Friday, February 29, 2008

Orange Juice-You Can't Hide Your Love Forever



For today, I would like to focus on what is my second favourite scottish album of all time, behind the Jesus and Mary Chain's Psychocandy, and one of the best debut albums ever.
This album was released in 1982, and was Orange Juice's official debut, although many of the songs had been intended for a debut album on the seminal, legendary Postcard label that would not appear until 1992 as Ostrich Churchyard. With their influence noticeable on many Glasgow bands of now, such as Wake The President and Bricolage it would be great to hope that people would go and investigate and buy the album...if they could get their hands on it.

Unfortunately, this absolute classic of an album is not currently available on any format in the UK, neither CD nor vinyl, nor is it downloadable at iTunes or eMusic. In all seriousness, I think Polydor (or whichever soft drinks company it's part of now) should make this album available to buy again. It's like the insanity that prevents many seminal works being out of print be they music, film or the written word. Why? For the meantime, I will post it here for the next two weeks. To me this is a work of art, beautiful songs and something that lovers of 'indie' music (and I mean that in as many senses of the word as possible) should hear.

The influence of this album can be heard in The Pastels, The Shop Assistants, Camera Obscura, Belle and Sebastian, The Delgados, Franz Ferdinand...and the Smiths.

Never heard it? Well, now's your chance, if you don't have the money to buy a hugely expensive import copy: I have used my USB turntable to transfer it into mp3 format. The vinyl's in pretty good nick, though there may be the odd crackle here and there. As John Peel used to say 'life's got surface noise.'

'Orange Juice - Falling And Laughing.' mp3

Orange Juice -'Untitled Melody.' mp3

Orange Juice -'Wan Light.' mp3

Orange Juice - Tender Object.' mp3

Orange Juice -'Dying Day.' mp3

Orange Juice -'L.O.V.E. Love.' mp3

Orange Juice -'Intuition Told Me (Part 1).' mp3

Orange Juice -'Upwards And Onwards.' mp3

Orange Juice -'Satellite City.' mp3

Orange Juice -'Three Cheers For Our Side.' mp3

Orange Juice -'Consolation Prize.' mp3

Orange Juice -'Felicity.' mp3

Orange Juice -'In A Nutshell.' mp3

DISCLAIMER: I freely state here and now that I do not own the copyright to this recording, so if you download this in a country WHERE YOU ARE FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO BE ABLE TO BUY IT, THEN SHAME ON YOU. If you download this and like it, please buy the album if it becomes available again.

UPDATE: Since I did this post, JC over at the Vinyl Villain has put together a post which has the opportunity to acquire everything Orange Juice ever did, pretty much, with money going to charity. You have therefore, twenty four hours to get the mp3s off here without giving any money, but I'd rather you went to this post and found out how you can help.

Ed, March 2, 2008

Links now removed -get thee to the Vinyl Villain's blogspot!

Ed, March 3, 2008

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great stuff Ed, thanks for this.

All the more poignant and relevant following the BBC4 Edwyn doc the other week.

It's really interesting to compare the Postcard & Polydor versions of 'Falling & Laughing' and Felicity too.

cheers, Craig

Jim said...

I'm shocked that an album like this is allowed to go out of print. It's an old favourite of mine too.

Ed said...

Craig - thanks; have yet to see the edwyn documentary, it sounds like it's reduced several others scottish bloggers to tears.

Jim -It is indeed shocking, maybe this might kick whoever's backsides into doing something about it.

Ed

Unknown said...

Ed

You're a good man....and you gave me an idea for something over at TVV.......

Cheers

Ed said...

JC -have been waiting for feedback on this from you for two days, so glad it's met with your approval; can't wait to see what you do over at The Vinyl Villain blogspot...

Ed

Anonymous said...

Always nice to see the OJ's featured - they're still probably my favourite band of all time. It got me thinking though...off the top of my head, I can't think of a single cover version of an OJ song (I'm sure I'm wrong though) but it does seem a bit strange that such wonderful songs have never been picked-up by the legion of bands who namecheck OJ amongst their influences. Maybe you can help - know any cover versions Ed?

Ciau
La Squadra

Ed said...

La Squadra Italiana- one cover version I do know of is Felicity by The Wedding Present which they covered in 1986 for a Peel session. Watch this space...

Ed

Rol said...

If record company's can't be bothered to keep music like this available (in the digital age, to not have it at least available for download is a crime - that wouldn't cost them anything) then I think the rights should revert to the original artists and they should be able to make it available themselves. Edwyn Collins deserves this more than most!

Cheers.

Huge Grunt said...

This Orange Juice album is in my top 5 of all time, it's shear genius, although I didn't actually buy until about two years after it came out (and I still have it, never to be parted ;) ) There is not one duff song on the album. It was great seeing Edwyn on the telly the other week, the man is an inspiration.

Unknown said...

James Kirk also covered Felicity on his solo LP a few years ago....

(And yes, I'll class it as a cover even though he wrote and performed on the original...)

And running the risk of stating the obvious....its the fact James Kirk wrote the song that leads David Gedge to say at the start of the Weddoes cover version 'This is a William Shatner number'.

But I can't think offhand of too many other cover versions.

Ed said...

Rol - I couldn't agree more. For me, one of the whole advantages of the digital age is that fans and artists should be able to get their music out to the public far more easily. It is absolutely appalling.

Huge -still haven't seen the documentary -can anyone in the UK help?!

JC -If you can't think of many other cover versions then I'm not failing in this regard.

Ed

Unknown said...

Ed

I have a DVD copy (courtesy of Mike from Manic Pop Thrills who recorded it and sent it to me while I was in Canada).

E-mail your home address and I'll get it over to you.

Ed said...

Thank you kind sir, offer gratefully accepted.

Ed