britisher guitar pop/rock charity shop detritus of the 90s

Thank fuck for that.

Babylon Zoo - another charity shop reliable.

"Slight Return" should have been called "Tonight Matthew I'm Going To Be Roddy Frame."

6/"carn't be trusted" half-decent, again weak singing lets it down.

There seems to be a pattern emerging here...

7/"slight return" Yes! It does sound like Aztec Camera. Very obviously miles better than everything else on the album, singing seems stronger, even.

Pff! They wish!

OX4, Kate if we ever pass again, or you get a bad arm and need a DVD off a VHS from the pond, or, um, do another lolapalooza inline ewith an ILX comp, or, oh hell, when I see the CD again, sure.

8/"putting out fires", good backing track to a weak song. I can't remember any of the tunes so far, except for "slight return".

I'm getting a bit sick of this album now. 3 tracks to go after this one.

What is up with my typing at the moment? Every time I end a word that ends with an e, I end up typing the next word with an e in front of it, and have to go back through taking the extra e's out!

Like, just then.

I nevere did underestand the love (and there was love) for the Blueetones. "Generic" seemed to be the word.

And this got 9/10 in the NME at the time???!!!

I think you've got a busted keyboard mr gr0ut.

Well, exactly.

One of those bands that could soundtrack a good night out (i.e. the gig), I guess.

Have I seen them live? You know, I can't rememebr.

I think I crashed the wedding.

http://images.buzzillions.com/images_products/01/84/terry_lewis_long_faux_mink_coat_reviews_784302_50.jpg

Add to that list of charity shop mainstays, Spirea X - Fireblade Skies

9/"vampire" starts off downbeat & very nice, gets all upbeat and awful halfway through.

And let's not forget Primal Scream - Breathe Out But Don't Throw Up or whatever it was called.

It does seem weird, doesn't it? It feels like they were nice lads promoted above their station more than owt else - that, plus their appetite for touring was insane - I remember when their third album came out, they did a 52-date tour that somehow managed to visit Birmingham twice.

multi-X-post - I did see them live a couple of years ago, very much a greatest hits-type affair. I quite enjoyed it.

They were really lucky, getting to do this as a job for a couple of years. If they'd come out any other time they'd've been gluing their own sleeves together and using their mum as a roadie. I bear them no ill-will.

10/"a parting gesture", overlong, soporific, the worst track by miles.

one more to go!

You know you would rather be listening to 'Orgone Accumulator'. Why are you doing this to yourself Mr Pashmina?

'Be Here Now' is surely the answer to this question

Even 50p expenditures have to be thoroughly justified in broken credit feral crunch Britain.

Funny, "Be Here Now", I knew was a George Harrison song, now I find it was a Loop song too. Unless theirs was a cover version...

Do Oasis know what a loop is?

Oh yes - Countdown by Pulp.

They know what it mean, yeah yeaeh yeah yeah...

I see Petridish has given the "new" Oasis album a two-star review but four stars.

Oh, "Pulp on Fire", not a number one hit single, but.

You see, it's all in the detail...

http://i34.tinypic.com/akv403.jpg
The sleeve was nice, if not exactly fitting

As opposed to a cheery picture of them being pushed off the top of Blackpool Tower...

It was all down after that.

Oh dear.

You started it!

.. sunbeam!

Luckily they landed on a passing Frank Carson and we all saw the funny side.

Eh, well, so much for that.

Right, this is actually a "good" band in a lot of respects - they play well together, it sounds "tight" (which is a good thing w/this kind of sound) and doesn't sound pro-tooled, some of the arrangements are quite imaginative, there is a decent amount of variety, it's not too samey. Occasionally they sound like a stone roses 1st album knock-off, but a lot of the time they have a sound that is recognisably theirs, I mean, it sounds like "the bluetones", not like "rip off of band b". The guitarist is very good.

But, they never quite push it over the top, thus it's all a bit tame and a bit soporific. The singer can hold a tune, but he doesn't have enough, I dunno, enough "push" to front the band. The tunes generally are weak, "Slight Return" excepted, a lot of the album sounds like unfinished backing tracks. I guess at some point in the past a band like this would have had an A&R man select a bunch of tunes from tin pan alley songwriters to cover for the weak numbers of the band's. Maybe. I don't know. "Slight Return" is still very good, the rest of it a bit meh.

Maybe next time I look in a charity shop I will find a Dodgy album or maybe even a kopy of "K" by kula shaker, who knows.

The cover is very good. It looks like it should be a Levitation album, somehow.

Good summation. They were always a bit too introspective to really grab one's attention, weren't they.

Lots of copies of the second Kula Shaker album going spare in charity shops at the moment.

If you have to pay more than two quid for the entire complete recorded works of Dodgy you're being diddled.

Levitation! I've seen their album knocking about in a few places.

Oh, btw: Every Oxfam w/music has a host of cassettes, especially the music branches.

I got the "history of the fairports" as I wanted to know which bits of their history I'd like, after being surprised by "unhalf" and a bit bored by "liege"... "John Lee" was alright, the rest a bit hohum, so I guess I have all I need.

.. for 50p.

Not all of them do.

I admit, the reading one is particularly good in this respect.

One CDR I found in Paddington was a burned copy of "Sir Henry at Rawlinson End", which was nice.

I'm going to resist the obvious punchline there.

IN HIS FORTIES AND STILL UNUSUAL!

Levitation's 2 albums, "Coterie" and "Need for Not" are very good, still.

Need For Not's the one that keeps turning up. Like millions, I didn't know there was nother one.

A-nother one.

i didn't know there were 2 Levitation albums either.
i have one album by them, no idea what its called though. buried deep deep deep in the archive.

best line is obviously "My dear lady...I wouldn't even have liked to have been the first man"

"I'm afraid this is going to be an understandable mistake"

Oh god...so many

Charity shops in the smoke must be a slightly different beast to the ones up north. I've never seen half the stuff Marcello's listed in any up here (Lamb/Jack/Ride/Alpha).

Anyway the elephant in the room is surely this one...

http://missskind.no.sapo.pt/dbimg/Republica-Republica199611392_f.jpg

Part of me wishes "Ready To Go" was still blared before kick-off at every Football League fixture in England

Is it a part you can have amputated?

Maybe you should hear the nu-Britpop crap they've replaced it with...

I note the second wave of nu-Britpop is breaking through to the charity shop massive; Razorlight, Bloc Party and the Kaiser Chiefs now all regulars.

Menswear - Nuisance

Having just seen the cover for this album I realize I've been seeing it for years (decades actually) in charity shops and bargain bins without knowing (or caring) what it was.

I wonder what are the best selling CDs in charity shops, as opposed to the most common ones.