"Still Kicking" by Hard Arguments

Ashley Cumbert made a succesfull single when she was only sixteen and scored a national hit in the UK with her "Lady in gold". And then she vanished, it seemed.
But in the last six years she's been writing songs. She made a selection of here huge collection and "Still Kicking" is the delightfull result.
Cumbert formed a band to play her official debut live, and named it Hard Arguments. They sure know how to give a funky feel to these honest and tender songs. Listen to this gems. Highly recommended.

"Still Kicking" by Hard Arguments

"Never give advice unless asked" by Convex Body

Convex Body used to be huge in the eighties. They were masters of sympho rock, but their popularity went downhill in the nineties.
But now - much to my surprise- they're back with this album "Never give advice unless asked". Convex Body hasn't changed. The band members are older of course but the power and the vocal reach are even more inspired then they used to be. For fans, this is good news. Critics though might ask themselves if it weren't better if this British darlings would've have taken their music a step further forwards. And why they didn't...

"Never give advice unless asked" by Convex Body

"Absence of body is better" by Xanten

Xanten is not exactly original. They sound a bit like Blond or Yanni, sometimes they make you think of Vanessa Mae or the Dutch band Flairck. But that doesn't mean they don't make nice music. The violins and other string instruments (some out of a box) sound soothing and romantic.  They might have skipped obvious covers like "Who pays the ferryman" or "Fly me to the moon", but all in all "Absence of body is better" is warm and tender album for a sunny evening a glass of white wine (or more).

"Absence of body is better" by Xanten

"The prepared mind" by The Rhode Island Bar Association

The Icelandic collective The Rhode Island Bar Association is to be situated somewhere between The Pinguin Cafe Orchestra and Laurie Anderson. It's an everchanging eight piece band with references to Oi Va Voi and the Kronos Quartet. Their second album "The prepared mind" will probably do better than their debut CD "14U".
I'm glad they left the cheesy titles behind (14U - One for you, and their first and only single release "URNNME" - You are an enemy").
The best and most adventurous fragments are the title track and the 11 minutes long "Land".

"The prepared mind" by The Rhode Island Bar Association

"Country Life" by Roxy Music

Wikipedia writes this about "Country Life" by Roxy Music: ...the fourth album by British rock band Roxy Music, released in 1974 and reaching #3 in the UK charts. The album is considered by many critics to be among the band's most sophisticated and consistent.
The cover features two scantily-clad models, Constanze Karoli and Eveline Grunwald. Bryan Ferry met them in Portugal and persuaded them to do the photo shoot (...) The cover image was considered controversial in some countries such as the United States, Spain, and The Netherlands, where it was censored for release. As a result, a later American LP release featured a different cover shot from the album's back cover that featured only the trees.

Nowadays nobody is shocked anymore by nudity. Not even if they're cartoon heroes. What if the cover models wouldn't have been live ones in 1974?