Chris Difford [2008] The Last Temptation Of Chris

[01] Come On Down
[02] Broken Family
[03] Battersea Boys
[04] On My Own I'm Never Bored
[05] Julian And Sandy
[06] The Other Man In My Life
[07] My Mother's Handbag
[08] Fat As A Fiddle
[09] The Gates Of Eden
[10] Reverso
[11] Never Coming Back
[12] Good Life
[13] The Party Is Over



amg: Wry as ever, Chris Difford dubbed his second solo album The Last Temptation of Chris — a sly play on words that is certainly characteristic of this master lyricist, who only gets subtler and sharper as the years go by. Subtle is surely the name of the game on The Last Temptation, as the entire record — co-written with former Bible frontman Boo Hewerdine — is a warm, low-key affair, one that feels well-worn and lived in. It's relaxed music, never calling attention to itself and always focusing attention on Difford's remarkably precise short stories and vignettes, capturing the feel of forgotten memories and places remembered, as well as middle-aged travails like reversing a vasectomy on the aptly titled "Reverso." While The Last Temptation isn't quite immediate — it's only upon repeated listens that it's possible to appreciate the level of craft, particularly in Difford's words but also in Hewerdine's sympathetic music — it's also welcoming, easing a listener into its small, precisely created world, one where the stories get better the more that they are heard.
(amg 8/10)

Coverdale Page [1993] Coverdale Page

[01] Shake My Tree
[02] Waiting On You
[03] Take Me For A Little While
[04] Pride And Joy
[05] Over Now
[06] Feeling Hot
[07] Easy Does It
[08] Take A Look At Yourself
[09] Don't Leave Me This Way
[10] Absolution Blues
[11] Whisper A Prayer For The Dying



amg: Everything about Coverdale/Page, right down to the goofy copping of the Presence artwork, is an attempt to recapture the pompous majesty of Led Zeppelin. It doesn't succeed, of course, but it does leave all of the Zep clones in the dust. Although Jimmy Page plays better here than he has since 1979's In Through the Out Door, there is a conspicuous lack of solos. If you've never liked David Coverdale, his performance will not change your opinion. Both fare better on the rockers; the power ballads tend be slightly tedious. Essentially, Coverdale/Page boils down to a guilty pleasure at its best moments ("Shake My Tree," "Pride and Joy," "Absolution Blues"), but never quite rivals the bold experimentation of Led Zeppelin.
(amg 8/10)

Communards [1986] Communards

[01] Don't Leave Me This Way
[02] La Dolarosa
[03] Disenchanted
[04] Reprise
[05] So Cold The Night
[06] You Are My World
[07] Lover Man
[08] Don't Slip Away
[09] Heavens Above
[10] Forbidden Love
[11] Breadline Britain
[12] Disenchanted (Dance)



amg: Despite the inability of the music to live up to the high standards of Jimmy Somerville's ridiculously skilled falsetto voice, the Communards' first album achieved platinum status in several countries. Somerville's spirited duet with Sarah Jane Morris on a cover of Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way" helped push the record into the Top Ten on the U.K. charts, and a decent blend of other dancefloor fillers with Richard Coles-centric piano ballads lends variety for the ears that can't take a full album's worth of dance music. Both "Breadline Britain" and "Reprise" continue Somerville's activist ideals; the latter has to be one of the sharpest dissections of Margaret Thatcher. Compared to the following Red, much of the duo's self-titled debut sounds flat, lacking punch — all the more surprising from a Mike Thorne (Wire, Marc Almond) production. [The remastered version adds a lengthy mix of "Don't Leave Me This Way."]
(amg 8/10)