Spotify now has over five million tracks for your listening pleasure, but here are four recently added albums from four decades that I rate particularly highly. One of these is even in my Top 10 Albums Of All Time so it’s great to see these included in Spotify’s catalogue!
Ian Dury – New Boots and Panties!!
- Genre: Rock, Punk
- Originally Released: 1977
Remastered version of one of the very best Ian Dury albums. It still sounds as fresh as the day it was released and it’s a delight to hear Dury’s wonderfully funny and intelligent lyrics again.
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Propaganda – A Secret Wish
- Genre: Synthpop
- Originally Released: 1985
This album (along with its remix version Wishful Thinking) was added to Spotify this month thanks to Trevor Horn’s infamous ZTT Records. A Secret Wish is an infectious synthpop classic from 1985 and it’s one of my favourite albums of all time. It takes time to reveal its secrets: this is a record that rewards repeat plays as intriciate detail is teased out. Maybe it’s the Dr. Mabuse references but there’s definitely something hypnotic and slightly disturbing about this album. For several years I was convinced there were parrallels with the sci-fi series Babylon 5, but perhaps that was just the dream within the dream…
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Mary Coughlan – Love for Sale
- Genre: Jazz, Blues, Folk
- Originally Released: 1993
This Irish jazz and torch singer has a bawdy but brutally honest attitude that I love. I’ve bought pretty much all of Mary Coughlan’s albums since I heard her superb Under the Influence in 1987. That album is not on Spotify yet, but the more-recent Love for Sale is a great introduction to her voice.
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I Monster – A Dense Swarm of Ancient Stars
- Genre: Undefinable
- Originally Released: 2009
Dean Honer’s I Monster followed his All Seeing I project (also on Spotify and highly recommended). This new album is a joy to listen to from start to end and it’s definitely in my list of top albums of the year. It’s almost impossible to classify the genre: think vaudeville with psychedelic pop, trip-hop, R&B, and strange electronica. Whatever it is, I’m a sucker for their sound.
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