Cyndi Lauper, She’s So Unusual, 1983 on Portrait

Lauper’s debut solo album, She’s So Unusual had four top-five singles: “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” “Time After Time,” “She Bop,” and “All Through The Night.”

A number of the songs were covers – “Money Changes Everything” by The Brains, “When You Were Mine” by Prince, “All Through The Night” by Jules Shear, and even “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” which was written by Robert Hazard who had performed it with multiple bands and made a demo recording.

Truly a must-have album for an 80s music fan.

My copy—via a record fair at Mill No. 5 in Lowell MA—is a 1984 pressing with the original inner liner and Portrait label.

#1980s #1983 #CyndiLauper #JulesShear #LowellMA #MillNo5 #Portrait #prince #RobertHazard #TheBrains #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylfinds

LP# 0136
Judy Collins ~ Whales & Nightingales ~ 1970, Columbia Pitman Pressing CP

Time Passes Slowly
Farewell To Tarwathie 🐋
Amazing Grace
Oh, Had I a Golden Thread
Nightingale, No. I & II
Prothalamium
Song for David
Marieke
Gene's Song
Sons Of
Simple Gifts
The Patriot Game

#VinylCommunity #NowSpinning #VinylCollection

XTC
Oranges And Lemons
2020 UK 2xLP reissue

Last few spins before I head to Boston for a week, so I’m going for a few I haven’t heard in a while, starting with this one.

Oranges And Lemons reminds me of something I’ve wanted to ask for a while, but keep forgetting.

It is the second instalment in what might be my favorite 3-album stretch by anybody ever.

The run of Oranges And Lemons bookended by Skylarking and Nonsuch is so astonishing, that it’s quite remarkable.

For me personally, the only other run I can hold in the same regard is Radiohead’s stretch from The Bends to Kid A, The Cure’s from Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me to Wish, or the first three Sabbath albums.
Maybe other than Radiohead, I’d have to put the rest under the XTC stretch.

This was the 2nd XTC album I bought with my own $, & like Nonsuch, the first 3 songs are total master classes in pop songwriting.

#vinyl #vinylrecords #vinylcommunity #vinylcollection #retro #vintage #art #music #1980s #80sMusic #80s #xtc

THE ONLY ONES
Special View
2025 Europe Ltd. Edition reissue
#668 of 750
Red Translucent vinyl

Off to Boston in about 14 hours; returning to my homeland of Massholia for 7 days to do some hard digging and to see some friends.
So I’m gonna enjoy listening to some records until I leave.

This is probably my favorite compilation of ANY band’s body of work. I love The Only Ones so much, particularly Peter Perrett’s songwriting.

Their one big, instantly recognizable song aside (I first heard “Another Girl, Another Planet” via the Replacements’ cover version), they had MANY great songs, most of which are on Special View.

Killer band, timeless songs.

And kudos to Music On Vinyl for an excellent sounding reissue.

BTW…
Music On Vinyl has reissued each of their first three studio albums over the past two years, and they’re all great, and readily available.

#vinyl #vinylrecords #vinylcommunity #vinylcollection #retro #vintage #art #music #powerpop #1970s #70s #70smusic #theonlyones

🇬🇧 The Smiths "Hatful of Hollow" – 1984

A collection of early sessions and singles that capture the band’s raw brilliance with jangling guitars, poetic melancholy, and Morrissey at his most unfiltered...

#indierock #postpunk #alternative #britpop #80smusic #vinyl #music #vinylrecords #vinylcollection #vinylcollector #nowspinningonvinyl #nowspinning #nowlistening

Various Artists, The Best of Music and Rhythm, 1983 on PVC Records

Shortened single-LP version (there’s a 2xLP version as well, PVC 201) of a record released to commemorate and benefit the WOMAD festival (World of Music and Dance). Peter Gabriel founded WOMAD as an organization in 1980 and the 1982 festival was the first.

The festival for which this LP serves as a benefit was held at the Royal Bath and West Showground, near Shepton Mallet in Somerset, from Friday, July 16th, until Sunday, July 18th, 1982. The W.O.M.A.D. festival intended to focus wider public attention upon the traditional and contemporary arts of non-west cultures, as practiced in the U.K. and throughout the world.

Wonderful eclectic compilation including Gabriel, XTC, David Byrne, and the English Beat (credited as “The Beat” on the label, but “The English Beat” on the cover- it is a US pressing), along with Mighty Sparrow, Ekome, Prince Nico Mbarga, and Rico.

My copy via a record fair at Mill No. 5 in Lowell MA.

#DavidByrne #Ekome #LowellMA #MightySparrow #MillNo5 #PeterGabriel #PVCRecords #Rico #TheEnglishBeat #variousArtists #vinyl #vinylcollection #vinylfinds #WOMAD #WorldMusic #XTC