Rocks In The Attic #136: Huey Lewis And The News - ‘Sports’ (1983)

There’s an amusing spelling mistake on the cover of this album. You don’t tend to see typos like this on album covers, and probably for a good reason given the amount of money it takes to get an album out, and the considerable sum it is then expected to make back. On the album credits, the album is listed as being ‘recored’, instead of ‘recorded’ by Jim Gaines. Oh dear, I’m sure a young executive at Chrysalis Records felt the heat the day this record was pressed.

In the wake of Back To The Future, and their hit-single The Power Of Love, Huey Lewis And The News were my favourite band - at least for a few years until they fell of my radar and were replaced by the 1987 version of Michael Jackson. To my ears at least, their brand of rock n’ roll doesn’t sound too dated - even though on paper they should.

Any rock album of the mid-‘80s, especially one with saxophone and keyboards, runs the risk of now sounding irrelevant, but on this album, and it’s follow up, Fore!, they don’t sound too bad. Huey Lewis’ vocals soulful vocals definitely help, but perhaps it’s also because of Lewis’s background with ‘70s San Fransisco band Clover, and the fact that he was already an established recording artist, working through the ‘80s, not as a product of the ‘80s, and able to cleverly sidestep any of the now-dated clichés from that decade. I’m sure that the fact that this album was self-produced didn’t hurt either - away from the influence and gimmickry of the latest hot-shot ‘80s producer.

Hit: I Want A New Drug

Hidden Gem: Bad Is Bad

Rocks In The Attic #131: The Jam - ‘Snap!’ (1983)

Another greatest hits package purchased purely for its use in my DJ bag, this album takes me over the 100 hour mark on this blog. 100 hours of music - what a wonderful way to drown out the rest of life’s noises.

I’ve never been - and never will be - a fan of The Jam. I think this mainly stems from my dislike of Paul Weller, but as a band they’re more lyrical than musical (even though musically they’re fantastic) and that just doesn’t gel with me. With Weller’s scatter-gun lyrics, I always feel like I’m not in on the joke - he’ll cram a song with lyrics and I just get overwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong, I regard myself as being relatively literary - I always have a book or two on the go at any one time, and I’m not talking about Dan Brown or Fifty Shades Of Grey here - but when it comes to music, my ears are tuned to the sounds coming out of the instruments, not the words coming out of the singer’s mouth.

I can’t deny that there are some fantastic songs on this record. Going Underground, Town Called Malice, That’s Entertainment and the Beatles-stealing Start! are probably their biggest hits, and they would put a smile on my face any day of the week.

Hit: Town Called Malice

Hidden Gem: English Rose

Rocks In The Attic #45: U2 - ‘War’ (1983)

Alan Partridge: 'Sunday Bloody Sunday'. What a great song. It really encapsulates the frustration of a Sunday, doesn't it? You wake up in the morning, you've got to read all the Sunday papers, the kids are running round, you've got to mow the lawn, wash the car, and you think "Sunday, bloody Sunday!".
Aidan Walsh: I really hate to do this to you, Alan, but it's actually a song about...
Paul Tool: Yeah, bloody Sunday is actually about a massacre in Derry in 1972.
Alan Partridge: A massacre? Ugh. I'm not playing that again.

I have four favourite U2 songs. Two of them are on this album. Both times I have seen U2 play live, I have been willing them to play Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Year’s Day - and both times they’ve played both songs. My other two favourite songs are (Pride) In The Name Of Love, which they only played the first time I saw them, and Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me, which they only played the second time I saw them.

I really wish they had kept making albums like this and The Unforgettable Fire - they lost something (their sense of humour?) from The Joshua Tree onwards.

Hit: New Year’s Day

Hidden Gem: Drowning Man

Rocks In The Attic #25: Lionel Richie - ‘Can’t Slow Down’ (1983)

I’m not sure why I have this - I think it may have something I pilfered from my parent’s collection when I was starting to listen to vinyl in a big way. For years it remained on my shelf, unlistened to, and then I noticed it had a song - Running With The Night - that featured on the soundtrack to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I’m glad I finally listened to it, as the rest of the album isn’t half-bad.

Bookended by his big US #1 solo hits - All Night Long (All Night) and Hello - the album is his second solo output after leaving The Commodores, and is full of hits. Each of the five singles taken from the album charted in the US Top 10 - not a bad start for somebody described by one critic as ‘the black Barry Manilow’.

My good friend Roger used to use a ticket stub from a Lionel Richie concert as a bookmark, mainly as a conversation starter to meet girls on the train during his commute to work. Apparently it worked most of the time.

Hit: Hello

Hidden Gem: Running With The Night