Vinyl Albums - Comments by Magic Marmalade

Vinyl Albums - Comments by Magic Marmalade

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
Magic Marmalade 1st Sep 2021		Vinyl Album Various Artists - A Different Kind Of Christmas	Can anybody explain what's going on with this disc, as the images don't seem to match the entry. (I only came to correct "Montovani", but can't see him on here even in this cunning disguise! :)
Magic Marmalade 1st Sep 2021		Vinyl Album Petula Clark - Sings Screen Themes	Changed.
Magic Marmalade 30th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album The Fall - Code: Selfish (1992)	That is bizarre... The first name of the composer credits with first initial after surname, but the almighty Mark E. has his initials before the surname.... more evidence of Mr. Smith being "In charge!" ? What do the people here think.... square up the first names in composer credits to site norms here, or leave it as it is on the labels?
Magic Marmalade 28th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Jimmie Driftwood - The Wilderness Road And Jimmie Driftwood (1959)	Agreed. All versions of this album now read the same.
Magic Marmalade 27th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Mississippi Fred McDowell - In London Volume Two (1969)	Will wait for new image before removing this one.
Magic Marmalade 25th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album The Heartbreakers - L.A.M.F. (1977)	Thanks getalife... ...I do wonder if those production credits give away the truth here... Speedy Keen producer with Danny Secunda... but later "Special Thanks to Danny Secunda" ...did Speedy make amess of it, and Secunda get called into bail him out? (The deadwax message by Porky might allude to it too.... "Speedy's Hic de fic"? - Speedy's F£*k up ?)
Magic Marmalade 25th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Various Artists - Scrooged (1988)	The use of "And" in collaborations is acceptable for artist names on site (In fact, it helps standardise, and compact "&" and "And" into one version, allowing us to more efficiently use space and search efficiency (After all, hey are the same word, just expressed differently).
Magic Marmalade 25th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album The Heartbreakers - L.A.M.F. (1977)	Review Notoriously bad pressing... but not quite the whole story. I found a copy of this the other day (along with a US copy of Violent Femmes first album - sweet! :) in a charity shop... ...While not really a great punk fan, as a lot of it seems fairly same-y, tuneless, artless fluff. ...Anyway, my personal gripes aside, I recognised the band's name, as being something of a big wheel in this area, along with the immediately recognisable "Johnny Thunders" name on the back, which together caused a little bell to go off inside my head - or maybe my crate digger's "spidey sense" got to a-tingling... so I grabbed it then and there, for two whole English pounds - sleeve a little worn around the edges, ring wear, and some small wear on the print on the cover, but the record inside, well that was stone cold mint! And so, the story of the audio on the disc begins... ...Having got it home, I began to look into the background of this album online (as you do), and saw time and again that the most notable aspect of this first issue, and the reputation that comes with it, is how bad a pressing it is... that the music / audio is said to be very "muddy" sounding, and pretty lousy in general. So I made a priority of getting it on the turntable, to see if it was so. My disc, being mint, would reveal immediately if this was simply people just having a bad copy, or if the actual pressing of all copies was as bad as they say... ...And it is.... kind of... Because the first thing I noticed is how quiet the audio is on the disc... from the outset, I had to turn up the volume to hear it at normal levels... The opposite of what you'd be aiming for in this kind of music, I'd have thought! ...This, in turn brought something else to the fore - the bass and drums at this volume begin to "womp - womp" along in an unsettling, and unpleasant way that starts to overwhelm the other instruments and vocals- both lead, and backing, which are very thin, even weak, and which, along with the guitars, get squashed almost to nothing the louder you try to go. Of course, the easy thing to do is simply turn up the volume, and turn down the bass, on you kit, but this does nothing for the experience really, as now it sounds quite pasty and washed out. So is this an unfathomably rare mis-step form the legendary Mr. Porky, pressing impresario extraordinaire... who just fouled up putting this music on the disc? I'd say not, as these simple shortcomings are not entirely consistent across the album. This, as they say, is where the plot thickens... ...As if it was down to Porky, logically, it should be consistently bad all the way through, but it isn't: The whole of side 1 is the same in this sense, but it immediately strikes you, from the off, how much better side 2 is, well, at least the first four songs, sounding broader, louder, and crisper, and with the lead vocal being bolder... "Goin' Steady" drops back to the standard of the first side, before picking up again for the last track. Now the other feature of this sound, is how "Demo-ish" this whole thing sounds, like the group all got together in a single small room and just jammed while someone recorded from one single fixed point: Drum and bass closest the mic(s), then further away, the guitar, then somehow, all the singing done at the far end of the room... but on the side 2 tracks, that improve the sound, it sounds like they are more professionally arranged and recorded, and with a different mic for the vocal (Has that almost through-a-megaphone quality to it). So in a nutshell, it sounds generally a bit fusty, thin, and weak, under too strong bass and drums, but crucially it sounds like two separate recording sessions, both set up differently and with great differences in competence, that have later had their track orders rearranged for side 2 - so a track from a side1 session finds it's way on to side 2, jammed between the other side 2 sessions, and suffering by contrast, as a result. So you cannot really blame your man Porky here, he could only work with what he'd been given - a crap recording! The saving grace of this, is in fact the type of music it is... it being Punk, the Done-It-Ourselves (Badly) quality can be thought of as quite in keeping with the idea and attitude they wanted to convey, and this would be simply horrendous if this was any other kind of music....That, and that this is fairly short album (32 mins or so) means the headache you would otherwise have had doesn't quite take hold. Perhaps this pressing / issue is better thought of as an important punk era artefact, and bought - when bought - as that... But if it's the music you are after, best look to the later issues that sought to remedy these problems. 9 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 23rd Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Hawkwind - In Search Of Space (1971)	[YouTube Video]
Magic Marmalade 19th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Living Strings - Living Strings Plus Two Pianos Play Songs That Will Live Forever (1962)	I think just leave this under Living Strings (?)
Magic Marmalade 16th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Cliff Richard And The Shadows - The Best Of Cliff Richard And The Shadows (1984)	As per request, I have pulled all images from component records over to this main box entry... (There were no images on record 6 page, so they need to be scanned and uploaded, along with missing side 2 scans for sides 7 and 8) ...and deleted track listing ready for new track listings to be made for all records on this page. Contributors can add the missing tracks by going to "Add Missing Info" link along bottom of page, and adding in tracks according to record / side positions as desired, and keep submitting and repeating until done. (I've started it off with the first track on side 1, record 1, and left the links in place here to those other component record pages for now, so they can be easily, and readily accessed in order to make adding those tracks easier.... best to open two tabs on your browser, one for this entry, and the other for each record... Once complete, I'll do a final re-order of images, add spit and polish, and call it job done :)
Magic Marmalade 15th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Bette Midler - Live At Last (1977)	What needs changing here specifically?
Magic Marmalade 11th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Becca Stevens - Wonderbloom (2021)	I think I've got this squared up now, consistent with label scans and what's on the back.. (Assuming side D is blank... and etching or some such?) ...But will need a Side B scan, as there are only two side A scans here.
Magic Marmalade 9th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album The James Cotton Blues Band - James Cotton Blues Band (1967)	All the images here are Verve Folkways, are they not? (Not Verve Forecast...I can't see that on these images)
Magic Marmalade 7th Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Various Artists - The Stars Of Liberty (1962)	(More Capital Punishment :(
Magic Marmalade 1st Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Terry Snyder And The All Stars - Persuasive Percussion (1960)	I have changed this to Sparton / Command... SpartOn / Command - rather than SpartAn / Command which it was originally entered as - now deleted that label name variation. And different country Command labels have been grouped together... any idea of what to do with this joint label... include it in Command label and Sparton label discographies? ...I shall now hear your pleas :)
Magic Marmalade 1st Aug 2021		Vinyl Album Electric Food - Flash (1971)	Links now made between respective discographies :)
Magic Marmalade 31st Jul 2021		Vinyl Album John Mayall With Eric Clapton - Blues Breakers (1969)	This album would seem to be the gift that keeps on giving... ...As far as headaches are concerned. Now that we have fairly well established that this is the first stereo issue of the album, in 1969 (hence the date on the labels), those boxed logo labels present a new one... ... As surely, having the same catalogue number and (matrix number above it), they ought to be simply a later label variation of this stereo issue (whether a re-press, or simple modified continuation of press), and that being so, should rightly remain on this page according to site convention. ......But that different date of 1971 would seem to make it a reissue - new product. But why would it stilll have the same cat and matrices? There must be some reason for the new published date being applied. Anyone got any clues? I'll leave those images here where they can be seen (along with this discussion) until a reason can be found for this.
Magic Marmalade 30th Jul 2021		Vinyl Album Elton John - Best Live Rarities Of Elton John (1976)	So "Made in England" disc for Holland... perhaps? That seems unusual, as usually they came the other way didn't they? ...If you an zero in on a specific country of issue, I'll change it. Thanks :)
Magic Marmalade 29th Jul 2021		Vinyl Album Robin Gibb - Robins Reign (1970)	I have hidden - rather than deleted - the front cover here, as per a correction request showing it to be an RSO label image, not Polydor, but as the RSO is not yet on site (or linked, at any rate), I thought it best to keep that image stowed away on site until that entry turns up. (Saves someone some effort of making a new image :)
Magic Marmalade 28th Jul 2021		Vinyl Album Brother Jack McDuff - The Midnight Sun (1968)	My head hurts! ...Going for a lie down, a beer and a biscuit :)
Magic Marmalade 28th Jul 2021		Vinyl Album Brother Jack McDuff - The Midnight Sun (1968)	I've now made Jack McDuff primary artist, which now includes listings for Brother Jack McDuff, and The Brother Jack McDuff Quartet... (Appropriate pseudonyms added to each variation) ...And links from each added back to Jack McDuff discography.
Magic Marmalade 28th Jul 2021		Vinyl Album Brother Jack McDuff - The Midnight Sun (1968)	I'm going to strip out Jack McDuff discography, and redo it a little later, it's all a bit befuddled, with this and Brother Jack McDuff being at cross purposes, I think.
Magic Marmalade 26th Jul 2021		Vinyl Album Radiohead - The Bends (1995)	Just weighed my copy... 125g.
Magic Marmalade 26th Jul 2021		Vinyl Album Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Natural Black Inventions: Root Strata (1972)	Thanks purepop, ...Turns out it was already listed under that name, but I have added remaining pseudonyms to Roland Kirk (Refreshed discography), so there's a couple more albums in his discography now :)
Magic Marmalade 26th Jul 2021		Vinyl Album Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Natural Black Inventions: Root Strata (1972)	Should this artist appear under Roland Kirk discography?
Magic Marmalade 25th Jul 2021		Vinyl Album Various Artists - The Swing Years (1936-1946) (1972)	Extra tracks / discs entered here in notes and comments can be added by going to "Add Missing Info" along the bottom, then "Add Extra Tracks" at the top of that page... enter a disc at a time, with relevant disc letters / numbers, and submit.... repeat until complete :)
Magic Marmalade 24th Jul 2021		Vinyl Album The Specials - More Specials (1980)	Found a super mint copy in the charity shop the other day... All parts and pieces present :) ... Except the a side label of the single feel off... But that's ok, as there was another one underneath! So now I have a spare a side label. The poster is folded along the bottom of the picture and where it joins the white specials "more specials" wording area, with the single in two-tone company sleeve tucked in the fold with the album.
Magic Marmalade 24th Jul 2021		Vinyl Album Various Artists - Today's Super Greats (1974)	Canadian entry made... images moved. (Linked below)
Magic Marmalade 23rd Jul 2021		Vinyl Album Luba - All Or Nothing (1990)	Is this the artist Luba *Lisa*?

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