The Compilation: Now Yearbook '89

Now Music is finally finish off the 1980s episode with their last Yearnook series focusing now on 1989.

This final Yearbook for the decade starts with Queen's "I Want It All" and ends with Band Aid II's "Do They Know It's Christmas" the 'unofficial' Band Aid single according to a revisionist Bob Geldof!.

In between are 76 other tracks including hits from Simple Minds, Soul II Soul, Neneh Cherry, Fine Young Cannibals, Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan,  Holly Johnson, New Order, Bros, Transvision Vamp, Roachford (“there’s no fog!”), The Beautiful South, Living in a Box, Tears For Fears, R.E.M., Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran, The Cure, Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians, Sam Brown, The Bangles, Simply Red and many more.

The familiar formats are available: deluxe hardcover book 4CD edition, 3LP coloured vinyl in pink color with 42 tracks and the standard card sleeved 4CD set. NOW Yearbook 1989 will be released on 25 April 2025.

NOW Yearbook 1989 Track List:  

CD 1

1. Queen – I Want It All

2. Billy Joel – We Didn’t Start The Fire

3. Tina Turner – The Best

4. Cher – If I Could Turn Back Time

5. Belinda Carlisle – Leave A Light On

6. Deborah Harry – I Want That Man

7. Chris Rea – The Road To Hell Part 2

8. Mike + The Mechanics – The Living Years

9. Simple Minds – Belfast Child

10. Gladys Knight – Licence To Kill (From “Licence To Kill” Soundtrack)

11. Lisa Stansfield – All Around the World

12. Soul II Soul & Caron Wheeler – Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)

13. Neneh Cherry – Buffalo Stance

14. Fine Young Cannibals – She Drives Me Crazy

15. Roxette – The Look

16. Holly Johnson – Love Train

17. Jason Donovan – Too Many Broken Hearts

18. Kylie Minogue – Hand On Your Heart

19. Bananarama – Help! (feat. Lananeeneenoonoo)

 

CD 2

 

1. Marc Almond & Gene Pitney – Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart

2. Jimmy Somerville Featuring June Miles Kingston – Comment Te Dire Adieu

3. Donna Summer – This Time I Know It’s For Real

4. Sonia – You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You

5. Bros – Too Much

6. Debbie Gibson – Electric Youth

7. London Boys – Requiem

8. Liza Minnelli – Losing My Mind

9. New Order – Round & Round

10. Kon Kan – I Beg Your Pardon (I Never Promised You A Rose Garden)

11. Transvision Vamp – Baby I Don’t Care

12. Roachford – Cuddly Toy

13. Roy Orbison – You Got It

14. Sydney Youngblood – If Only I Could

15. Bobby Brown – On Our Own

16. New Kids On The Block – You Got It (The Right Stuff)

17. UB40 – Homely Girl

18. The Beautiful South – Song For Whoever

19. Living In A Box – Room In Your Heart

20. The Christians, Holly Johnson, Paul McCartney, Gerry Marsden & Stock Aitken Waterman – Ferry ’Cross The Mersey

 

CD 3

 

1. Tears For Fears – Sowing The Seeds Of Love

2. Duran Duran – All She Wants Is

3. Electronic – Getting Away With It

4. R.E.M – Orange Crush

5. The Cure – Lullaby

6. Yello – Of Course I’m Lying

7. Pet Shop Boys – It’s Alright

8. 808 State – Pacific 707

9. The Beloved – The Sun Rising

10. The Stone Roses – Fools Gold

11. The Cult – Edie (Ciao Baby)

12. Alice Cooper – Poison

13. Then Jerico – Big Area

14. Shakespears Sister – You’re History

15. Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – What I Am

16. Martika – Toy Soldiers

17. Will To Power – Baby I Love Your Way / Freebird (Free Baby)

18. Boy Meets Girl – Waiting For A Star To Fall

 

CD 4

 

1.  Kylie Minogue & Jason Donovan – Especially For You

2. The Bangles – Eternal Flame

3. Sam Brown – Stop

4. Holly Johnson – Americanos

5. Paula Abdul – Straight Up

6. Donna Summer – I Don’t Wanna Get Hurt

7. Black Box – Ride On Time

8. Coldcut feat. Lisa Stansfield – People Hold On

9. Technotronic – Pump Up The Jam

10. The Beatmasters feat. Betty Boo – Hey DJ / I Can’t Dance (To That Music You’re Playing)

11. Kym Mazelle And Robert Howard – Wait

12. Malcolm McLaren & The Bootzilla Orchestra – Waltz Darling

13. Neneh Cherry – Manchild

14. Soul II Soul & Caron Wheeler – Keep On Movin’

15. Milli Vanilli – Girl I’m Gonna Miss You

16. Simply Red – If You Don’t Know Me By Now

17. Richard Marx – Right Here Waiting

18. Gloria Estefan – Don’t Wanna Lose You

19. Cliff Richard – I Just Don’t Have The Heart

20. Jason Donovan – When You Come Back To Me

21. Band Aid II – Do They Know It’s Christmas?

Rocktrospectiva: The Sharp And Interesting "Live At Earls Court" Turns 20

Released on 29 March 2005 in the US and 4 April in Europe, "Live At Earls Court" was a live album by English singer Morrissey, it was recorded liv at Earls Court In London on 18 December 2004, in front of 17,183 people." The album spawned a single "Redondo Beach" and the Smiths classic "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out". 

Another cash-in, the moment it captures is indeed somewhat phenomenal and nearly documental on Mozza carrer, Morrissey's moving into an interesting and barely explored territory here: he is a pre-rock crooner commanding Beatle-level hysteria; a smooth, urbane party host backed onstage by anonymous young chord-bashers. He's grown distinctly comfy around the old hits-- or as comfy as one could possibly be in that jagged terrain his Smiths-era vocal lines careen against the chord progressions in astonishingly counterintuitive ways and the recent songs appear to have been written with a new vocal prowess in mind.

 

Morrissey's singing appears to have taken a giant leap over the past seven years or so. Listening to the newly velvety Moz tackle "How Soon Is Now" is a pleasure of an entirely confusing sort: the song is still a roaring, lurching Grendel, all rage and laser tremolo, but the listener can't help feeling luxuriously entertained. The frustration, the urgency, the hormonal madness of the original are politely disinvited; that stuff is, after all, a bit infantile. Morrissey may well be the world's first rock star to fashion a successful shtick out of enthusiastically embracing middle age.

 

For the record, middle age does become him. That face, oddly enough, is hitting the iconic stage just now, with the crow's feet and a bit of sag in the jowls, and the Yves Saint Laurent shirts feel a little more warranted. The uproarious chorus of the B-side "Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice" attests to this directly-- but a fatherly. 

 

At the same time, it is now harder than ever to imagine Morrissey settling into a Bacharachian loungy twilight-- not after the controlled squall of "Irish Blood, English Heart", the loudest, most pissed-off, and most direct song of his career.  

 

This is an excellent concert and overview of Morrissey’s career. He has a fascinating voice and is a terrific songwriter. A very good value with over seventy minutes of music. It's Morrissey and it's live. That's all you need to know.

 

Live At Earls Court Track List:

 

1. How Soon Is Now?

2. First Of The Gang To Die

3. November Spawned a Monster

4. Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice

5. Bigmouth Strikes Again

6. I Like You

7. Redondo Beach

8. Let Me Kiss You

9. Subway Train

10. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

11. The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get

12. Friday Mourning

13. I Have Forgiven Jesus

14. The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores

15. Shoplifters Of The World Unite

16. Irish Blood, English Heart

17. You Know I Couldn't Last

18. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me 

Rocktrospectiva: The Dark "Bad Moon Rising" Turns 40

Released on 29 March 1985 "Bad Moon Rising" was the second studio album by US rock band Sonic Youth. The album is loosely themed around the dark side of America, including references to obsession, insanity, Charles Manson, heavy metal, Satanism, and early European settlers' encounters with Native Americans. The album spawned four singles "Death Valley '69", "Flower"/"Halloween", "Flower"/"Satan Is Boring" & "Halloween II".

It was the band's first album to combine experimental material with transitional pieces and segues. The  single "Death Valley '69", which did not chart in either the US or UK the track was re-recorded for the album and released again as a single in June 1985. The album was named after the 1969 song "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The New York press largely ignored Sonic Youth as well as the noise rock scene in the city, until after a disastrous London debut in October 1983 that actually received rave reviews in British papers. When they returned to New York, the queue at CBGB for the band's concerts went around the block. By mid-1984, Sonic Youth were playing almost weekly in the city, but its members started to realize that there was little future in their musical approach; Moore later said, "it was getting to the point of overkill". They retreated to the rehearsal room, retuned their guitars and changed their equipment so that they were unable to play their old songs, and began writing new material.

After a period of intense songwriting, the band entered producer Martin Bisi's BC Studio – implicitly, "Before Christ Studio", which is how the band credited it on the album – in Brooklyn, New York in September 1984. Bisi had recorded early rappers and local avant-garde musicians such as John Zorn, Elliott Sharp and Bill Laswell.

Bad Moon Rising's style has been described as noise rock, no wave and experimental rock. The album begins with "Intro", a short instrumental featuring several guitars, described by Michael Azerrad as "a melancholic, meowing slide line playing off a delicate stack of crystalline arpeggios." "Intro" segues into the next song, "Brave Men Run (In My Family)". The song begins with a single riff repeating for a minute. The riff fades into the album's third song, "Society Is a Hole", "a one-chord hymn to big-city anomie". Sonic Youth's use of transitional pieces in the album was inspired by their live shows, which featured either Moore or Ranaldo tuning guitars for up to five minutes while the other played slow transitory guitar riffs or prerecorded sound collages.

"I Love Her All the Time" features extensive prepared guitar by Ranaldo and the use of one chord, with a noise section in the middle; like many of the album's songs, it focuses on texture and rhythm rather than melody. The second side of Bad Moon Rising, which comprises the experimental "Ghost Bitch" (which features Ranaldo on acoustic guitar and references Native Americans' first encounter with European settlers), "I'm Insane" and "Justice is Might", expands on the soundscape concept; the songs feature repeating guitar riffs that segue from one song to the next, while Moore and Gordon mumble cryptic lyrics.

"Death Valley '69", the album's closer, was the result of a collaboration between Moore and New York singer and poet Lydia Lunch. 

Critics noted the album's dark nature, writing was quite unlike any other in the colorful Sonic Youth canon, Bad Moon Rising captures the New York band in 1985 during its most morose phase, one that is quite forbidding yet fascinating all the same.

 

Bad Moon Rising Track List:  

 

1. Intro

2. Brave Men Run (In My Family)

3. Society Is A Hole

4. I Love Her All The Time

5. Ghost Bitch

6. I'm Insane

7. Justice Is Might

8. Death Valley '69 

9. Satan Is Boring

10. Flower

11. Halloween

12. Echo Canyon

New Music: Relentless Love

           

Sophie Ellis-Bextor has shared her first new music of 2025 with joyous new song ‘Relentless Love’ out now, the track is a buoyant disco-infused funk-pop track that builds through catchy grooves and luminous synths to an energetic and euphoric chorus. 

News: Pet Shop Boys Will Reissue "Discography" In Blue Coloured Vinyl

The Pet Shop Boys will reissue Discography: The Complete Singles Collection, their 1991 singles or best of, on 2LP blue coloured vinyl, this May.

Originally released in 1991, this collection was the band's first greatest hits and was released between 1990's Behaviour and before 1993's Very. It features all the band's UK singles up to that point in proper seven-inch form except for  "How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously?" because that single was a double A-side with "Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You)" the U2 mash-up cover that was included.

Discography also introduced to two new songs back then "DJ Culture" and "Was It Worth It?" Both were released as singles before and after Discography, respectively.

This collection was issued as a 2LP set on black vinyl at the time,  CD and cassette, but doesn’t appear to have been reissued on the LP format at all in the last 34 years. This new edition pressed on blue vinyl and features the 2023 remasters.

Discography: The Complete Singles Collection will be reissued on 30 May 2025, via Parlophone.

Discography The Complete Singles Collection Track List:  

 

LP 1

Side A

    1. West End Girls

    2. Love Comes Quickly

    3. Opportunities (Let's Make Lots Of Money)

    4. Suburbia

Side B 

    1. It’s A Sin

    2. What Have I Done To Deserve This?

    3. Rent

    4. Always On My Mind

    5. Heart

LP 2

 

Side C

 

    1. Domino Dancing

    2. Left To My Own Devices

    3. It’s Alright

    4. So Hard

 

Side D

    1. Being Boring

    2. Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You)

    3. Jealousy

    4. DJ Culture

    5. Was It Worth It?

New Music: The Bog Body

           

Viagra Boys released their newest single "The Bog Body" their latest banger from their upcoming album "Viagr Aboys", the track is accompanied by a curious music video to go with the tune's mayhem. Directed by Eoin Glaister explains, "I love bog bodies. I'm obsessed. Thank GOD someone finally wrote a song about one" Dream gig really, got to spend the day in the pub with my mates watching a Bog Lady dance to one of my favorite bands.

Reissues: Sci-Fi Lullabies 3 CD Edition

Suede's classic 1997 B-sides compilation Sci-Fi Lullabies will be reissued in May now as an expanded 3CD set with the original version re-released across multiple vinyl editions.

The original 27-track collection spans Suede's first three albums (Suede (1993), Dog Man Star (1994) and Coming Up (1996) and genuinely showcases some of their best work, with songs such as "My Insatiable One", "The Living Dead", "My Dark Star", "Killing Of A Flashboy", "Europe Is Our Playground", "Young Men" and many more.

Now this brand new 3CD edition is special because it brings the story up to date with a further 19 B-sides and "extra tracks" from 1999 to 2023. It's these songs that make up Sci-Fi Lullabies: Vol 2 which is getting a standalone release on 2LP grey vinyl for Record Store Day. Tracks such as "Blinded" (previously unreleased) and "Manipulation" are making their first-ever appearance on CD on this 3CD set.

The design for the 3CD set, which comes in seven-inch packaging, features a die-cut front cover to allow fans to switch between original and new (Vol 2) covers for Sci-Fi Lullabies, which is a nice touch.

Meanwhile on vinyl, the original Sci-Fi Lullabies (27 tracks) is reissued as a 3LP set (now with ‘Vol 1.’ appended to the title) with no fewer than three different versions available. A black half-speed mastered edition is pressed on 180g black vinyl and there’s also a triple vinyl edition pressed on 140g grey vinyl. Finally, a 3LP vinyl picture disc version (limited to 1000 units) will also be available via the band’s shop. There is no combined vinyl edition of Volumes 1 and 2 as there is on CD (that would be a 5LP set, if it existed).

These new versions of Sci-Fi Lullabies will be released on 23 May 2025, via Edsel and Demon Records.

Sci-Fi Lullabies 3 CD Edition Track List:  

CD1 

1. My Insatiable One

2. To the Birds

3. Where the Pigs Don’t Fly

4. He’s Dead

5. The Big Time

6. High Rising

7. The Living Dead

8. My Dark Star

9. Killing of a Flash Boy

10. Whipsnade

11. Modern Boys

12. Together

13. Bentswood Boys

14. Europe Is Our Playground

 

CD2  

 

1. Every Monday Morning Comes

2. Have You Ever Been This Low?

3. Another No One

4. Young Men

5. The Sound of the Streets

6. Money

7. W.S.D

8. This Time

9. Jumble Sale Mums

10. These Are the Sad Songs

11. Sadie

12. Graffiti Women

13. Duchess

 

CD 3

 

1. The Sadness in You, the Sadness in Me

2. Dawn Chorus

3. Let Go

4. Crackhead

5. Cheap

6. Simon

7. What Violet Says

8. Still Waiting

9. Manipulation

10. You Don’t Know Me

11. Days Like Dead Moths

12. Since You Went Away

13. Heroin

14. Leaving

15. God’s Gift

16. There Is No Me If There Is No You

17. Darkest Days

18. The Prey

19. Blinded

Rocktrospectiva: The Mainstream Outstanding "Katrina And The Waves" Turns 40

 

Released on 22 March 1985 "Katrina And The Waves" was the third studio album by the US/English new wave outfit of the same name. It was their first album on a major label, and a Top 30 hit in the US and the UK. The majority of tracks were re-mixed and overdubbed versions of songs that had appeared on their first two albums. The record spawned four singles the top ten hit "Walking In Sunshine", "Red Wine And Whisky", "Do You Want Crying" and "Que Te Quiero".

Between 1983 and 1984, English-based Katrina and the Waves released their first two albums and enjoyed some airplay success in Canada as well as a chart position on the UK Singles Chart with "Que Te Quiero" peaked at No. 84, helped by intensive touring and the added mystique of their releases being on import in England and the United States, the band's reputation was growing. And when the Bangles covered "Going Down to Liverpool", a song from Katrina and the Waves' first album, major record labels started to take an interest. This eventually led to signing a deal with Capitol Records in Los Angeles.

The band decided to re-record, overdub or remix ten tracks from the two Canadian albums for their Capitol debut. But the label wanted to make some of the songs more single-worthy, particularly "Going Down to Liverpool" and "Walking on Sunshine", so the band did some recording and mixing in London with producer Pat Collier, who had worked on their first two albums, the band kept redoing it nonstop." and also added a horn section, which the original 1983 version didn't have. Katrina Leskanich said in 2015, "As we were recording it, an arranger wandered in and said: "You should put horns on that." And he hummed what became that pumping melody. But the horn section we got in whinged so much about how hard it was to play that we had to drop the key just for them."

Ultimately, Capitol decided to outsource a remix, and the tracks were given to engineer Scott Litt at the Power Station in New York. The band arrived from London with Collier to meet with their new label and to be in New York while Litt mixed the album. Due to a problem with the drum tracks for "Walking on Sunshine", Litt had to re-record the drums at the Power Station. When drummer Alex Cooper had finished his work in a couple of takes, All of a sudden the song exploded. As soon as the drums were done, that spurred us on to do more. I was flying guitars around. That was a stroke of genius. He was a great producer, getting the sound right. Litt also re-arranged parts in the song, like holding the horns out of the first chorus, and Leskanich's "Woo," which was somewhere else in the song, was put in after the drum intro. "Scott absolutely made that track," Collier said. "He took it in hand and made it what it is."

According to Leskanich, "Walking on Sunshine" was never meant to be the album's first single, as Capitol originally wanted to go with the disto intense "Do You Want Crying". "Capitol sent out a sampler of four tracks and all the DJs said, "It's the "Sunshine" song because we can talk over the intro and it's got the right energy for summer," When the song was released as a single in March 1985, it charted all over Europe, the US, Canada and Australia.

The album had two other great singles, the vibrant and powerful "Red Wine And Whisky" and the re-recorde version of "Que Te Quiero", a tricky new version of "Machine Gun Smith", and obviously "Going Down To Liverpool" although for certain critics, this new version lost its charm with and overheated arrangement, the new aggressive power pop style of most of the song helped the mainstream success of the album called an essential purchase back then.

 

Katrina And The Waves Track List:

 

1. Red Wine And Whisky

2. Do You Want Crying

3. Que Te Quiero

4. Machine Gun Smith

5. Cry For Me

6. Walking On Sunshine

7. Going Down To Liverpool

8. Mexico

9. The Sun Won't Shine Without You

10. The Game Of Love

Rocktrospectiva: The Fairly Good "I Am Not A Dog On A Chain" Turns 5

 

Releaed on 20 March 2020, "I Am Not A Dog On A Chain" was the 13th., solo studio album by English singer Morrissey it was also his first album of original material since 2017's Low in High School. It was produced by Joe Chiccarelli, and lead single "Bobby, Don't You Think They Know?" features vocals from Thelma Houston, the album also spawned "Love Is On Its Way Out" and "Knockabout World".

The album was produced by Joe Chiccarelli and recorded at Studio La Fabrique in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, as well as Sunset Sound in Hollywood. In a press release, Morrissey called the album "the very best of me" and "too good to be true... too true to be considered good". Producer Joe Chiccarelli described it as Morrissey's "boldest and most adventurous album yet", claiming that he has "pushed the boundaries yet again – both musically and lyrically".

Significant parts of the album verge on the avant garde, and certainly mark a bold departure for an artist who could easily have continued appeasing his cult faithful with winsome torch songs, ennui-encased indie pop and rapacious rockabilly. For many Mozza fans, this is the equivalent of misdialling The Samaritans and getting through to Piers Morgan. But a man who was once a figurehead for society’s poetic outsiders is now proudly recasting himself as brave truth-teller staring defiantly down the barrel of media crucifixion and cancel culture, saying what ‘everyone’ is really thinking.

"Love Is On Its Way Out" is an electro-baroque throb redolent of Lana Del Rey or Lorde, albeit filtered through Morrissey’s concern for the death of humanity’s empathy and “the sad rich, hunting down, shooting down elephants and lions”. Now the Single ‘Bobby, Don’t You Think They Know’ berates an unspecified, drug-hungry singer over bursts of ‘90s Garbage electro rock, psychedelic sax solos and choruses of wailing gospel noir from Motown legend Thelma Houston. Playing it safe, both politically and musically, is clearly a thing of Morrissey’s past.

Still, there are reassurances for the Smithsophiles. Johnny Marr-like piano riffs lurk beneath ‘Bobby…’’s electronic quivers and fizzes. The glowering title track is built on the same sort of heel-click rhythms as "Frankly, Mr Shankly" and "Girlfriend In A Coma" in "What Kind Of People Live In These Houses?" wittily imagines the sad, dull lives of the suburban sheep to the tune of a classic country folk jangle. That track is bedecked with some prime Moz wordplay: “What carpet-chewer lights up this sewer? / And which rough-trade strangers flail around these chambers?”. ‘Knockabout World’ places one of Moz’s euphoric swells of sunburst victimisation (“They kicked to kill you… They tried to turn you into a public target”) atop icy ‘80s beats reminiscent of Yazoo’s ‘Only You’.

Unfortunately, things slacken off sharply in the album’s back end. ‘Darling, I Hug The Pillow’, with its cheesy Mariachi trumpets, stuck-on squelches and Wedding Present-on-downers vibe, goes nowhere slowly. ‘Once I Saw The River Clean’ is what you might get if you programmed a 1970s AI to write a Morrissey song – a tale of walking around a windswept Manchester with his grandmother to buy 20 fags and a T Rex single, getting change from a quid and playing by some graves. And ‘The Secret Of Music’ is nigh-on eight minutes of plodding avant garde crankiness accompanied by disjointed phrases (“I am out-of-tune violin“, “pan-pipes save a life”, “fat bassoon clears the room”).

The album had favourable reviews althought the lyrical content was the weakest but that Morrissey displayed songcraft and "a great vocal performance". The album has its moments, but they are brief and virtually lost amid the more experimental forays", but at the end, Morrissey delivers his best musical performance in years. 

 

I Am Not A Dog On A Chain Track List:

 

1. Jim Jim Falls

2. Love Is On its Way Out

3. Bobby, Don't You Think They Know?

4. I Am Not A Dog On A Chain

5. What Kind of People Live In These Houses 

6. Knockabout World

7. Darling, I Hug A Pillow

8. Once I Saw The River Clean

9. The Truth About Ruth

10. The Secret Of Music

11. My Hurling Days Are Done

Rocktrospectiva: The Critically-Acclaimed Album "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got" Turns 35

Released on 20 March 1990 "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got" was the second studio album by Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor, the album spawned three singles including O'Connor's proper version of Prince song "Nothing Compares 2 U" that reached No. 1 in multiple countries, then "Emperor's New Clothes" that found moderate succes and finally Three Babies". The album has sold over seven million copies worldwide. 

The album was unlike anything I had ever heard before at the time, at least for me, a different voice, outfit and look-a-like, singing was how she communicated her feelings, full of courage in creating such an honest and personal album, by this intriguing female pop figure. 

The opener "Feel So Different" set the tone of the record, establishing her unique, bold style, strong voice full of a swirling strings of an orchestra, a massive but painful loner track, next was "I Am Stretched On Your Grave" based off a 17^th century Irish poem "Táim sínte ar do thuama" from this compilation; in the passage "From the Cold Sod That’s O'er You," the writer never “severs” from the dirt that lays over their loved one. The mental image of a secret tryst over a grave was jarring, the track had a James Brown sample from "Funky Drummer." The slowed drum pattern enshrouds the song in a darkness and a depth that threatened to bury whoever was singing, unearthly collisions of drums and clanging get louder and more insistent, as her body wears down to the bone. The last measures collide noisily with a riot of strings—chaotic and powerful, it goes on endlessly, then is silent. "Three Babies" is next, the song's meaning remains unclear, these babies were ripped from her for unknown reasons—because the subject was being violent, or was protesting something, and was maybe called a "bad mother", much of the lyrics are sung in first person, so it’s difficult to separate the singer from the unknown person in the song. "The Emperor's New Clothes" recovered O'Connor indie insight a cool track that didn't achieve the same massive succesful level as its most famous pair track on this record.

"Black Boys On Mopeds" refers to Thatcher-era Britain where government concern with protests overseas was prioritised over domestic race issues. The song featured the lyrics "Margaret Thatcher on TV, Shocked by the deaths that took place in Beijing.. England’s not the mythical land of Madame George and roses, It’s the home of police who kill black boys on mopeds". "Nothing Compares 2 U," penned by Prince, was a worldwide success, this rendition of the Prince song reflected on O'Connor's mother, who had died in an auto accident five years earlier, "Jump In The River" originally appeared on the Married to the Mob soundtrack in 1988 and was released as a single the same year. It was also released as a 12" maxi-single that included a remixed version featuring the American performance artist Karen Finley. A remix of the song was later included on O'Connor's second album as well as on the B-side of the 7" single for "Nothing Compares 2 U."

"You Cause As Much Sorrow,” has a melancholic melody with piano and softly plucked acoustic notes in the track she left the protagonist tortured. "The Last Day of Our Acquaintance," O’Connor talks in clinical tones about severing ties in a divorce. The tension spills over and explodes into the chorus that echoes, "I'll talk but you won’t listen to me / I know your answer already." to finsh with the closer same-title album track "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got" .

Do Not Want What I Haven't Got received critical acclaim. many magazines ranked it as the best album of 1990, and called the record "a spiritual victory, full of wisdom wrested from audible pain." The album remains a fantastic work especially nowadays after O’Connor’s death, a beautiful record that is a reminder that the people we should treasure most are sometimes treated the worst.

 

I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got Track List: 

 

1. Feel So Different

2. I Am Streched On Your Grave

3. Three Babies

4. The Emperor's New Clothes

5. Black Boys On Mopeds

6. Nothing Compares 2 U

7. Jump In The River

8. You Cause As Much Sorrow

9. The Last Days Of Our Acquaintance

10. I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

Rocktrospectiva: Depeche Mode's Masterpiece "Violator" Turns 35

Released on 19 March, 1990, "Violator," was the seventh album by the iconic British band Depeche Mode, marked a turning point in their vibrant career. Ironically, its soft, dark, and melancholic sound would earn them more fame than its noisy predecessor.  

The album spawned four singles "Personal Jesus", "Enjoy The Silence", both peaked No. 10 in hte UK and USA, "Policy Of Truth" and "World In My Eyes". Violator reached number two on the UK Albums Chart, and was the band's first album to chart inside the top 10 of the Billboard 200, peaking at number seven. The album was supported by the World Violation Tour. 

 

The Basildon band had been building a solid career supported by the release of good and competitive albums that attracted fans to their cause, this caused the level of demand in production to grow, applying new practices that cemented their sound although without straying too far from synth pop, but the change was so significant with "Violator" that they came to cause a global impact. 

 

They had just released the iconic "101" that appealed to the 87-88 tour, and so it was that at the pinnacle of their career when they hired Flood for production, and the choice of Flood was more than appropriate, the guy came from working with New Order, Ministry, U2, Erasure, and Nick Cave, proving that he could change the sound to make it fabulous and indeed that was what happened in this album, which was a masterpiece and the most successful to date.  

 

The recording process was different and Wilder proposed to reduce the pre-production time, Gore presented demos, as long as the rest presented other ideas that would even allow to finish the song, and so came 1989 when the band began to record in Milan, with François Kevorkian a French DJ with whom they obtained the first song that would be the first single "Personal Jesus", which was released on August 29, a song that was promoted by a curious campaign that included classified ads with the phrase "Your Own Personal Jesus", there was a phone number that if you dialed you could listen to the entire song, this allowed the song to reach No. 13 in the United Kingdom and in the United States it was the best-selling single for the Warner label.  

 

Then came the incredible "Enjoy The Silence," whose imprint can be traced in previous releases. The song was a hit everywhere, around that time, a memorable event occurred related with the released of this album. To promote the album's release, the band, in collaboration with Los Angeles station KROQ, decided to hold an event at the Warehouse Records. They didn't expect much of a commotion, but everything got out of hand, with nearly 30,000 people showing up. So there was trouble, people were injured from cuts sustained when many were pushed into the store's window. So, to prevent further damage, Depeche Mode handed out limited-edition cassette tapes. But to this day, it remains one of the band's most iconic moments. 

 

Other fantastics tracks were "Policy of Truth," another huge one played everywhere late that 1990. It wasn't as successful but remains one of the key songs in the band's career. Another song called "World in My Eyes" was the final single. Videos were brilliant thanks to Anton Corbijn's direction, giving them a key visual aesthetic that ties the sound together. 

 

As for the rest of the tracks,  they are equally intense and sophisticated as the singles, you had the libidinous "Sweetest Perfection," the dramatic "Halo, the sexy and exquisite "Waiting for the Night," and finally, the album's closing "Clean," making this work something intense and sophisticated that was perfectly suited for that era. 

 

Now 35 years later, it still sounds so fresh and timeless, marking the band's defining moment and its peak performance to date, some critics called the album as the most arresting work to dat by the band, nothing out of place of this album, simply the best record of the band at their career peak, and of course a quintessential benchmark of pop, rock and of course electronic music. 

 

Violator Track List: 

 

1. World In My Eyes

2. Sweetest Perfection

3. Personal Jesus

4. Halo

5. Waiting For The Night

6. Enjoy The Silence

7. Policy Of Truth

8. Blue Dress

9. Clean 

Rocktrospectiva: The Unfairly Forgotten "March" Turns 35

Originally released in November 1989 but it didn't gained notoriety until the "no Myth" peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, it was the debut album by US musician Michale Penn, the album spawned three singles "No Myth", "This And That" and "Brave New World" the latest ones peaked at No. 10 and No. 20 respectively on Modern Rock Tracks.

 

But what really happened about this artist that seemed it has paved all the way to success back then, 35 years later, people seemed to re-discovered this alternative rock masterpiece from forgotten, even thought "No Myth" still get some airplay nowadays. But what happened with Michael Penn, probably he's more renown for being Sean Penn's brother and for this marriage with singer Aimee Mann ('Til Tuesday) than from his own work and this stellar debut, but back in 1990 the panorama was different, for a slightly moment, Michael overshadow his brother with this fantastic indie pop album, thanks in huge part for the mainstream success that the single "No Myth" gained thatn eventually led him to win the 1990 MTV Music Award for Best New Artist.

 

Unfortunately, the grunge and alternative bandwagon was around the corner, and this unfairly turn Penn's carrer into a short-lived despite he continues recording throught the decade, "March was definitely a taste of his talent and brilliant ability to write fantastic songs filled with literary inspirations and everyday situations, thus Tony Berg production with several session musician aided to developped his sound a combination of The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Crowded House stuff that aided to achieved mainstream chart success not only on alternative radio.

 

The album opener was the fantastic "No Myth" an intense catchy intelligent indie rock tune, especially for its addictive chorus and that catchy guitar sound and sparkling organ that made of that tune timeless giving the listeners the reason why it was so addictive and constantly played by radio and the MTV back then, "Half Harvest" was both equally harmonic and insightful as it examined humanity's penchant for style over substance, another song that sticked with listeners too. 

 

Next is the intense and second single "This And That"  a song that describes someone who has jumped through every hoop to win over a love interest and still is unable to seal the deal. Now this tune was full of intense energy that helped to highlight the lyrics and with an strange and lovely video too, next was "Brave New World" whit vivid lyrics and a curious sound that felt like a curious combination between Chris Isaak, The Beatles and Crowded House sound into one feeling. 

 

"Innocent One" comes next and changes up the tempo of the record with a folk-tinged bittersweet ballad. The song conveys all the regret of meeting someone at the wrong time and letting them slip through your fingers. The intricate organ and accordion provide all the pathos of the narrative as perfectly conveyed with Penn’s touching lyrics. "Disney’s a Snowcone/Bedlam Boys" displays Penn’s ability to craft a panoramically, stunning track painting a narrative and supports it with inspired structure and nuanced accompaniment, about the sound the track delivered a certain pop sensility such as XTC and Tears For Fears, "Invisible" has a great guitar riff that underpins Penn’s examination on the crush of obsession and the cruelty of being too shy to act upon desire. Another paired song is "Cupid's got a Brand New Gun". The narrative of this song shows that Cupid has gotten an upgrade in weaponry but still is as inaccurate as ever in hitting the right mark. this fully captured in this torch song is the ache of love when it is unreciprocated. 

 

With "Big House" you can notice the reminiscence of Crowded House's debut album, this uptempo rock tune could have come straight off that release, but what makes it especially Penn's own is its pithy insightfulness. And finally we have "Battle Room" which is a melancholy offering laden with sensitive observations with a Beatlesque in structure and sound, this is yet another song that gets under your skin and you find yourself humming it for days and the last track "Evenfall" provided a fantastic ending to the release, a 50’s inspired rocker is loaded with jaunty horns and sax. 

 

Critics concluded that the luscious textures, mystical atmosphere and cryptic lyrics recalling the Beatles' psychedelic period, and the sound of other outfit such a Crowded House, the album had a strongly as any pop music recorded back then, unfortunately the changes in the direction of the music environment left Penn outside the pop world, he later would release another critically acclaimed album, "Free For All" in 1992 and then seem to vanish from the music world. However he moved into an acclaimed film composer career and continues to periodically release singer/songwriter projects. 

 

March Track List: 

 

1. No Myth

2. Half Harvest

3. This & That

4. Brave New World

5. Innocent's One

6. Disney's A Snow Cone/Bedlam Boys

7. Invisible

8. Cupid's Got A Brand New Gun

9. Big House

10. Battle Room

11. Evenfall