Rich's House of Vinyl: Christopher Scott to Neil Sedaka

Valentine Headphone Kid (VHK) and I are going to start using my Mystical Dice of Random Musical Destiny to select and listen to records from Rich’s House of Vinyl. Each Friday we will review what we’ve spun using a 1-10 rating system for each record.

This week’s albums cover the artists found alphabetically between Scott and Sedaka, though they’re listed here in the order we’ve ranked them, lowest to highest.

Day for Decision / Johnny Sea / 1966 /Rating: 2

Johnny Seay occasionally dropped the usual “y” from his last name, as he does on this album of patriotic songs and recitations. The title track is a prime example of the right-of-center songs/sermons/rants that occasionally hit the Top 40 during the 1960s. “Day of Decision” finds Sea rattling on for 5:39 but in all its tedious glory, the record still managed to scrape its way up to #35 on the pop charts.

This album was the toughest listen of the week, but the album cover is great because some record promo person placed a sticker at an angle on Sea’s forehead, so it looks like a Sea thought bubble. The sticker reads:

Bonus Record – Do Not Review. Occasionally we are left with albums that were previously rated. Accept this as our gift to you.

I will probably never listen to Day of Decision again, but for the sticker alone, I’ll be hanging on to this record.

Greatest Hits / Seals & Crofts / 1975 / Rating: 4

There are four luminous 1970s soft rock classics here: “Diamond Girl”, “Hummingbird”, “Summer Breeze”, and “We May Never Pass This Way (Again”). The rest is sheer tedium.

Switched-on Bacharach / Christopher Scott / 1969 / Rating: 6

Wendy Carlos’ Switched-on Bach clearly flipped the switch on a whole world of synthesizer albums, including this fun little collection of Bacharach tunes. Sure, the Hal David lyrics and Dionne Warwick vocals are missed in these instrumental versions, but it’s cool to hear how well those sturdy Bacharach melodies hold up when run through Scott’s spacey synths. Switched-On Bacharach is MUZAK for a supermarket on another planet.

A telltale sticker on the back cover indicates that I picked up Switched-on Bacharach in the $0.93 bins at Philadelphia’s legendary Book Trader, back when it was located at 5th and South Streets. I found many classic albums there.

Cupid and Psyche 85 / Scritti Politti / 1985 / Rating: 6

This album is clearly defined by “Perfect Way”, a hit single that just screams “mid-‘80s dance-oriented synth pop”. In this case, that’s not a bad thing. The album as a whole generally replicates the success of the single. Still though, my favorite Scritti Politti moment might be how they’re mentioned in the lyrics of “A Bone Through Her Nose,” a cranky song by Richard Thompson (“her boyfriend plays in Scritti Politti”).

Sedaka’s Back / Neil Sedaka / 1974 / Rating: 7

The Hungry Years / Neil Sedaka / 1975 / Rating: 7

I definitely remember that Santa Claus brought Sedaka’s Back to me at my Grandma French’s apartment at Christmas 1975. That might have been how I picked up The Hungry Years as well.

I was drawn to Sedaka thanks to his hits “Laughter in the Rain” and “The Immigrant”, which are both found on the Sedaka’s Back album. The album was a compilation of tracks taken from recent Sedaka albums that had been released in Britain.

Both of these records were released on Elton John’s Rocket Records label, which made it inevitable that I’d be drawn to them. Generally speaking, I think Sedaka’s Back and The Hungry Years hold up as solid examples of mid-1970s piano-based pop rock, even if both have occasional cringey moments.

Bikini Red / The Screaming Blue Messiahs / 1987 / Rating: 7

The Screaming Blue Messiahs are probably best known for “I Wanna Be a Flintstone,” as heard on this thoroughly decent album. During the time of their existence, the Messiahs were clearly David Bowie’s favorite band, as he talked them up in interviews all the time. His enthusiasm was certainly justified, even if Bikini Red doesn’t completely blow VHK’s orange socks off.

Bad Axe / Son Seals / 1984 / Rating: 8

Seals was a Chicago-based blues singer who spent nearly all of his recording career at Alligator Records. While 1984 might not be a year with associated with famous blues records, Bad Axe sounds like it was probably the best kind of blues record anybody could have made in 1984. Straight-ahead electric blues, unencumbered by the kind of electronics that derailed many a 1984 production.

 Thina / Seba Kaapstad / 2019 / Rating: 9

This is a great album by a collective of South African and Belgian vocalists and musicians. Here’s what I said about it in my PopMatters review:

South Africa's Seba Kaapstad have created a deep musical statement in Thina, in which music, lyrics, and performance interact in a way that will wash over you and leave you feeling musically and emotionally refreshed if you let it.

You can read the rest of my review here. Thina is quite a lovely album. It’s our Album of the Week.