On The Turntable Pt2 August

 Music that graced my Hi-Fi during August 2026

Various Artists - 'Remix/Remodel, The Vince Clarke Remixes' - Double CD. A collection of remixes by the synth pop legend Vince Clarke, of Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure, The Assembly, VCMG and Doublespeak. It's wonderful to hear his interpretation of other artists work. 

The Sundays - 'reading,writing and arithmetic' - Vinyl LP. I absolutely love this wonderful band. This is their debut album from 1990. Beautiful, dreamy, jangly guitar pop, with the beautiful voice of Harriet Wheeler. They recorded three wonderful albums between 1990 and 1997 and then just stopped releasing music. Harriet Wheeler and her partner in life,David Gavurin were the songwriters. Apparently they have been constantly writing and recording music for decades without ever releasing it, or performing it live. The three albums have just been re-released by Parlaphone Records, so I snapped up the first one, and it's as wonderful as I remember. 

Electric Light Orchestra - 'Three Light Years' - Vinyl Boxset. ELO are a guilty pleasure of mine. One of the first bands I got into as a child. This three album boxset was released in 1978. It collects the three albums released on Jet Records in 1973,1974 and 1975, hence the title of the boxset, which plays on the three years in question  and the name of the band. The albums in question are;

'On The Third Day' - The third album by the band and the first not to include founding member Roy Wood. Jeff Lynne now took control of the group as the singer songwriter and lead guitarist and continued the symphonic rock that the band were becoming known for. It sold well in America, but didn't do too well in the UK. It's a good album, but perhaps lacks any great tunes, apart from 'Ma,Ma Ma Belle'.

'Eldorado' - Billed as "A symphony by the Electric Light Orchestra" it was symphonic prog album about a man who lived in Walter Mitty/Don Quixote type fantasy world. The songwriting was much stronger and it is big step up in quality. But as before it did well in America, but it was largely ignored in the UK. 

'Face The Music' - This is the album where ELO made the move from symphonic rock to symphonic pop. A much more commercial sound, it featured a couple of hit singles, 'Evil Woman' and my all favourite 'Strange Magic'. But as with the previous albums, it sold well in America, but failed to make the UK album chart.

Things would take off for the band in the UK in 1976, with the platinum selling 'New World Record' album and international hit singles like 'It's A Living Thing', 'Telephone Line' and 'Rockaria'. For the next few years they were one of the biggest bands in the world. But this period of the band's history was fascinating and wonderful to listen to.  

August was a very busy month, so not as much music being listened to as usual. 

Dee

💋💋💋