The Associates - "Wild and Lonely" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1990 (Circa)

There is no such thing as a bad Associates or Billy Mackenzie record.  It doesn't really exist. Still, the early recordings with Alan Rankine are for sure the more artful era of The Associates.  Compare early Bryan Ferry with Eno Roxy Music, and later era of that band.  Both are still great, but very different. "Wild and Lonely" is basically Billy solo, even though he kept the band's name, it is a solo album.  It is also a brilliant pop album with a strong groove.  I think Billy was listening to Michael Jackson "Off the  Wall," in that he mixes the pop with the Rn'B in an organic manner that it seems effortless.  There is not a bad cut on the album, and why it wasn't successful either in the UK or in the U.S., is sort of an odd mystery, but more of a great disappointment.  

"Strasbourg Square" is a lush and beautiful ballad.  European to its soul, one would have hoped that Billy moved to Paris or even Berlin, but alas, a man of Scotland to the very end.  A great album. 

Lewis Furey - "The Humours of :" CD, Album, Reissue, Japan, 1976/1990 (A&M)

This French Canadian (now living in Paris) is an amazing talent and songwriter.  I had the vinyl back in 1976 but lost it through the ages.  This is his second album and although the material is basically the same, the production by Roy Thomas Baker is huge.  Huge as in over-production, and treating the songs here as Broadway tunes.  The first album by Lewis Furey is quieter, yet theatrical, but in an off-Broadway manner or in a small theater.   

Furey reminds me a bit of John Cale's solo recordings with a mixture of early Lou Reed.  Furey's songs tend to have street life tattooed on his aesthetic, but with a Bertolt Brecht distance and one gets the feeling he's writing a narrative than saying something out of his personal life.  It's interesting that I found the first and second album in Tokyo in the 1990s  At the time it seems that A&M released all their 1970s titles into the CD format for the first time.  It was like going to Tower Records in the 70s.  

I love Furey's music.  Although I do have a problem with the production, it still is a fantastic album.   The way "Cop's Ballet" emerges into   "Rubber Gun Show" is a great opening for an album/CD.  The songs are all catchy, and again, I suspect Furey is writing a musical, although I don't feel there is a running narration, it still feels like a Broadway or big budget show.   CD is very difficult to find, but the vinyl comes up once in every little while.  Get it.