I will hopefully come back to most, if not all, of these in standalone posts before 2025 is over and done, but all are great contenders for your hard earned cash.
A pretty good week in a pretty good year, in other words...
Utopia: Gwenno
Forbidden Fruit: The Age of Consent Remixed: Bronski Beat
Same Old Riff is the second single from The Nightingales' upcoming album The Awful Truth, which arrives in April.
I quite liked the first incarnation of The Nightingales (1979-1986), though it was mainly from listening to them on John Peel's Radio 1 show. Perversely, the only records I bought were a couple of Robert Lloyd 12" singles from his brief major label solo career.
After nearly 20 years, The Nightingales reformed in 2004, with a formidable run of live shows, singles and albums. Again, I've been shockingly remiss in this regard, but Same Old Riff has prompted me to delve into their back catalogue.
Two songs from The Nightingales' first phase: debut single Idiot Strength from 1981 and Crafty Fag from their first album Pigs On Purpose, albeit in a live version from 2013.
Black Country features Robert Lloyd joined on vocals by Gina Birch, taken from the soundtrack to the 2013 documentary King Rocker by Stewart Lee and Michael Cumming. I still haven't seen this (the trailer is here if you haven't either) and I really should.
A couple more singles and videos from 2022 and then we're back to the present day with the opening song from The Awful Truth.
