Audiophile Vinyl

West Coast Consortium
All The Love In The World
Grapefruit CRSEG138T 3CDs

Subtitled ‘Complete Recordings 1964-1972’, including many demos, this fine set obviates hunting for the earlier hard-to-find anthologies to give you the group’s 76 extant recordings, 20 of which are issued for the first time. They enjoyed a lone chart entry in 1969, this set’s title, as the Consortium, but it only hints at their abilities. Almost a pastiche of British rock of the era, sunshine pop meets psychedelia, the harmonies were inspired by The Beach Boys and The Four Seasons.

Wizzard
The Singles Collection
7T’s Records QGLAM2CD200 2CDs

Roy Wood is, like Nick Lowe, one of the most criminally underappreciated rock musicians/songwriters the UK has produced. This set shows why. Since leaving The Move and ELO, he has delighted in producing pop singles; alas, street cred is only earned through albums. Each track is a perfectly crafted gem, and I defy you not to tap a toe to ‘Ball Park Incident’, ‘See My Baby Jive’ or ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day’. A guilty pleasure? Mea culpa.

Kenny Rogers
Life Is Like A Song
UMe 00602448772572 180g vinyl

This isn’t the first ‘new’ album to be posthumously assembled, but thankfully (unlike too many) it wasn’t fashioned from half-finished scraps. It contains ‘10 tracks from Kenny’s archives’, eight of them being recorded between 2008-2011 – and all previously unreleased – plus two from the 2009 box set, The First 50 Years, with ‘Tell Me That You Love Me’ remixed for this LP. Rogers left us in 2020 with a legacy of 30 or so studio albums. This one serves as a fine farewell to his fans.

Collective Soul
7even Year Itch: Greatest Hits, ’94-’01
Craft Recordings CR00669 180g vinyl

This is the debut on vinyl of the alt-rock band’s first compilation, but the original CD’s 13 tracks have been expanded by their duet with Elton John on ‘Perfect Day’ from 2000. From the majestic ‘Shine’ to the plaintive ‘The World I Know’, it’s all exquisite melodies, a prime example of the beauty of guitar-driven indie bands from Georgia. Fans also loved the CD for the non-album singles and two then-new cuts, ‘Next Homecoming’ and ‘Energy’. It’s classy stuff.

The Kinks
The Journey Part 2
BMG BMGCAT804DLP 2LPs

As The Kinks rather than some outsider curated this series, contesting the running orders and selections is pointless. Too rich a career to condense, The Kinks’ material from 1965-1975 contains the elegiac tributes to British life that inspired Blur and others, from ‘Sunny Afternoon’ and ‘A Well Respected Man’ to the immortal ‘Lola’. For the previously unreleased material alone, these are essential. Also available on CD, with 34 tracks [BMGCAT804DCD] as compared to the 27 on the LPs.

Michael Schenker Group
Is It Loud Enough?
Chrysalis CRBX1534 6CDs

Schenker completists have to acquire not just the UFO and Scorpions catalogues, but solo albums numbering in the dozens. Covering ‘1980-1983’, this corresponds to the Mk 1 lineup of the Michael Schenker Group, with 1980’s eponymous debut, MSG, Assault Attack and Built To Destroy, the last in both UK and US versions. Bonuses? A plethora: CD5 features an entire 1979 demo tape, rare mixes and single versions, while CD6 contains completely unreleased material.

Muscle Shoals Horns
Born To Get Down / Doin’ It To The Bone / Shine On
Robinsongs ROBIN69CDD 2CDs

Few session bands release their own albums – although the biggest exception, Booker T & The MGs, were stars in their own right – but if any group of backing musicians deserved to, it’s the Muscle Shoals Horns. Their prime years were the late-1960s to the mid-1980s, performing on over 300 albums. This stellar set contains the three in the title they released respectively in 1976, 1977 and 1983, plus bonus tracks. A paradigm of the dance music of the era, it’s as punchy and super-slick as you’d expect of the outfit that’s supported Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Elton John and the embodiment of funk, James Brown.