Alan's Album Archives

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About Alan's Album Archives
Born in the nexus point of Britain (well, the Midlands anyway), the author has swapped the concrete paradise of Stafford for ...the concrete paradise of Ormskirk/Skelmersdale. Along the way he got a music GCSE and A level (including a national award for his composing work) and music theory grades 3-5 (his compositions can be heard online through the link at www.alanasalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk if any of The Beach Boys want to get their own back and review them!) He was also awarded an English and History degree from St Martin's College in Carlisle for his ability to make 3000-word essays quadruple in length overnight (which makes sense given the size of this book!; Carlisle remains his spiritual home, whenever it isn't raining - which is, sadly, most of the time). His artistic crest is the following description of a record: 'two parts melodious funk to one part Theolonious Monk'! He started Alan's Album Archives to give him something to get up for after getting poorly from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, originally intending to stop after six months and at 101 short reviews: he didn't quite succeed, or you wouldn't be reading this now!
You can read more at www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk, see the collection of Alan's Album Archives Youtube Videos starring our mascot Max The Singing Dog at www.youtube.com/user/AlansArchives, comment on the author's 'Best Ever Albums' top 100 chart at http://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=3692, follow the author on Twitter under the username @alansarchives, visit his facebook page @alansalbumarchives and listen to his music at https://soundcloud.com/alan-pattinson - though probably not all at the same time, you might get a headache!
You can read more at www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk, see the collection of Alan's Album Archives Youtube Videos starring our mascot Max The Singing Dog at www.youtube.com/user/AlansArchives, comment on the author's 'Best Ever Albums' top 100 chart at http://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=3692, follow the author on Twitter under the username @alansarchives, visit his facebook page @alansalbumarchives and listen to his music at https://soundcloud.com/alan-pattinson - though probably not all at the same time, you might get a headache!
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Books By Alan's Album Archives
The Alan's Album Archives Guide To The Music Of...The Hollies: 'Reflections Of A Long Time Past'
Feb 28, 2019
$7.80
At last, after ten years, nearly 1250 posts, the exhaustion of five laptops and very nearly the author himself, the Alan’s Album Archives website (www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com) is now a bona fide book series. The AAA has been reviewing everything by a select list of 30 acts or artists since its inception in 2008 and we mean everything: all the studio albums analysed in mind-numbing detail (we get upset if a review doesn’t make 7000 words!), every live album, every solo spin-off, rarities albums, box sets, all the important compilation albums, A sides, B sides, EP tracks, all the key books and DVDs, a guide to all the surviving TV clips, the best songs that are still unreleased, landmark concerts, important cover songs, ‘extracts from our website’s ‘top ten’ column looking at topics shared amongst our bands and an essay per book getting to the heart of what makes each of our chosen artists tick. Exclusive to these books compared to the website are three new sections: ‘biographies’ of all the key players, ‘thematic threads’ analysing themes that run through the book and three key influences that inspired the chosen acts to make their music. Everything our chosen golden thirty ever did should be in these books somewhere, from teenage doo-wop recordings to albums only released in Germany to obscure spin-off live albums, all in as close to chronological order as is humanly possible. It’s like a big record – both in terms of recording everything a band ever did and in the fact that we’ve presented it like a ‘record’ with an ‘A’ side and a ‘B’ side. Along the way we seek to ask ‘why?’ an album or song turned out the way it did, as well as the usual questions of ‘Who?’ ‘What?’ ‘When?’ and ‘Where?’ These books aren’t meant to be definitive, they’re not meant to be the final word on the music and they’re not meant to replace the official books – that’s why they’re the Alan’s Album Archives Guides, one fan’s attempt to be the big brother with the record collection you always dreamed of whispering in your ear and saying ‘don’t buy that, buy this!’ One book a month in the series is due to be released between June 2018 and December 2020 in a colourful way designed for use in tablet form (though they can be read in monochrome Kindle format if you tweak your colour settings slightly).
I will never understand why The Hollies have spent the past 55 odd years as the world’s most under-rated band. Everyone knows and loves their hit singles (they did, after all, score more top twenty hits than The Beatles) but their album and B-sides catalogue remains one of the great buried musical treasure chests of the globe, with an astonishing run of consistently brilliant LPs across the 1960s and 1970s that fans treasure like a well-kept secret. Well, it’s time to let the rest of the world in on that secret. ‘Reflections Of A Long Time Past’ looks at all 21 Hollies LPs - good bad and indifferent but mostly great - in order across 738 pages (A4 size), plus A sides, B sides, EP tracks, non-album recordings, compilations, live albums and solo spin-offs. There’s an extra ‘B-Sides’ section too dedicated to key concerts, cover versions, influences, surviving TV clips, books, DVDs, outtakes and much much more. This book covers a ridiculous range of genres but all of it has a particular ‘Hollies Style’, the theme of our latest AAA essay, while the ‘thematic threads’ section covers such things as girl’s names, clowns, Armageddon and that special cheeky censor-pushing wink that only a cute clean-cut band like The Hollies could get away with past the censors.
I will never understand why The Hollies have spent the past 55 odd years as the world’s most under-rated band. Everyone knows and loves their hit singles (they did, after all, score more top twenty hits than The Beatles) but their album and B-sides catalogue remains one of the great buried musical treasure chests of the globe, with an astonishing run of consistently brilliant LPs across the 1960s and 1970s that fans treasure like a well-kept secret. Well, it’s time to let the rest of the world in on that secret. ‘Reflections Of A Long Time Past’ looks at all 21 Hollies LPs - good bad and indifferent but mostly great - in order across 738 pages (A4 size), plus A sides, B sides, EP tracks, non-album recordings, compilations, live albums and solo spin-offs. There’s an extra ‘B-Sides’ section too dedicated to key concerts, cover versions, influences, surviving TV clips, books, DVDs, outtakes and much much more. This book covers a ridiculous range of genres but all of it has a particular ‘Hollies Style’, the theme of our latest AAA essay, while the ‘thematic threads’ section covers such things as girl’s names, clowns, Armageddon and that special cheeky censor-pushing wink that only a cute clean-cut band like The Hollies could get away with past the censors.
The Alan's Album Archives Guide To The Music Of...The Rolling Stones: 'Yesterday's Papers'
Mar 31, 2020
$7.45
At last, after ten years, nearly 1250 posts, the exhaustion of five laptops and very nearly the author himself, the Alan’s Album Archives website (www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com) is now a bona fide book series. The AAA has been reviewing everything by a select list of thirty acts or artists since its inception in 2008 and we mean everything: all the studio albums analysed in mind-numbing detail (we get upset if a review doesn’t make 7000 words!), every live album, every solo spin-off, rarities albums, box sets, all the important compilation albums, A sides, B sides, EP tracks, all the key books and DVDs, a guide to all the surviving TV clips, the best songs that are still unreleased, landmark concerts, important cover songs, ‘extracts from our website’s ‘top ten’ column looking at topics shared amongst our bands and an essay per book getting to the heart of what makes each of our chosen artists tick. Exclusive to these books compared to the website are three new sections: ‘biographies’ of all the key players, ‘thematic threads’ analysing themes that run through the book and three key influences that inspired the chosen acts to make their music. Everything our chosen golden thirty ever did should be in these books somewhere, from teenage doo-wop recordings to albums only released in Germany to obscure spin-off live albums, all in as close to chronological order as is humanly possible. It’s like a big record – both in terms of recording everything a band ever did and in the fact that we’ve presented it like a ‘record’ with an ‘A’ side and a ‘B’ side. Along the way we seek to ask ‘why?’ an album or song turned out the way it did, as well as the usual questions of ‘Who?’ ‘What?’ ‘When?’ and ‘Where?’ These books aren’t meant to be definitive, they’re not meant to be the final word on the music and they’re not meant to replace the official books – that’s why they’re the Alan’s Album Archives Guides, one fan’s attempt to be the big brother with the record collection you always dreamed of whispering in your ear and saying ‘don’t buy that, buy this!’ One book a month in the series is due to be released between June 2018 and December 2020 in a colourful way designed for use in tablet form (though they can be read in monochrome Kindle format if you tweak your colour settings slightly).
Can’t get no satisfaction? Then hey, you, get this on your i-cloud pronto! Volume 23 of the Alan’s Album Archives features their satanic majesties The Rolling Stones in all their lurid and occasionally lycra-clad glory, with no less than 860 pages covering all eras of the band from the Brian Jones blues to the Mick Taylor swamp rock to the Ronnie Wood stadium years. All 22 studio albums are reviewed in-depth, alongside every solo album by both Micks, Keith, Charlie, Bill and Ronnie, every single one of the seemingly endless stream of live albums, most compilations, deluxe re-issues and even The Pan Pipes Of Jajouka. As with all our books there’s also an additional essay (‘Standing In The Shadows’), while the thematic threads section looks at such things as the generation gap, paranoia and love and this month’s ‘top ten’ newsletter entries include censored album covers, university degrees and logos. There’s also an entire B-sides section dedicated to key concerts, influences, cover versions, books, DVDs, surviving TV clips and outtakes. To give you a taste and to check your compatibility levels, Alan’s favourite song and album in this book are: ‘We Love You’ and ‘Between The Buttons’.
Can’t get no satisfaction? Then hey, you, get this on your i-cloud pronto! Volume 23 of the Alan’s Album Archives features their satanic majesties The Rolling Stones in all their lurid and occasionally lycra-clad glory, with no less than 860 pages covering all eras of the band from the Brian Jones blues to the Mick Taylor swamp rock to the Ronnie Wood stadium years. All 22 studio albums are reviewed in-depth, alongside every solo album by both Micks, Keith, Charlie, Bill and Ronnie, every single one of the seemingly endless stream of live albums, most compilations, deluxe re-issues and even The Pan Pipes Of Jajouka. As with all our books there’s also an additional essay (‘Standing In The Shadows’), while the thematic threads section looks at such things as the generation gap, paranoia and love and this month’s ‘top ten’ newsletter entries include censored album covers, university degrees and logos. There’s also an entire B-sides section dedicated to key concerts, influences, cover versions, books, DVDs, surviving TV clips and outtakes. To give you a taste and to check your compatibility levels, Alan’s favourite song and album in this book are: ‘We Love You’ and ‘Between The Buttons’.
The Alan's Album Archives Guide To The Music Of...Crosby, Stills, Nash and (Sometimes) Young: 'Change Partners'
Oct 31, 2018
$7.79
At last, after ten years, nearly 1250 posts, the exhaustion of five laptops and very nearly the author himself, the Alan’s Album Archives website (www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com) is now a bona fide book series. The AAA has been reviewing everything by a select list of thirty acts or artists since its inception in 2008 and we mean everything: all the studio albums analysed in mind-numbing detail (we get upset if a review doesn’t make 7000 words!), every live album, every solo spin-off, rarities albums, box sets, all the important compilation albums, A sides, B sides, EP tracks, all the key books and DVDs, a guide to all the surviving TV clips, the best songs that are still unreleased, landmark concerts, important cover songs, ‘extracts from our website’s ‘top ten’ column looking at topics shared amongst our bands and an essay per book getting to the heart of what makes each of our chosen artists tick. Exclusive to these books compared to the website are three new sections: ‘biographies’ of all the key players, ‘thematic threads’ analysing themes that run through the book and three key influences that inspired the chosen acts to make their music. Everything our chosen golden thirty ever did should be in these books somewhere, from teenage doo-wop recordings to albums only released in Germany to obscure spin-off live albums, all in as close to chronological order as is humanly possible. It’s like a big record – both in terms of recording everything a band ever did and in the fact that we’ve presented it like a ‘record’ with an ‘A’ side and a ‘B’ side. Along the way we seek to ask ‘why?’ an album or song turned out the way it did, as well as the usual questions of ‘Who?’ ‘What?’ ‘When?’ and ‘Where?’ These books aren’t meant to be definitive, they’re not meant to be the final word on the music and they’re not meant to replace the official books – that’s why they’re the Alan’s Album Archives Guides, one fan’s attempt to be the big brother with the record collection you always dreamed of whispering in your ear and saying ‘don’t buy that, buy this!’ One book a month in the series is due to be released between June 2018 and December 2020 in a colourful way designed for use in tablet form (though they can be read in monochrome Kindle format if you tweak your colour settings slightly).
Volume six is sizzling with all things CSN/Y, taking in what they did in fours, threes, twos and ones, from their 1968 demos as ‘The Frozen Noses’ right bang up to date with David Crosby’s latest which came out only last week (now that’s service for you!) That means 38 studio albums analysed in-depth alongside live albums, compilations, box sets, a quick summary of pre-CSN material and Neil’s career and spin-off groups like the unsung heroes of the CSN catalogue, Manassas and CPR. There’s an extra ‘B-Sides’ section dedicated to key concerts, cover versions, surviving TV clips, books, DVDs, outtakes, radio broadcasts and aborted CSN projects abandoned partway through. This book’s essay ‘The Superest of Super groups’ looks at why the CSN model for making music and forming a band is unlike any other, while the ‘thematic threads’ section cover such things as politics, reincarnation, water and songs about each other! The ‘News, Views and Music’ newsletter top tens include such varying entries as astrology, most revealing interviews and most insane album covers. To give you a taste and to check your compatibility levels Alan’s favourite songs and album in this book: Laughing (Crosby), Word Game (Stills) Another Sleep Song (Nash) Ohio (Young) and ‘CSN’ (the one with the boat!) His least favourite
Volume six is sizzling with all things CSN/Y, taking in what they did in fours, threes, twos and ones, from their 1968 demos as ‘The Frozen Noses’ right bang up to date with David Crosby’s latest which came out only last week (now that’s service for you!) That means 38 studio albums analysed in-depth alongside live albums, compilations, box sets, a quick summary of pre-CSN material and Neil’s career and spin-off groups like the unsung heroes of the CSN catalogue, Manassas and CPR. There’s an extra ‘B-Sides’ section dedicated to key concerts, cover versions, surviving TV clips, books, DVDs, outtakes, radio broadcasts and aborted CSN projects abandoned partway through. This book’s essay ‘The Superest of Super groups’ looks at why the CSN model for making music and forming a band is unlike any other, while the ‘thematic threads’ section cover such things as politics, reincarnation, water and songs about each other! The ‘News, Views and Music’ newsletter top tens include such varying entries as astrology, most revealing interviews and most insane album covers. To give you a taste and to check your compatibility levels Alan’s favourite songs and album in this book: Laughing (Crosby), Word Game (Stills) Another Sleep Song (Nash) Ohio (Young) and ‘CSN’ (the one with the boat!) His least favourite
$7.70
At last, after ten years, nearly 1250 posts, the exhaustion of five laptops and very nearly the author himself, the Alan’s Album Archives website (www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com) is now a bona fide book series. The AAA has been reviewing everything by a select list of thirty acts or artists since its inception in 2008 and we mean everything: all the studio albums analysed in mind-numbing detail (we get upset if a review doesn’t make 7000 words!), every live album, every solo spin-off, rarities albums, box sets, all the important compilation albums, A sides, B sides, EP tracks, all the key books and DVDs, a guide to all the surviving TV clips, the best songs that are still unreleased, landmark concerts, important cover songs, ‘extracts from our website’s ‘top ten’ column looking at topics shared amongst our bands and an essay per book getting to the heart of what makes each of our chosen artists tick. Exclusive to these books compared to the website are three new sections: ‘biographies’ of all the key players, ‘thematic threads’ analysing themes that run through the book and three key influences that inspired the chosen acts to make their music. Everything our chosen golden thirty ever did should be in these books somewhere, from teenage doo-wop recordings to albums only released in Germany to obscure spin-off live albums, all in as close to chronological order as is humanly possible. It’s like a big record – both in terms of recording everything a band ever did and in the fact that we’ve presented it like a ‘record’ with an ‘A’ side and a ‘B’ side. Along the way we seek to ask ‘why?’ an album or song turned out the way it did, as well as the usual questions of ‘Who?’ ‘What?’ ‘When?’ and ‘Where?’ These books aren’t meant to be definitive, they’re not meant to be the final word on the music and they’re not meant to replace the official books – that’s why they’re the Alan’s Album Archives Guides, one fan’s attempt to be the big brother with the record collection you always dreamed of whispering in your ear and saying ‘don’t buy that, buy this!’ One book a month in the series is due to be released between June 2018 and December 2020 in a colourful way designed for use in tablet form (though they can be read in monochrome Kindle format if you tweak your colour settings slightly).
Volume twenty-nine is your guide to the amazing journey of The Who, anyway anyhow anywhere, from their earliest days as The High Numbers right through to the ‘WHO’ comeback album of 2019 and the eleventy-fifth hundred live revival of ‘Tommy’. From ‘I’m A Boy’ through to ‘teenage wasteland’ and on to men (they made 21!) to old friends meeting for tea and theatre, it’s all here somewhere. At a massive 836 pages (A4 size) it’s not exactly a ‘quick one’, but whether you’re reading this because pirate radio’s been taken off the air, while waiting for the pinball grand final, in a dystopian future where man lives underground or you’re on a rock watching your mod scooter float past you, there’s enough here to occupy everyone. This volume covers all twelve studio Who albums reviewed in-depth (with an extended ‘Extra’ for ‘Lifehouse’) alongside mini-reviews of every non-album A and B side, outtake, live album, solo album compilation and Pete Townshend ‘Scoop’ demo. In addition there’s our usual regular features – key cover versions, landmark concerts surviving TV clips, the best unreleased songs, books, DVDs, thematic threads and more.
Volume twenty-nine is your guide to the amazing journey of The Who, anyway anyhow anywhere, from their earliest days as The High Numbers right through to the ‘WHO’ comeback album of 2019 and the eleventy-fifth hundred live revival of ‘Tommy’. From ‘I’m A Boy’ through to ‘teenage wasteland’ and on to men (they made 21!) to old friends meeting for tea and theatre, it’s all here somewhere. At a massive 836 pages (A4 size) it’s not exactly a ‘quick one’, but whether you’re reading this because pirate radio’s been taken off the air, while waiting for the pinball grand final, in a dystopian future where man lives underground or you’re on a rock watching your mod scooter float past you, there’s enough here to occupy everyone. This volume covers all twelve studio Who albums reviewed in-depth (with an extended ‘Extra’ for ‘Lifehouse’) alongside mini-reviews of every non-album A and B side, outtake, live album, solo album compilation and Pete Townshend ‘Scoop’ demo. In addition there’s our usual regular features – key cover versions, landmark concerts surviving TV clips, the best unreleased songs, books, DVDs, thematic threads and more.
$2.99
At last, after ten years, nearly 1250 posts, the exhaustion of five laptops and very nearly the author himself, the Alan’s Album Archives website (www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com) is now a bona fide book series. The AAA has been reviewing everything by a select list of thirty acts or artists since its inception in 2008 and we mean everything: all the studio albums analysed in mind-numbing detail. It’s like a big record – both in terms of recording everything a band ever did and in the fact that we’ve presented it like a ‘record’ with an ‘A’ side and a ‘B’ side. Along the way we seek to ask ‘why?’ an album or song turned out the way it did, as well as the usual questions of ‘Who?’ ‘What?’ ‘When?’ and ‘Where?’ These books aren’t meant to be definitive, they’re not meant to be the final word on the music and they’re not meant to replace the official books – that’s why they’re the Alan’s Album Archives Guides, one fan’s attempt to be the big brother with the record collection you always dreamed of whispering in your ear and saying ‘don’t buy that, buy this!’
This is the end, but the moment has been prepared for…with one last epic scrapbook celebrating/remembering/ignoring the past decade as seen through the eyes of Alan’s Album Archives. If you’re new to our series then for goodness sake don’t start here with our last volume or you won’t know what’s going on at all (we recommend our selection box ‘Music Arcade’ for beginners). If you’re an old-timer whose bought one of our past thirty volumes though then a) thankyou for coming back again and b) here’s an extra something with which to bid you a fond farewell as we send you back into the big wide world. This book – our longest at 1700 pages – rounds up everything that didn’t find a home in one of our earlier tomes. Part one (330 pages) is what happens when you write weekly reviews for over a decade and go a little mad: all eleven of our annual April Fool’s Day issues set in the future, in the past or in alternate presents. These feature everything from a time-traveller visiting past real-life musical events and our pair of canine mascots Max and Bingo re-creating famous AAA cover art to decrepit space museums, scary futures ruled by evil Spice Girls, intervention by alien clandusprods and a parallel dimension where famous authors wind up writing music reviews. Part two (160 pages) features fifteen unused music reviews by acts who didn’t get their own AAA e-books including Gilbert O’Sullivan, The Human League, Nils Lofgren and Lulu. Part three (1030 pages) features a collection of news stories and more or less the complete edition of the ‘top ten’ columns from our first four five years’ worth of News, Views and Music newsletters featured in our existing books as well as all twelve of our annual ‘review of the years’. They provide an interesting insight into the creation of the AAA from ‘nothing’ to ‘barely something’. Finally, because who knows when I’ll get the chance to publish anything again, part four (90 pages) features the backdrop against which these thirty volumes were written with a selection of my other writings, including poems, articles and sitcoms raising awareness of m.e. to political columns and fictional short stories about cows. To check compatibility levels: if anything in our earlier books made you giggle then you might like this one too (it’s cheap!) If not then, well, there are thirty other books out there for you to buy and you can’t have bought them all yet surely?!? Till we meet again, in one form or another, writing for all you readers was cooler than a clandusprod at Christmas, so one
This is the end, but the moment has been prepared for…with one last epic scrapbook celebrating/remembering/ignoring the past decade as seen through the eyes of Alan’s Album Archives. If you’re new to our series then for goodness sake don’t start here with our last volume or you won’t know what’s going on at all (we recommend our selection box ‘Music Arcade’ for beginners). If you’re an old-timer whose bought one of our past thirty volumes though then a) thankyou for coming back again and b) here’s an extra something with which to bid you a fond farewell as we send you back into the big wide world. This book – our longest at 1700 pages – rounds up everything that didn’t find a home in one of our earlier tomes. Part one (330 pages) is what happens when you write weekly reviews for over a decade and go a little mad: all eleven of our annual April Fool’s Day issues set in the future, in the past or in alternate presents. These feature everything from a time-traveller visiting past real-life musical events and our pair of canine mascots Max and Bingo re-creating famous AAA cover art to decrepit space museums, scary futures ruled by evil Spice Girls, intervention by alien clandusprods and a parallel dimension where famous authors wind up writing music reviews. Part two (160 pages) features fifteen unused music reviews by acts who didn’t get their own AAA e-books including Gilbert O’Sullivan, The Human League, Nils Lofgren and Lulu. Part three (1030 pages) features a collection of news stories and more or less the complete edition of the ‘top ten’ columns from our first four five years’ worth of News, Views and Music newsletters featured in our existing books as well as all twelve of our annual ‘review of the years’. They provide an interesting insight into the creation of the AAA from ‘nothing’ to ‘barely something’. Finally, because who knows when I’ll get the chance to publish anything again, part four (90 pages) features the backdrop against which these thirty volumes were written with a selection of my other writings, including poems, articles and sitcoms raising awareness of m.e. to political columns and fictional short stories about cows. To check compatibility levels: if anything in our earlier books made you giggle then you might like this one too (it’s cheap!) If not then, well, there are thirty other books out there for you to buy and you can’t have bought them all yet surely?!? Till we meet again, in one form or another, writing for all you readers was cooler than a clandusprod at Christmas, so one
$7.99
At last, after ten years, nearly 1250 posts, the exhaustion of five laptops and very nearly the author himself, the Alan’s Album Archives website (www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com) is now a bona fide book series. The AAA has been reviewing everything by a select list of thirty acts or artists since its inception in 2008 and we mean everything: all the studio albums analysed in mind-numbing detail (we get upset if a review doesn’t make 7000 words!), every live album, every solo spin-off, rarities albums, box sets, all the important compilation albums, A sides, B sides, EP tracks, all the key books and DVDs, a guide to all the surviving TV clips, the best songs that are still unreleased, landmark concerts, important cover songs, ‘extracts from our website’s ‘top ten’ column looking at topics shared amongst our bands and an essay per book getting to the heart of what makes each of our chosen artists tick. Everything our chosen golden thirty ever did should be in these books somewhere, from teenage doo-wop recordings to albums only released in Germany to obscure spin-off live albums, all in as close to chronological order as is humanly possible. It’s like a big record – both in terms of recording everything a band ever did and in the fact that we’ve presented it like a ‘record’ with an ‘A’ side and a ‘B’ side. Along the way we seek to ask ‘why?’ an album or song turned out the way it did, as well as the usual questions of ‘Who?’ ‘What?’ ‘When?’ and ‘Where?’ These books aren’t meant to be definitive, they’re not meant to be the final word on the music and they’re not meant to replace the official books – that’s why they’re the Alan’s Album Archives Guides, one fan’s attempt to be the big brother with the record collection you always dreamed of whispering in your ear and saying ‘don’t buy that you clodpole, buy this!’ One book a month in the series is due to be released between June 2018 and December 2020 in a colourful way designed for use in tablet form (though they can be read in monochrome Kindle format if you tweak your settings slightly).
Our Beatles edition comes with lashings of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Topping nearly 800 pages in A4 word document this edition covers everything you’d expect: all thirteen Beatle albums analysed in depth and every A side, B side and EP track. Plus all the Anthology outtakes and every BBC session recording. There are a few things you might not expect too: while we’ve kept John, Paul and George’s solo releases for another book we bring you mini rundowns of all of them plus a look at Ringo’s career, the songs the other three wrote for him, the songs John and Paul gave away to other people, the American edition Beatle albums, every Beatles Fanclub Christmas Flexidisc, all the key pre and post split compilations, every live album, the Beatle films, DVDs, the surviving TV clips, landmark concerts, key influences and cover versions, the ‘Beatles: RockBand’ game, an extended guide to books written about the fab four, a quick run-down of all the non-Beatle releases on ‘Apple’ and even a guide to The Beatles Cartoon Series because, well, it’s hard finding out about that stuff anywhere else and after sighing that no one else was doing it, it would be hypocritical if I hadn’t done it myself. This book’s essay deals with ‘The Way The Beatles Changed The World Forever’ (basically by making it cool to be nice to people – and being both regional and working class) and the ‘News, Views and Music Newsletter’ top ten includes the un-made Beatle play ‘Pilchard’, Paul McCartney’s paintings and the four Beatle references in British comics The Beano and The Dandy!
Our Beatles edition comes with lashings of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Topping nearly 800 pages in A4 word document this edition covers everything you’d expect: all thirteen Beatle albums analysed in depth and every A side, B side and EP track. Plus all the Anthology outtakes and every BBC session recording. There are a few things you might not expect too: while we’ve kept John, Paul and George’s solo releases for another book we bring you mini rundowns of all of them plus a look at Ringo’s career, the songs the other three wrote for him, the songs John and Paul gave away to other people, the American edition Beatle albums, every Beatles Fanclub Christmas Flexidisc, all the key pre and post split compilations, every live album, the Beatle films, DVDs, the surviving TV clips, landmark concerts, key influences and cover versions, the ‘Beatles: RockBand’ game, an extended guide to books written about the fab four, a quick run-down of all the non-Beatle releases on ‘Apple’ and even a guide to The Beatles Cartoon Series because, well, it’s hard finding out about that stuff anywhere else and after sighing that no one else was doing it, it would be hypocritical if I hadn’t done it myself. This book’s essay deals with ‘The Way The Beatles Changed The World Forever’ (basically by making it cool to be nice to people – and being both regional and working class) and the ‘News, Views and Music Newsletter’ top ten includes the un-made Beatle play ‘Pilchard’, Paul McCartney’s paintings and the four Beatle references in British comics The Beano and The Dandy!
$4.88
At last, after ten years, nearly 1250 posts, the exhaustion of five laptops and very nearly the author himself, the Alan’s Album Archives website (www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com) is now a bona fide book series. The AAA has been reviewing everything by a select list of thirty acts or artists since its inception in 2008 and we mean everything: all the studio albums analysed in mind-numbing detail (we get upset if a review doesn’t make 7000 words!), every live album, every solo spin-off, rarities albums, box sets, all the important compilation albums, A sides, B sides, EP tracks, all the key books and DVDs, a guide to all the surviving TV clips, the best songs that are still unreleased, landmark concerts, important cover songs, ‘extracts from our website’s ‘top ten’ column looking at topics shared amongst our bands and an essay per book getting to the heart of what makes each of our chosen artists tick. Exclusive to these books compared to the website are three new sections: ‘biographies’ of all the key players, ‘thematic threads’ analysing themes that run through the book and three key influences that inspired the chosen acts to make their music. Everything our chosen golden thirty ever did should be in these books somewhere, from teenage doo-wop recordings to albums only released in Germany to obscure spin-off live albums, all in as close to chronological order as is humanly possible. It’s like a big record – both in terms of recording everything a band ever did and in the fact that we’ve presented it like a ‘record’ with an ‘A’ side and a ‘B’ side. Along the way we seek to ask ‘why?’ an album or song turned out the way it did, as well as the usual questions of ‘Who?’ ‘What?’ ‘When?’ and ‘Where?’ These books aren’t meant to be definitive, they’re not meant to be the final word on the music and they’re not meant to replace the official books – that’s why they’re the Alan’s Album Archives Guides, one fan’s attempt to be the big brother with the record collection you always dreamed of whispering in your ear and saying ‘don’t buy that, buy this!’ One book a month in the series is due to be released between June 2018 and December 2020 in a colourful way designed for use in tablet form (though they can be read in monochrome Kindle format if you tweak your colour settings slightly).
Back in 1963, in the days before the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Who took off, The Searchers were the only true band who could give The Beatles serious competition. Had they not had band fall-outs, a producer forcing his own songs on them and better treatment from their record company they would have big for many more years too. Volume 24 of our on-going series isn’t just full of sugar and spice and all things nice but, mostly via our book’s essay, covers what went wrong and why a band who only called it a day in 2019 after sixty years were never quite as huge as they deserved to be. Along the way we look at all eight studio albums in-depth, run down every single one of the classic B-sides, no-album recordings, solo spin-offs, re-recordings and as many compilations as we can. The volume’s 381 pages (A4 size) further include an entire ‘B-sides’ section dedicated to key concerts, influences, cover versions, books, DVDs, surviving TV clips and outtakes. Meanwhile the regular ‘thematic thread’ section covers all ten of what we call the ‘Searchers styles’ alongside magic potions and break-up songs and the ‘top ten’ section details such things as the earliest psychedelic AAA songs, foreign language recordings and AAA managers.
Back in 1963, in the days before the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Who took off, The Searchers were the only true band who could give The Beatles serious competition. Had they not had band fall-outs, a producer forcing his own songs on them and better treatment from their record company they would have big for many more years too. Volume 24 of our on-going series isn’t just full of sugar and spice and all things nice but, mostly via our book’s essay, covers what went wrong and why a band who only called it a day in 2019 after sixty years were never quite as huge as they deserved to be. Along the way we look at all eight studio albums in-depth, run down every single one of the classic B-sides, no-album recordings, solo spin-offs, re-recordings and as many compilations as we can. The volume’s 381 pages (A4 size) further include an entire ‘B-sides’ section dedicated to key concerts, influences, cover versions, books, DVDs, surviving TV clips and outtakes. Meanwhile the regular ‘thematic thread’ section covers all ten of what we call the ‘Searchers styles’ alongside magic potions and break-up songs and the ‘top ten’ section details such things as the earliest psychedelic AAA songs, foreign language recordings and AAA managers.
$6.01
At last, after ten years, nearly 1250 posts, the exhaustion of five laptops and very nearly the author himself, the Alan’s Album Archives website (www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com) is now a bona fide book series. The AAA has been reviewing everything by a select list of thirty acts or artists since its inception in 2008 and we mean everything: all the studio albums analysed in mind-numbing detail (we get upset if a review doesn’t make 7000 words!), every live album, every solo spin-off, rarities albums, box sets, all the important compilation albums, A sides, B sides, EP tracks, all the key books and DVDs, a guide to all the surviving TV clips, the best songs that are still unreleased, landmark concerts, important cover songs, ‘extracts from our website’s ‘top ten’ column looking at topics shared amongst our bands and an essay per book getting to the heart of what makes each of our chosen artists tick. Exclusive to these books compared to the website are three new sections: ‘biographies’ of all the key players, ‘thematic threads’ analysing themes that run through the book and three key influences that inspired the chosen acts to make their music. Everything our chosen golden thirty ever did should be in these books somewhere, from teenage doo-wop recordings to albums only released in Germany to obscure spin-off live albums, all in as close to chronological order as is humanly possible. It’s like a big record – both in terms of recording everything a band ever did and in the fact that we’ve presented it like a ‘record’ with an ‘A’ side and a ‘B’ side. Along the way we seek to ask ‘why?’ an album or song turned out the way it did, as well as the usual questions of ‘Who?’ ‘What?’ ‘When?’ and ‘Where?’ These books aren’t meant to be definitive, they’re not meant to be the final word on the music and they’re not meant to replace the official books – that’s why they’re the Alan’s Album Archives Guides, one fan’s attempt to be the big brother with the record collection you always dreamed of whispering in your ear and saying ‘don’t buy that, buy this!’ One book a month in the series is due to be released between June 2018 and December 2020 in a colourful way designed for use in tablet form (though they can be read in monochrome Kindle format if you tweak your colour settings slightly).
If life is a minestrone and death a cold lasagne then we like to think that Alan’s Album Archives is a bowl of cereal – it nourishes you with your five-a-day-or-more of great music, can be digested between meals or as a full course if you’ve got nothing else left in the cupboards, comes in bright colourful packaging and includes a free toy. No wait, my mistake, an essay, sorry about that. Anyway volume 28 of our long-running series featuring the most hilarious of our thirty bands as well as the one with the unlikeliest first names in rock (Eric, Graham, Kevin and Lawrence). ‘Memories’ traces 10cc from their beginnings in The Mindbenders, Mockingbirds, Hotlegs and of course Frabjoy and The Runciple Spoon through to the hit albums like ‘Sheet Music’ and ‘The Original Soundtrack’ and on to the ‘wilderness’ years which I for one think are one heck of a lot better than they are ever given credit for. That’s 531 pages looking at 12 studio albums in-depth alongside mini-reviews of every live album, solo album, Godley-Creme release and most compilations. That’s as well as our usual selection of landmark concerts, key cover versions, books, DVDs, surviving TV clips, thematic threads, umbopos and more.
If life is a minestrone and death a cold lasagne then we like to think that Alan’s Album Archives is a bowl of cereal – it nourishes you with your five-a-day-or-more of great music, can be digested between meals or as a full course if you’ve got nothing else left in the cupboards, comes in bright colourful packaging and includes a free toy. No wait, my mistake, an essay, sorry about that. Anyway volume 28 of our long-running series featuring the most hilarious of our thirty bands as well as the one with the unlikeliest first names in rock (Eric, Graham, Kevin and Lawrence). ‘Memories’ traces 10cc from their beginnings in The Mindbenders, Mockingbirds, Hotlegs and of course Frabjoy and The Runciple Spoon through to the hit albums like ‘Sheet Music’ and ‘The Original Soundtrack’ and on to the ‘wilderness’ years which I for one think are one heck of a lot better than they are ever given credit for. That’s 531 pages looking at 12 studio albums in-depth alongside mini-reviews of every live album, solo album, Godley-Creme release and most compilations. That’s as well as our usual selection of landmark concerts, key cover versions, books, DVDs, surviving TV clips, thematic threads, umbopos and more.
The Alan's Album Archives Guide To The Music Of...Neil Young: 'Here We Are In The Years'
Oct 30, 2020
$7.75
At last, after ten years, nearly 1250 posts, the exhaustion of five laptops and very nearly the author himself, the Alan’s Album Archives website (www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com) is now a bona fide book series. The AAA has been reviewing everything by a select list of thirty acts or artists since its inception in 2008 and we mean everything: all the studio albums analysed in mind-numbing detail (we get upset if a review doesn’t make 7000 words!), every live album, every solo spin-off, rarities albums, box sets, all the important compilation albums, A sides, B sides, EP tracks, all the key books and DVDs, a guide to all the surviving TV clips, the best songs that are still unreleased, landmark concerts, important cover songs, ‘extracts from our website’s ‘top ten’ column looking at topics shared amongst our bands and an essay per book getting to the heart of what makes each of our chosen artists tick. Exclusive to these books compared to the website are three new sections: ‘biographies’ of all the key players, ‘thematic threads’ analysing themes that run through the book and three key influences that inspired the chosen acts to make their music. Everything our chosen golden thirty ever did should be in these books somewhere, from teenage doo-wop recordings to albums only released in Germany to obscure spin-off live albums, all in as close to chronological order as is humanly possible. It’s like a big record – both in terms of recording everything a band ever did and in the fact that we’ve presented it like a ‘record’ with an ‘A’ side and a ‘B’ side. Along the way we seek to ask ‘why?’ an album or song turned out the way it did, as well as the usual questions of ‘Who?’ ‘What?’ ‘When?’ and ‘Where?’ These books aren’t meant to be definitive, they’re not meant to be the final word on the music and they’re not meant to replace the official books – that’s why they’re the Alan’s Album Archives Guides, one fan’s attempt to be the big brother with the record collection you always dreamed of whispering in your ear and saying ‘don’t buy that, buy this!’ One book a month in the series is due to be released between June 2018 and December 2020 in a colourful way designed for use in tablet form (though they can be read in monochrome Kindle format if you tweak your colour settings slightly).
Tonight’s the night for the release of the 30th harvest and last ‘normal’ volume in the Alan’s Album Archives e-book series. We end with an epic: Neil has been to so many places across fifty-two years and counting that it takes a full 1080 pages (A4 size) to tell his story. That’s no less than forty in-depth reviews of studio albums alongside mini-reviews of live records, compilations, ‘archive’ sets, non-album recordings and spin-off releases by the likes of Billy Talbot, Pegi Young and Crazy Horse plus ‘extra’ sections dedicated to the discographies of Buffalo Springfield, CSNY and Nils Lofgren. The book starts in the pre-Springfield era and runs right up to the present day with the release of ‘Homegrown’ and ‘The Times’ in 2020. In addition there’s the last of our regular features – key cover versions, landmark concerts surviving TV clips, the best unreleased songs, books, DVDs and more. This book’s essay ‘Will To Love’ looks at the changing nature of spirituality in Neil’s music and the ‘thematic threads’ covers such items as ‘cities’ ‘dancing’ and ‘looking at mother nature on the run since 1970’, while the ‘top ten’ column rounds things off with such entries as ‘biggest stylistic leaps between AAA albums (to be fa
Tonight’s the night for the release of the 30th harvest and last ‘normal’ volume in the Alan’s Album Archives e-book series. We end with an epic: Neil has been to so many places across fifty-two years and counting that it takes a full 1080 pages (A4 size) to tell his story. That’s no less than forty in-depth reviews of studio albums alongside mini-reviews of live records, compilations, ‘archive’ sets, non-album recordings and spin-off releases by the likes of Billy Talbot, Pegi Young and Crazy Horse plus ‘extra’ sections dedicated to the discographies of Buffalo Springfield, CSNY and Nils Lofgren. The book starts in the pre-Springfield era and runs right up to the present day with the release of ‘Homegrown’ and ‘The Times’ in 2020. In addition there’s the last of our regular features – key cover versions, landmark concerts surviving TV clips, the best unreleased songs, books, DVDs and more. This book’s essay ‘Will To Love’ looks at the changing nature of spirituality in Neil’s music and the ‘thematic threads’ covers such items as ‘cities’ ‘dancing’ and ‘looking at mother nature on the run since 1970’, while the ‘top ten’ column rounds things off with such entries as ‘biggest stylistic leaps between AAA albums (to be fa
$7.84
At last, after ten years, nearly 1250 posts, the exhaustion of five laptops and very nearly the author himself, the Alan’s Album Archives website (www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com) is now a bona fide book series. The AAA has been reviewing everything by a select list of thirty acts or artists since its inception in 2008 and we mean everything: all the studio albums analysed in mind-numbing detail (we get upset if a review doesn’t make 7000 words!), every live album, every solo spin-off, rarities albums, box sets, all the important compilation albums, A sides, B sides, EP tracks, all the key books and DVDs, a guide to all the surviving TV clips, the best songs that are still unreleased, landmark concerts, important cover songs, ‘extracts from our website’s ‘top ten’ column looking at topics shared amongst our bands and an essay per book getting to the heart of what makes each of our chosen artists tick. Exclusive to these books compared to the website are three new sections: ‘biographies’ of all the key players, ‘thematic threads’ analysing themes that run through the book and three key influences that inspired the chosen acts to make their music. Everything our chosen golden thirty ever did should be in these books somewhere, from teenage doo-wop recordings to albums only released in Germany to obscure spin-off live albums, all in as close to chronological order as is humanly possible. It’s like a big record – both in terms of recording everything a band ever did and in the fact that we’ve presented it like a ‘record’ with an ‘A’ side and a ‘B’ side. Along the way we seek to ask ‘why?’ an album or song turned out the way it did, as well as the usual questions of ‘Who?’ ‘What?’ ‘When?’ and ‘Where?’ These books aren’t meant to be definitive, they’re not meant to be the final word on the music and they’re not meant to replace the official books – that’s why they’re the Alan’s Album Archives Guides, one fan’s attempt to be the big brother with the record collection you always dreamed of whispering in your ear and saying ‘don’t buy that, buy this!’ One book a month in the series is due to be released between June 2018 and December 2020 in a colourful way designed for use in tablet form (though they can be read in monochrome Kindle format if you tweak your colour settings slightly).
I thought pigs would fly before we got to Pink Floyd and book twenty-one but here we are already! Our latest e-book features 716 pages (A4 size) of an often bonkers world of scarecrows, gnomes, dark-sided moons, three different sorts of pigs, walls, giant talking statues, several species of small furry animals gathered together in a cave and grooving with a pict and of course Alan’s Album Archives’ psychedelic breakfast. There are no less than fourteen studio albums analysed in-depth (including our most notorious one by bovine guest reviewer Lulubelle III), not to mention mini-reviews of live albums, compilations, non-album recordings, a seemingly endless supply of pricey box sets big enough to live in and every single solo album by Syd, Roger, Rick, Nick and Dave. As with all our books there’s also an additional essay (‘Why Absence Makes The Sales Grow Stronger’) and you can if you wish eat your pudding before your meat with a ‘B-sides’ section dedicated to key concerts, influences, cover versions, books, DVDs, surviving TV clips and outtakes. The thematic threads section looks at such things as madness, politics, war and the countryside, while the ‘news, views and music top tens’ section includes such entries as the weirdest AAA album covers, censorship and ‘The Dark Side Of The Rainbow’.
I thought pigs would fly before we got to Pink Floyd and book twenty-one but here we are already! Our latest e-book features 716 pages (A4 size) of an often bonkers world of scarecrows, gnomes, dark-sided moons, three different sorts of pigs, walls, giant talking statues, several species of small furry animals gathered together in a cave and grooving with a pict and of course Alan’s Album Archives’ psychedelic breakfast. There are no less than fourteen studio albums analysed in-depth (including our most notorious one by bovine guest reviewer Lulubelle III), not to mention mini-reviews of live albums, compilations, non-album recordings, a seemingly endless supply of pricey box sets big enough to live in and every single solo album by Syd, Roger, Rick, Nick and Dave. As with all our books there’s also an additional essay (‘Why Absence Makes The Sales Grow Stronger’) and you can if you wish eat your pudding before your meat with a ‘B-sides’ section dedicated to key concerts, influences, cover versions, books, DVDs, surviving TV clips and outtakes. The thematic threads section looks at such things as madness, politics, war and the countryside, while the ‘news, views and music top tens’ section includes such entries as the weirdest AAA album covers, censorship and ‘The Dark Side Of The Rainbow’.
$6.44
At last, after ten years, nearly 1250 posts, the exhaustion of five laptops and very nearly the author himself, the Alan’s Album Archives website (www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com) is now a bona fide book series. The AAA has been reviewing everything by a select list of thirty acts or artists since its inception in 2008 and we mean everything: all the studio albums analysed in mind-numbing detail (we get upset if a review doesn’t make 7000 words!), every live album, every solo spin-off, rarities albums, box sets, all the important compilation albums, A sides, B sides, EP tracks, all the key books and DVDs, a guide to all the surviving TV clips, the best songs that are still unreleased, landmark concerts, important cover songs, ‘extracts from our website’s ‘top ten’ column looking at topics shared amongst our bands and an essay per book getting to the heart of what makes each of our chosen artists tick. Exclusive to these books compared to the website are three new sections: ‘biographies’ of all the key players, ‘thematic threads’ analysing themes that run through the book and three key influences that inspired the chosen acts to make their music. Everything our chosen golden thirty ever did should be in these books somewhere, from teenage doo-wop recordings to albums only released in Germany to obscure spin-off live albums, all in as close to chronological order as is humanly possible. It’s like a big record – both in terms of recording everything a band ever did and in the fact that we’ve presented it like a ‘record’ with an ‘A’ side and a ‘B’ side. Along the way we seek to ask ‘why?’ an album or song turned out the way it did, as well as the usual questions of ‘Who?’ ‘What?’ ‘When?’ and ‘Where?’ These books aren’t meant to be definitive, they’re not meant to be the final word on the music and they’re not meant to replace the official books – that’s why they’re the Alan’s Album Archives Guides, one fan’s attempt to be the big brother with the record collection you always dreamed of whispering in your ear and saying ‘don’t buy that, buy this!’ One book a month in the series is due to be released between June 2018 and December 2020 in a colourful way designed for use in tablet form (though they can be read in monochrome Kindle format if you tweak your colour settings slightly).
The AAA bibliography is now replete, with book 18 no mean feat, vibrations reaching up to become light, across 658 A4 pages for your eyes of sight, between these pages there does lie every studio, live, solo and compilation album piled most high, that’s 18 in-depth reviews would you believe, with mini-reviews of others all around if you can perceive, plus you can also gaze on the album by The Blue Jays, additionally a B-sides section adds more notes to life’s chord, with yet more goodies for you to absorb, an essay key concerts influences, outtakes, TV clips, books and DVDs, so that everything Moody and Blue is here in some sort of degree, to cover everything by the band is our scope, to swap ideas with fans our life’s hope, to give it a name is important to some denizens and we call it ‘New Horizons’. This book’s essay looks at the different yet equally troubled themes that make up the Moodies' canon, while the ‘thematic threads’ section looks at nostalgia, age and children. The ‘news, views and music top tens’ section includes such entries as weirdest album covers (starring a wizard and a hoover), bands who started their own record labels and AAA utopias. To give you a taste and to check your compatibility levels, Alan’s favourite song and album in this book are: ‘For My Lady’ and ‘Seventh Sojourn’.
The AAA bibliography is now replete, with book 18 no mean feat, vibrations reaching up to become light, across 658 A4 pages for your eyes of sight, between these pages there does lie every studio, live, solo and compilation album piled most high, that’s 18 in-depth reviews would you believe, with mini-reviews of others all around if you can perceive, plus you can also gaze on the album by The Blue Jays, additionally a B-sides section adds more notes to life’s chord, with yet more goodies for you to absorb, an essay key concerts influences, outtakes, TV clips, books and DVDs, so that everything Moody and Blue is here in some sort of degree, to cover everything by the band is our scope, to swap ideas with fans our life’s hope, to give it a name is important to some denizens and we call it ‘New Horizons’. This book’s essay looks at the different yet equally troubled themes that make up the Moodies' canon, while the ‘thematic threads’ section looks at nostalgia, age and children. The ‘news, views and music top tens’ section includes such entries as weirdest album covers (starring a wizard and a hoover), bands who started their own record labels and AAA utopias. To give you a taste and to check your compatibility levels, Alan’s favourite song and album in this book are: ‘For My Lady’ and ‘Seventh Sojourn’.
$2.99
At last, after ten years, nearly 1250 posts, the exhaustion of five laptops and very nearly the author himself, the Alan’s Album Archives website (www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com) is now a bona fide book series. The AAA has been reviewing everything by a select list of thirty acts or artists since its inception in 2008 and we mean everything: all the studio albums analysed in mind-numbing detail (we get upset if a review doesn’t make 7000 words!), every live album, every solo spin-off, rarities albums, box sets, all the important compilation albums, A sides, B sides, EP tracks, all the key books and DVDs, a guide to all the surviving TV clips, the best songs that are still unreleased, landmark concerts, important cover songs, ‘extracts from our website’s ‘top ten’ column looking at topics shared amongst our bands and an essay per book getting to the heart of what makes each of our chosen artists tick. Exclusive to these books compared to the website are three new sections: ‘biographies’ of all the key players, ‘thematic threads’ analysing themes that run through the book and three key influences that inspired the chosen acts to make their music. Everything our chosen golden thirty ever did should be in these books somewhere, from teenage doo-wop recordings to albums only released in Germany to obscure spin-off live albums, all in as close to chronological order as is humanly possible. It’s like a big record – both in terms of recording everything a band ever did and in the fact that we’ve presented it like a ‘record’ with an ‘A’ side and a ‘B’ side. Along the way we seek to ask ‘why?’ an album or song turned out the way it did, as well as the usual questions of ‘Who?’ ‘What?’ ‘When?’ and ‘Where?’ These books aren’t meant to be definitive, they’re not meant to be the final word on the music and they’re not meant to replace the official books – that’s why they’re the Alan’s Album Archives Guides, one fan’s attempt to be the big brother with the record collection you always dreamed of whispering in your ear and saying ‘don’t buy that, buy this!’ One book a month in the series is due to be released between June 2018 and December 2020 in a colourful way designed for use in tablet form (though they can be read in monochrome Kindle format if you tweak your colour settings slightly).
Music collecting is a bit like a box of chocolates: you never know if the contents are squashed or melted till you get them home, they can take you to delicious squishy heaven or coffee-crème centered hell and they may well contain nuts. It’s important to try before you buy, so that’s what we’re offering here with a selection of bits and pieces from the Alan’s Album Archives archives so that you can see for yourselves if our brand of lengthy discussion interrupted by the odd joke about the Spice Girls is for you. There’s at least one article from all of our 31 books in here presented in chronological order for you to get a flavour of what we’re all about: lengthy discussions of studio albums with the odd solo album, live album, compilation, archive release, film review, discussion of influences and cover versions, landmark concerts, surviving TV appearances, top ten columns and extracts from our ‘April Fool’s Day’ editions thrown in, plus two mid-book essays because we couldn’t stop ourselves. We’ve topped the lot with a new ‘biographies’ section (dedicated to each band this time, not each band member) and a new introduction that discusses the ‘why?’ for the AAA project rather than the AAA bands.
Music collecting is a bit like a box of chocolates: you never know if the contents are squashed or melted till you get them home, they can take you to delicious squishy heaven or coffee-crème centered hell and they may well contain nuts. It’s important to try before you buy, so that’s what we’re offering here with a selection of bits and pieces from the Alan’s Album Archives archives so that you can see for yourselves if our brand of lengthy discussion interrupted by the odd joke about the Spice Girls is for you. There’s at least one article from all of our 31 books in here presented in chronological order for you to get a flavour of what we’re all about: lengthy discussions of studio albums with the odd solo album, live album, compilation, archive release, film review, discussion of influences and cover versions, landmark concerts, surviving TV appearances, top ten columns and extracts from our ‘April Fool’s Day’ editions thrown in, plus two mid-book essays because we couldn’t stop ourselves. We’ve topped the lot with a new ‘biographies’ section (dedicated to each band this time, not each band member) and a new introduction that discusses the ‘why?’ for the AAA project rather than the AAA bands.
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