Rocks In The Attic #55: Elastica - ‘Elastica’ (1995)

This is an odd little record. Fifteen songs breeze by in less than forty minutes. There’s one song over four minutes, a couple at the three minute mark, and then all the rest chalk up between one and two minutes. How punk is that?

I probably bought this album purely for Connection, and from the sticker inside the sleeve I seem to have bought it from the Vinyl Exchange on Oldham Street in Manchester for £12. Not bad considering that, as the Vinyl Exchange sticker proudly states, it’s in mint condition and comes with a free 12-page booklet and a flexi-disc.

The flexi-disc - a cover of Adam Ant’s Cleopatra is pretty good. Well, at least it doesn’t sound as bad as the flexi-discs you would get free in Look-In magazine in the 80s. There’s no surface noise and it plays just like a standard 7”.

This is a pretty good album - with plenty of catchy songs. At the end of the day though, you can never have enough albums with a photo of the band standing in front of a brick wall on the cover. It should be mandatory, for debut albums at least.

Hit: Connection

Hidden Gem: Waking Up

Rocks In The Attic #42: Blur - ‘The Great Escape’ (1995)

This reminds me of a former girlfriend who used to live in a vast three- or four-storey Victorian house in Huddersfield. If we ever ate or cooked in the basement kitchen, we would listen to this album - the only album she had in that room, on cassette. It was probably my first experience with the album, given that the hype surrounding its release and the press-fuelled war with Oasis had completely passed me by.

The reason I prefer Parklife to this is probably the themes involved - I can relate to the Kinks-like Englishness of Parklife, but I have trouble relating to the desolation and loneliness that permeates through The Great Escape.

I also have a big problem with the reverse of the sleeve, where the four band members are dressed as estate agents or stockbrokers. It has to be one of the lamest band photographs I’ve ever seen (except maybe this one). Albarn actually looks like a woman! The only thing he’s missing is a pair of pearl earrings. This might have been funny at the time, but looking back having this photo on the back of one of your most popular albums can be dangerous. It might not turn Blur fans off the band but it definitely wouldn’t make non-Blur fans want to listen the band.

Love the front cover though.

Hit: Country House

Hidden Gem: Best Days

Rocks In The Attic #26: Rocket From The Crypt - ‘Scream, Dracula, Scream’ (1995)

I once had the misfortune to accidentally play Rocket From The Crypt’s On A Rope straight after a Joy Division song while DJing in a club. A friend had to race up to my DJ booth and point out my faux pas - after the strains of Love Will Tear Us Apart was dying out, it sounded like I was making light of Ian Curtis’ death by hanging by playing this track. Oh dear.

I bought this album purely on the strength of On A Rope, which had somehow got a bit of attention in the UK when it was released. I even remember the band performing the song on TFI Friday and Top Of The Pops.

The rest of the album didn’t impress me that much, except for the opening track Middle, which segues into Born In ’69 before making way for On A Rope. The energy contained in these three songs is unrelenting and a fantastic starter to an album.

Hit: On A Rope

Hidden Gem: Middle / Born In ‘69