\n<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Listen on <\/strong>Spotify<\/a>, Apple Music<\/a> or YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n From 1981, \u201cPretenders II\u201d \u2014 which I gladly added to my haul \u2014 is the final Pretenders album featuring the band\u2019s original lineup; the guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and the bassist Pete Farndon would both die of drug-related causes within the next two years. Given those tragedies on the horizon, \u201cPretenders II\u201d is a lasting document of the original group\u2019s particular chemistry and spirit, which comes through on this wry single that finds the whole band moving together with the lurching rhythm of an old train.<\/p>\n \u25b6 Listen on <\/strong>Spotify<\/a>, Apple Music<\/a> or YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n Here\u2019s a blind buy that turned out to be well worth the sticker price: a collection of highlights from the Soul Stirrers, the gospel group that a young Sam Cooke fronted in the early 1950s before he embarked on his pop career in 1956. This LP includes some standards like \u201cPeace in the Valley,\u201d<\/a> but it also features several originals written by Cooke, including this striking, deeply moving track. That voice, with all its pearly pathos and hard-won hope, is fully formed and immediately recognizable, even when Cooke sings of spiritual rather than secular love: \u201cI know there\u2019s consolation,\u201d he sings, \u201cas long as you\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u25b6 Listen on <\/strong>Spotify<\/a>, Apple Music<\/a> or YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n OK, this one is a bit of a cheat. I was thrilled<\/em> to find a pristine copy of the original soundtrack to the 1982 Australian new wave musical \u201cStarstruck\u201d<\/a> \u2014 an absolutely bonkers cult movie I adore and cannot recommend highly enough \u2014 and equally dismayed to find out later that none of its songs are available on streaming services in the U.S., so I cannot share them with you here. (You can find some of them if you dig around on YouTube, though.) Much of the music in \u201cStarstruck\u201d was written by Tim Finn, the New Zealand singer-songwriter who was then in Split Enz and would later join Crowded House with his brother Neil. Here, instead of a \u201cStarstruck\u201d tune, is one of Finn\u2019s greatest songs with Split Enz \u2014 released, coincidentally, the same year as the film.<\/p>\n \u25b6 Listen on <\/strong>Spotify<\/a>, Apple Music<\/a> or YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n I had to include one more song from \u201cPretenders II\u201d \u2014 if only so you could hear Chrissie Hynde yell like she means it, \u201cYou guys are the pits of the world!\u201d<\/p>\n \u25b6 Listen on <\/strong>Spotify<\/a>, Apple Music<\/a> or YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n Finally, a confession: When I returned to New York and began filing my new records away in their alphabetically ordered homes, I realized I already owned a copy of Bryan Ferry\u2019s \u201cAnother Place, Another Time.\u201d Oops! An album so nice I bought it twice? Well, if any of my friends would like a free copy of this very enjoyable and inimitably dapper record, you know where to find me.<\/p>\n \u25b6 Listen on <\/strong>Spotify<\/a>, Apple Music<\/a> or YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n3. The Pretenders: \u201cMessage of Love\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
4. Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers: \u201cJesus Wash Away My Troubles\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
5. Split Enz: \u201cSix Months in a Leaky Boat\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
6. The Pretenders: \u201cPack It Up\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
7. Bryan Ferry: \u201cWalk a Mile in My Shoes\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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