45worlds - Magic Marmalade

Magic Marmalade

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3696 Points / Moderator / Joined 30 Jun 2014 /

England / Kent

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Collection 4398

Wishlist 157

Half record collector... half druid... complete unit.

More human than human.

Comments (Vinyl Albums) View All 1068 »

Member	Item		Review/Comment
Magic Marmalade 1st Sep 2024		Vinyl Album Blondie - Parallel Lines	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	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	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	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	Now edited the artist name to be consistent with 45cat.