What Are You Listening To?

[CRAZY-HORSE]

    

BONEY M  "love for sale"  vinyl 1977

posted the debut album a couple of pages back...
this is their second of eight studio albums, i own all eight
Boney M are a guilty pleasure for me LOL
two album covers shown, the bondage/slave cover is the one most countries got,
the chic disco cover is the one chosen for US and Canada, i prefer this one
so,
ten tracks on here, three of which are covers:
Cole Porter's "love for sale"
CCR's "have you ever seen the rain" and
Yardbirds' "still im sad"
i doslike the CCR cover but like the other two
"ma baker" and "belfast" were top-10 hits in most countries but only the former charted in the US
a decent disco/reggae-pop album IMO but not as good as the debut
I LIKE THIS ALBUM

side 1:

1:  ma baker  ***
2:  love for sale  **
3:  belfast  ***
4:  have you ever seen the rain  *
5:  gloria can you waddle  *

side 2:

1:  plantation boy  **
2:  motherless child  **
3:  silent lover  *
4:  a woman can change a man  *
5:  still im sad  **

3s -  2
2s -  4
1s -  4

rating:  1.8

fave:

[CRAZY-HORSE]

BONEY M   "nightflight to venus"  vinyl  1978

their third studio album
still following their copy and paste styled reggae tinged dance pop style
two covers on here and both done in their style and both actually work IMO:
Neil Young's "heart of gold" and Roger Miller's "king of the road".
it was their only album to chart in the US peaking at #134 but hit top-10 just about everywhere else
a very good album, their best of the first three.
I LOVE THIS ALBUM


tracks:

side 1:

1:  nightflight to venus  ***
2:  rasputin  ***
3:  painter man  ***
4:  he was a steppenwolf  **
5:  king of the road  **

side 2:

1:  rivers of babylon  ***
2:  voodoonight  *
3:  brown girl in the ring  ***
4:  never change lovers in the middle of the night  **
5:  heart of gold  **

3s -  5
2s -  4
1s -  1

rating:  2.4

fave:

[CRAZY-HORSE]

BONEY M  "oceans of fantasy"  vinyl 1979

their fourth studio album
they now call their sound euro-disco/reggae
two covers on here, Sam & Dave's "hold on, im coming" and Beatles' "two of us"
the song "el lute" has a distinct ABBA "fernando" vibe to it
another really good reggae-dance-pop album for me
maybe not quite as good as the previous one but still scores the same 2.4
I LOVE THIS ALBUM

side 1:

1:  let it all be music  **
2:  gotta go home  ***
3:  bye bye bluebird  *
4:  bahama mama  ***
5:  hold on, im coming  **
6:  ribbons of blue  ***

side 2:

1:  oceans of fantasy  **
2:  el lute  ***
3:  no more chain gang  ***
4:  im born again  ***
5:  no time to lose  **
6:  calender song  **

3s -  6
2s -  5
1s -  1

rating:  2.4

fave:

[CRAZY-HORSE]

BONEY M  "boonoonoonoos"  vinyl 1981

the German/Carribean reggae/dance-pop band's fifth studio album
the last to feature enigmatic and charismatic Bobby Farrell
album title is Carribean for "happiness" but this album is far from that IMO
Wiki says they recorded nearly a hundred songs during the sessions, i suspect they were struggling for the right sound
there are two covers on here:
Sue Thompson's "sad movies" which i okay once it gets going and...
Mike Batt's "ride to agadir" which is a respectable yet modest version of his original (i will link that so any Batt fans can check it out)
the rest of the songs for the most part have lost that infectious reggae-dance vibe of earlier albums so it feels like the spark has gone
only one song i love on here and half of the album i just do not care for becasue of that
I DO NOT LIKE THIS ALBUM

side 1:

1:  boonoonoonoos  *
2:  boonoonoonoos/train to skaville  **
3:  silly confusion  *
4:  ride to agadir  **
5:  jimmy  *
6:  african moon  **

side 2:

1:  we kill the world  *
2:  homeland africa  *
3:  malaika  **
4:  consuela biaz  ***
5:  breakaway  *
6:  sad movies  **
7:  goodbye my friend  *

3s -  1
2s -  5
1s -  7

rating:  1.6

the Mike Batt cover:  Boney M. - Ride To Agadir (Boney M. - Ein Sound geht um die Welt 12.12.1981)

fave has an ABBA vibe to it 

[CRAZY-HORSE]

BONEY M  "christmas album"  vinyl  1981

their sixth studio album, second album of 1981 
i have three Boney M cds, a compilation and two festive/yuletide albums
this is what this group are best at IMO
their vocals and harmonies blend well together with these types of songs
excellent stuff that is on almost constant rotation during the lead up to christmas festivities
I LOVE THIS ALBUM

side 1:

1.  little drummer boy  ***
2.  white christmas  **
3.  feliz navidad  ***
4.  jingle bells  ***
5.  winter fairy-tale  **
6.  mary's bo child/oh my lord  ***

side 2:

1.  christmas medley  **
2.  petit papa noel  **
3.  zions daughter  ***
4.  when a child is born  ***
5.  darkness is falling  ***
6.  i'll be home for christmas  **

3s -  7
2s -  5
1s -  0

rating:  2.6

fave:

[CRAZY-HORSE]

BONEY M  "ten thousand lightyears"  vinyl 1984

their seventh studio album
only charted in their homeland (Germany) and barely dented the charts
side one has a concept from what i can gather, 
seems to be about leaving earth in the near future (2oo1) to look for a better planet and it also has more of a guitar driven sound than previous releases
side two has more of a dance-pop vibe going on
one cover on here, Tommy Roe's "dizzy' which is actually really good plus a re-recording of one of their earlier tracks called "jimmy"
i like the new version but disliked their original version
all up, an surprisingly good album and even more surprised by the high score it gets
I LOVE THIS ALBUM

side 1:

1:  exodus (noahs ark 2001)  ***
2:  wild planet  ***
3:  future world  ***
4:  where did you go  ***
5:  10,000 lightyears  ***
6:  i feel good  ***

side 2:

1:  somewhere in the world  **
2:  bel ami  **
3:  living like a movie star  **
4:  dizzy  ***
5:  the alibama  **
6:  jimmy  **
7:  barbarella fortuneteller  **

3s -  7
2s -  5
1s -  0

rating:  2.5

fave:

[CRAZY-HORSE]

BONEY M  "eye dance" vinyl 1985

their eighth and final album
Bobby Farrell returns on a couple of tracks here to try to boost their flagging fortunes
but alas, it didnt work, album failed to chart anywhere
even the girls didnt sing on most tracks, studio session girls took over on the other songs
theur distinct logo is missing from the cover and the band are not shown on the cover art which shows just how fragmented it had all become.
two covers on here and plenty of samples, the covers are:
Stevie Wonder's "my cherie amour" and 10CC's "dreadlock holiday".
songs have none of the charm of their distinct style, in fact for the most part the tracks are nondescript at best
a sad end to an enjoyable series of albums
their manager/producer/songwriter Frank Farian dumped them after this album and went on to produce Milli Vanilli.
I DO NOT LIKE THIS ALBUM

side 1:

1:  young, free and single  *
2:  todos buenos  *
3:  give it up  *
4:  sample city  *
5:  my cherie amour  *

side 2:

1:  eye dance  *
2:  got cha loco  *
3:  dreadlock holiday  *
4:  chica da silva  **
5:  bang bang lulu  **

3s -  0
2s -  2
1s -  8

rating:  1.2

fave is actually a traditional Carribean folk song which shows how bad the rest of the album is:

[CRAZY-HORSE]

ROBBIE WILLIAMS   "life thru a lens"

from Lynne's cd collection
his debut solo album of twelve, released in 1997
Lynne and I own all of them between us
i have never owned this one but i did love all of the singles from it back in the day
if Freddie Mercury is the 'greatest frontman/performer' ever, which i think most people would acknowledge, IMO Robbie Williams is a close second and i say this after seeing him live on several occasions.
a decent album, nothing that i didnt like on it and of the twelve tracks i loved five which means
I LIKE THIS ALBUM  (rating:  2.3)

sheer brilliance from Mr williams:

[CRAZY-HORSE]

SQUEEZE aka UK SQUEEZE  "greatest hits" cd, 1992

UK pop band
a compilation, only album i own
twenty UK hits on here but only three i like,
well two that arent bad and one i love
i just never got the attraction for these guys and still dont
I DO NOT LIKE THIS ALBUM

favourite by a long shot: