Following Eric Clapton's recovery from heroin addition in 1974 and subsequent comeback (announced by 461 Ocean Boulevard), the guitar legend retained his fine band and toured extensively, and this live album is a souvenir of that period. Despite having such pop-oriented hits as "I Shot the Sheriff," E.C. Was Here makes it clear that Clapton was and always would be a blues man. The opening cut, "Have You Ever Loved a Woman," clearly illustrates this, and underlines the fact that Clapton had a firm grasp on his blues guitar ability, with some sterling, emotionally charged and sustained lines and riffs. A short version of "Drifting Blues" also drives the point home, with a lazy, Delta blues feel that is intoxicating. Aside from these standout blues workouts, Clapton provides a surprise with two songs from his Blind Faith period. "Presence of the Lord" and Steve Winwood's classic "Can't Find My Way Home" are given great readings here and highlight Clapton's fine touring band, particularly co-vocalist Yvonne Elliman, whose singing adds a mellifluousness to Clapton's blues vocal inflections. The market was a bit oversaturated with Clapton and Cream reissue products at the time, and this fine record got lost in the shuffle, but it remains an excellent document of the period.

Now, here's a star-crossed album. Polydor rejected the first version of it, produced by Glyn Johns, and Eric Clapton was forced to cut it all over again with Tom Dowd. Then, a few dates into a U.S. promotional tour coinciding with its release, Clapton collapsed and was found to be near death from ulcers due to his alcoholism. Finally, it turned out to be the final record of his 15-year association with Polydor, which therefore had no reason to promote it. Nevertheless, the album made the Top Ten, went gold, and spawned a Top Ten single in "I Can't Stand It." And the rest of it wasn't too shabby, either. The first and last Clapton studio album to feature his all-British band of the early '80s, it gave considerable prominence to second guitarist Albert Lee and especially to keyboard player/singer Gary Brooker (formerly leader of Procol Harum), and they gave it more of a blues-rock feel than the country-funk brewed up by the Tulsa shuffle crew Clapton had used throughout the 1970s. Best of all, Clapton had taken the time to write some songs -- he's credited on six of the nine selections -- and tunes such as the title track and "I Can't Stand It" held up well. This wasn't great Clapton, but it was good, and it deserved more recognition than conditions allowed it at the time.

Mexican Moon is Concrete Blonde's fifth full-length album. Its highlights are generally regarded to be the opening two tracks, "Jenny I Read," which details the rise to stardom and subsequent fall into happy obscurity of a fashion model (rumoured to be Bettie Page), and "Mexican Moon," which finds lead singer Johnette Napolitano fleeing a failed romance into México. In accordance with the band's musical stylings on their previous album, the music on Mexican Moon is jagged and brooding, taking the gothic rock of their previous albums and adding more of a hard rock edge to it. Napolitano provided the vocals, bass guitar, samples, and the album artwork, and she was accompanied by drummer Paul Thompson and guitarist James Mankey.

The song "Jonestown" is a scathing critique of the theology surrounding the Jonestown Massacre and opens with a minute-long sample of Jim Jones ranting about warfare. "End of the Line" is a cover song, having been originally recorded by Brian Ferry. The closing track, "Bajo la Lune Mexicana," is something of a travesty. Napolitano, who does not speak Spanish, wrote the Spanish lyrics, which are a literal translation of the lyrics to the album's title track. However, none of the verbs are conjugated, noun gender is ignored, and correct grammar is non-existent. It was as if Napolitano simply ran the lyrics to "Mexican Moon" through an English-Spanish dictionary one word at a time and then sung them that way. Fans usually ignore the track, and Spanish speakers find it laughable.

Though the first two songs are fan favourites, neither were included on The Essential, a Concrete Blonde "greatest hits" retrospective which was released in 2005. This album produced three singles: the title track, "Heal It Up," and "Jonestown," which was released only on vinyl and contained an alternate version of the song.

Concrete Blonde Official Website

Tidal is the debut album by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple, released by Epic Records in the United States on July 23, 1996 (see 1996 in music). It peaked at number fifteen on the U.S. Billboard 200 and as of October 2005 had sold 2.7 million copies in the U.S. according to Nielsen SoundScan.^[1] It was certified gold by the RIAA in December 1996, platinum in July 1997, two times platinum the following October and three times platinum in April 1999. Tidal produced six singles: "Shadowboxer", "Slow Like Honey","Sleep to Dream", "The First Taste", "Criminal" and "Never Is a Promise". "Criminal", the album's most popular single, won a 1998 Grammy Award for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" and was named the single of 1997 in a poll of Rolling Stone readers.The music video for "The First Taste" never aired in the U.S.

After the guest-star-drenched No Reason to Cry failed to make much of an impact commerically, Eric Clapton returned to using his own band for Slowhand. The difference is substantial -- where No Reason to Cry struggled hard to find the right tone, Slowhand opens with the relaxed, bluesy shuffle of J.J. Cale's "Cocaine" and sustains it throughout the course of the album. Alternating between straight blues ("Mean Old Frisco"), country ("Lay Down Sally"), mainstream rock ("Cocaine," "The Core"), and pop ("Wonderful Tonight"), Slowhand doesn't sound schizophrenic because of the band's grasp of the material. This is laid-back virtuosity -- although Clapton and his band are never flashy, their playing is masterful and assured. That assurance and the album's eclectic material make Slowhand rank with 461 Ocean Boulevard as Eric Clapton's best albums.

"Out in clubland, having fun, now I'm hiding from the sun." No lyrics could have ever wrapped up the duel nature of Soft Cell's music better, these lines (from "Bedsitter") tells of their fun new wave club hits and their intimate electronic dirges, and the effect they both have on listeners. The true magic of the band is when they could combine the two, like on their signature song "Tainted Love." But there are plenty of excellent songs by the duo that were never praised as highly, and most of them make it to this collection of their best material. "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" is a touching ballad that floats its lush and heavenly melodies on a bed of throbbing synthesizers and minimalist percussion. "Sex Dwarf" is a sleazy anthem that features plodding keyboards, aggressive drums, and one of the ugliest vocal performances committed to record. It isn't that Marc Almond has a death metal throat, but instead it's the way he creeps and crawls over the track like a perverted lounge singer. The sweet gloss of "Where the Heart Is" reveals a bright and energetic group using their quirky approach to shape a thoughtful pop nugget, while "Numbers" predates the Pet Shop Boys' sarcastic-yet-touching synth pop with like-minded lyrics and equally lush keyboards. There isn't a wasted moment on the album, and the documentation of a brilliant pop group deconstructing their own genre to fit their needs is quite refreshing when so much music from this time period comes off as so dated. A good song overcomes any wacky '80s keyboard work ("Soul Inside") or high-concept production techniques ("Memorabilia"), and that's the lesson to learn from this excellent collection of hidden gems.

When he gave a speech inducting the Band into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Eric Clapton said that after he heard their debut album, Music from Big Pink, he wanted to join the group, the fact that they already had a guitarist in Robbie Robertson notwithstanding. In the winter of 1975-1976, when he cut No Reason to Cry at the Band's Shangri-la Studio in Malibu, California, he came as close as he ever would to realizing that desire. Clapton is a musical chameleon; though some of No Reason to Cry is identifiable as the kind of pop/rock Clapton had been making since the start of his solo career (the best of it being "Hello Old Friend," which became his first Top 40 single in two years), the most memorable music on the album occurs when Clapton is collaborating with members of the Band and other guests. He duets with Band bassist Rick Danko on Danko's "All Our Past Times," and with Bob Dylan on Dylan's "Sign Language," as Robertson's distinctive lead guitar is heard rather than Clapton's. As a result, the album is a good purchase for fans of Bob Dylan and the Band, but not necessarily for those of Eric Clapton. [The CD reissue adds a bonus track, "Last Night," which is a traditional 12-bar blues song credited to Clapton.]

Their second album in 19 years is a live double album recorded during the bands 2003 European tour. Generally live albums are really an excuse for a greatest hits album with some crowd sing-alongs thrown in, good in their own way but meaningless unless you were there. This one is no exception although as well as the hits it does include several tracks from their 2002 album ‘Cruelty Without Beauty’.

Almond’s witty lyrics are prevalent in tracks such as ‘Caligula Syndrome’ and ‘Martin’ but it is the infamous electronic sound backing the camp dramatic tones of ‘The Art Of Falling Apart’ and ‘Heat’ that are truly Soft Cell. However the only real interest in the album apart from Almond’s orgasmic groans on ‘Sex Dwarf’ are of course the classic hits, which seem to carry the whole album. ‘Bedsitter’, the clubland favourite of the 80s, shows Almond at his humorous best, then of course there is the ubiquitous ‘Tainted Love’ and ‘Where Did Our Love Go’. The highlight though is a song that even David Gray couldn’t ruin, the great anthem ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’.

461 Ocean Boulevard is Eric Clapton's second studio solo album, arriving after his side project of Derek and the Dominos and a long struggle with heroin addiction. Although there are some new reggae influences, the album doesn't sound all that different from the rock, pop, blues, country, and R&B amalgam of Eric Clapton. However, 461 Ocean Boulevard is a tighter, more focused outing that enables Clapton to stretch out instrumentally. Furthermore, the pop concessions on the album -- the sleek production, the concise running times -- don't detract from the rootsy origins of the material, whether it's Johnny Otis' "Willie and the Hand Jive," the traditional blues "Motherless Children," Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff," or Clapton's emotional original "Let It Grow." With its relaxed, friendly atmosphere and strong bluesy roots, 461 Ocean Boulevard set the template for Clapton's '70s albums. Though he tried hard to make an album exactly like it, he never quite managed to replicate its charms.

Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret is the first album released by the groundbreaking synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell, released in 1981 by Some Bizarre Records. The album's critical and commercial success was bolstered by the worldwide success of its single Tainted Love, a cover version of a little-known R&B song by Gloria Jones which topped charts worldwide and became the best-selling British single of 1981 in the United States. The album continued to produce a string of Top-5 singles in the UK, including "Bedsitter," "Torch," and the unapolagetically sentimental "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye."

Despite many the reputation of many New Wave bands as being on the cutting edge of technology, the album was created on a very low budget; it was supposedly recorded almost entirely with a Revox tape recorder, a borrowed Roland drum machine belonging to Kit Hain, a small, preset Roland bass synthesizer, and an NED Synclavier, the first commercially available digital synthesizer, belonging to producer Mike Thorne. The album was recorded in New York City at the height of its gay club scene, at a time which the drug MDMA (also called ecstasy) was just beginning to become popular. The sound and club beats of the album reflect this atmosphere, with songs about pornographic cinemas and infidelitrous relationships. The group caused some controversy in the UK over the single "Sex Dwarf," the video of which was banned for explicit, S&M-related content. The duo would delve deeper into its fascination with decadence on its subsequent works, including the 1982 remix album Non-stop Ecstatic Dancing, which features an alternate cut of "Sex Dwarf" on which singer Marc Almond, famous for his flamboyant, unabashed homosexuality, appears to simulate a female orgasm with his voice. This may be why they were never able to recapture the success of their premiere with their later works.

Soft Cell were and are, in some ways, more famous for their singles than for their full-length albums. Many of their most acclaimed songs (including "Torch" and "Where Did Our Love Go?") do not appear on their LP releases. An example of this is "Tainted Love," which, when originally recorded, was over eight minutes long due to the fact that it gradually segued into "Where Did Our Love Go?" After it was recorded, the session was split into two different songs, with "Where Did Our Love Go?" only being listenable as the B-side to "Tainted Love" or on the full eight-minute cut, which was sold as a 12-inch single. As a result, many of their singles have become quite valuable. Their first release, the single "Memorabilia" b/w "A Man Could Get Lost" may fetch prices as high as $85 (approximately £50), due to the fact that the original version was for many years unavailable on CD (although a remix appears on their 1982 release "Non-stop Ecstatic Dancing").

The song "Frustration" also appears on the rare 1979 independently released EP, Mutant Moments, although the two versions are very different and contain slightly different lyrics. Remixes of several tracks, including "Sex Dwarf" and an instrumental cut of "Chips On My Shoulder" also appear on the remix album, Non-stop Ecstatic Dancing.

Eric Clapton's eponymous solo debut was recorded after he completed a tour with Delaney & Bonnie. Clapton used the core of the duo's backing band and co-wrote the majority of the songs with Delaney Bramlett -- accordingly, Eric Clapton sounds more laid-back and straightforward than any of the guitarist's previous recordings. There are still elements of blues and rock & roll, but they're hidden beneath layers of gospel, R&B, country, and pop flourishes. And the pop element of the record is the strongest of the album's many elements -- "Blues Power" isn't a blues song and only "Let It Rain," the album's closer, features extended solos. Throughout the album, Clapton turns out concise solos that de-emphasize his status as guitar god, even when they display astonishing musicality and technique. That is both a good and a bad thing -- it's encouraging to hear him grow and become a more fully rounded musician, but too often the album needs the spark that some long guitar solos would have given it. In short, it needs a little more of Clapton's personality.

Soft Cell emerged from the twin backgrounds of Leeds Art College and Northern soul. Though first andforemost soulboys, they didn’t meet on the dancefloor but in a classroom at the aforementioned college where Marc was studying performance art on the same course,
coincidentally, as Indian rubber man Fad Gadget and David was just “fiddling about with synthesizers”.

Their performance training isn’t immediately apparent from their TOTP ‘Tainted Love’ show – David does the standing still quite well, while Marc twitches engagingly through a clumsy set of extravagant gestures barely in sync with the rods – but it was a valuable grounding.
“It instilled in us the need to be independent,” recalls
Marc, “because the course we were doing consisted of being put into a big studio with all these facilities and then being told: ‘Right whatever you do, go ahead and do it. It’s all up to you and you’ve got three years to make something out of it.’”

Marc performed, David produced the soundtrack.What they did then isn’t relevant now, says David. Marc,more helpfully, expands.

“For me, my performance art background is only important because it gave me the confidence to get out there onstage. It was just, like, exercising myself in getting up onstage and not caring if I make a fool of myself. After that, it’s just a case of looking back on things you did three years ago and feeling a little red faced about them, if only because your ideas improve a lot in the meantime.”

More telling is their apprenticeship in Northern teen disco – not the sophisticated clubs where the DJ plays a never-ending stream of jazz funk imports from New York that nobody recognises or indeed would bother taking home with them. Their roots in a poppier dance, in the tunes that occasionally make the charts;‘Tainted Love’ is their tribute to the teen dance.

“We both like Northern soul, ’60s music and the 12-inch record,”explains Marc. “We thought we would try to being that ’60s sound and style of song into the ’80s, but the problem was to how to do a 12-inch of ‘Tainted Love’ without doing the boring, very standard thing of stripping it all down to the bass and drums and re-editing the sound, which is putting me off 12-inches in a way.

“Then we had the idea of doing an instrumental bit in the middle and going into another song at the end, almost like a medley tribute to where we come from, those songs that made an impression on us. It was originally just going to include a few bars of ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ but we liked the way it turned out and included the whole song.

“And we even had a slightly tongue-in-cheek drum break in the middle – that’s the crashing of dustbin lids and syn-drums.”

Before talking to Soft Cell, it was easy to think that the radical leap in quality from the earlier ‘Memorabilia’’s Suicide-madepainless to the distinctive torch reading of ‘Tainted Love’ was more down to producer Mike Thorne than the duo. The wonderful segue,for instance, is a disco producer’s trademark. However, it becomes apparent that it was the duo who went in with the ideas and Thorne made them work. It wasn’t the production of ‘Memorabilia’ that was at fault, but the song itself. The duo still quite like it, though they acknowledge the sound improvements of their hit.

“We had liked Mike Thorne’s production of Wire,” says Marc,“and anyway he is a less obvious choice of producer than Daniel Miller (the Mute man who produced ‘Memorabilia’) for electronic
music, we’re very pleased the way things have turned with Mike and we’re going to New York soon to record a new single and LP with him.”

‘Tainted Love’ could mark the beginning of the end of their longstanding love affair with disco. Being a Friday night DJ at Leeds Warehouse, Marc Almond is fully aware of all its trends and innovations, its emotions and fl uctuations. But these days its appeal is wearing thin.

“You can’t go on forever on the dancefl oor,” admits Marc ruefully. “There is still some great disco coming out, but it’s coming to wear a little thin on me. I hate this new Latin music,
though the real Latin music is great. I mean, how can people who have no roots in Puerto Rico bring out this kind of music?”Disillusioned with the dancefl oor, where do you turn to from
here, Marc?

“To the bedroom, I think,” he giggles. “It’s getting to the stage where we’ve said what needs to be said about that, about going out and having fun… and then come the tears.

“Our writing is getting more personal, a bit deeper and a lot sadder. It’s about reaching into the stuff and writing things that you have to feel about.”

Soft Cell are one of the few units who have a genuine claim on the new cabaret, even if there is as much Batley Variety Club as the Berlin kind. Their entertainment is effusively emotional in
the showbiz tradition, ridiculously expressive, mildly satirical/ comical and hilariously self-indulgent. And in the best tradition of Northern variety it’s also a little grubby. For reasons known only to themselves, they’ve taken to having publicity shots done in sex shops with peculiar props.

David: “We like people to think that there is something shady or seedy in our backgrounds that nobody knows anything about.”
Have you?
“We’re not saying!”
“We’re not interested in being clean and goody-goody,”explains Marc. “ We like writing songs about sex and trash. We did that consciously to get a dirtier image really. The LP will be
called ‘Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret’.”
“We got one song from a News Of The World headline ‘Sex Dwarf Lures 100 Disco Dollies To A Life Of Vice’,” he laughs. “We felt it just had to be put down and immortalised.”
To the people who have to sell them Soft Cell are depressingly diffi cult to pin down.
“People tell us that we’re directionless,” admits Marc. “Well,if I had a plan and knew what I would be doing in three years I wouldn’t bother. It’s more exciting to be directionless – this it
the perfection that we’re aiming towards. We want to be aware of everything – people’s feelings, the media, trivia, deepness, everything! And if that’s being dilettante and directionless than
I am dilettante and directionless… and glad!”

Taken from Nme original 80s