thames valley leather club and other stories

always ~ thames valley leathe club and other stories (èl records, 1988/ cherrie red, 2004)

always is kevin wright, he's british and released one of the best pop/twee albums of the 80's.
i got to know him because in 2004 the album was released again by cherry red (back in 1988 was published on the mythical èl records). he did the album by himself and just had a guest appearance of a (misterious) female backing vocal in a few tracks.
always made wonderfully incoprehensible fantasy pop. a perfect combination of jangly hooks and keyboards with thin sound of the arrangements that served as influence for a whole generation of independent musicians like the cardigans, belle and sebastian, st. etienne and the japanese shibuya scene.
the best moments of the album can be found in tracks like 'london times' (with its greeeat solo),
'w.c. fields' with amazing guitar arrangements and 'morning heights'.
to finish this post, a great definition given by the magazine melody maker right after the album was released in 1988:
"it's my theory that kevin's trying to take the triviality of pop to such an extreme that it actually means something."




01. the turf accountant's dreams
02. my honeymoon hell
03. thames valley leather club
04. amateur detection
05. love and death in metroland
06. window without a view
07. london times
08. mistery disappearance
09. metroland
10. the arcade
11. wc fields
12. park row
13. dreams of leaving
14. morning heights
15. heaven
16. the flying display

buy it

1 comment:

L said...

More new music - new to me, at any rate. Thanks a lot.