The Wild Swans - The Coldest Winter for a Hundred Years CD




2011 from 80s guitar pop group. At this point, well, really after "Bringing Home the Ashes", the Wild Swans were basically a Paul Simpson solo vehicle. Either way you look at it, it's hard to believe the guy can come back more than 20 years after the previous record and deliver an album this strong. Other than the occasional modern production touch, this could've easily been released in the late 80s or early 90s. It's also the least pop-oriented of any Wild Swans material IMHO. Lots of atmosphere on this one. A lot of the lyrics seem to deal with memories, places, historical stuff, etc.

This expanded edition has almost an entire album's worth of bonus tracks. I believe this has recently been reissued on vinyl as well in a deluxe expended edition format.

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The Wolfgang Press - Standing Up Straight LP



Not one of the more popular groups that has ever been on 4AD, I'm guessing. This band is an odd bunch. There are sections that are dark, rhythmic, noisy, and other bits that are more atmospheric and melodic with crooning vox.

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Let's Active - Cypress LP



Mitch Easter's band from the 80s, and this is their first LP. Maybe you don't know him but he did some production work on the first couple of LPs by R.E.M. Of course his band wasn't nearly as commercially successful as that group, so many people are completely unaware of them. They played a brand of moody jangle pop that fans of groups like R.E.M. and Game Theory would probably appreciate, but didn't really sound like either of those groups per se. You can often pick up their stuff cheap because they're fairly under-appreciated today. My copy is a U.S. promo pressing on I.R.S., pressed on Quiex vinyl that looks black but is actually translucent green when held up to the light.

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The Wild Flowers - The Joy of It All LP



I don't know a whole lot about this band other than that one of the members ended up leaving after this LP to form the Mighty Lemon Drops. Like the Lemon Drops, this is a sort of dark-ish, neo-psychedelic guitar pop. This band is a good bit edgier and darker than any of the Lemons first three LPs though, and I tend to prefer it over them. This is one of those LPs I picked up direct cheap because it looked interesting.

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Solid Space - Space Museum
Minimal Folk Wave 1982







The whole album is fantastic