The Ideal Copy

Following his second covers album, Kojak Variety, Elvis Costello set out to assemble a collection of songs he had written for other artists but never recorded himself – sort of a reverse covers album. As it turned out, that idea was only used as a launching pad – the resulting album, All This Useless Beauty, is a mixture of nine old and three new songs. Given its origins, it's surprising that the record holds together as well as it does. The main strength of All This Useless Beauty is the quality of the individual songs – each song can stand on its own as an individual entity, as the music is as sharp as the lyrics. Although the music is certainly eclectic, it's accessible, which wasn't the case with Mighty Like a Rose. Furthermore, the production is more textured and punchier than Mitchell Froom's botched job on Brutal Youth. All This Useless Beauty doesn't quite add up to a major statement, but the simple pleasures it offers makes it one of the more rewarding records of the latter part of Costello's career.

For over 15 years, The Dodos have been careening, almost recklessly, towards some perfect ideal of how The Dodos should sound. First formed with the intention of creating a record that felt and sounded how the inside of a guitar might, the band have spent the intervening years sprinting towards that platonic ideal. The propulsion of that chase has always been palpable, even in the duo’s strangest, quietest moments — a gasping thrill conjured as if metallurgically from the interplay between virtuosically fingerpicked guitar and bracingly intricate drumming. Now, after so long, finally: Grizzly Peak. The eighth album by Meric Long and Logan Kroeber still plays as if in freefall, but things are different this time. Meditative and sometimes painful in its emotional excavation, over the course of ten anthemic, gorgeously-rendered tracks, Grizzly Peak reveals itself as that place Long and Kroeber were always desperately trying to find.

Expanded double disc editions on vinyl and CD of LC, the second studio set by The Durutti Column, originally issued by Factory in 1981 and ranked among Vini Reilly's finest albums.

The Divine Comedy - Foreverland (2016) {Divine Comedy Records Limited DCRL107CD}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 258 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 99 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 73 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2016 Divine Comedy Records Limited / [PIAS] | DCRL107CD
Chamber Pop / Baroque / Alternative / Indie Pop / Orchestral Pop

Plenty of bands and artists have tried to perfect chamber pop into an ideal mixture classical ideas, instrumentation, and compositions with modern sensibilities and textures. Some end up landing mostly in the pop category with a few strings and horns sprinkled in, other veer far into the experimental and lose any pop appeal entirely. But Neil Hannon, leader and only consistent member of the Divine Comedy, apparently hit the ideal balance sometime in the late ‘90s and just keeps running with it. But Foreverland doesn’t sound like the result of an artist that’s been at it for over two decades. It’s still fresh and impressively in tune with the rest of the musical landscape.

Paul Desmond - The Complete RCA Albums Collection (2011) {6CD Box Set, Sony Music 88697939412 rec 1961-1964}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.16 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 908 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 514 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1962-66, 2011 RCA / Legacy / Sony Music | 88697939412
Jazz / Cool / Standards / Bossa Nova / Saxophone

The most complete package to date of Paul Desmond's RCA works. 6-CD set with all six original albums he cut for the RCA inprint (five of the six albums feature melodic guitar giant Jim Hall, the ideal musical partner for Desmond). All come in nice mini-LP replica sleeves reproducing original cover art, including 24 bonus tracks, and a comprenhensive booklet with full discographical details, rare in-studio photos and liner notes by Grammy-winning box producer Richard Seidel.

“Curse” was intended as the Pink Dots’ first official album, but a surprise request from a label to release the cassette album “ Brighter Now” on vinyl meant the proposed debut was delayed for a year. In the interim, many new songs were recorded, the line-up of the band changed and the entire complexion of the album changed drastically. It remains a strong favourite within the Dots’ community to this day.

A pop music band from California in the sunshine pop genre, The Association are known for their tight vocal harmony. In the 1960s the group had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts…