Author Archives: Vinyl Connection
1975 COUNTDOWN | #40 — #31
#40 DAVID BOWIE — YOUNG AMERICANS The greasepaint and sequins have been relegated to the dress-up box as Bowie shifts direction again. Recorded in Philadelphia and New York with contributions from Luther Vandross and guitarist Carlos Alomar, the album drew heavily on American R&B and funk influences. Its sound—lush, rhythmic, brass-laden—captured Bowie’s fascination with U.S. […]
1975 COUNTDOWN | #50 — #41
#50 AC/DC — T.N.T. The Aussie rockers crank it up a notch for their second album of 1975. “It’s a long way to the top” fully deserves its iconic status, while “High voltage” offers exactly that: raw, electrifying rock. Add in a title track that boasts one of Malcolm Young’s best riffs and you have […]
1975 COUNTDOWN | #60 — #51
DONNA SUMMER — LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY This is the album that launched both Summer and producer Giorgio Moroder into the disco pantheon. The 17-minute title track remains audacious: a slow-burning, hypnotic groove built around Summer’s breathy, erotic vocals and Moroder’s pulsing synthesizers. Its frank sexuality redefined how intimacy could sound in pop music […]
1975 COUNTDOWN | #65 — #61
75 FROM ’75 SECOND INSTALMENT #65—#61 * AC/DC — HIGH VOLTAGE Acca Dacca’s debut radiates raw swagger and rambunctious energy. Tracks like “Baby, Please Don’t Go,” “Soul Stripper,” and “She’s Got Balls” fuse blues grit with punkish immediacy; it really feels like they’re having a blast. Produced by Harry Vanda and George Young, High Voltage […]
1975 COUNTDOWN | #75 — #66
Welcome to the sixth annual 50 year countdown. Beginning in 2020 with 70 FROM ’70 we’ve sampled music from each year and attempted to find the ‘keepers’. This year is no exception, though the fragmentation of rock music into sub-genres makes any attempt at ranking increasingly fraught. In this initial set we have keyboard-based prog, […]
1975 COUNTDOWN | PROLOGUE
What do you remember about 1975? Were you even born? Was your world dominated by mother’s breast, or were you starting your first job? Attending kindergarten or enrolling at uni? Doing calisthenics or marching against the Vietnam war? What music was rocking your world… or has wormed its way into your cultural landscape over the […]
DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED
After a very creditable British R&B pop album that yielded the hit single “Go Now” The Moody Blues went through some personnel changes and directional realignments that resulted in them being invited by Deram Records to create a rock+orchestra version of Dvorak’s New World Symphony to demonstrate new recording techniques. With full support from producer […]
ALBUM COVERS… MORE RECORDS
A further collection of album covers featuring vinyl records. * The southern hemisphere enters Spring, soon to be followed by Don’t-leave-vinyl-in-your-car season. This alternate melting moment cover from New Zealand is far superior to the original. Heat Wave — Too Hot To Handle [GTO 1976] * The original UK release of this compilation of the […]
ALBUM COVERS… WITH RECORDS!
A collection of album covers featuring vinyl records. * Let’s start globally, shall we? Van Der Graaf have it large with a record the size of the earth. VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR — World Record [1976] * Despite it being a record obsessive’s nightmare, I do love this cover (which is not by Hipgnosis). The […]
I RUN TO YOU
September 23rd is the forty-eighth anniversary of the release of Steely Dan’s Aja. ♥ From its striking cover—timeless in its enigmatic simplicity—to the fadeout of the final song, Aja resides comfortably in classic album territory. Several other ‘classics’ came out in 1977, commercial monsters including Fleetwood Mac Rumours and the Eagles Hotel California. But where […]
OUT OF TIME
If you read a straight-ahead description of Time Out by The Dave Brubeck Quartet, it all sounds terribly serious and highbrow. Recollections of Brubeck’s avant-garde compositional inclinations while a student, his work with French composer Darius Milhaud at Mills College, the unexpected pairing of Brubeck’s inventive, meticulous piano playing with the warm, glowing tones of Paul Desmond’s […]
DEFINITELY A CLASSIC
What with the much heralded Oasis reunion and sold-out concerts everywhere, it seems fitting to revisit their first album. Some might say, why waste your time on those tossers? Well those tossers wrote some damned fine songs. And if we start chucking chaps out of the rock ’n’ roll circus for being jerks there’ll be […]
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