Cupid's Carnival - Everything Is Love
Although the album's cover might lead you to expect some Psych Pop, Everything Is Love is very much Beatlesque and when it's not, it's very much in that late 60's melodic pop that we know and love.
Cupid's Carnival used to be Cherrystone who released the excellent Our Life in 2008, although London based, the sound hails from further North. Girl with it's George Harrison like slide is so Beatles, I Was The Boy and Summertime are Badfinger to a tee. Sunny Days is an ELO patische, a sort of Mr Blue Sky II, very much in L.E.O. territory. There's even a cover of Whiter Shade Of Pale with Matthew Fisher on Hammond Organ.
Edison Lighthouse, Christie and some of the better mid 70's Pop Rock bands spring readily to mind, the whole album is a blast. The Right Time is perhaps a bit too Oasis for my liking, but Everything Is Love is great Summer Pop.
This seems the type of album that would do great business on Bandcamp. Strangely it's not present put you can find details of how to pick it up here.
The Move - Magnetic Waves Of Sound
Here he goes talking about The Move again. When I look around at all this music gathered over the period of 40 years plus, it all stems back to The Move and Sparks. In fact when Tez goes into one of her grumbles about the CD Wallpaper, I blame Roy Wood. Whilst the rest of St Helens were listening to Mud and Shang-A-Langing, this was my life.
The Move have been compiled to death, compilations seem to appear annually and so the Best Of is not that extraordinary. There's been some effort adding the likes of Cherry Blossom Revisited and What, but The Move to me are Looking On, Feel Too Good and The Girl Outside.
The real joy though is the DVD. The full Colour Me Pop Broadcast plus the Beat Club performances of Brontosaurus and When Alice Comes Back To Farm. Cherry Red's Esoteric offshoot generally do a good job of these reissues. I'm particularly looking forward to the upcoming Patto stuff. My one gripe here is that the 1971 footage isn't included and that's been around in great quality on Bootleg for years. Everyone should see Down On The Bay from that.
You can buy this CD and DVD set at Cherry Red's website here and everywhere else.
Who Killed Nancy Johnson - The Cops and Robbers EP
Reading based Who Killed The Nancy Johnson have released their debut EP and it's particularly good. Although you can hear Garage Rock influences, the thoughts of late 70's New Wave spring to mind.
They hit a riff and it's a loud one. The Ruts and The Rich Kids plus the better Manc Bands of that era are nodded at. However, these four songs could easily be on Tsar's second album. The spirit of Indie is alive and well and you can imagine the band are a pretty hot live act with some interesting covers.
All four songs are ace, but Stay Out Late appeals most to me, very 70's UK Wave and all the better for it. You can listen to the EP here and buy it for the ridiculously chap price of two quid.
Deacon Blue - Live At Glasgow Barrowlands
On such a poptastic Blog as this that celebrates the new and undervalued you would be surprised to read about Deacon Blue. A lot of UK Pop from the 80's is either rubbish or sounds incredibly dated. So you cherish those who extended beyond the electronic drums. That list includes Nik Kershaw, Nick Heyward, ABC and of course Deacon Blue.
Those first three albums stand up with anything else around snd Dignity stands up as one of the finest singles. When you listen to this great live set of 27 songs, you realise just how many great songs they were responsible for and that you know. Ricky Ross has a fine set of pipes and although they've never been particularly hip, they are particularly good.
You can buy this Double CD and DVD set for just over a tenner everywhere.
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