(2022) VA - Miles Out to Sea: The Roots of British Power Pop 1969-1975
Review:
Cruising the dusty side streets and forgotten alleyways of rock & roll history, there are all kinds of treasures to be found if one takes a left turn away from the accepted canon whenever possible. Case in point, the brilliant collection , which makes a valiant effort to posit that great pop music didn’t just fade away after the Beatles packed it in. The three discs here are jammed with warbly glam rockers, jangling dreamers, introspective piano pushers, melodic hard rockers, tuneful oddballs, and radio-friendly gumdroppers, all looking for that rousing moment when a cascading melody, plangent vocal, and trilling vocal harmony cuddle up next to a little bit of power — maybe a flashing guitar riff, a thudding drumbeat, or some booming bass — and make magic happen. Some of the alchemists here are well-known, like the Kinks with their moody rocker “This Man He Weeps Tonight,” the Move with the hyperactive “Chinatown,” and the Who, who teeter on the far edge of the pop-to-power scale on “In a Hand or a Face.” Of course, Badfinger, the band who are the poster children for this whole enterprise, shine with the painfully pretty ballad “Know One Knows.” Scattered across the rest of the set are fun surprises, too. Who knew Slade could write a melancholy melody with the song that gave the collection its name or that Iain Matthews (“So Sad [No Love of His Own]”) went to Ridgemont High with Jackson Browne?The best thing about comps like this is discovering acts who were unjustly lost to time, and there are plenty of them here. A short list of winners has to include Shakane’s glimmering cover of Neil Young’s “When You Dance I Can Really Love,” Liverpool Echo’s lovely Merseybeat/folk-rock hybrid “Girl on the Train,” Neil Harrison’s so-George-it-hurts “Bicycle Driver,” and Stray’s ripping rocker “Alright Ma!” Most incredible of the lost gems is Pagliaro’s “Some Sing, Some Dance,” a song that takes full advantage of the era’s anything-goes ethos and comes up with pop music at its most breathtaking. A few names that rate a little high on the familiarity scale do drop by with some gems as well: Stealers Wheel add some funk to their strum on the delightfully loose “Go as You Please,” a pre-prog Barclay James Harvest turn in the nifty mod groover “Good Love Child,” and who in their right mind could resist the sunny delight of First Class and “Beach Baby”? Or Rocking Horse’s “Biggest Gossip in Town”? This is just a partial listing of the treats that await travelers willing to set aside history and do a little off-road exploring, a task made easy by the effort and care put into Miles Out to Sea by the genius crew of spelunkers who make up the staff at Grapefruit. Long may they dig when the results are as glittering and golden as these.
Track List:
CD 1
01. Slade - Miles Out To Sea
02. Pilot - Just A Smile
03. Rockin' Horse - Biggest Gossip In Town
04. Michel Pagliaro - Some Sing, Some Dance
05. Octopus - Rainchild
06. Shape of the Rain - I'll Be There
07. Starry Eyed and Laughing - Going Down
08. Shakane - Please, Eliza
09. Rotten to the Core - Don't Let Me Wait Too Long
10. Honeybus - Black Mourning Band
11. Bachdenkel - You Lied About Your Age
12. Brinsley Schwarz - (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace And Understanding
13. Dave Edmunds - When Will I Be Loved
14. Unicorn - Nightingale Crescent
15. Rusty - Brighton Rock
16. Byzantium - You Made Me Stand Up Straighter
17. Neil Harrison - Bicycle Driver
18. The Tremeloes - Try Me
19. Sweet - Peppermint Twist
20. The Marmalade - She Wrote Me A Letter
21. Raw Holly - Love's Made A Fool Of You
22. Help Yourself - Strange Affair
23. Paintbox - Let Your Love Go
24. Gerry Rafferty - Where I Belong
25. Ragamuffin - Fresh As A Daisy
CD 2
01. Badfinger - Know One Knows
02. The Move - Chinatown
03. The Liverpool Echo - Girl On The Train
04. Jimmy Campbell - Lonely Norman
05. Nimbo - Forget Her
06. Majority One - Get Back Home
07. Stackridge - Dangerous Bacon
08. Stealers Wheel - Go As You Please
09. Keith Riley - Second Time Around
10. Sutherland Brothers & Quiver - Champion The Underdog
11. Stray - Alright Ma!
12. Atlantis - I Ain't Got Time
13. Sheridan and Rick Price - Sometimes I Wonder
14. Bo' Flyers - So Young And In Love
15. Ducks Deluxe - Something's Going On
16. Small Wonder - Ordinary Boy
17. The Hammersmith Gorillas - Leavin' 'Ome
18. Hollywood Brats - Zurich 17 (Be My Baby)
19. Octopus - Girlfriend
20. Sheephouse - Hole In The Sky
21. Billy Bates - Money Makes The World
22. The Fabulous Ratbites from Hell - Sparkle
23. Bachdenkel - The Ring Of Truth
24. The Who - In A Hand Or A Face
25. Budgie - Rolling Home Again
CD 3
01. The Kinks - This Man He Weeps Tonight
02. Rockin' Horse - Don't You Ever Think I Cry
03. Shape of the Rain - We're Not Their Boys
04. Fickle Pickle - Let Me Tell You
05. Simon Turner - Baby (I Gotta Go)
06. Liverpool Express - Smile (My Smiler's Smile)
07. Penny Arcade - I Don't Need You Any More
08. Fresh Air - It Takes Too Long
09. Shakane - When You Dance I Can Really Love
10. Billy Kinsley - Annabella
11. The Liverpool Echo - Sally Works Nights
12. Rusty - Stay At Home
13. Starry Eyed and Laughing - Chimes Of Freedom
14. Ironbridge - Back Room
15. Black Label - No Matter What
16. Barclay James Harvest - Good Love Child
17. P.C. Kent - Little Baby Won't You Please Come Home, Honey-Child Won't You Just Allow Me One More Chance, Please
18. Iain Matthews - So Sad (No Love Of His Own)
19. Wolfe - Jewel
20. Airbus - Walking The Silver Hay
21. Angel Pavement - Maybe Tomorrow
22. First Class - Beach Baby
23. Keith Riley - From Me And From You
24. Rupert Holmes - I Don't Want To Hold Your Hand
Media Report:
Genre: pop, rock
Country: UK
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
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