Another challenge.
Do I have enough records on vinyl? Yes…and No.
Have I listened enough on those I already have? No.
Instead of buying more vinyls I don’t have time to listen to, I decided to choose 30 vinyl albums from the collection that I either have listened to only once (yet) or haven’t listened to for a longer time, being occupied by new (for my collection or truly fresh) music.
The challenge was to not buy any new album before having listened to these 30 catalogue finds and shortly reviewed them, for you. Bilingual reviews for Swedish records, all the other in English.
Let’s call this a white month, musicwise. Here we go!
En ny utmaning.
Har jag tillräckligt med vinylskivor? Ja…och Nej.
Har jag lyssnat tillräckligt på dem jag redan har? Nej.
Istället för att köpa mera vinyler som jag inte hinner lyssna på beslöt jag att välja 30 plattor från min samling som jag antingen bara lyssnat igenom en gång (hittills) eller som jag inte har lyssnat igenom på ett längre tag, utan varit upptagen med ny (i min samling eller helt färsk) musik.
Utmaningen var att inte köpa något nytt album före jag har lyssnat igenom dessa 30 arkivfynd och kort recenserat dem, för er. De svenska på två språk, resten på engelska. Låt oss kalla det här en vit månad för musik. Nu kör vi!
Albums 30-26 (without ranking), album 30-26 (utan inbördes rankning):
Chaos UK: Total Chaos - The Singles
Fine hardcore punk from 1982-1983, compiled from one 12”, two great 7” ep’s and a compilation track. A best of Chaos UK compilation, truly uncompromizing punk with great rhythmic bass, and with the great single version of Victimized and Four Minute Warning as two of the highlights. My earlier memory of Chaos UK is mainly of the two fine 7” ep’s included here, so their position was shortlived, but undoubtedly still memorable, as this compilation album shows.
Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man (in the cover of Various Positions)
I thought I had bought Various Positions (at a flea market), but came home with I’m Your Man, inside the former album cover. Had at least checked that the vinyl looked fine, and it sounds fine, even though it was not the album I thought I had bought. It’s the first and (thus far) only time this has happened to me. I have both albums now, and both are great. Various Positions include the immortal classics Hallelujah and Dance me to the end of love. However, I’m your man is as an album equally good and it was the first Cohen-album I remember I have listened to. First we take Manhattan, Ain’t no cure for love and Take this waltz are stunning classics. But of course I hated then to have the wrong record or the wrong cover, either way, but now I own both albums in their original covers. I had even forgot about this album mistake (and that I still have it!). Back then it didn’t put me back many euros, and the music was and is, of course, marvellous. Leonard Cohen was a genius, wish I had seen him live on stage.
Culture Club: Live At The Royal Albert Hall 2002 - 20 Year Anniversary (2 LP).
Classic reunion concert (from 2002, on vinyl 2020) with all four original members and very good support musicians. Great start with a wonderful Do you really want to hurt me? Overall a great anniversary concert. Only sad that the album consists of separate soundfiles instead of a continuos live flow, this way it loses some live energy and feel. Occasionally Boy George’s voice also feels a little pressed, but mostly it’s in very good shape, and the band is great throughout. A funny moment is when Boy George reprimands the audience for talking when he sings the ballad Victims. Yes, he took the gig seriously. This is actually a better album than expected. Culture Club was a very good early-mid 80’s pop band. Boy George’s voice is unique and easily recognized, no wonder Bob Geldof flew him over from NY to London for a few seconds on Band Aid’s Do they know it’s Christmas-single in 1984. In the best vocal moments live you understand why. A few fillers, but mostly a live setlist of classic pop hits and great album tracks. Megahit Karma Chameleon is of course here, but there are other live highlights on the way, for example the whole B-side, a funky Miss me blind and a strong Starman cover. This album certainly shows why Culture Club and Boy George have mattered in popular music.
Public Enemy: Revolverlution Tour ’03 (3 LP)
Another live album, but quite of another calibre. Hip hop legends Public Enemy visit Melbourne 2003 and brings the house down. One of the most influential hiphop crews ever deliver a set of heavy tunes, mostly with Chuck D on the mike seconded by Flavor Flav and Professor Griff and with DJ Lord on turntables, and with a competent band supporting. Full speed forward from the Intro, with Son of a Bush a highlight on a very tight Side A. Public Enemy delivers classic after classic on this Record Store Day edition (first and only vinyl edition worldwide 2024). Chuck D:s reflections were among the first to make hiphop called ”the black CNN”, and together with crews like N.W.A. reporting to America and the world from the hoods and projects in the 1980-90’s, where traditional media never visited. And, by the way, Public Enemy got together in and around Adelphi University, perhaps that explains the sociological edge in some lyrics. Of course classics like Fight The Power, Don’t believe the Hype, Rebel without a pause, 911 is a joke, Black Steel in the hour of Chaos and Welcome to the Terrordome are present in the live set here. And it’s some Heavy stuff. Public Enemy are in fine form to deliver the goods on these three plates and repeatedly voice chants of Make Love Fuck War as a concert theme catchphrase. So sadly, this catchphrase is still contemporary some 20 years later. Now with a ”mad king” in power.
Don’t believe the hype, Welcome to the terrordome, Black Steel in the hour of Chaos and Fight the power, indeed. Some new and contemporary Chuck D lyrics would be badly needed.
Thåström: Skebokvarnsv. 209 (2 LP, 20 Year Anniversary Version)
2025 kom 20-års jubileumsutgåvan av Thåströms kanske bästa soloalbum ut, Skebokvarnsv. 209. Nu förstärkt med 5 extraspår. Lite trist att de flesta redan getts ut som singel b-sidor, men å andra sidan finns materialet nu samlat inom ett konvolut. Albumet innehåller, särskilt nu, många lugna låtar, melankoliska, känslosamma. Få utbrott av (industri)rock- och punkikonens frenesi. Men det är kanske också den mogne Thåström som är allra bäst. Söndagmåndagsång är min personliga favorit, helt fantastiskt underbar, men höjdarna är många fler än så. Inledande vackra Brev till 10:e våningen, om förortsuppväxtens förlorade ungdom och den vuxne betraktarens nostalgi, Sönder Boulevard om Köpenhamn, Fanfanfan, Ebba Grön-relaterade The Haters, och bland bonusspåren den underbara akustiska dust-versionen av Bara om min älskade väntar. En av mina allra senaste inköp (original-cd:n köpte jag när den utkom) och ett album jag mycket gärna återkommer till. Strålande.
And same in English: The 20th Anniversary edition of Thåström’s probably best solo album Skebokvarnsv. 209 came out in 2025. Now with 5 bonus cuts. Perhaps somewhat boring that most of them have already been out a long time as single B-sides, but now at least all this material is compiled in one place. The album is very strong on ballads, especially this expanded edition, and there is not many signs of the frenetically energetic (industrial)rock- and punkicon. On the other hand, the mature artist Thåström is best like this, on emotional and melancholic ballads. Söndagmåndagsång is my personal favorite, just wonderful and mesmerizing, but there are also other great highlights here, like the first track, Brev till 10:e våningen, a beautiful song about a lost suburbian youth and grown-up nostalgia, Sönder Boulevard about Copenhagen, the Ebba Grön-related The Haters, and, among the bonus cuts, the acoustic dust-version of Bara om min älskade väntar. One of my very latest record buys (I bought the original-cd 20 years ago) and an album I happily return to. Brilliant.
Five gone, 25 to go. Fem avklarade, 25 kvar.
Stay tuned!
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