PJ Lorenzo
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Recorded on 4-track analog. The real deal here, nothing contrived.
Every time I listen to this record (been 23 years now!), it paints a musical picture for me. You can just hear the hard work that was put into this project in the engineering, musicianship and song writing. Some of the production ideas were ahead of their time for 1976. This a "must have" for pop music and recording enthusiasts.
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Greg Cleary
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Shoes in the living room
This was the last Shoes album I bought, and although it is regarded by many as their best, it took me awhile to warm up to it. Compared to their later work, the sound of Black Vinyl Shoes is somewhat claustrophobic, which is understandable considering that it was recorded in a band member's living room. Also, it sounds like music that was constructed piece by piece, rather than played live, which is also very much true. The large number of songs (15) also made it a bit harder to get into. But eventually the album won me over. This is Shoes' quirkiest album and also their most diverse. You won't hear the big, booming drums that were a trademark of their follow-up, Present Tense, and they had not yet established the songwriting style that made them such a consistently good band for years to come. There is a tentativeness to this album that at first caused me to underestimate it, but that I now regard as its most interesting quality. This is the sound of a band that is just discovering its own powers and was due to hit its stride just a couple years later, when it went to England to record its major label debut. There are some sonic touches here that you won't find anywhere else in Shoes' catalog. Two songs feature slide guitar and another even features a few toots on a harmonica. Shoes' lyrical approach was already established by this time. Most of the songs are about love gone wrong, and the lyrics are vague enough to be universal but just sharp enough to avoid cliche. Highlights are the lusty "Boys Don't Lie," its companion piece, "Do You Wanna Get Lucky?" and my personal favorite, "Tragedy," which has a wonderful, galloping rhythm. John Murphy's songs are strongest, while Gary Klebe had yet to blossom as a songwriter. But as with all Shoes albums, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. For all their catchy melodies and snappy rhythms, Shoes was much more of an albums band than a singles band. (By the way, if you can't get enough of this band, you should check out their web site blackvinylshoes.com and consider ordering a copy of their limited edition double CD, "As Is." It contains a disc full of outtakes that are mostly high in quality, as well as the pre-Black Vinyl albums "Bazooka" and "One in Versailles." It is a bit pricey, but it contains four albums' worth of material, and the artwork and liner notes are nicely done.)
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