With two albums and a boatload of deleted 45s to their name, Radio Stars always merited far more consideration from the archivists than the earlier Two Minutes Mr. Smith collection allowed them -- and Somewhere There's a Place for Us delivers in fine style. The 29 tracks include each of the band's 45s, a clutch of their better B-sides, and no less than seven unreleased cuts, including one ("Dear Prudence") that dates from the last days of their earlier incarnation as Jet, and two ("My Mother Said" and "The Ghost of Desperate Dan") that hail from an early-'80s reunion of founding members Andy Ellison and Martin Gordon. The remainder of the album, however, is nothing if not unpredictable. The vast majority of the Songs for Swinging Lovers debut album is here, together with enough of the sophomore Holiday Album to make one regret never having held onto the original vinyl, while the highlights that scream out of nowhere include so many all-time punky-playtime masterpieces that even the most familiar titles ("No Russians in Russia," "Dirty Pictures," "Beast of Barnsley," "Nervous Wreck") pale in the face of "From a Rabbit" -- essential listening for every body-building hulk who's ever kicked sand in your face -- and "Johnny Mekon," the story of the greatest rock star you've ever felt desperately sorry for. Add entertainingly voluminous liner notes from the bandmembers themselves, and the distinct possibility that at least half of this album will be stuck in your head for weeks to come, and Radio Stars emerge from the mists of time as memorably as the Greek restaurant whose poorly translated menu inspired "Macaroni and Mice." Bowels stuffed with spleen notwithstanding, of course. (allmusic.com)
Radio Stars was a punk/power pop band from the mid to the late '70. Andy Ellison played in the sixties together with Marc Bolan in the folk-psych-pop band John's Children. This is a fine collection of the Radio Stars work from 1977 - 1979. Viel Spass!
Cheers
Frank
mp3@320
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