9. Rockpile: Seconds Of Pleasure (1980): Fine Fine Fine

My first encounter with the fine gentlemen in the group Rockpile must have been seeing them in the Concerts for Kampuchea show, then buying the soundtrack and realizing that the Beatles weren't the only band around relying on more than one brilliant singer/player/somgwriter - and all of this resulted in "Seconds Of Pleasure" becoming one of the first records I even bought quite soon after its release. I remember being a bit underwhelmed at first listen, but also that repeated play made me recognize and appreciate the fineries that filled this splendid helping of rock music.

What's so good about it, then? Well, the playing is plain delicious - the wacka-wacka of the guitars, the relentless drive of Terry Williams' drums, the sometimes slighly quirky yet always swinging arrangements. The singing is also a treat - Dave Edmunds is a good rock singer, yet only my third choice in this line-up behind the more melancholy and versatile pipes of Nick Lowe and above all the spine-tinglingly soaring voice of Billy Bremner at his best.

And the songs are simply great - from basic fast numbers like "Teacher Teacher" and "Fool Too Long" and the spectacular "Heart" and "(You Ain't Nothing But) Fine Fine Fine", ornamented by Billy's vocals, to the clever wordplay of "When I Write The Book" and the heartfelt "Now And Always". There are no two songs alike, yet the album is a distinctive entity as a whole. As a bonus, the twelve tunes clock in at classic album length, somewhere aroung the 36 minute mark. No chance to ge bored - rather, short and sharp enough to be spun another round on the fly.

Rockpile never got round to releasing another album as an official band - but I soon learned there was plenty of music to be found involving the same gentlemen, and at least two more albums that in practice were Rockpile even though they were released as solo efforts. I will get back to those at another time - for now, I'll pick this album off the shelf and play it another time.
And BTW, this is one of the hidden gems you can't find on Spotify. Buy it instead!

8. The Kinks: Sleepwalker (1977): The Champion of Commentary Strikes Again

Looking back at the history of rock music, one could argue that quite a lot of it actually was invented by Ray Davies and the Kinks, even though the style originates from the blues and its' derivatives in the US. The Kinks were prime movers in hard rock ("You Really Got Me", anyone?), satirical social commentary (basically any Kinks track with a title that goes ".... Man" among others), thematic albums, and fusing styles from music hall nostalgia to punk. Even though I don't claim this to be the only true interpretation of rock history, I do believe one can be pretty sure that the Kinks mostly were ahead of the field when looking at and jumping into new styles and effects.

I also think that some of the earlier Kinks catalogue carried fairly ham-fisted musical results, but the sometimes mediocre musicianship was more than outweighed by the wit of the writer - for 50 years and counting Ray Davies has been doing three-minute snapshots of the oddities of life today in an identifiable and inimitable manner.

Sometimes the results have carrried the whole album - and by the late 70's the musicianship had been brought up to par as well. Thus, "Sleepwalker" stands out among the latter part of the Kinks catalogue as a nearly complete collection of modern popular music. I'm not sure exactly how the record fared on the charts, but 1977 was a tough time for the establishment - but I believe Ray Davies was one of the most revered old guys still around at the time. 

The songs speak for themselves. The coming to age of the boy in "Life On The Road", the contempt for the former friend who made it big in "Mr. Big", the themes of mental turmoil and disturbances in the title track, "Sleepless Night" and "Full Moon", the comforting ending with "Life Goes On" - in fact each one of the album's nine tracks is worth a mention on its own merits. Ray Davies may not be the greatest singer in the world, but he is a great interpreter of his own lyrics. And even though some of the songs suggest a character not totally happy and content, there is still a glimmer of hope at the end.

Add to this the beauty and dynamism of the arrangements, with their beautiful interplay between acoustic and electric guitar, the keyboards - and the deceptibily easy flow of the melodies, and you have a near-perfect end product. Some of the later Kink albums showcase almost as good a set of songs as this one, but not quite - and at times, the old power-chord overdepemdence takes them down a notch. Not this one, though - "Sleepwalker" is a jewel in the crown of the Champion of Commentary.