Day 0608 - Actually

Petshop Boys "Actually" (1987) - got it

Another one that my older sister used to thrash back in the 80s (though with this one I remember that I did enjoy it back then).  It's a solid pop album, somehow sounds 'of its time' but without seeming dated.  Probably due to the songs just being really strong, and of many of the synthesizer sounds used currently being back in vogue.

In some ways it's a quite a bleak album, covering ideas from consumerism, Catholic guilt, one-sided relationships, romantic paranoia.  However, these themes are couched in catchy tunes, with minimal but imaginative arrangements, which help increase their appeal.

The track "It couldn't happen here" is co-written with Ennio Morricone and with strings arranged by Angelo Badalamenti who brings in hints of his score-work on Twin Peaks.  Laying in strings that walk the line between schmaltz and darkness.

Day 0392 - Lust for Life

Iggy Pop "Lust for Life" (1977) - got it

Rawk! Since his days with the Stooges, the punk rock sound that they'd been chipping away at had come of age and started to find its way into the mainstream consciousness, which must have offered up some degree of vindication to Iggy.  This, mixed with his positive experience making "The Idiot" restored his confidence, and he felt comfortable shaking off the more prominent Bowie influences from his sound to produce another slice of gritty Stooges-esque rock but now with more of an underlying pop flavour.

The singles 'Lust for life' and 'the Passenger' feel like instant classics.  'Success' is a raging exorcism and 'Turn blue' is brilliant, drawn out bluesy jam.

The rhythm section for the album are brothers Hunt and Tony Sales, who would go on to become half of Bowie's (I feel unjustly) maligned Tin Machine band.