Category Archives: vinyl

Nick Lowe • Quality Street [LP]

First released ten years ago as a CD and picture disc LP, NICK LOWE’s Quality Street is one of my favorite Christmas records of the last decade or so. Its subtitle, “A Seasonal Selection for All the Family,” is about right unless there are a bunch of headbangers in your household. But you do get a nice assortment of originals, covers and traditional holiday songs done the way Gentleman Nick likes to roll these days: smooth ’n’ easy, with a taste of wry humor. In 2013 when this was first issued I picked up the picture disc, which was cut at 45 rpm to help with the fidelity, but being such an item (regardless of speed) it suffers from a bit of additional surface noise you wouldn’t typically expect on vinyl. So then I bought the CD – not only was the sound quality better, but it was playable in the car. So that’s been my go-to every Christmas since then. When I read that YepRoc was doing a limited (1,000 copies) run of it on red vinyl, AND that they were adding a 7″ single with two songs that had only been issued as downloads, I jumped on it.

Some of Quality Street’s best songs are Nick’s. “Christmas at the Airport” is a tale of being stranded you-know-where when you’d certainly rather be somewhere else, a bit wistful and melancholy but a sweet lil’ song. “A Dollar Short of Happy,” too, is on the slightly sad side but also a winner. (It was co-written with Ry Cooder.) Covers-wise, the hands-down, stone-cold winner is “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day,” the Roy Wood perennial that may have overstayed its welcome in the UK but here in the States that original single barely troubled the charts. Nick’s version here has nice calypso vibe to it that really is a treat to hear. I love it! (And I love the original, too, and even have some positive feelings for the so-so Cheap Trick live version [with Wood].) What a cool song – I wouldn’t be surprised to hear it in the stores during the holiday season. And I used to create music programs for retail and restaurants so I know what it takes to make the cut. Ol’ saint Nick nailed it. Another goodie here is “North Pole Express,” though there is no writer credit and the publishing is “copyright control” so who knows who wrote it? But it’s a toe-tapper regardless of whose pen it came from, so don’t miss it. The traditional tunes here are somewhat abundant but Nick and his fellow musicians do some interesting arranging so as to lighten the likelihood of burn-out. “Children Go Where I Send Thee,” for instance, is like a rockabilly version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” but nowhere near as haggard!

As for Quality Street’s bonus 45, you’ll thrill to both “Winter Wonderland” and “Let It Snow” as recorded by Nick and Los Straitjackets (who aren’t the band on the main album) in 2020 and available until now only as digital files or streamers. The big-holed 7″ comes in a “generic” company sleeve (but which appears to be created solely for this release) like the early ’60s British sleeves, and is a nice touch. These are peppy takes on seasonal faves that won’t likely make you groan when you put ’em on.

I don’t think you should miss this one. Place your order now and get Quality Street on vinyl before it’s gone, or else you’ll have to make do with non-physical formats that don’t lend themselves to being wrapped and put under the tree as a gift for a loved one – especially if that loved one is yourself. – Marsh Gooch

4/5 (YepRoc YEP 2330, 2013/2023) (available here)

 

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Klark Kent • Klark Kent [CD, LP]

KLARK KENT has come out of seclusion! With a new kollection of the Policeman’s solo recordings from back in the day, there is now ample evidence to support the opinion that Stewart Copeland was, indeed, the one with all the talent. Available as a 2LP vinyl or 2CD kompact disc release (downloads are also available), Klark Kent is the kleverly-titled kompilation that brings together all of the one man (band)’s recordings, including never-before-released demos (on the CD version).

Kent’s discography starts back in 1978 when his first two singles were released. An 8-song vinyl EP, Klark Kent, followed in 1980. The secret about Kent’s identity wasn’t exactly safe, as the press release included in the US promo, for instance, made barely-veiled konnections to Copeland. Intrepid Police fans knew. I knew (having that US promo version, with press release inside, helped). What is so kool about Kent’s tunes is that they’re snappy and fun. If you’re unfamiliar with Klark Kent (either the original 8-song or this new 18-song version), think of the songs attributed to Copeland on the first two Police albums (“Contact,” “On Any Other Day”). I played the hell out of this on my college radio show back in the early ’80s, especially “Don’t Care” and the teenage freedom epic, “Away from Home.” It may be due to the sheer exuberance of Kent’s tunes that I lost interest in The Police as they got bigger; the quirky fun evaporated as Sting took kontrol of the band (assuming he didn’t already have it). A couple of years after the EP’s release, nascent music video channel MTV aired the IRS Records-subsidised The Cutting Edge, which featured IRS and other record labels’ new wave artists and used “Theme for Kinetic Ritual” as its theme.

Klark Kent released numerous singles in the UK, nearly all of which included tracks not on the original 10″. (“Don’t Care” made the Top 50 in England and included 2 non-EP tracks, for instance.) This new Klark Kent (kinda konfusing; kouldn’t they kome up with something more katchy?) has all of the early B-sides and tracks released on the 1995 Kollected Works CD, and you get the never before released, bombastic “It’s Gonna Rain,” the similarly over the top “Someone Else,” and Kent’s lone Khristmas tune, “Yo Ho Ho,” which had originally appeared on IRS Records’ Just in Time for Christmas (among other compilations). In all there are 18 tracks on the 2LP and first disc of the CD set and they’re all alotta fun. Disc 2 of the CD set features a dozen of Klark’s demo versions and they’re all pretty interesting, too, some being quite different from their final, official versions. The vinyl release, though, is a beautiful pressing on thick wax and has a great gatefold cover, too. You’ll probably need your readers to check the kredits, though, so be ready for that. (You youngsters, just skip past that last comment. Oh wait – you’re already past it now. My bad.) Since Kent played all the instruments, though, you may not need the kredits to enhance your enjoyment when listening to his amazingly cheerful discography.

So there you have it. Klark Kent is back and the best thing to do about it is to welcome him into your home. Krank him up! – Marsh Gooch

4/5 (BMG 538907281, 2023)

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Marshall Crenshaw • Field Day [CD, LP]

Yours truly’s a bit late on getting this review completed. Reissued this summer, MARSHALL CRENSHAW’s Field Day has come out in a new edition with interesting bonus tracks and an explosive sound that’s nowhere near as bombastic as some said it was back in the day.

I don’t remember the furor being as big as is stated in the notes to this new 40th anniversary CD (also out on vinyl), but apparently it left enough of a mark that Marshall says in this edition’s booklet, “I think that all the criticism it got back then was completely lame.” Before we dig in to that, let’s just say now that Field Day is packed with some of Crenshaw’s best songs and sounds real good this far out from 1983. Producer Steve Lillywhite was a young, hot shot British producer then who was known – like fellow compatriot producer Hugh Padgham – as one who liked to use a ton of gated snare drum in his mixes. (You know the sound I’m talking about?! It was on a crazy number of hit records in the ’80s…) The critics thought that would ruin Crenshaw’s momentum, or uniqueness, or something. I was so hot for MC’s first record that I could barely wait for the followup, and when I heard that he was recording it with Lillywhite, I thought it was a great idea. Field Day arrived and I loved it right outta the… ummm… gate. After Richard Gottehrer’s bright, snappy production on Marshall Crenshaw, I figured this guy was gonna give us a sort of modern take on the Phil Spector wall-of-sound. The moment lead-off track and single “Whenever You’re on My Mind” broke into full instrumentation, I thought I was right. Mostly, I am.

Field Day’s not only filled to its jingle-jangle gills with power pop hooks galore, like on “Try” and “One Day with You,” it’s got a brilliant take of a somewhat obscure early ’60s tune called “What Time Is It” that was seemingly purpose-built for Crenshaw’s merry band of popsters AND the production style Lillywhite would bring to the mixing board. Yes, that big gated snare really stands out on the LP’s final cut, “Hold It,” though it’s used more as a sound effect than for its humongous song-propulsion capabilities. Now, when you get to the bonus tracks, the instrumental “TV track” of “Our Town” definitely suffers from mega-gate, but this was meant to be a backing track for the band to sing and mime to on television (Lillywhite insisted they mix these; not sure why there’s not one for “Whenever You’re on My Mind,” which was the only single released from the album). Anyway, the inclusion of this and “Monday Morning Rock (TV Track)” don’t really support Crenshaw’s “lame” comment, since these two tracks weren’t publicly available back in ’83. I suppose hindsight – and 40 years of rock ’n’ roll – softens the, ummm, blow of Gategate.

Speaking of bonus tracks, I really enjoy the covers of “Jungle Rock” and the live version of “Little Sister.” Not sure I like the new album cover artwork, but that shouldn’t prevent me or you from digging this disc. Altogether, this release of Field Day shows us how the talented Mr. Crenshaw was both ahead of his time and woefully behind it at the same time… in a good way. – Marsh Gooch

3/5 (Yep Roc YEP-3058X, 2023)

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General Public • All the Rage, Hand to Mouth [LP]

Being that Dave Wakeling is still touring as both (or either) The English Beat and (or) GENERAL PUBLIC, it certainly makes sense that the latter’s two original albums, All the Rage and Hand to Mouth, are getting a vinyl reissue.

Wakeling and his English Beat cohort Ranking Roger started the group after their former band called it a day. Coming just after The Beat (as they are known nearly everywhere else) had just made solid inroads to the US charts with their 1982 release, Special Beat Service – and a couple of minor hits, “Save It for Later” and “I Confess” – it was anyone’s guess if the momentum could be capitalized on. Apparently, Dave and Rog had some ideas about how to do that. Beef up the dance beat and production values, keep some of the ska ingredients and melodies, bingo. You have to admit there’s something about General Public’s  swing that makes you wanna move around. And it’s kinda hard not to get tunes like “Come Again,” “Tenderness” and “General Public” out of your head. (And these three charted much higher in the US than any of The Beat’s singles.) Regardless, I preferred (and still do prefer) the scruffiness of The Beat. Always the rebel.

For most of the last couple of decades the two friends kept touring, eventually even doing shows that featured both “bands” – as in, the two lead singers doing songs from both General Public and The Beat. Sadly, Ranking Roger passed away in 2019 so it was up to Dave to keep the fire burning. He has, and this summer The English Beat toured the US and at the time of this writing are playing UK dates. I missed my chance to see them this time but I DO have my original Beat albums and these two snazzy General Public reissues to ease the pain. – Marsh Gooch

3/5 (BMG 538889351 and 538889361, 2023)

 

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Nick Lowe • Dig My Mood (25th Anniv. Ed.) [LP+10″]

Twenty-five years ago when NICK LOWE’s Dig My Mood was first released, I was twenty-five years younger. I mean, duh!, but my point is: I was not ready for a mature record. Of any sort. Still in my mid-thirties, I was in thrall to harder-edged music, still thinking that my alliance was with the punks, new wavers, and college rockers. Nick Lowe had been a member of that group, at least in terms of the “new wave” label given his music up until then. By 1997 I had been a college radio DJ, a writer for Seattle’s local music paper, The Rocket, and played in rock bands – not to mention “slaving” away at my day job, putting together music programming for restaurants and retail establishments. What had not occurred yet was, as Nick’s friend John Hiatt may have termed it, that slow turning indicating I had graduated into adulthood. But, being a longtime Lowe fan, I duly picked up Dig My Mood when it came out. And I didn’t really dig it.

Oh, sure, I could appreciate the musicianship, since Nick Lowe had always surrounded himself with top-notch players. Some of the guys on Dig My Mood had even played on some of his previous releases. But I just couldn’t get into the songs. “Faithless Lover,” “Man That I’ve Become,” all the rest, they were not “I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass” or “Cruel to Be Kind” or even “Raging Eyes.” Nick had grown up (well, jeez, he was in his mid-40s by then) and I hadn’t. Now, a song’s title doesn’t necessarily mean its lyrics are going to be youthful or mature, but there’s not a title here that sounds like “Crackin’ Up” or “Shake That Rat.” Alright, I think you get my point: I have grown up. Nick Lowe continues to be grown up (though he does employ his youthful wit on occasion), and his records – in an adult way – get better and better. (See my previous reviews of Nick’s stuff here.)

It’s a treat to hear Dig My Mood on this new vinyl reissue. Limited to 1500 copies, you get the original album with its dozen songs including Nick’s renditions of his own tunes (as mentioned above) as well as stellar covers of Henry McCullough’s “Failed Christian” and Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Cold Grey Light of Dawn.” As a bonus there’s a five-song 10″ EP that includes one studio recording (the great “I’ll Give You All Night to Stop”) and four live cuts, including “Cruel to Be Kind,” “Half a Boy and Half a Man,” and a nice solo rendition of the aforementioned John Hiatt’s “She Don’t Love Nobody.” All five tracks appeared on a fabulous box set, The Doings, back in 1999. (The live tracks also appeared on the 1997 CD single of Dig My Mood’s “You Inspire Me.”)

If you’ve been a Nick fan for awhile then this is a worthy addition to your collection, with real nice colored vinyl (blue for the LP, yellow for the 10″) and a great mastering job. I love the sound of Dig My Mood… now that I’m old enough to appreciate it. – Marsh Gooch

3.5/5 (YepRoc YEP-2635, 1997/2023)

#nicklowe #nudiscnet

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The Teardrop Explodes • Culture Bunker 1978-82 [CD, LP]

You’d have to be completely off your rocker to add THE TEARDROP EXPLODES’ Culture Bunker 1978-82 to your music library. A 6CD set (also available in truncated vinyl form), this compilation includes a truckload of the obscure UK band’s even more obscure recordings – along with their semi-known “hit” singles – in a handy set that will sit alongside your other box sets crying out for your attention for years to come. I’m not saying you won’t occasionally pull it down from the shelf, look over its contents, and wonder if there’s time to dig in… because you will. But it could very well be that you’ll only play Discs 1 and 2: the ones with the familiar album and singles tracks that are really, truly, what keep you interested in The Teardrop Explodes in the first place.

As I sit in my chair (it’s not a rocker, incidentally) writing these words I’m actually listening to The Teardrop Explodes’ Wilder album, their second LP (from 1981). It’s easier to write about Julian Cope’s band by listening to the more tuneful stuff. What’s on Culture Bunker that is worth checking out is, I’m afraid, going to be appealing only to the most hardcore Teardrop fan, and quite possibly only once or twice in this lifetime. For instance, the live tracks on Disc 3 (entitled From Drug Puritan to Acid King; very apropos) are from the band’s very first gigs and have an annoyingly monotonous vibe – you know, the kind of gig you go to where you can tell the band is still trying to find its sound. The Teardrop Explodes were capable of coming up with some awfully great tunes, actually, like most of Wilder, so Culture Bunker serves what may be its ostensible purpose of showing how Cope & Co. got from point A (forming in Liverpool in 1978) to point B (breaking up in 1982), with a couple of handfuls of both highlights and turmoil in between to keep the thing afloat.

“What highlights are to be found in the Culture Bunker?” you ask. Well, there are multiple versions of Teardrop classics like “Sleeping Gas,” “Treason” and “Read It in Books” (original single and live versions), demos of later Julian Cope tunes “Screaming Secrets,” “World Shut Your Mouth” and “Pussyface,” and a rare cover demo of The Zombies’ “Butcher’s Tale.”  Naturally, there’s the stone cold killer “Passionate Friend,” and further good ones “Like Leila Khaled Said,” “Bouncing Babies” and “Reward.” In all there are 95 tracks on the CD version (and 81 on the vinyl) and nearly half of them are unreleased.

Do you need Culture Bunker? No. You need food, air and water. And friends. If you’re already a Teardrop Explodes aficionado, though, you may want to snap this box set up before they’re gone. Rumor has it that it is extremely limited, which isn’t surprising when you consider the cost of keeping something like this in print. The label could make a lot more money off of some Elton John/Rolling Stones/Beatles/insert-some-other-classic-rock-band box set; Culture Bunker is the kind of thing that gets released because some A&R person in charge of “catalog” has a hard-on for putting out something like this. I guess we should thank goodness for hard-ons, then. – Marsh Gooch

3.5/5 (Universal Music Recordings 3585940, 2023)

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The Baseball Project • Grand Salami Time! [CD, LP]

“Hey! Dying quails and frozen ropes or a can of corn…” What? It’s Grand Salami Time!, that’s what. When listening to THE BASEBALL PROJECT you’re gonna encounter a whole lot of catch phrases and slang terms, but don’t let that deter you from this (home) plate of rock ’n’ roll that just happens to be all about America’s National Pastime (baseball, that is). Actually more of a platter than a plate, there are fifteen – 15! – songs about baseball here, and this is the band’s FOURTH release! Jesus, is there really that much to say about a sport that seems to be in such decline these days? Apparently there is.

The Baseball Project, if you don’t already know, is made up of Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5/Young Fresh Fellows), Peter Buck and Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate) and Linda Pitmon (Filthy Friends, Alejandro Escovedo) – a “supergroup” if you like that kind of term. And as you might expect from their pedigree, the band puts a decidedly alternative rawk spin on these songs about baseball, using all the “stuff” they can get away with to get you to take a swing… even if you’re not a fan of the game you’re likely to go into extra innings listening to Grand Salami Time! What’s really cool about this one is the songs aren’t all happy-go-lucky, ah shucks cornpone about the game. Because, as any true baseball fan will tell you, it ain’t all grand slams, triple plays and successful suicide squeezes. There’s a lot of melancholy, sadness and heartbreak (boo hoo!) in the game – just ask any Mariners fan – and The Baseball Project projects that, too. “The Yips,” “Screwball,” “Fantasy Baseball Widow” and the epically sad “Journeyman” are just a few that’ll bring tears to yer eyes. It’s definitely nice to get not only the lyrics but McCaughey’s play-by-play commentary about the songs in the liner notes, which helps explain what is or isn’t going on in the songs, especially if you’re not as hardcore about the game as these folks are. The album definitely knocks it outta the park/clears the fence/insert-your-own-favorite-baseball-cliché-for-a-good-thing here.

There may be other bands in the world dedicating themselves to one sport or another (have you heard The Duckworth Lewis Method, cricket fans?), but none are as engaging or prolific as The Baseball Project. If you’re a fan of hard hitting power pop ’n’ roll (or any of the bands these musicians are typically associated with) you’ll surely want to get out the rye bread and mustard, gramma… ’cause it’s Grand Salami Time! – Marsh Gooch

4/5 (Omnivore OVCD-517, 2023)

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The Three O’Clock • Baroque Hoedown [CD, LP]

Set your wayback machine to Los Angeles, 1982. THE THREE O’CLOCK crowd into a small recording studio and lay down their first recordings, to be released as a humble 5-song EP called Baroque Hoedown on local Frontier Records. The foursome go on to spearhead what was coined as the “Paisley Underground,” a loose group of new indie groups that included The Bangles, The Dream Syndicate and Rain Parade. A movement in which young folks of the ’80s paid tribute to young musicians from the ’60s, it didn’t so much “take off” as it did permeate the growing college rock/MTV Cutting Edge world. (A couple of those bands found fame beyond that original clique.) Make your way back to now, 40 something years later, and that lil’ ol’ extended play has continued to inspire, enough so that YepRoc Records has reissued it with four more tracks and made a proper, exciting LP out of it. Okay, “LP” may be a bit of a stretch… Baroque Hoedown, even with bonus tracks, clocks in at under 30 minutes. Still.

The Three O’Clock lead off their debut release with the curiously titled “With a Cantaloupe Girlfriend,” which certainly caught my eye as a freshman English major-slash-college radio DJ. I dropped the needle on it and it caught my ear, too, with its insistent intro drum beat and guitar/keyboard swirl-o-rama. Bassist/lead singer Michael Quercio’s nasal, boyish, English-affected voice exudes wonder and respect for the sounds that his group pay tribute to, whether he and Gregg Gutierrez, Mickey Mariano and Danny Benair are doing their own accomplished tunes (“Cantaloupe Girlfriend,” “I Go Wild,” the excellent “Marjorie Tells Me,” “As Real As Real”) or their killer cover of The Easybeats’ “Sorry.” The band created a vibe that brought mid ’60s L.A. to early ’80s L.A. without sounding dated or cloying. And at the original five songs, it definitely left me and many like-minded kids wanting more. Of the bonus tracks here – all recorded around the same time – we get original “In Love In Too” and two more covers, “Feel a Whole Lot Better” (The Byrds) and “Lucifer Sam” (Pink Floyd), that are real zingers. (These originally came out on a 1983 French release that added them to the original five.)

Well, my friends, The Three O’Clock’s Baroque Hoedown is again available for your insatiable desire to dig what was put down before… I hope you’re ready for the big smile that’s gonna appear between your lucky ears. – Marsh Gooch

4/5 (YepRoc YEP-2730, 1982/2023)

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The Damned • Darkadelic [CD, LP]

THE DAMNED are still with us. That’s basically a good thing, for it’s hard for me to imagine my life without these clowns in it. I started listening to them in my early 20s and have never stopped. The problem is, they’re just not what they used to be – which is to be expected, but still…

This week saw the release of Darkadelic, The Damned’s fourth album of new-material in the 21st century, and it’s quite similar to their last one, Evil Spirits. I declined to review that one at the time because I felt it was nowhere near as good as 2001’s Grave Disorder, a genuinely great album, so I just couldn’t do it. Still, this new one, though flawed, has some great moments. I’ll go with “Beware of the Clown” and “The Invisible Man” as the two tracks that positively stand out, but the bulk of the rest of the album feels a bit like “generic Damned” to me. And I hate to say this! I love these guys! But there’s just something missing. There’s a vague “phoning it in” feel, for one thing, and then there’s the production. Right from the start Darkadelic feels like it’s missing some top end, sounding a bit muffled until Dave Vanian’s voice comes in and tells you that the mix itself is a bit off. With Evil Spirits, with production by the great Tony Visconti, it was more an issue of the songs themselves. This time the songs are better but the production isn’t. At least they still rock.

Oh, what is a Damned fan to do? Well, in my case, I am always interested in what they’re up to so I stay tuned in. You may likely find you like Darkadelic, if only because  – despite their name – The Damned are still with us. Hallelujah. – Marsh Gooch

3/5 (earMusic 0217847EMU, 2023)

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Robyn Hitchcock • Life After Infinity [CD, CS, LP]

For a guy who’s just turned 70, ROBYN HITCHCOCK hasn’t seemed to have slowed down. In fact, he has just released Life After Infinity, an all-instrumentals album available on all formats (including cassette tape) that is his second full-length release in six months. While Shufflemania! was more like a standard “band” album*, this one’s pretty much just Robyn on instruments and UK pal/co-producer Charlie Francis on bass and percussion. (He also did the mix and mastering, trainspotters.)

If you’ve been a longtime fan you’ll know that Hitchcock has included instrumentals on his releases before, most notably on 1984’s I Often Dream of Trains, which had some really lovely tunes and textures amongst the 14 songs that made up the original release. I can’t say there’s anything spectacularly different here – and that’s a good thing. There are some beauties here, for sure, and they’re all as fleshed out as you’d hope. Indeed, what I do detect as different is that there are a handful of tunes with the kind of sound beds you’d expect to hear on one of Eno’s ambient records. On top of that you’ll hear acoustic tunes such as “Nasturtiums for Anita” and “Mr. Ringerson’s Picnic,” “Tubby Among the Nightingales” (which sounds like something from George Harrison’s Wonderwall Music), and the double-header “Daphne, Skipping” and “Pleisosaurs in the Desert,” in which the first tune makes its way into your psyche and is followed by the second, which starts out sounding like the first one in reverse but goes somewhere else.

Life After Infinity is a gorgeous little album and in some ways it’s unlike anything in Robyn Hitchcock’s discography. You really get a chance to hear all that beautiful instrumentation, unhindered by concerns of where the vocals will sit in the mix. A nice addition to this man’s oeuvre, which numbers nearly 40 albums! – Marsh Gooch

3.5/5 (Tiny Ghost [no number], 2023)

* (A band album in which the instruments were tracked separately at different studios around the globe; it was recorded during lockdown.)

[There are no examples of the songs from this album on the Internet at the time of this writing, so please enjoy these instrumental samples from the above-mentioned I Often Dream of Trains.]

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