Dr. Strangely Strange - Anti-Inflammatory

Dr. Strangely Strange was initially formed in Dublin in 1967 by Tim Booth and Ivan Pawle.  In 1968, after playing some shows as a duo, they added three more members, including Tim Gouldin.  Over the ensuing years, various members came and went with Booth, Pawle and Goulding remaining the constant until they disbanded in 1971 having released two albums.  The three reunited a year later for an Irish tour and then Booth led the band with all new members in 1973.  Since the early 1980's they have gotten back together from time to time, along with fiddle / mandolin player Joe Thoma, and they also released another album in 1997.  Now, fifty-eight years after their formation and forty-six years since their last release, the four of them are back with album number four.  They kick things off with “Up With The Lark”, a quaint tune that starts simply with piano and vocal and then incorporates fiddle and whistle giving it a medieval folk feel.  With its driving Bo Diddley beat, the first single “Baby Bunting” is a strangely infectious psychedelic folk tune with massive pop hooks.  Enhanced with some nice electric piano, “Like Water Like Wind” is a really pretty ballad that brings us to “Sulán,” the first of three instrumentals.  Per the liner notes, “The Sulán is a rhythmical river that meanders through the Cork and Kerry mountains passing near the village of Cúil Aodha”, and meandering is the perfect description for this laid-back instrumental with its dreamy Celtic flair.  The loping, psychedelic country two-step of “Rosenalli’s Two-Step” has a super catchy beat and just the right amount of quirkiness, making it the perfect song for a “psychedelic hoedown”.  “Drive ‘em Down” is a bright, bouncy tune with a rootsy country element.  It has some great acoustic guitar work and is enhanced nicely with keyboards.  “Murmuration” is an acoustic folk cut with a bit of a darker side, followed by “Morning Song,” a pretty acoustic piano instrumental accompanied by viola and fiddle.  With bittersweet lyrics looking back at their younger days and time passing by, “Back In The Day” is a lively folk tune.  The final instrumental “Vienna” also closes the album, and was written by Goulding for the birth of his second grandchild.  It’s a solo piano performance with hints of jazz, and a very bouncy, celebratory feel, making it a really nice way to end the disc.  Anti-Inflammatory is a welcome return and an absolute joy to listen to.    

(Think Like A Key Music)

 

The Adventures - Once More With Feeling

In 1984, after originally working together in the punk / new wave band Tango Brigade (previously The Starjets), lead vocalist Terry Sharpe and guitarist Pat Gribben formed The Adventures with Eileen Gribben (Pat’s wife), Gerard Murphy, Tony Ayre and Paul Crowder.   With a few membership changes along the way, the next nine years found the Belfast band releasing four albums before breaking up in 1993.  These releases contained numerous UK hits, including “Broken Land” which reached number twenty there and ninety-five in the States, where it was their only song to hit the charts.  In the ensuing years they reformed a few times for live performances and now, over thirty years after their last album, they’ve released album number five, Once More With Feeling.  The band had contemplated making another album for a while, but when covid and the lock-downs came along, Pat spent more time in his home studio, and with all the free time, he was able to focus on songwriting.  He ended up writing all the songs himself, with the exception of “L.U.C.Y.”, which he interestingly co-wrote with Cathy Dennis during a session where they were attempting to write a song for S Club 7.  With Mark Tolman now on drums, all of the remaining instruments here were handled by Pat, with Terry and Eileen contributing all of the vocals (Tony Ayre, who was the only other member in the band on their last album, passed away in 2009),  They’ve done a great job here of capturing a lot of what made the band so special all those years ago, but also taking their sound into the modern era.   A lot of the album is also more upbeat than the earlier ones, something that is evident right out the gate with the infectious and bouncy pop of opening track “My Imaginary Girlfriend”, which has some great sprightly keyboards that at times are a little reminiscent of A-Ha.  “With The Cats” is up next and has an Eighties era MTV sound crossed with Beach Boys summertime pop.  Driven by some gorgeous acoustic guitar, “When The Sun Goes Down” is an enchanting, bouncy jaunt followed by another upbeat pop gem “Love Talk”.  The aforementioned “L.U.C.Y.” marks the first time Eileen Gribben has handled lead vocals on an Adventures album (she was the lead vocalist on "Currogh Of Kildare", a bonus track on a single in 1988), and is a delicate and absolutely gorgeous ballad recorded in memory of Pat and Eileen’s niece, who was killed by a drunk driver in 2021.  While still full of hooks, “Down By The Water” is a little darker and edgier like a poppier Neil Young with a little bit of The Beatles.  With the help of Conor and Paul McGuinness (2 extremely talented local singer / musicians from Belfast per the liner notes) on backing vocals, “Song For You” is a great acoustic tune that has a strong Simon and Garfunkel feel.  The upbeat pop of “I Still Dream Of You” adds a bit of a rootsy element to the mix, while “The Hanging Tree” is a fun tune with a rockabilly beat that definitely stands out from the rest of the album.  “To Whom It Concerns” is a stunning, sweeping Lennon-esque song that closes the album perfectly.  Once More With Feeling is a most welcome addition to The Adventures discography and highly recommended to fans of their earlier work as well as anyone that has never heard of them before.  Let’s hope this is a career resurgence and not a one off.

(Cherry Red Records)

Cocktail Slippers - Live At Blaker Festival Norway  single

For over twenty-four years, Oslo, Norway’s Cocktail Slippers have been kicking out rock ‘n’ roll that’s mixing influences like no frills garage rock, punk and Sixties girl groups.  Currently in the studio finishing up album number six, they have released this two-track single recorded live at last year’s Blaker Festival.  Originally released on Saint Valentine’s Massacre, “You Do Run” has pop hooks and great vocal harmonies along with a punkier edge and a chorus that can’t help but bring to mind The Crystals’ “Da Doo Run Run”.  The flipside is a cover of Them’s “Gloria,” a crowd favorite that sticks pretty close to the original but is a bit looser and ragged in a live setting and also has a bit of a bluesier feel in their hands.  The quality of the recordings here is great and the performances are full of energy. The only real drawback is the fact that it’s only two songs when according to the press info for the single, the sound engineer actually recorded the whole show.  Hopefully we will be lucky enough to get the chance to hear more, but for now this is a nice stopgap to hold us over until the next album.  

(Wicked Cool Records)

TIME! GENTLEMEN! - Pub Rock Rhythm ‘N Grooves – Classic Cuts & Rarities 1974-1982

While pub rock's heyday was very short-lived, and punk rock is often considered the cause, many people also feel that if it wasn’t for the back to basic, no-frills attitude, punk would have never happened. Between its popularity being largely based in the London area and the fact that I was so young at that time, the pub rock scene pretty much escaped me when it was happening.  Having said that, many artists who came out of that scene, like Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds and even Eddie and the Hot Rods, were already very familiar to me.  Then, several years ago, I started going down the rabbit hole, listening to bands like Dr Feelgood, Brinsley Schwarz, Kursaal Flyers, Tyla Gang and Eggs Over Easy, the last of which was considered by many to be the band that kickstarted the genre.  Grapefruit Records' outstanding 2019 pub rock box set Surrender To The Rhythm helped further my knowledge of the genre and gave me plenty more bands to discover and now it has been followed up with TIME! GENTLEMEN! - Pub Rock Rhythm ‘N Grooves – Classic Cuts & Rarities 1974-1982.  In addition to tracks from many of the bands that were on the previous collection, this new box largely highlights the latter days of the genre’s biggest era and contains some of the bands that came along towards the end of the scene and expanded on the sound through things like punk and new wave.  Many of the seventy-two songs are available on CD for the first time and all of them were remastered by Tim Turan who has mastered and remastered releases from a who’s who of artists.  The enclosed booklet includes details on each band and their included song from Simon Matthews, who wrote Before It Went Rotten, The Music That Rocked London’s Pubs.  As with any compilation like this, there are a few cuts here that some people might consider questionable inclusions and of course there are other artists that aren’t here that really should be, but overall, this is a fantastic compilation that has led to me searching out more music from many bands that I previously knew very little or nothing about.

(Grapefruit)