Bradley's Buzz

7 Random

and this week's seven random CDs are as random as my thinking -


THE SOUNDS - Dying To Say This To You
I first saw The Sounds late at night when I had MTV on. I didn't have the sound up but the video was on and I thought it was archival footage of Blondie, so I turned it up and was more than surprised to discover this gem of a band. I love this Swedish band and was so excited when they finally launched this, their second album. Still holding on to the Blondie new wave sound but adding a few more synths, the sound is tight and The Sounds are simply fun.

NIRVANA - Nirvana
For some reason I never even knew this album existed. It's basically a "Best Of" compilation with the last recorded song with Kurt on it. For a pretty good collective of the music landscape changing geniuses, this is pretty good. Plus it has "Rape Me" and that is for sure, one of my all time fav performances by Nirvana.

MORRISSEY - Ringleader Of The Tormentors
After waiting over a year, I finally bought Morrissey's album You Are The Quarry, and then a week later this album came out. Produced by Tony Visconti who worked with Bowie forever, this is a kind of back to the old Morrissey trip. He's witty, he's gloomy, he's sexy, he's Morrissey.

MADONNA - Madonna
Sometimes dubbed "The First Album" this is a little piece of 80s fun. Back when I wasn't sick of looking at her. My pal Melsie and I listened to this album over and over when we were teens. The singles everyone knows but it's songs like "I Know It" that make this one a great little dose of nostalgia.

LAURA BRANIGAN - Branigan / Branigan 2
So I suddenly found myself wanting to hear more and more Laura Branigan. When I couldn't find a song I was looking for, I headed over to Yahoo Groups and found Branigan fanatics who were more than helpful. In fact one guy sent me a CDR of Laura's first two albums with such hits as "Solitaire", "Gloria", and my new fav Branigan track "Deep In The Dark" but along these two albums are some very very good songs. Rocking little ditties like "Livin' A Lie" and great ballad performances. It's really quite sad that Laura is so underappreciated because she had some really great pipes and her song choices were actually very good. In fact, these two albums are going to be re-issued in that ever evolving Bubbatunes collection I have. Because, like all great fanatics, those kids at Yahoo sent me a lot of rare tracks that need to be reissued.

KAISER CHIEFS - Employment
I don't know where I was when this album came out last year, but Kaiser Chiefs were sweeping the Brit Awards this year and after catching their performance of "I Predict A Riot" I realized I simply had to have this CD, so I bought it and you know what? I frickin' love it! It's one of the best CDs I've ever heard. The opening chords of the 80s synth on "Everyday I Love You Less & Less" and then going into "I Predict A Riot", the album just gets better and better with each listen.


OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN - The Rumour
You know I love my Livvie and since Australia also has a fondness for the girl, they remastered all of her albums in 1998 and have been listening to the gems since then. Now I have finally bought the ones I want and was more than excited to get this 1988 album. Known primarily for the title track co-written by Elton John, this was not a huge success for ONJ, but that is only in sales because this is probably her best album ever. Co-writing most of the album, Livvie tackles divorce in "It's Not Heaven", a sort of letter to her daughter, AIDS in "Love and Let Live", the rain forest and pollution in "Let's Talk About Tomorrow", sexual politics in "Get Out" and she ends it all with the terribly catchy "Tutta La Vita" - a little rhumba ish ditty about love and success where "It's not a mansion in Malibu/ or a face lift at forty/ you can't get there by a car/ not even your BMW"... if you find a used copy of this sucker, you buy it - Livvie and I both would want it that way.

posted by swivek @ 10:29 PM