Thin Lizzy - Shades Of A Blue Orphanage
original release by Decca, 1972 - this pressing by Future Days Recordings, 2015



I picked up this pressing a few weeks ago when Light In The Attic was having a decent sale. The sound is good on this one, if a little light on bass, but that's what EQs are made for.

This is Lizzy's second LP, and contains some great early songs from the band. Opener The Rise and Dear Demise of the Funky Nomadic Tribes is ridiculously fun, with a nice drum solo outro from the criminally underrated Brian Downey. Every track here is worth hearing, and I'm glad a decent repress is available for this LP, as originals in good shape are fairly hard to come by these days.

As a side note, the photo on the cover is not a childhood photo of the band members, as has been erroneously stated on a few different forums. The photo was chosen to be representative of the band as a bunch of ragtag kids growing up in rough Irish neighborhoods. The album title itself is a reference to the previous bands the members played in, namely Shades of Blue and Orphanage.

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Gordon Rekcikssa
Thin Lizzy - Shades Of A Blue Orphanage
original release by Decca, 1972 - this pressing by Future Days Recordings, 2015

Nice pick! I have to admit, I'm not too familiar with the early Lizzy stuff. The period from Night Life through Black Rose is amazing though. I still need to complete my collection with the classic albums I don't have.

I know Rchecka isn't a fan...maybe someday he'll come around

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John Mayer - The Search For Everything
Columbia, 2017



I've been grooving along with this CD all morning now. A great R&B/soul-tinged album that I can see myself listening to all summer. Cool, breezy songs and some fantastic smooth guitar.

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LionsMouth

I know Rchecka isn't a fan...maybe someday he'll come around

I knew he was hiding some terrible secret, I just never imagined it would be that bad.

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The Blue Nile - Hats



Discogs Page

Late 80s sophisti-pop from Scotland. This was their second album released through Linn/Virgin/A&M. Yes, the same Linn that makes high-dollar audiophile equipment. Admittedly I didn't "get" this album when I first heard it about 20 years ago. It sounded slick, overproduced, and over-dramatic to my ears. Now I really like it and appreciate what the band was trying to do. The sound is slick, but carefully put together and not overproduced for the sake of being overproduced. There is a heavy R&B/Soul influence going on (especially with Paul Buchanan's vocals) and the songs have a night-time/nocturnal feel.





Interestingly enough, on the album following this one ("Peace at Last") abandoned a lot of the electronics the band became known for prior to that. I haven't heard that one in many years and may re-buy it at some point. There was also a reunion album in 2004, which I never heard, and I believe Buchanan has done some solo albums as well, which I never heard either.

A word of warning: the old, un-remastered version of this album on CD (either U.S. or U.K. pressing) was mastered with pre-emphasis. Many newer CD players and CD ripping programs won't decode it properly. You'll know something is wrong if the album sounds oddly thin and bright when you play it. In this case, you'll need to manually decode the pre-emphasis using the Foobar IIR filter plug-in.

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