me are "Mental Telepathy", a very "Norman Whitfieldesque" track that has echoes of "Papa Was A Rolling Stone", and "That's What I Want For You Baby", which has more of a mainstream "Soul" sound than the other tracks. "Once You Get It" is really a "Do It (Until You're Satisfied)" soundalike and "Everything Good To You" is one of those "advice" songs that might have been a big hit if recorded by someone like The Staple Singers.

Here are some of the standouts ...

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I recommend this album, which was originally released in 1968, for its songs with positive and cheerful lyrics. The masterpiece, in my opinion, is the quiet ballad "Lazy Day" in which both voices describe the sky and the sea in the course of the sunset, as if it were a painting. The voices harmonize perfectly throughout the album. Sweet instrumentations in soft pop and sunshine pop songs, to forget about everything and be immersed in a musical paradise. The booklet includes the lyrics in English and Japanese, the credits of the songs, as well as the discography of each of the solo members, as well as that of the duo. Unbeatable presentation of the material.

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Excellent renditions by Petula Clark. I find the dramatic "Coming Back To You" (Colombier/Gimbel) one of the best songs of the album, arranged by French musician Michel Colombier. "I've Got To Know" (A. David) is an outstanding sad ballad in which the lyric talks about her lover being attracted by another woman - arrangements by Johney Arthey. Petula sings the melancholic "After You" (Trent/Hatch) living it and the song has nice instrumental arrangements. "City Lights" (Trent/Hatch) is another favorite along with the energyc and uptempo title track "Today" (Clark/Harris), arranged and written by the prestigious musician Johnny Harris, his wife Kim co-wrote it. The soulful "After The Hill" (Holding/Trent) is very catchy, like "Marie de Vere" (Trent/Hatch) set in the music hall style. "Spring In September" (Trent/Hatch) goes between a slow ballad rhythm and a happy soulful one making it an interesting selection. The Trent/Hatch ballad "Close To You" which Petula performs elegantly has beautiful backing vocals and nice orchestra arrangements by Tony Hatch in a moderate tempo. Two hits were included on the album, opening and closing it, probably to make it sell "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love" and "This Is My Song". The latter has an introduction and single vocal on the version included on this CD. The bonus tracks are all outtakes from the "Pink" album sessions (recorded in january 1968) with producer Tony Hatch, except "Look To The Sky" which was recorded in Hollywood (backing track) and in London (vocal) in 1967. The three self-penned songs "Look To The Sky", "I’ve Got Love Going For Me" and "Every Time I See A Rainbow" were used as B-Sides in 1968 singles. Whereas "Take Good Care Of Your Heart" is the alternate version of another B-Side called "American Boys" (1968). "Love Will Find A Way" was left in the vaults and there's an interesting alternate version, with more orchestration, you can find on a 2010 collection by the label Reader's Digest.

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Gentle on my mind.

Having recently found myself in need of a lighter brand of more sympathetic music, I revisited this, not being in the frame of mind for my usual brand music, and this was just the ticket, and I. at last, was in a place where I could appreciate it for it's own virtues...

...After the initial grungy, grimy tack: Stolen Car, it kind of floats and weaves, and meanders in that loose, almost ramshackle way reminiscent of Astral Weeks (well, it reminded me of that anyway, in this specific sense. if not musically, or stylistically). and it has a certain grace and elegance to it for all that.

A wonderful balm for my aching, wretched being that helped me get on through, and nursed me back to me again, like a collection of timely lullabies and sympathy.

Strange how you can own some albums for a while, but just not get into them, until you hit a space in your brain that magically unlocks one day, and admits it into your deeper being.

Now an audio feature of my speakers. :)

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This album is a credit to Poynton Brass Band and its director Alan Lawton.

One number that caught my ear in particular was Praise Ye The Lord, which is an arrangement, Carol 66, taken from the Salvation Army 1994 carol book "New Christmas Praise", of the hymn Hail, Smiling Morn, composed by Reginald Spofforth. You can find some good examples on YT of this being performed by various brass bands.

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Brilliant sunshine indie rock-pop.

Essentially, this is the best Squeeze album you've never heard.

Wonderful melodic, tuneful story-telling in indie rock-pop format, which absolutely reeks of Squeeze, in the style of Difford & co.

I'd listened to a little here and there since ripping it to my mp3 player a while back, and was already familiar with the song: "I Wanna Stay Home" via the version by EG (White), rendered on his album merely as: Stay Home (But much more dynamically, and not as languid and laid back as this original version) but as I had a lot of weeds to dig out from the garden today (it being the first really dry day to do it), I put this on, and listened all the way through, and was pretty much whistling while I worked.

I think this is going to grow on me in a big way in the coming months.

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Good Stuff!
The first album from Dublin 5 piece "Melts" has a wall of guitars/keyboards/echo vocals/rhythm, think Joy Division/early New Order with a hint of Echo & The Bunnymen, although comparison is unfair as the have thier own sound.
The second album "Field Theory" due 12.04.24 is available for pre-order here.

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New entry in my top 100 (ish) favourite albums of all time.

It's a rare thing for an album that has taken my interest to remain among my favourites, and be one that I return to regularly, but this is one that keeps getting played.

While other albums of hers may have greater production value (to use the movie term, for expensive bells and whistles), this is a very stripped down, bare wood affair, which moves, under the slightest variations, seamlessly, and effortlessly between the core styles this uses: bluesy, folksy, slightly california sunshine-ish pop, with a startling intimacy, to a degree that makes it an almost uncomfortably close in listen.

Amidst the bare bones, creeking old wooden boat on a lazy river style acoustic weight of the purposely demo like presented instrumentation, and occasionally set against some over-amped grinding blues guitar scrapes; Is Laura Marling's brilliant, and deeply personal, in your ear singing, of simply excellent memorably melodic songs, that need no embellishment...

...All riding over a deep note of melancholy, the sour tone set against the sweet, which is what really keeps me coming back to it.

Some might find it drab, or basic, or even depressing, but it's one of those that if you lean in, you can hear much more going on in the almost inaudible emotional frequencies.

Would it be too much to say it is the closest I've heard someone come to getting that "Nick Drake quality" in this regard... the something in it... something under it you have to be in tune with, to properly get.

As I said, it feels a little too close for comfort in it's intimacy, and gets me feel around my collar at times - "Phew, is it getting hot in here?"

Up Close. Personal. And very Feminine, in a way that even a dude, such as I is, can feel is from the deepest recesses of womanly-ness.

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Rather strange coupling; CD1 is fully Welsh-language 'Breakbeat/Electro', with vocals and piano by Lisa Jên with guitars, bass, drums, harp and hammer dulcimer, while the 'companion' CD is English narrative, as explained in the booklet.

I note that Real World divides their output into global regions, with UK CDs designated as 'Europe' - see realworldrecords.com/artists, but as they are catering to the WOMAD audience, they are all effectively 'International' releases.

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An amazingly complete compilation of this group's work on Calla.

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Would you believe me if I said I'd never heard this album before?!!

Well, while that is true, in the round, it's one of those that it turns out I'd heard some of the songs without even knowing it... by way of it's cultural impact.

(One of those that seems to have gotten everywhere)

"Ooh, I know that one!"

(...Being my frequent response since first listen on my MP3 player in the wee smalls whilst laid up with shoulder injury these past days, and waiting for the pain-killers to kick in)

Only got around to listening to it now, having found it in the charity shop the other day, and wondering why I didn't sekk it out upon original release. My conclusion being that it was one of those fantastically overhyped bands / albums who's obsequious gushing praise by critics, and how I simply MUST own this record was enough to produce the opposite effect on me back in the day.

But now I've heard it, listening to it at last on my own terms, and in my own time, I immediately hear the obvious similarities between Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips, and acknowledge the well documented association.

However, Mercury Rev seem (On this one album's evidence alone) to be more of a tenderly melodic variety of that kind of music, as well as more consistently memorable and haunting.

So it was a great, serendipitous choice of mine to give this a go on a very low and soothing volume as I cosied up in bed, waiting for the painkiller cavalry to arrive and offer some relief... This album acting as a kind of lullabies at sunrise to keep me company in the meantime.

In fact, to characterise the songs, would be to say they are like audio versions of Rothko paintings, lightly framed in Christmas tinsel...

...But that may be the painkillers talking :)

Naturally, I am now, true to my own form, now currently, completely obsessed with this album, with each of the songs now slowly, but ever so surely worming their way through the thick albumen of my ignorance, into the golden yoke of my better, basic-brain.

All that of course, remains to be said, is...

YOU MUST OWN THIS ALBUM!!!!!!!!!

:)

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Playright 1989 but copyright 2010 suggests that the tracks date from 1989 when Hallyday was 46. Nine of the ten tracks are hard rockin' numbers, and the brief "Testament D'un Poète" is a romantic ballad with orchestral backing.

The title track seems to have a different, or an additional bassist: Phil Soussan may have been bassist on this set, but the fretless bass on Cadillac sounds so like Pino Palladino.
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The live version from a concert at Bercy in 1990 shows the bassist for a full second at 4:22, and he looks so like Palladino to me, while the brief appearance suggests there were contractual reasons not to shown more. This live version is identical to the album track, complete with some gorgeous BGVs, so I think the entire set was recorded live.
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The typical hard rock style can be heard on Possible En Moto, complete with instrumental motorcycle effect, Yves Sanna is credited as drummer for the set:
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"Si J'étais Moi" is a powerful ballad, and the duet seems to be with Vanessa Paradis, who by then would be 27:
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The orchestra on (Le) Testament D'un Poète was apparently the Symphonic Orchestra of Europe, conducted by Olivier Holt:
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Altogether a powerful and emotional set with Hallyday at his very best,

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Review by Phil Aston.

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Although not quite as consistently outstanding as their previous two albums (Hippopotamus and A Steady Drip Drip Drip), there is still much to acclaim from these veteran funsters. They have once again taken a variety of influences and genres - Escalator is reminiscent of Kraftwerk circa 1973-77 for example, or perhaps the stuff Daniel Miller released on Mute at the end of that same decade - and melded them into their own style.

That style includes, of course, their ability to write near-perfect pop tunes allied to lyrics seeing the world from a very particular viewpoint (Nothing Is As Good... being the prime example here) and also producing the odd flash of the astonishing, such as We Go Dancing, where satirical lyrics are combined with music which at the same time is reminiscent of 20th century orchestral music and provides the creepiest earworm I think I've ever encountered. A fine album.

4/5

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What a tedious, weak album!

If I were to characterise this, I would imagine the conversation that preceded it's creation:

"Hey guys, we've used up our one great idea about what this band is (And our fifteen minutes of fame :), so let's make an album that sounds like we're trying to be Bob Dylan (and the Band), and also, at the same time, trying to be a bit Of David Bowie, and maybe a dash of John Lennon (after the Beatles - and the non singles, album stuff)...

... But also, let's do all this as if we were a first time high school band naively trying to be those things, and really not quite getting there"

I had looked forward to finally listening to this when I found this CD a couple of weeks back, but it is painfully dull and amateurish, like The Velvet Underground trying to be like The Velvet Underground, and acting as their own crappy tribute band.

This is going back to the charity shop, as I can't afford the space on the shelf for it.

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Yay... another of my favourites found in Digipak!

This is one that I love, but have absolutely no intention of getting on vinyl, due to the nature of the music - a lot like Air: Moon Safari - in that you just want to put it on, and drift away from one end to the other, without having to mess about with flipping sides half way through your comatose state.

The CD sounds great anyway - very balanced, very expansive and spacious, as well as spacey.

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Great compilation of songs, perhaps targeted more towards Wall of Sound and pop aficianados rather than oldies fans (for example, a chart hit, "Stardust," is nowhere to be found).

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This is an average album by the band's standards, but certainly better than the previous Spirit. There aren't really any very memorable songs on it, and after listening to it a few times I am able to name 'Ghosts Again', 'Wagging Tongue' and the best one in my opinion 'Before We Drown'.

In terms of sound, I don't deny that at times the simple/minimalist arrangements are elegant and the focus on Gahan's voice creates an intimate and close atmosphere, but the album lacks impact and one expects more from such successful songwriters as they have been.

One can also have reservations about the mastering of the digital and CD releases. In my opinion, the sound is too loud and the dynamics have been drastically reduced. As you can see, we are still living in the age of the loudness war.

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Mostly undifferentiated "Traditional African music", but the two "Old Women" tracks demonstrate a vocal virtuosity that transcends expectations

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I have this on both original vinyl and this CD now, and can report that they both sound pretty much identical.

So nothing to be gained or lost by having this great album on one of these formats over the other

It is in the best sense, a typical eighties sounding album, big synth-y sounds, with dramatic punctuation in the music, all the along the same lines as the lead track, which you all know: Higher Love... But fortunately, like that one, although the Eighties sound is a feature, it's one of those that mercifully avoids sounding dated (too much, anyway), and the songs are consitently strong throughout.

The two other stand-outs here being the Title track: Back In The High Life (Again), and the final track, which ought to come with a warning, for as I remember it, on first hearing, so long ago, it's a perfect break-up song... in that it is pre-eminent in making you perfectly miserable, if you're going through something like that, and along with Hall & Oates: She's Gone, are masterful in being as much a tonic in such a situation as this as a stiff kick in the balls.

(To the extent that if you are on of those other kinds of humans, who have no balls, it will make you feel like you did, and you had been kicked in them... by a large man with heavy boots and a very long leg :(

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Being a fan of the Southern Rock genre, I managed to see Molly Hatchet on three separate UK tours. Two shows were plagued by poor sound quality but the other was superb.
Although the line up for this doulbe disc package has no original members, it doesn't fail to meet their usual high standards.
Good setlist and the new singer slots right in. Won't disappoint the fans.

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Bought this yesterday from HMV Chester. I already had this concert on a bootleg tape - then burned onto a CD. Typical bootleg quality which was good for the time [1971] ..
Great setlist.
Gave this a spin this morning and found the quality not that much improved from the tape I bought at a record fair in the late 1970's.
However Free were in fine form and you could picture Paul Rodgers strutting his stuff on stage in front of the other band members.

Strictly for Free fans I would suggest.

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Damn! all bands sound the same, KO.S.S.T. throws in a ballad, but the punk songs are very similar to each other, the same kind of melodic pop punk. 6 bands 21 songs i got a bit bored too soon. wishing it could end. Best tracjk Vittring, best band The Man In The Moon they saved this album, i will listen to them again.

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This is one of those recordings you never tire of. I think I found my first copy in a library sale about twenty years ago. I played it over and over in the car and grew to love every song. The first track is a stand-out brilliant song, dealing with the anger and bitterness of a break-up, asking that question that we all when someone leaves us. Are you happy now? Did your life get better now that I'm out of your life?

Another great song is all about buying a truck (a Kenworth) and thinking it's going to make you happy forever because it has all the style and paintjob you've ever dreamed of. Those are just two though, and every one is its own little bit of genius.

I've since bought it again so that I can enjoy it again - I lost the old copy years ago but remembered how much it meant to me then. I was not disappointed!

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This band from San Diego played many concerts with famous bands. They only released this testpressing and never made an official record.
The music is absolutely perfect Fuzz guitar psych with great rhythm guitars, organs and St. Pepper-style vocals.
With more luck this band could have been as famous as Strawberry Alarm Clock or Steppenwolf. They played on many bills together.
The music is not as soft. It has a much stronger output than most of the famous bands the played together with.Every song a hit.

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Nobody's Favourite Genesis Album.

This has a curious place in the Genesis discography, being, at best, much maligned, at worst denounced, but mostly ignored, it seems...

...And let's face facts, it isn't the greatest album ever made, and would probably come somewhere pretty low in the ranking of Genesis albums.

That said, feeling the beginnings of another Genesis kick coming on, I decided to listen to this whilst doing a little gardening today, and for the most part it's actually got a lot more going for it than is often given credit for...

...The Title track is quite a compelling work out for the band, and with Man On The Corner, No Reply At All and Another Record being fairly strong Genesis tunes, it's mostly a good album anyway; Dodo and Keep It Dark do take a little getting into, and frankly there's just no excuse, even after all these years, for Whodunnit? Which is just S*%t.

On the whole this sounds, as an album, like a gathering of all those kinds of songs which would otherwise have had to have been hunted down by fans, from the B-sides of Genesis singles, and which any other band - even Genesis themselves - might ordinarily have placed there.

It is a little flat, in comparison to others of their albums, too tentatively experimental (scrapes, squiggles, and noodles that perhaps go on for too long etc.) and as the quintessentially eighties style cover (and it's variants) shows, a pretty dated attempt to be eighties hip (bright colours, Pseudo-Picasso garishness), which is reflected in the music a little.

But still has enough moments of typically Genesis style highlights to make it worth another listen.

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As a reviewer on Amazon notes, the recordings on the CD sound different than we remember them. The prominent Hammond B3 with Leslie on the record of "Make My Life A Little Bit Brighter" has been mixed down so far it's like an incidental texture. Can't fault the sound on any of the tracks, though, they sound really nice. However, you come away with the feeling that yes, they did tamper unnecessarily with history.

Jim Mancel's "Let The Phone Ring" is worth the price of admission. It's a wonderful side of blue-eyed soul, arranged by and featuring the Fender Rhodes of "Dr. Music," Doug Riley, as does its B-side.

My overall impression is that Chester was a group with three main songwriters, who each used the band as session players on their own songs. There isn't much in the way of cohesive or identifiable "group sound."

With all the blank space in the package, it would have been nice if they'd given us the story of Chester as liner notes (like, who plays what?), and some more personnel and credits for the last seven tracks.

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Starts with great intentions but gets lost as it works though CD2 then loses the theme completely with CD3 only just redeeming itself with Velvet Underground and Argent.

All 3 CDs contain great tracks but not all are worthy of the "Classic Rock" moniker.

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Saw 'Tax The Heat' support 'Mott The Hoople' at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham UK on Sunday, 21st. April 2019..they (((((((ROCKEDDDDDDD))))))! So, just HAD to buy this CD during the interval..and I was not disappointed.

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Title is a bit misleading since a "very best" of Fats would include the classic sides he made for Imperial Records between 1949 and 1963, when he left that label for ABC-Paramount. The ABC sides, recorded between 1963 and 1965, are the ones featured here. Instead of building on Fats' success recording in New Orleans, ABC sent him to Nashville. That's not as incongruous a move as you might think, considering Domino's clear country influences. Unfortunately, the glossier treatment with strings and vocal chorus produced only one top 40 hit in "Red Sails in the Sunset." The later sides like "Heartbreak Hill" and "Wigs" are more like the Fats the public had come to know, but by that time the British Invasion had swept many American R&B artists off the charts. The collection closes with a nice reworking of his 1956 hit "When My Dreamboat Comes Home." Out of print but not difficult to find.

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