▶ Listen (*7*)Spotify, Apple Music Or Youtube
3. Pretenders: “A Message of Love”
Released in 1981, “Pretenders II” – which I eagerly added to my collection – is the last Pretenders album with the band’s original lineup; guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon died inside the subsequent two years of drug-related causes. With these tragedies on the horizon, “Pretenders II” is a permanent document of the unique group’s special chemistry and spirit, as seen on this ironic single that finds the whole band moving to the beat of an old train.
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4. Sam Cooke and the Soul Mixers: “Jesus Will Wash My Troubles Away”
Here’s a blind buy that turned out to be well worth the price: a group of highlights from the Soul Stirrers, the gospel group that young Sam Cooke fronted in the early Nineteen Fifties before launching his pop profession in 1956. This album comprises some standards reminiscent of: “Peace in the Valley”, but in addition includes several originals written by Cooke, including this striking, deeply moving piece. That voice, with all its pearly pathos and hard-won hope, is fully formed and immediately recognizable, at the same time as Cooke sings of affection that’s spiritual quite than secular: “I know there’s comfort,” he sings, “as long as you’re there ” .”
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5. Split Enz: “Six Months in a Leaky Boat”
OK, that’s a bit of a cheat. I was delighted discover a pristine copy of the unique soundtrack to the 1982 Australian New Wave musical “Starstruck” – an absolutely crazy cult film that I love and cannot recommend it enough – and equally dismayed to later learn that none of its songs are available on streaming services in the US, so I can’t share them with you here. (However, you can find some of them if you search on YouTube). Much of the music on “Starstruck” was written by Tim Finn, a New Zealand singer-songwriter who was in Split Enz at the time and later joined Crowded House with his brother Neil. Instead of “Starstruck” there’s one of Finn’s greatest songs with Split Enz – released coincidentally the same year as the film.
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6. Challengers: “Pack Your Pack”
I had to add one more song from “Pretenders II” – if only so you could hear Chrissie Hynde screaming as if she really meant it: “You are the underside of the world!”
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7. Bryan Ferry: “Walk a Mile in My Shoes”
Finally, a confession: when I returned to New York and started storing my new CDs in their alphabetized homes, I realized that I already had a copy of Bryan Ferry’s Another Place, Another Time. Oops! An album so cool I bought it twice? Well, if any of my friends would like a free copy of this very enjoyable and unique, elegant record, you know where to find me.
▶ Listen Spotify, Apple Music Or Youtube
