Looking through the past few weeks’ worth of retrospective reviews, and facing a relative dearth of new stuff being celebrated here that tempts me to explore (I’m well into a Thea Gilmore investigation thanks to this place right now), for some tangential reason my mind wandered to those CDs or LPs on my shelves that haven’t been played at all since i first heard them. It occurs to me that some members of the Afterword posse might own more duff CDs (or LPs) than the average punter has in their entire collection.
That passing thought led me to ask – if we haven’t done this before I’d be surprised, but it was long enough ago that another crack at it might be amusing – what’s the absolute worst CD or LP in your possession, and what on earth led you to acquire it in the first place? Weird stories of how it came to be on your shelves, or why you still continue to own it, are almost more important than knowing what it is.
Here’s my candidate: ‘Dig Thy Savage Soul’ by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages, acquired when my bestie Mike handed it to me with a smirk and said, “See what you think of this; it’s bloody awful.” He was right. But he’s my bestie, and if anyone has the right to ceremoniously consign it to the recycling, it’s him, not me. So I still have it.
*shudders*
I don`t have any `worst` albums Foxie.
In fact I don`t think I`ve ever had a `worst` album despite several culls of my collection over the years. In those instances I just got rid of albums I`d stopped playing and was unlikely to play.
There are two ways to react to this: music that you really don’t like and music that you do like while accepting that it is objectively shite. The latter constitutes the majority of my music collection.
‘Objectively shite’ is good.
Can one be properly objective about music one likes? Can you, Moosey?
That would be an ecumenical matter.
Kindly explain the oxymoron that is “objectively shite”. I can wait….
Try listening to the first Schoolly D album.* It’s absolute shit. That is a scientific fact. Yet, I like it.
(*don’t really)
Maybe Two Virgins by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Bought for completism. Maybe that doesn’t count? The most disappointing album I remember buying as a new release was Sparkle in the Rain by Simple Minds. After the glorious New Gold Dream it was pretty shit really. And they were done as a decent band.
Michael Franks – Rendezvous in Rio.
I had to buy it as part of losing a bet and I have to keep it as part of said bet.
As Dai mentioned “Bought for completism” there’s a Mark Lanegan remix thing ,possibly bootleg,that’s none too good
Them’s high stakes for a bet SC.
Collection is in storage but offthe top of my head Lou Reed Mistrial. Lou on lead and rhythm and drums are courtesy of a machine.
Even worse than Metal Machine Music? Although, to be fair, my copy is a 1980s not-remastered CD so I’d expect it to sound fairly awful.
Never owned MMM.
The best review of MMM was by Lou himself. Years after it’s release he was asked about it and he replied something like, “Anyone who has listened to it all the way through is even stupider than I am.”
Danny Baker had a competition on his show where he played a 15 second clip of MMM and you had to guess which side it was from.
Back in the early 70s there were a lot of rumours about who was on an LP by the Masked Marauders. I now know that this was an elaborate (?) hoax concocted by Rolling Stone magazine which implied it was a supergroup, and it was perpetuated by them actually making an LP. I bought a second hand copy out of curiosity….well, maybe it WAS real…played it once and it now sits on the shelf between Bob Marley and Dave Mason. It is absolutely, objectively, shit.
Back in the day you bought an LP because you knew the artist or you’d heard it on the radio. The only other source was the music papers. The “worst” I bought simply because of a good write up in the NME was Carla Bley’s Escalator Up The Hill. I accept in its own groove it’s a good, if not great record, but it could not be further from my music of choice. For some while I played it whenever friends came round trying to appear cool and sophisticated. “The time change in the second verse reminds me of Art Blakey” I would opine.
“You’re full of shit” said my friends.
They was Right
I’ve heard that album and it’s nothing like On the Buses etc
Yes, reading between the lines of music paper reviews led me to many dreadful choices. Thank goodness for the streaming services and YT these days to test any potential purchase. A long way back, when I was just starting out on my record-buying days and could only afford to purchase about three albums a year, I heard Flock’s Tired Of Waiting on the Fill Your Head With Rock sampler. It was the most amazing song and so I decided to get the full album. Big mistake. Tired Of Waiting was the best track by a mile, the remainder was (to me) plodding jazz-rock. I still have the album and have grown to like it more, but I learned a valuable lesson: samplers invariably display an album’s finest track and the remaining songs on the album do not often live up to the promise.
Likewise, in the late 1990s I bought some forgotten alt-country singer’s album after hearing one of her tracks on a magazine cover CD. It turned out that this song was a cover, and everything else on the album was self-penned, and dreadful. No idea who she was – and the CD is long gone.
I like it.
I bought EOTH because it was number one on the Virgin jazz chart, it had an intriguing title and had Jack Bruce on it. I also suspect I read that NME review.
I tried, I really did. After all I’d forked out for a triple album. But I never “got into it” and sold it, from memory for a decent price (I’d bought it in the UK and back in NZ it was therefore an import. And never released there locally anyway)
Years later a friend reintroduced me to Carla Bley and now I’m something of a fan. I won’t go on about her arrangement of Nino Rota’s 8 1/2 yet again, but check this. A beautiful duet with her longtime partner Steve Swallow on electric bass
Whatever happened to Beany? He’d have a few candidates.
He’s very active on twitter, usually showing the latest finds from his travels.
I’ve got one of those out-of-copyright CD boxed sets of Duke Ellington albums from an obscure European label – where the material could be sourced from anywhere. One of the CDs is obviously dubbed from a low bit-rate MP3 transfer taken from a very badly scratched and worn LP and sounds absolutely appalling.
The worst record I owned – briefly – was Joanna Newsom – Ys. Bought cheap from Fopp, when they started selling secondhand. I lasted two tracks, and into Oxfam it went the next week.
The worst record I currently own is Tijuana Christmas, and which is due its annual play next month.
Oh I’ve got the Tijuana album, and on my iPod too. Mrs M says it sounds like the music from a party in the Doctor In The House films – like that’s gonna put me off. Christmas is nothing if not a holiday from good tate.
Owned a CDR of Ys once. Didn’t even give that houseroom when we moved. Frightful racket.
While I’m here, I do own a CD by Kathrine Jenkins. I’ve never played it.
It was bought for me for Christmas by a well-meaning friend who claimed to have heard me waxing lyrical about the gamine Thatcher-loving songstress. I eventually worked out that I must have been talking about Kathryn Williams.
My Tijuana came from minibreakfast. I’d never heard it before, but my partner had. Was a record her parents had, as were several Klaus Wunderlich. Whom I have heard and do not wish to again.
Mini’s got a CD of it with bonus cuts. I don’t know what they are – Skrillex remixes, maybe
Holiday from good taste, I meant. A holiday from good tate is much rarer – and as for that Lyle character….
You lovett?
He does. Wears his heart on his sleeve.
I LOVE Tijuana Christmas! It was in my mother’s ‘collection’ in my childhood, and digging it out for the annual spin really geared me up for the festivities. I might even buy it, unless…?
I can only refer the right honourable gentleman to, er, every charity shop on the planet….
I’m not able to help with the ‘unless…’ Not currently able to connect the iMac (if I had one, or three) to the turntable (if etc), though Audacity is present…
Other than the stack of James Last, James Galway and Richard Clayderman albums that always seemed to bulk out any job lot of vinyl I bought, the worst album I actually knowingly paid money for (expecting great and/or interesting noises) was Metallica and Lou Reed’s Lulu.
I have played it twice (the second time to check I hadn’t missed something). Terrible collaboration, terrible album.
I listened to this the other day for the first time. It’s tough to listen in one go but a lot of it is great!
The last track especially is superb
Nope, I’m with the Dig-meister. Blinking awful album.
I briefly owned Endless Nameless by the Wildhearts but the lovely man at Arcade let me swap it.
That was a shocker. Considering phuq was a goodie in a purple velvet sleeve…
This is tricky because I have more than a dozen* albums that I have not yet played, of which “Birds Of Fire” by Mahavishnu Orchestra could be a real contender, bought on the recommendation of a friendly chap on here, an author with a BT postcode.
Of the majority that have been played I second “Two Virgins”.
* Actually nearer 100!
The friendly chap on here is on the money. Fear not, it’s a great album. Dive in.
But then again, I can enjoy an afternoon languishing in Ys (see below), so what do I know?
Joanna fucking Newsom – Milk Eyed Monster. There was a song The other side of the blue that was used in an advert – loved that song. Rest of the album was shocking – thing is I went on to buy the second album Ys which was a bloody double and even worse.
Both long since consigned to landfill.
Uncut went crazy over Joanna Newsom a few years ago and awarded her album of the year for something or other. A classic case of the emperor’s new clothes – she always sounded like a cat having its whiskers removed without the benefit of anaesthetic to me. See also Bon Iver’s For Emma Forever Ago, which was by far the worst album in my collection until I got round to binning it a few weeks back. Music Magpie had offered me 5p for it, which I thought was a tad generous.
But Bon Iver grew a beard and went out to live in a cabin for twenty years or summink, which is one explanation of why he sings like a character from the Muppets, albeit an unsatisfactory one.
I love JN though I understand how people struggle with her voice. People say similar things about Tom Waits and (half the Massive faint) Kate Bush.
Plus Frazey Ford, Anais Mitchell, Björk, Fiona Apple, Macy Gray, Caitlin Rose….
Newsom’s last album was in 2015. I think she has taken time off to enjoy motherhood.
@Tiggerlion you have just made my day.
Oh god, can you imagine the noises?
But is perpetually in the Bandcamp charts, selling, selling, selling.
There’s an act much beloved on the AW that a friend suggested I had to see, I’ve always trusted his judgement so I duly went.
I’m afraid I couldn’t cope with the voice of one of them and never wish to see or hear them again.
For the second time this week on “The Afterword” I feel compelled to stand up for Ys which is an extraordinary, strange masterpiece IMO. Loved not only by Uncut, but by Alex Petridis at the Guardian, The BBC, Mojo, Pitchfork, NME, Slant, AllMusic all of whom give it top marks. It’s peculiar, distinctive and a challenging listen for sure – and music is very subjective after all. Just here to say other opinions are available.
Compelled?? All those big dick-swinging critics can’t cope with dissent from a few blerts on an obscure British music blog?
JN is not going to starve – her audience of middle-aged men isn’t going anywhere. Well they can’t – their glasses are all steamed up.
(what a horrible man I am)
Yer may be ‘orrible but yer feckin’ correct Moosie.
Yer know what? I very nearly quoted bloody Bon Iver as my worst album. Totally taken in by a 5* review and the beard…and probably played it twice. It keeps looking at me on the shelf and I should probably give it another go….nah, bollocks, life is too short.
Agreed @NigelT that’s another one I fell for too.
Who was that Aussie bloke that Hepworth conned us with too? CW Stoneking or something like that.
That’s the fella. Still going strong(ish) over here.
Mind you, if I’d grown up whitefella where he grew up, I’d be fucking odd as well.
That’s the gadgie I was on about down there.
I reckon he is ok live. Wouldnt buy a record mind. Well, why would you when the real McCoy is available.
Van or Sylvester?
Bones.
My wife (then girlfriend) gave me a copy of Michael Bolton’s Time, Love & Tenderness as a joke once. My problem with disposing of CDs means I still have it. I’m assuming it’s the worst album I own, I’ve never played it!
I’m not sure I can accept such criticism of the Barrence Whitfield though!
You still married her…after THAT?! 😏
With the notable exception of Grantchester Meadows, I think Ummagumma is probably the worst album I own. Just horrible.
Oh and also David Sylvian’s last official studio album, There’s a Light That Enters Houses with No Other House in Sight, which I refuse to count as a David Sylvian album. The album consists of a single hour-length composition and features spoken word by American Pulitzer Prize winning poet Franz Wright. Unlistenable.
Pink Floyd and David Sylvian – my two favourite acts, strangely enough.
The Narrow Way is quite good. The live album is unforgiveably dull considering how much good live stuff they had in the can at the time.
I like the live album. When I bought Ummagumma, back in the late 19th century, I had no way of knowing how much they had “in the can” – so I took it at face value. I didn’t know what “the can” was, never mind how much was in it.
No wonder you didn’t can it, despite specific instructions from that delightful young gel with the bass guitar
I rather like Ummagumma. By complete coincidence, I was listening to The Narrow Way when I read your post.
Pros and Cons, on the other hand…
…is superb from start to finish.
After Saucerful of Secrets, Ummmaggamnagumma (spell check needed) is the best PF record ie it’s listenable (just). Other opinions abound.
And what’s Madame Wrongness’s favourite? I bet it’s Dark Side. Because she gives me the impression of being so much wiser than her betrothed. (Although, to be fair, so does everybody.)
No idea. After the majesty of Unmagunmamagg they all sound the same to me.
Agreed.
Pros and Cons is the best album ever made by a member of Pink Floyd.
Wouldn’t disagree…although I do like Gilmour’s first solo album. And Madcap, come to that…
Truth is, none of them come close to the best of the work that they did when they were a functional unit.
I bin stuff from time to time, mainly to make room for new acquisitions. Possibly the most recent “in to bin” was EII’s Dancing Tunes, of which, inexplicably, I had two copies. Banana Boat Song in lightweight reggae morris mode. (And I like lightweight reggae morris…..)
That sounds Shite Enough For Beany™
I love John Martyn; he’s one of my favourite singers/guitarists/songwriters.
Despite owning quite a lot of his catalogue, I bought something called the John Martyn Anthology, which purported to be a non-greatest hits compilation (not that he had hits, exactly). By the cringe: what a load of unlistenable nonsense. It was all re-recorded versions of old songs, and poor addled John sounded like someone had thrust a tape recorder under his nose…at the exact moment he was fighting off the twin threats of a near-fatal dose of tequila coupled with a bout of botty-rot diarrhoea. The whole thing sounds like the cast of Crossroads drowning in custard.
Not semolina then? You have a good ear.
Fried is in my Top 5 albums of all time. So, I’m a fan, but ….
Trip Advizer The Very Best of Julian Cope 1999-2014.
God knows what the worst from that era sounds like.
I only keep it because at least the title is classic Cope.
Two for me, and both of them are live triple albums from Dream Theater: Live at Budokan and Score. I think I got them because a music mag or website had praised DT as a great prog band, and as somebody who had never heard them, I thought a live album would be a great overview/sample of their work. And the other one may have been in a sale at the same time, so I took a plunge on that as well.
I have had both of them for years, and I don’t think I’ve reached the end of Disc 1 of either set, despite several valiant efforts.
Yes, yes, I know they’re obviously very gifted musicians who can throw out a Gbm11#13 chord without a second thought, but where are the actual tunes, maaan? From what I recall, the few tracks I have managed consist of one solo after another, or sometimes several solos at the same time, if such a thing is possible.
I love prog, but for me DT and their endless widdling-diddling cross the bridge from Progland into Jazzville, which is a place I will never visit for long, thank you (and please don’t waste your time trying to convince me about jazz – it and I have never seen eye to eye).
If I had more determination, I’d get rid of both CDs, but every now and again, fool that I am, I think “Maybe I’ll give them one more try…”
…have listened to Sun Ra, he he, I’d better feck off
The Top of the Poppers play The Beatles’ Golden Hits. I bought it once because I was young and naive and thought it was a Beatles album and couldn’t believe how cheap it was.
I read a review of Diamanda Galas album Defixiones: Will and Testament to a friend of mine who bought it, found it terrifying and gave it to me for my birthday as revenge. I lasted half a song then sold it on ebay.
The worst CD I own (well, it’s still around somewhere, but I wouldn’t know where to look for it) is one I bought a few years ago, tricked to by a good review and my curiosity. It’s a Swedish bagpipe album…yes, I know, I know…but I do enjoy some bagpipes occasionally, and this sounded like an intriguing project.
They had built a replica of the long extinct Swedish bagpipe, based on surviving archeological bits and bobs, and then let a piper record early tunes played on this instrument. My god – what a bloody racket! That instrument was extinct for a very good reason, I’ve never heard another bagpipe sound as awful as that one. It was impossible to sit through a single track of that CD.
The reviewer who gave it the thumbs up must have been a masochist.
So, what do I win?
My address and a first class stamp from Sweden. Sounds magnificent.
This @Locust ?
No, @hubert-rawlinson, I don’t think so. Because that bagpipe sounds perfectly pleasant to me, and the one on my CD is a highpitched screaming thing with a relentless quality to it that makes you want to stab yourself in both ears with forks. Also because I have a vague memory of the piper being called Per something or other, and he didn’t build the bagpipe himself.
@Locust Having had a search it sounds like Per Gudmundson , I’m now intrigued and shall have to listen. The ones I’ve seen look small so it’s probably the high pitched ones.
Father John Misty. Can’t remember what it’s called but he’s squeaking about a fuzzy bear or something on the first track. Lasted 15 seconds, skipped through the rest of the album, meh, not even sure where it is now.
I always confuse him with the blues singer who came on here and threatened to break our legs. Jools Holland has a lot to answer for.
Mr Stoneking was one of Messrs Ellen and Hepworth’s rare mistakes. Dido and Jack Johnson features not exactly popular, either. Johnson’s first couple of records are pleasant, though.
Jack Johnson is a funny cove. He was massively popular amongst Da Yoof, including Mrs F’s Fench rellies. Much like Dido, I wouldn’t turn him off if he was on the radio but can’t recall a tune.
There was even a JJ tribute act in Cambridge. I used to booked him for support slots.
Don’t get your Jack Johnson tribute acts mixed up. One of them might involve a man with a squawking trumpet while some bloke from Yorkshire mangles frenetic fusion out of his guitar.
I’d buy that for a dollar…
JJ was very popular with the younger members where my partner worked. Think we bought the first three, and they still get played. Was also a staple of ‘FatFace’ stores, as was that Newton Faulkner.
A JJ tribute band seems rather niche! Mind you, there’s at least one Wurzels tribute…
We liked the first few JJ and in fact gave one a spin recently – still sounds good.
Dido’s album Life For Rent is a 21st century classic. There, said it.
Classic what?
right there in your attic.
Leave Billy Joel outta this.
Can’t remember who it was, but their splendid description of FJM as ‘Elton John singing the Guardian comments section’ is spot on IMO.
Oh that’s vile. And very funny
Mike Reid Sings.
It was glued to the racks and wouldn’t shift even when reduced to a quid. I didn’t pay for it, but agreed to took it off the shop’s hands when I was buying something else, and wrapped it as a surprise Xmas prezzie for Mrs F. She was delighted, as you can imagine.
If I’m ever asked what’s the worst Eastenders-related music, even worse than Anita Dobson’s Anyone Can Fall In Love?, I know the answer.
I wrote on here about disposing of a Max Bygraves album that was used as a stiffener* by some villainous Discogs seller when I bought something else. I never played the record, the look of psychotic glee on that old bastard’s face on the cover was warning enough.
*I made that joke then too
I was attempting to tidy up my garage at the weekend and found a box of LPs to take to the chazza, surplus to requirements from when I bought a neighbour’s vinyl collection during lockdown. There are four Kenny G albums in that box. I’m fairly sure there were only three of them when they came into my possession .
Breeding like rats.
Anthony and the Johnson’s – I Am A Bird Now.
Recommended to me by a friend who told me it was the greatest album he’d heard in years and knew that I would love it. I gave up after 5 or 6 tracks and I’ve never played it since. I’m still not sure whether my friend was taking the piss.
Argh, yes. Shudder…
Anthony and the Johnsons – that comet flared across the sky mercifully briefly.
Long enough for the Unthanks to do a bit of sow’s ear->silk purse .
Oh God, we were staying with some friends recently and he put Anthony and the Johnsons on. Jeez, it was awful beyond words. I do think being able to hold a tune is something of a prerequisite for a singer.
I bought Bowie’s Blackstar in a charity shop.
The label side is all black and, given the title, I didn’t think that was strange. I started playing it. My first thought was Why is Bowie singing, with his voice pitched in such an awful register?
Once the second song started I sussed the effing awful row was not Bowie. A sample of lyrics entered into Google revealed it’s Anhoni (as Anthony is now styled) without the Johnsons The album is titled Hopelessness. Drop the “ness” and that pretty much describes it.
I liked his collab with Hercules And Love Affair.
To be fair, Blackstar does feature David Bowie singing in a strange register.
Tribute to late-period Scott Walker…. Possibly
Antony’s Knocking On Heavens Door is a small piece of exquisite beauty. Which probably means why I have 3 of the albums by either the then Antony or current Anohni. They make little fuss and disturb me seldom.
I’m going to be a dissenting voice for I Am A Bird Now. I thought it was a great album at the time and this was reaffirmed by a recent listen. I know nought of his more recent output.
This thread has almost made me build up enough courage to give Ys another listen. Who would have guessed that Grandma from the Beverley Hillbillies would have had such a profound influence on harp-based alt-folk 40 years later?
Anthony and the Johnsons won the Mercury Music Prize in 2005. A quick bit of research shows it was a fallow year – they were up against the Cast of the Bill (The Love Truncheon LP), Steps (I Think I Stepped In Something I Like LP) Sonia (I’m not Mick Hucknall LP) and Mike Reid (I’m a Cock, A Massive Cock, A Massive Cockney Geezer LP).
The Bill LP included their hit Love Truncheon Number Nine (Nine Nine). Formidable.
I have today started the mammoth task of re-burning to MacBook all my CDs. I know they are all on t’cloud, but only until I cancel my sub. Lots of odd looking stuff already, but entertaining.
Look Foxy is on the cusp of a hamper. Look at him over there in the corner, mouth slightly agape , drooling at the prospect.
So let me help you old chum. Let me put forward.
Emerson Lake and Palmer: Works. Pompous title for a record , nay, not one record but two records of pompous bloated music. My copy is, unsurprisingly, in mint condition.
I don’t own Venus and Mars….
I only buy records I actively like. However last years #VinylSanta sent me a copy of Van Morrison’s The Prophet Speaks. He or she had clearly carefully persused my timeline and decided it was the very thing for me. There’s Van on the cover in deep conversation with a ventriloquist dummy. Of course I haven’t played it but I suspect its comfortably The WORST album I own. Should I give it a listen?
Yes, in fact I suggest you start a twelve-month appraisal of Van’s most recent dozen albums. That’ll take you about as far back as 2018.
I’ve got a David Hasselhoff greatest hits somewhere. It’s not a blank CD
Let’s have a bit of respect for the man who brought the Berlin Wall down single-handed.
Especially since he didn’t even need to do it as he had a car that could jump over walls…
Elbow’s Seldom Heard CD. I just can’t get through it. What is this music for?
Seldom Played, more like…
Is this a tribute to Mark Ellen’s wife reacting to one of Radiohead’s albums- “What is this music for??” Still one of the best reviews I’ve heard
I just feel it doesn’t contribute anything to life. It’s all the right elements that signify nothing I recognise as something that rocks or entertains. I recall the Radiohead comment but I wasn’t thinking of it. Radiohead at least has some tension instead of this flaccidity.
Yes! I periodically try and give up by track 4.
Seems to me that an awful lot of these albums are Mercury Prize / droney arty toss. (Bar max bygraves, dream theatre, and kenny g). I see a pattern and a heuristic for easy avoidance. Landfill indie is a category. So should be Mercury Prize contestant albums. One or two decent ones, but otherwise …. And you can save time by not listening to albums liked by music critics of newspapers. John Peel has a lot to answer for.
Re: Mercury Prize contestant albums
Norma Waterson’s first solo album was pretty good!
“ One or two decent ones” I said. Plus some real student / music critic bollocks.
It wasn’t until the late 90s that Mercury Syndrome set in. The earlier lists were quite good.
It’s when they started to think it was the Booker Prize of pop. We’ve all read a few Booker winners and ended up wanting our time and money back. DBC Pierre FFS …
This is the right answer. as ever, you pin the tail on the donkey correctly, Moose.
Say wha? I really liked Vernon God Little. Great little read.
I’ve read very, very few Booker winners, for I am nothing if not ignoramus, but I really rate every single one I’ve read very highly indeed:
The Remains of the Day
Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha
Life Of Pi
Vernon God Little
The White Tiger
The Sense of an Ending
(am currently reading Shuggie Bain)
Whereas Mercury Prize, I only liked:
Screamadelica
Dummy
Kiwanuka
By my calculations, that’s Booker 6-and-a-half, Mercury 3. Which means the Booker is exactly 3-and-a-half better than the Mercury (so far).
Recent winners that I’d recommend are Damon Galgut – The Promise, and Bernadine Evaristo – Girl, Woman, Other. Brilliant, both of them. And this year’s winner sounds very interesting…TBR.
Edit: The only Mercury Prize winner I approve of is the James Blake win in 2013…and that’s Blake, not Blunt!
See also Quietus recommendations.
The fault with this thread title is that surely anybody who bought a terrible album would have got rid of it by now. So in that case, the worst album I have ever owned is Jammy Smears by Ivor Cutler. The two ‘Life In A Scotch Sitting Room’ tracks are excellent, but the rest are rubbish – too bad even to claim they’re so bad they’re good. I seem to remember an album by Flash, a band formed by ex-Yes guitarist Peter Banks. That was pretty awful. The Faust Tapes wasn’t one of my most treasured purchases.
Hmm, you might think that…. Some purchases get lost and forgotten about. I have found a few as I peruse my vinyl after, possibly, 30 years, as I try to piece my digital files back together.
More alarming is quite how many of my loved and cherished are not available any more, other than as very expensive second hand on Discogs: Morris On, The Compleat Dancing Master, Polkasteady, the first Moving Hearts and the first Home Service. It’s a disgrace, say I, not least as the digital rights police have decimated eel stocks.
I was lucky enough to get a mint copy of Morris On from someone I know who was getting rid of his records recently and gave me first dibs. We had a lot in common, but filled in lots of gaps, like Gryphon and King Crimson LPs – all pretty much as new.
Mrs. T was thrilled as we are trying to declutter…
I had an lp by the Slits – don’t think it actually had a name though it was sometimes known as Y, presumably because there was a Y scrawled on the white label. It wasn’t merely pish, it was badly recorded pish. Bongos on the lawn is one I remember, about ten minutes of them randomly striking bongos, which may or may not have been on a lawn.
Jammy Smears is excellent btw, as are Dandruff and Velvey Donket.