Vinyl Albums - Comments by Magic Marmalade

Vinyl Albums - Comments by Magic Marmalade

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
Magic Marmalade 15th Nov 2024		Vinyl Album The Hawkins - The Aftermath (2021)	If it has a different barcode, it needs a separate entry.
Magic Marmalade 15th Nov 2024		Vinyl Album Jakob Mind - The One Who Got Away (2021)	If the blue version has a different barcode, it needs a new entry.
Magic Marmalade 28th Oct 2024		Vinyl Album Black Widow - Sacrifice (1970)	Review Found a super-tatty copy of this in the charity shop, with misprinted labels (matrix - A1 / B1), and while I didn't want to look to close at what was going on on the cover art (yikes!), I assumed it was going to be some kind of Black Sabbath-y proto metal affair... ...Actually, consistent with the date of release, this has more of a bleed-over into the seventies-sixties psychedelia, proto-prog / folk thing happening instead. Only the themes (the whole cult / occult / devilry) of the songs and the surprisingly excellent vocal style really have anything to do with any kind of heavy metal. Rather, this has more in common, to my ears, to Gabriel era Genesis, underscored by a more sedate, even tender at times folk feel, as far as the overall sound is concerned... as one of the two most prominent elements in this is the extensive use of various organs... which gives it that psychedelic going into prog style.... ...The other most prominent element, which is actually a point of distinction for this, is the drumming - very jazzy, lots of fills and punctuation, as opposed to flat rhythms. That said. the opening track of side two does wrong foot you, with a more gentle, sweeping affair, with strings, that sounds like it's about to go all "Moody Blues" of a sudden, before it settles back down into it's established style. Quite a good album actually... except maybe the organ and drums, being so prominent do largely overwhelm anything else in the music, even the vocal at times. And although this does, at the same time, give the sound a sense of scale, it is mostly an artificial one, as I think this is more intimately recorded, arranged and produced than would otherwise have been the case without those two instruments. So you could probably get a later remaster on a CD which might have attempted to "pull the sound elements apart" a little, in order to give the vocal and other instruments a more separated sound, I'm not sure there's enough here the the music could bare it, and the sound, as it is here, has a character of it's time, and consistent with the subject matter, that may be somewhat lost through such an exercise. It's a CBS disc, so as always, and excellent pressing, and any issues you may have sound wise, are as mentioned, before the getting to press stage... not a pressing issue. If you can find a copy in good condition (unlike my scratched, and snowy sounding one!) and appreciate an album of this kind with this kind of audio aesthetic and character, it's well worth getting this issue. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 1st Sep 2024		Vinyl Album Blondie - Parallel Lines (1978)	I question the bootleg status of this, if it came from the official factory, albeit "unofficially" pressed... (Snuck out the back door by cheeky employee etc.) ...As bootleg seems to imply an entirely separate entity replicating official issues for reasons of profit, and thereby stealing from the copyright holder / label of origin, the profits which would otherwise would have been rightfully theirs. If this is extremely rare, where only a couple or a handful exist, this would seem to lend credence to the idea that it was a one time -off the books sneaky press by insider, for their own use, as opposed to a boot, as any bootleg enterprise isn't going to make only a couple, or even a few if there's no possibility of any wedge at the end of it, due to lack of numbers, surely?
Magic Marmalade 10th Jul 2024		Vinyl Album Suede - Coming Up (2021)	Review Late to the party... I never really got into Suede at the time, although of course, they were a presence in popular culture, with singles pervading the airwaves and all, which I was aware of... especially those from this album, which actually caused me to deliberately avoid them on the principle that it sounded like a band who had sold out, and "gone commercial"... (For all their protestations at the time that they should not be categorized under the same banner as other bands who the popular media dubbed: "Britpop", it is strange that they should have produced this... perhaps one of the most Britpop / commercial albums of them all!) ...These sounding like overtly pop, punchy, commercial tunes you can 'um. And even the cover reflects greatly the character of the album as a whole... Gone the dark, dingy photography of more serious artists, in it's place a lurid, energy drink fuelled neon-ette "buy me!" cover enclosing a slab of brief, high energy pop stabs and jabs. But it was during the interims between lockdowns in the pandemic that I was on a "buy it and rip it" spree of all those old albums on CD that I'd missed first time around, that I had a tune pop up on my MP3 player form this, that acted as the better gateway track for the album: By The Sea, is a different flavour altogether... an absolutely stunning masterpiece in fact, of scale, and sweep, with an incredible melancholic tone that really grabbed me by the pretzels and has since become one of the signature tunes of lockdown for me... ...And also Picnic By The Motorway, which has a woozy, destitute, hallucinogenic quality (especially in the vocal effect) made me listen to the other single tracks again, before giving the whole album a thorough listen through - a couple of times in fact. I've now come to appreciate the album as a whole, and find, quite to my astonishment, that I really love it - it's quite a short album, wisely, as too much of that hyper energetic feel would have been wearing, especially without those two deeper cuts as interludes. And so, it's a well judged, well balanced album too. And so, happening on Amazon a couple of weeks ago, to find this on sale for £14, I grabbed it up, and found this lovely 180g Clear vinyl plays with even greater scale and sweep on a proper system (through big boy speakers) than an MP3 can of course deliver, which unlocks the full audio potential. The only minor gripe with this pressing - And the Bluetones: Expecting To Fly album I also got on this label: Demon, is how quiet the music is pressed on them - you have to turn the volume way up with this label's pressings it seems... but that's Ok I suppose, as the vinyl itself is silent, and clean sounding, so no amplified pops and crackles etc. [As stated on both albums - Demon is a BBC company! - who knew!?!] I may have to delve into other Suede albums now, especially in search of anything that can match By The Sea, for sheer wow factor. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 9th Feb 2024		Vinyl Album That Petrol Emotion - Babble (1987)	A very good band! I shall be giving my tatty copy a further listen or two soon, I think (and keeping an eye out for others of theirs)
Magic Marmalade 8th Feb 2024		Vinyl Album That Petrol Emotion - Babble (1987)	Review One of those bands that if you like one thing they do, you'll like everything they do... ...And I do like what it is they do, I do! Wasn't sure what to expect when I found this, but one of those occasional nuggets you find, which is great throughout: ...Erm... New wave punk-ish semi goth type of high energy frenetic rock, which put in me in mind of Devo, The Clash on occasions, The Jam, and with occasional vocals reminiscent of Public Image Ltd. era John Lydon vocals when he hits the higher end of things. (Even the odd note of foreshadowing of Radiohead hues in the beats and use of instrumentation). Lots of riffs with big crunchy guitars, undercut with squealy repetitive rhythm guitar stabs nice bass lines and solid thumpy drums- quite melodic in places too. A side is only slightly more tending toward the "pop" end of this this spectrum. in terms of song duration and feel, and b side is a little more open, languid, and experimental sounding - one of the songs opens in such a way (a clearly sampled and looped vocal synth "chant thing") as to place it squarely dated in the eighties, so as you suddenly think it's going into Howard Jones type territory, before the crunchy guitar comes in and normal service is resumed, thankfully. The recording is very good, with nice spacious and separated sound, albeit quite skinny and floppy piece of vinyl, and only a suggestion of the typical, signature "eighties echo" effect around the vocals, but not so much as to scare off the true new wavy punkoids among you :) A nice find for this new year, and already thinking I'm not likely to find better this year. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 3rd Feb 2024		Vinyl Album Touch [1960s] - Touch (1969)	Now edited the artist name to be consistent with 45cat.
Magic Marmalade 3rd Feb 2024		Vinyl Album Deep Purple - Made In Japan (2014)	Ah, Thank you Mr. Leonard (And sorry)!... I t was the end of a modding session and I was a little overwhelmed at first sight, at what appeared to be a big job (snigger). I should've looked a little closer! :)
Magic Marmalade 2nd Feb 2024		Vinyl Album Deep Purple - Made In Japan (2014)	This page is a mess. If someone could submit complete and accurate track listings as a correction, I will edit it all. (Live venues and dates can and will be added as green headers, rather than appended to track titles.)
Magic Marmalade 30th Dec 2023		Vinyl Album Slim Whitman - Slim Whitman Sings (1959)	Side 1 image can be edited by going to "Edit Images" on this page, selecting (reserving) the image to be edited, then uploading your new edit in place of it.
Magic Marmalade 16th Dec 2023		Vinyl Album Jack Mercer And Mae Questel - Popeye (1962)	If this has that date on on it... is it possible this (yours) is a reissue? (If so, would need another entry for the original release with original date)
Magic Marmalade 1st Dec 2023		Vinyl Album The Slits - Cut (1979)	Review In the groove, with The Slits! (Sorry about that) I don't on the whole, buy into the whole "punk" thing, in that it seems more than half is awful ear- horror, and the rest, sound musicians posing as being worse than they actually are: Punk= mostly Bulls*&t. Fortunately, these are of the later variety... ...Actually great musicians greatly performing well constructed, even musical songs. I did wonder what a "Punk" band was doing on Island records of this time, when I found this, and it turns out they do a very fine line in the reggae end of the P$%k spectrum. ...And very well they do it too! Going by my presumptions based on the cover and band name, I was expecting an unmusical, caterwaul of "attitude" and grim-ness... but thankfully not. This is, instead, a more lo-fi, up-front, noodly, intricate affair of very innovative and inventive music. The real star if the show here is the rhythm(s) and in particular, the truly stellar drumming that underpins the whole thing. This is actually further emphasised by the lack of production (Studio effects) in the recording, as other than a guitar pedal, distortion or two, it's absolutely bare recording, to showcase how good these players are. The vinyl, of course, is reliably good, as you'd expect from Island, but the music too is a very pleasant surprise! ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 10th Nov 2023		Vinyl Album The Living End - The Living End (2023)	Second LP tracks can be added by going to: "Add Missing Info" at bottom of page, and then clicking: "Add Extra Tracks", where you can add the tracks, lp side letters, and track nuumbers.
Magic Marmalade 6th Nov 2023		Vinyl Album The Slits - Cut (1979)	Yes, my matrices are identical, without silhouettes on labels. One other thing scratched into deadwax, which is too small to read: "Johnz" or something like that.
Magic Marmalade 5th Nov 2023		Vinyl Album The Slits - Cut (1979)	Sadly not... Just a thick black, cardboard inner with die cut label holes and round corners. (I wonder if this might have replaced early inners?) Do we have any idea if the silhouette labels are first or second? (I will check matrix numbers tomorrow)
Magic Marmalade 5th Nov 2023		Vinyl Album The Cravats - In Toytown (1980)	Yehah! ...Looks like I'm back in business, as far as being able to contribute images to site, as I have a new printer with a flatbed scanner on it :) (After much messing about trying to stop the bloomin' thing scanning only areas of the image - sometimes more advanced kit than you are used to trying to be being helpful... is not helpful! - and having overcome the simply awful photo program facilities of windows 11... (Can we have photo gallery prog back please Microsoft?!!! - get rid of that useless photos prog) ...By harvesting ICE from my old 8.1 machine, I can now composite images of sleeves too - yippee!!!)
Magic Marmalade 4th Nov 2023		Vinyl Album The Slits - Cut (1979)	Found in a charity shop yesterday for £1! (needs a clean up, but mostly good :)
Magic Marmalade 3rd Sep 2023		Vinyl Album Various Artists - The Golden Groups (1989)	If you can identify correct equivalent listings for disambiguated names in 45cat, then add each one as a separate correction request, I will change them.
Magic Marmalade 5th Aug 2023		Vinyl Album Trini Lopez - Trini Lopez Live At Basin St. East (1964)	Please make a new entry for the Stereo version, so I can move these images over. Original submitter, entered this as the mono.
Magic Marmalade 31st Jul 2023		Vinyl Album Various Artists - WEBN Album Project 4 (1979)	Need a back cover image for this, to make corrections against.
Magic Marmalade 21st Jun 2023		Vinyl Album Various Artists - Scandinavian Rockabillies (1989)	Please note: rockabilly and psychobilly do not exist yet as genres - see admin post in forums. If you want them, post there.
Magic Marmalade 18th Jun 2023		Vinyl Album Cocteau Twins - Victorialand (1986)	Runs at 45rpm.
Magic Marmalade 1st Jun 2023		Vinyl Album Elvis Presley - Flaming Star & Summer Kisses (1965)	Found a copy of this the other week (Just black labels)... .. but in my research, have you seen how much the orange labels go for?!!!
Magic Marmalade 29th May 2023		Vinyl Album Savoy Brown Blues Band - Shake Down (1967)	Result! Found this on a charity shop two or three weeks ago for 50p... ... Sleeve was covered in muck, no inner sleeve, and a horrific looking scratch / gouge across side one. Been putting off daring to listen to it since then, but today I plucked up the courage, and gave it a spin... ... Mercifully, only three small jumps on the last track of side 1 - two of which, I managed to work out of the playing, by the old: power off and run backwards technique - otherwise, plays great! Nothing major to report sound or pressing wise... It sounds pretty standard mono Decca fare for music of its kind (blues rock-ish)... But that seems to suit this kind of thing, and it's a great example of the genre, for Yardbirds fans etc. And the sleeve cleaned up a treat... ... Not bad all things considered, for an album commonly valued at around the £200 mark! :)
Magic Marmalade 27th May 2023		Vinyl Album The Challengers - 25 Greatest Instrumental Hits (1967)	How does this have two sets of cat numbers?
Magic Marmalade 12th May 2023		Vinyl Album Stan Freberg - The Best Of Stan Freberg (1964)	Mono entry made, and linked below.
Magic Marmalade 28th Apr 2023		Vinyl Album The Who - Tommy (1969)	Indeed, this is neither reference nor biography though, and while I'm loathe to state that some site "rules" are, shall we say, inconsistently applied, I will restate that on 45cat, you will find many sheet music additions, newspaper and magazine articles, sometimes giving lyrics etc. Admin seems fine with this, so I see no problem doing the same here (Within reason, of course - relevant to issue etc.). As it is strongly suggested this lyric book here was included in an official issue in at least one country, I think this qualifies on that score too... ...So, I'm going to take the execute moderato decision to leave this here, with these comments and discussion serving as informative notes regarding it for the casual observer / researcher landing on this page. If you want to re-upload the lyric book images to the other issue, and make some informative statement about them there too, that would be fine. There... I've made a decision, and now feel quite dizzy, so will have a nice sit down and a biscuit or two to recover! :)
Magic Marmalade 27th Apr 2023		Vinyl Album The Who - Tommy (1969)	Thanks Kevin, ..But I think my question still stands, as to whether it can perhaps stay here, as well as being uploaded to other issues on site, or copied over from here, or simply being moved to the other relevant issue(s), which, as a moderator, I can do :)
Magic Marmalade 26th Apr 2023		Vinyl Album The Who - Tommy (1969)	Would this lyric book have been available separately, or existed independently of any issue? I ask because it is a long standing convention on 45cat to add sheet music and the like to entries there, and this seems to be a similar thing, if you see my point of view. So wondered if it could stay here, with these comments serving as an adequate not on the lyric book, and then maybe copied over to the US issue, with the note about it being bound in to issues there? opinions?

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