Beggars Banquet

The Icicle Works - 5 Albums (2013) {5 CD Boxset Beggars Banquet - BBQCD 2107 rec 1984-1988}
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© 1984-88, 2013 Beggars Banquet Records | BBQCD 2107
New Wave / Neo-Psychedelia / Alternative

This set features the band’s first four Beggars Banquet-released albums — The Icicle Works (1984), The Small Price of a Bicycle (1985), If You Want to Defeat Your Enemy, Sing His Song (1987) and Blind (1988 )— each expanded with bonus tracks (more than 30 in total), plus a live set recorded in 1986 (minus the two encore songs, since they didn’t fit on the CD).

The Stones forsook psychedelic experimentation to return to their blues roots on this celebrated album, which was immediately acclaimed as one of their landmark achievements. A strong acoustic Delta blues flavor colors much of the material, particularly "Salt of the Earth" and "No Expectations," which features some beautiful slide guitar work…

Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle (1979) {2009 2CD Set 30th Anniversary Beggars Banquet Remaster}
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© 1979, 2009 Beggars Banquet | BBQCD 2063
New Romantic / New Wave / Synth Pop / Electronic

The Pleasure Principle was the point where the singer became a huge international solo star, even reaching the Top 10 in the United States with 'Cars' and Top 20 with the album. The Pleasure Principle pioneered electronic pop music on a new scale it was a much bigger success worldwide than Kraftwerk's releases or anything from the influential but still relatively 'culty' Bowie/Eno Berlin trilogy. And the fact that it was different and had a major impact in US Numan performed 'Cars' and 'Praying To The Aliens' in front of 40 million people on the Saturday Night Live Show means that there.

The National - Alligator (2005) {Beggars Banquet BBQCD 241}
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© 2005 Beggars Banquet Records | BBQCD 241
Rock / Indie Rock / Alternative / Chamber Pop / Sadcore

The National may sound like a garage band turned down, but there's as much primal energy lurking behind Alligator as in any mop-topped group of city kids with bloodstained Danelectros in a dusty warehouse. While Matt Berninger's lyrics and conversational delivery rely heavily on the kind of literate self-absorption that fuels so much of the indie rock scene today, he never comes off as preachy or unaware that the world would manage just fine without him; rather, he uses metaphor and humor as bullet points for a profound sense of displacement and anger. Out-of-the-blue statements like "f*ck me and make me a drink," from the brooding but lovely "Karen," are effective because the listener is brought into the story slowly, almost amiably, before being led to the plank.

The National - Boxer (2007) {Beggars Banquet BBQCD 252}
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© 2007 Beggars Banquet Records | BBQCD 252
Rock / Indie Rock / Alternative / Chamber Pop / Sadcore

The National don't do anything radically different on Boxer, but then again, they don't really need to: their literate, quietly anthemic take on indie rock seemed to have arrived fully formed on their 2001 self-titled debut. Boxer just hones in even more precisely and intimately on the heartfelt territory the band covers, with punchy-yet-polished production and orchestration by the Clogs' Padma Newsome giving these songs an intimacy and widescreen expansiveness that rivals the Arcade Fire. The album's first four songs are among the National's finest work yet: "Fake Empire" begins as a dead-of-night ballad that echoes Leonard Cohen, then peppy brass and guitars turn it into something joyous.

The Stones forsook psychedelic experimentation to return to their blues roots on this celebrated album, which was immediately acclaimed as one of their landmark achievements. A strong acoustic Delta blues flavor colors much of the material, particularly "Salt of the Earth" and "No Expectations," which features some beautiful slide guitar work. Basic rock & roll was not forgotten, however: "Street Fighting Man," a reflection of the political turbulence of 1968, was one of their most innovative singles, and "Sympathy for the Devil," with its fire-dancing guitar licks, leering Jagger vocals, African rhythms, and explicitly satanic lyrics, was an image-defining epic. On "Stray Cat Blues," Jagger and crew began to explore the kind of decadent sexual sleaze that they would take to the point of self-parody by the mid-'70s. At the time, though, the approach was still fresh, and the lyrical bite of most of the material ensured Beggars Banquet's place as one of the top blues-based rock records of all time.