Flash! Ah-aah!

Queen's soundtrack to the 1980 Flash Gordon movie set me back £1 the other weekend:

Queen - Flash Gordon O.S. (1980)

This was Queen's ninth album, and it features mainly instrumental pieces, the exceptions being the single 'Flash' ("Flash's Theme" on the album) and 'The Hero'.

It's a mixture of movie dialogue, guitar rock and synth-rock, with some small portions of the orchestral score (by Howard Blake).

The album reached no.10 in the UK and no.23 in the US.  Here's Flash's Theme:

Spotify:  Queen – Battle Theme - 2011 Remaster              Queen – The Hero - 2011 Remaster



It's Alright

I got this last Sunday for £1:

Pet Shop Boys - Introspective (1988)

Introspective was the Pet Shop Boys' third album and contains six long 12-inch-style dance tracks, four of which were released as singles in the form of shorter 7" mixes.  These were Domino Dancing, Left To My Own Devices (painstakingly produced by Trevor Horn), Always On My Mind and It's Alright.

It's Alright is a cover of Sterling Void's 1987 house hit.  The album was the Pet Shop Boys' second best selling LP, reaching no.2 in the UK and doing well around the globe including reaching the no.1 spot in Argentina.

A rich mix of orchestral pop, latin rhythms and house, Introspective - despite the name - was created with the dancefloor in mind.

Spotify:   Pet Shop Boys – Always On My Mind/In My House

                      Pet Shop Boys – Left To My Own Devices

                             Pet Shop Boys – It's Alright

Nothing To Fear

Sunday's car boot sale had lots of old vinyl to flip through.  The morning had started cold but by the time I'd worked my way around the field I was thoroughly warm and in the possession of ten LPs, most of which cost 50p or a pound.

This was £1:

Depeche Mode - A Broken Frame (1982)

This second album, coming after 1981's Speak & Spell was Depeche Mode's first without Vince Clarke, who'd left to start Yazoo.

A Broken Frame is generally seen as their weakest album.  I can see why this is the case but for me it has several high spots, including the instrumental Nothing To Fear and the singles Leave In Silence and See You.

It marks the beginning of the change from the poppy debut towards their later, much darker material, and reached no. 8 in the UK album chart.

Spotify:  Depeche Mode – Nothing To Fear



Square art

A lovely big sister gave me this book for my birthday last week.  It's a sumptuous history of sleeve design, from the 1940s through to the present.  Filled with page after page of gorgeous album art, it also offers loads of background info on the evolution of the picture sleeve, as well as stories about individual LP covers.

The Art Of The Album Cover - Richard Evans (Compendium, 2010)

I highly recommend it to any lover of popular music, as well as fans of art and design.  It can be found here.

Birthday!

Its my 37th birthday today, so to celebrate, here are the Fabs:

The Beatles - Birthday (1968)

Perfect.

All the leaves are brown...

...but on Sunday the sky was NOT grey!  I am with transport once again so we headed up the coast to a car boot sale.  The weather was roasting and the skies clear and blue:

The place was heaving but despite the many stalls, vinyl was thin on the ground.  I came away with two LPs, bought for £1 each.  First was this:

Geoff Love & His Orchestra - Themes For Super Heroes (1979)

This is a collection of orchestral versions of superhero film and TV themes, including Wonder Woman, Dr. Who and Batman.  It's both hilarious and brilliant, and has recently been released on CD along with his Big Terror Movie Themes. 

Spotify:  Geoff Love & His Orchestra – Superman 'Theme From Superman'
              Geoff Love & His Orchestra – Wonder Woman (Theme From TV Series)

Next I got Talk Talk's third studio album, The Colour Of Spring.  It marked a transition in style between their earlier synth-pop efforts and final two albums Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock. 

Talk Talk- The Colour Of Spring (1986)

Top tracks:  Talk Talk – I Don't Believe In You           Talk Talk – Life's What You Make It