Clouds, Bright Lightning

Clouds lit from within
Were lights dancing overhead
Sparks from Thor’s hammer

A Girl Called Dusty by Dusty Springfield

Dusty Springfield was easily one of the most engaging and versatile vocalists of the 60s, covering a huge variety of songs including blues, soul, ballads and show tunes. She effectively had two parallel careers with different songs hitting the charts in the USA and back home in the UK. 

The original version of this album was just under half an hour, but this remastered version more than doubles that, with some real gems included. My highlights are a delicious version of 24 Hours From Tulsa, Anyone Who Had a Heart and a very different take on Mockingbird. There’s guaranteed to be something on here that will appeal to just about everyone. Simply delightful.

https://album.link/gb/i/1443726966

Plum, Plenty

Preparing the fruit
Making plenty of crumble
A plum job, for sure

Protection by Massive Attack

I really enjoyed Massive Attack’s debut album Blue Lines and their 1998 release Mezzanine, but for some reason this one passed me by at the time. Part of the reason for that may have been the departure of Shara Nelson who was responsible for the vocals on their biggest hit Unfinished Sympathy. However, they invited Tracy Thorn of Everything But The Girl to deputize on two tracks and Tricky on two more, and they are both excellent.

Musically, this is a great example of Bristol Trip Hop with deep, vibrant bass lines almost heading into dubstep territory in a couple of places (and there is a dub remix of this album too, that I’ve just spotted). The only slight misstep is the inclusion of a live cover of Light My Fire which doesn’t really work in context. There’s nothing wrong with it per se, but I’d rather have a full live album than a tacked on bonus track.

https://album.link/gb/i/724410562

Wisteria

Wisteria (noun)
The state of being both wistful
And hysterical

1999 by Prince

The early 80s were a scary time to be alive. A gung-ho elderly president in the White House and the imminent threat of nuclear war at any moment - oh, wait, guess things haven’t changed all that much. Anyway, we all lived with dreams of purple skies and people running everywhere, so Prince’s song 1999 was a perfect encapsulation of the zeitgeist of partying in the face of Armageddon.

The follow up single Little Red Corvette similarly caught the spirit of the hedonistic materialism of the era, although there were some lines alluding to casual sex that might have raised a few eyebrows if you listened closely and knew what a packet of Trojans was. 

Anyone who bought the album off the back of the singles without being previously aware of Prince’s oeuvre was in for an extremely rude awakening by the time they got to tracks like “Let’s Pretend We’re Married” which leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination. 

The opening tracks aside, I don’t think that the rest of this album holds up particularly well, at least compared to his later work, with too much reliance on early drum machines and weedy 80s production. This was a double album and too many songs are stretched way too thin and even the remastered version fails to rescue them. 

https://album.link/gb/i/1479564716

Mustard Flowers

Mustard flowers bright
Reaching for the spring sunshine
A promise of warmth