Cream of The Crate: CD's #18- Thomas Dolby: Hyperactive

"The best damned synth-pop record ever, period."[Musician Magazine]


CD Cover

This is number eighteen in the series of albums I'm featuring as part of an on-going retrospective of CD's in my personal collection. The series is called, "Cream of The Crate (CD's)", and they represent CD albums that I believe are of significant musical value, either because of their rarity, because they represent the best of a style or styles of music or because their is something unique about the group or the music.
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"[The Sun Aint Gonna Shine] is an all-or-nothing existential ballad, a Spector-style wall of sound fronted by Scott's huge voice." (The Guardian - March 2014)


Album Cover

This is album number one hundred and seventeen in the series of retro-reviews of both vinyl and Cd albums in my collection.

The series is called "Cream of The Crate " and each review represents an album that I believe is of significant musical value, either because of it's rarity, because it represents the best of a style or styles of music or because there is something unique about the group or the music.
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"My playing is much more raw and rhythmic, John’s much more melodic and light. You put the two together, and it’s a really nice combination.” (Bert Jansch - Uncut 2010)
"Bert Jansch is, in all probability, the best contemporary writer of folk songs in the English language" (Bob Jones - Broadside Magazine Cambridge)
"(John Renbourn) First hailed as an acoustic guitar hero of "folk baroque" in the 60s" (The Guardian, November 2011)


This is album review number one hundred and twenty six in the series of retro-reviews of both vinyl and CD albums from my collection.
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"(The album) is a winner alright, paced and pitched for today."(Jim Carroll - New Music Express 1992)
"They were definitely at the top of the chain when it came to purveyors of quality urbane pop of the time." (This review)



This is album review number One Hundred and Eighty Six in the series of retro-reviews of both vinyl and CD albums from my collection.
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"It would be nice to turn on the radio and hear something that didn't make you feel like smashing up the kitchen and strangling the cat." [Joe Strummer]
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Welcome to Listen To Older Voices, a program produced Rob Greaves for Wesley Mission Victoria and podcast through the Toorak Times.

Listen To Older Voices presents the stories, views and opinions of our older citizens. It is predominantly in a life & times format, with interviewees reflecting upon their lives from earliest memories. An underlying principal of the program is to promote the concept of positive ageing, reinforcing the principle that older people have & continue to make a valuable contribution to both their local & wider community.


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"A really stunning & great looking digi-pack from Aztec Records, compiling all the singles from the Australian Havoc Records label in the 70's." (Record Heaven)
"An excellent collection of early 70's Australian Rock / Pop/." (Rock On Vinyl)
"Aztec Music prides itself on preserving Australia's rich music history and with this release, they do it with class and style." (This review)




This is album review number Two Hundred in the series of retro-reviews of both vinyl and CD albums from my collection.
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"The blues is born with you. When you born in this world, you were born with the blues. (Lightnin’ Hopkins, 1967)
"Sam (Lightnin') Hopkins, one of the great country blues singers and perhaps the greatest single influence on rock guitar players." (New York Times Obituary, Feb 1, 1982 )
"These are not necessarily the best known Lightnin' Hopkins tracks, but in many ways that makes this CD even more valuable." (This review)



This is album review number One Hundred and Ninety Nine in the series of retro-reviews of both vinyl and CD albums from my collection.
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"The reality of Plastic Ono Band is that it contains eleven of Lennon’s most accessible and gorgeous melodies and riffs." (Gerry Mullholand - BBC review 2010)
"An album that will be as much analysed as Sgt. Pepper over the years." (Billboard - 1971)
"It remains one of the most audacious, iconoclastic albums in all of rock and roll." (Guitar World 2016)
"The album certainly shows that he had yet to work through many unresolved matters, and that he still had much anger in him. However he was a brilliant man and knew how to channel these elements in such a way to create some brilliant, memorable and haunting tracks." (This review)


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"Sam Moore and Dave Prater's string of soul and pop hits made them the '60s' most successful black vocal duo." (The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)
"Sam & Dave created some of their century's most enduring music in the pop form." (Stylus Magazine January 2007)
"There can be no argument that as a duo, Sam and Dave introduced the previously successful sound of the black church music, so successfully to pop music." (This review)



This is album review number One Hundred and Ninety Seven in the series of retro-reviews of both vinyl and CD albums from my collection.
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