Back in time

Blockbuster ‘(WHAT’S THE STORY) MORNING GLORY?’ By Wonderwall Legends OASIS Is 30 Today

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

2 October 2025

Manchester heroes OASIS released their 2nd LP, blockbuster,
(WHAT’S THE STORY) MORNING GLORY? on 2 October 1995,
today 30 years ago today.,

It made them a worldwide rock phenomenon. The album sold a record
breaking 345,000 copies in its first week in the UK before going on to
spend 10 weeks at number one.

It also led to the band’s breakthrough in the US, reaching #4
on the Billboard 200 and being certified 4× platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Rolling Stone Magazine wrote: “What’s the Story is more than a natural
progression, it’s a bold leap forward that displays significant musical and
personal growth. Tension and instability have been inherent traits of great
rock teams. For Oasis, the addition of shared genes gives their songs extra
impact and dimension.”

TUTV: I saw Oasis 28 times (so far), including
Wembley Stadion, London, on August 3. I guess
I’m a fan.


Oasis, Wembley London, August 3rd – Photo by Turn Up The Volume

Noel Gallagher: “Those songs are just a privilege to be a part of. It’s like when
you do great gigs, you come off stage and say well it was a privilege to be at that
gig, regardless of my part in it. ‘Wonderwall’, ‘Don’t Look Back’ and ‘Champagne
Supernova’ when I play them sometimes I think ‘wow it is a privilege to be a part
of this.”

Liam Gallagher: “Without my voice he’d still be ironing Clint boons knickers.”
A reference to Noel’s past as a roadie for Inspiral Carpets.

SINGLES: Some Might Say / Wonderwall /
Don’t Look Back In Anger / Champagne Supernova

– SOME MIGHT SAY –

– WONDERWALL –

– DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER –

– CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA –

ALBUM

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There They Go – THE LA’S Released Their Brilliant Pop Debut Album 35 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

1 October 2025

Band: THE LA’S (Liverpool)
Who: Indie pop heroes from Liverpool, fronted by Lee Mavers
and John Power on bass and backing vocals. Power left the band
after this debut to form his own, named Cast , who were one of
the support acts for the UK dates on the Oasis reunion tour.

Active: 1983–1992, 1994–1995,
2005, 2011

They released their eponymous LP, their one
and only, on 1 October 1990, today 35 years ago.

AllMusic/Stephen Erlewine: “Some albums exist outside of time or place,
gently floating on their own style and sensibility. Of those, the La’s lone album
may be the most beguiling, a record that consciously calls upon the hooks and
harmonies of 1964 without seeming fussily retro, a trick that anticipated the
cheerful classicism of the Brit-pop ’90s.”

Mavers about the LP at the time: “We hate it. It never captured anything
that we were about. To cut a long story short, too many cooks spoil the broth.”

KEY SINGLE
More than 463 million
streams on Spotify.

ALBUM


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Biography

NINA SIMONE – Highly Influential Jazz/Blues/Soul Legend Released Her Classic LP ‘PASTEL BLUES’ 60 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

1 October 2025

Inimitable jazz/blues/soul voice, sublime piano player and also poignant political activist NINA SIMONE (born named Eunice Kathleen Waymon in 1933 and passed away in 2003)
is a musical icon who influenced a lot of artists, then and now.

Big names such as Alicia Keys, Lauryn Hill, Meshell Ndegeocello, Rhiannon Giddens,
Janelle Monáe, Tracy Chapman, John Legend, Aretha Franklin, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Nick Cave,
and many others, including jazz artists like Cassandra Wilson and Dianne Reeves
claimed to be inspired by Simone.

Her final album A Single Woman came out in 1993.

Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and pop.
Her piano playing was strongly influenced by baroque and classical music, especially Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice.

One of her most praised and cited album is PASTEL BLUES.
It was released 60 years ago today, on 1 October 1960.

Pitchfork in retrospect review: “Nina Simone was a Juilliard-trained
classical pianist and a preternaturally adroit interpreter of jazz, folk,
and pop”

The magazine placed it No. 21 on their best 60s album list (pretty impressive
in a decade where countless classics came out. From Marvin Gaye, James Brown,
CCR, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, The Stones, Frank Sinatra, The Who and
countless more).

As many among us I know her greatest hits for a long tume, but to be
honest, I discovered this diamond only a few years ago. It’s an astonishing
vocal, stripped to the bone, collection of traditionals..


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TOM WAITS – Legendary Barfly Crooner Released His 9th Album ‘RAINDOGS’ Today 40 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

30 September 2025

Legendary barfly crooner TOM WAITS (aged 75 now) released his
9th LP RAINDOGS on 30 September 1985, today 40 years ago.

A concept record about the urban dispossessed of New York City.
Rain Dogs is generally considered the middle album of a trilogy
that includes Swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild Years.

Tom Waits: “I didn’t really want to be part of a clique or a niche. But I also was
looking for my own voice, as a writer, y’know? And a world I could call my own.”

Artwork: The man on the cover looks definitely like Waits, but the photo is actually
one of a series taken by the Swedish photographer Anders Petersen at Café Lehmitz (near the Hamburg red-light street called Reeperbahn, where The Beatles used to play gigs in small clubs in the early days) in the late 1960s. The man and woman on the front sleeve are called Rose and Lilly.

Rolling Stone Magazine: “Rain Dogs insists on nosing its way
around the barrooms and back alleys Waits has so often visited
before.”

SINGLE

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NEIL YOUNG Released His Melancholic 28th Album ‘PRAIRIE WIND’ 20 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

27 September 2025

Living legend NEIL YOUNG released his 28th longplayer
PRAIRIE WIND today 20 years ago, on 27 September 2005.

An acoustic-based record reminiscent of his earlier albums Harvest and Harvest Moon.
The album’s songs find Young pondering his own mortality, as he was undergoing treatment for an aneurysm during the album’s production.

Songs were also inspired by the extended illness of his father, Canadian sportswriter and novelist Scott Young, who passed a few weeks after the album was completed. The LP is dedicated in part to the elder Young.

It peaked at #11 in the US and #22 in the UK.

Pitchfork wrote: “That voice, alternately gentle and strident, tender and outraged,
has held up surprisingly well, gaining gritty authority with age. His few cracks and
wrinkles just reinforce the sense of wistful nostalgia that suffuses Prairie Wind as
well as almost all his other folk-rock albums since Harvest Moon, if not since
Harvest.”

Vintage Young melancholia.


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Neil Young Archives – All Albums

3 Classic Albums Released Today 26 September In…

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

– 26 September 1995 –

Artist: PRINCE
June 7, 1958 – April 21, 2016

Album: THE GOLD EXPERIENCE
No. 6 in the US, No. 4 in the UK.
His 17th.

The New York Times wrote: “A proficient album, not a startling one,
most of its songs are variations and retreads of previous Prince efforts.”

SINGLE

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– 26 September 1994 –

Band: MASSIVE ATTACK
Active: 1988–present

Album: PROTECTION
No. 4 in the UK and No. 19 in the US.
Their 2nd one.

Rolling Stone said: “Cool, sexy stuff, it smoothly fuses dub,
club and soul, grounding its grace in sampled hip-hop beats.”

SINGLE

ALBUM


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– 26 September 1994 –

Band: R.E.M.
Active: 1980–2011

Album: MONSTER
No. 1 in the UK and US.
Their 9th.

NME said: “At best stunning, at worst merely diverting, Monster sounds
like the album they ‘had’ to make, to clear out their system, a simple prop
to occupy our time.”

SINGLE

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DAVID BOWIE – Fascinating 20th Album ‘1. OUTSIDE’ Was Released Today 30 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

25 September 2025

DAVID BOWIE released his 20th LP, named OUTSIDE ((stylised as ‘1.Outside’ and
subtitled ‘The Nathan Adler Diaries: A Hyper-cycle’) on 25 September 1995, today
30 years ago. It generated mixed criticism.

One of his best in my Bowie book. He mixed several styles and genres to a challenging
and fascinating entirety, even though its total length was 74 minutes. A long, arousing, multi-faceted journey, totally worth the ride. Listening to this record is an event. Once again he showed his musical
chameleon expertise.

It was produced by his Berlin-era buddy Brian Eno.
It went to No. 8 in the UK, and to #21 in the US.

The Guardian (British newspaper wrote: “An excellent David Bowie album,
a genuine creative rebirth. Threatening and murky. His gift for the charismatically
disturbing seems to have reasserted itself.”

The Los Angeles Times said: “Overall, Bowie experiments in genres
that, by 1995, were being made more successfully by other artists.”

SINGLE

ALBUM


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AC/DC Released Their 12th Album ‘THE RAZORS EDGE’ Today 25 Years Ago

Posted on by JL

24 September 2025

Australian‘s riff devils AC/DC released their 12th LP, titled
THE RAZORS EDGE today 25 years ago, on 24 September 1990.

A million-seller that went to #2 in the US (going 6 times platinum
over the years), #4 in the UK, #3 in Australia and #1 in Canada.

AllMusic said: “Although AC/DC’s popularity had decreased by the early ’90s,
the band still had a lot of life left in it. Arguably the Australian headbangers’ strongest album in over half a decade, The Razors Edge is quintessential AC/DC – rowdy, abrasive, unapologetically fun metal full of blistering power chords, memorable hooks, and testosterone-driven lyrics.”

Schoolboy Angus Young about the smashing single Thunderstruck (almost 2 billion streams on Spotify): “It started off from a little trick I had on guitar. I played it to Mal and he said “Oh, I’ve got a good rhythm idea that will sit well in the back.” We built the song up from that. We fiddled about with it for a few months before everything fell into place. Lyrically, it was really just a case of finding a good title. We came up with this thunder thing and it seemed to have a good ring to it. AC/DC = Power. That’s the basic idea.”

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BLACK SABBATH Released Their 2nd LP ‘PARANOID’ 55 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

18 September 2025

Metal pioneers BLACK SABBATH released their 2nd LP, named PARANOID in the UK, today 55 years ago, on 18 September 1970 (the day Jimi Hendrix died). It was released
in the US on 7 January 1971.

The longplayer was originally titled War Pigs, but the record company allegedly
changed it out of fear of a backlash from supporters of the ongoing Vietnam War.

The front cover, with the original title in mind, was designed and shot by Keith McMillan
in Black Park, Buckinghamshire. His assistant, Roger Brown, was the weirdo with the sword. It was a choice by Vertigo Records with the potential visual and commercial impact in mind, and was designed by Tony Iommi.

Ozzy: “What the fuck does a bloke dressed as a pig with a sword in his hand
got to do with being paranoid, I don’t know, but they decided to change the
album title without changing the artwork.”

It featured 3 of their epic hammers, Paranoid,
War Pigs (highly relevant again) and Iron Man.

The LP peaked at #4 in the UK and hit the top spot in the US.

Rolling Stone Magazine said in a retrospective review: “Sabbath ruled for bummed-out
kids in the Seventies, and nearly every heavy-metal and extreme rock band of the last three decades, including Metallica, Nirvana and Slipknot, owes a debt of worship to Iommi’s crushing” guitar riffs, Ward and Butler’s visigoth rhythm section and Osbourne’s agonized bray.”

TITLE TRACK
More than 1,455 billion
streams on Spotify.

Geezer Butler: “‘Paranoid’ was about depression, because I didn’t really know the difference between depression and paranoia. It’s a drug thing; when you’re smoking a joint you get totally paranoid about people, you can’t relate to people. There’s that crossover between the paranoia you get when you’re smoking dope and the depression afterwards.”

ALBUM


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COCTEAU TWINS Released Their 6th Album ‘HEAVEN OR LAS VEGAS’ 35 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

Significant longplayers from yesteryear

17 September 2025

Scottish synth-pop trio COCTEAU TWINS, featuring Robin Guthrie (guitars, drum machine), Will Heggie (bass), and Elizabeth Fraser (vocals), active from 1979-1997, released their 6th album HEAVEN OF LAS VEGAS on 17 September 1990, today 35 years ago.

It peaked at number 7 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the band’s most commercially successful release. Music critics have categorised Heaven or Las Vegas as a dream and ambient pop.

The album carries psychedelic, experimental and electronic textures, especially in its soundscapes. It displays musical evolution, with the music becoming more accessible, warmer, and more inviting.

Regarding the artwork, the band wanted a visual representation that would
capture “the ethereal” The final artwork is a long exposure of Christmas tree
lights against a colour backdrop, with its typography produced by hand on
an acetate overlay.

Rob Morton of The New York Sun described it as “a colorful
swash of Vegas neon swirling against a deep blue and red sky.

SINGLE

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