The Daily Spinner (July 20)
[A continuing feature here at CITF, where I detail what LP(s) I'm listening to each day at my office while going through my long-neglected LP collection. Check out the last entry.]

Only got to two LPs today, because they demanded repeated listenings. First up was Paul Carrack's Suburban Voodoo. You might recognize his name as part of the execrable Mike + the Mechanics (a side project started by the guitarist for Genesis). But you'd also most likely recognize his voice from Squeeze's biggest song, "Tempted." He's also the voice for the 70s group Ace, with their hit "How Long (has this been going on...)". Carrack lasted just one album with Squeeze before he moved on to focus on his solo career with Voodoo. Produced by Nick Lowe, it's essentially a Lowe album, featuring the groovy pub rock feel of his albums from the early 80s and includes the same band that joined him on many of those titles. Still, it's got some sprightly poppy flourishes and great R&B-inflected play--and Carrack's soulful voice is in fine form. The big hit (well, modest, topping out in the Top 40 in the upper 30s, if memory serves me) was "I Need You," a nice slice of white-boy Motown revisionism.

The other was Peter Case's eponymous first solo album after leaving the Plimsouls (who had a great new wave raver in "Million Miles Away"). Focusing more on the folk side of things, it's given some creative instrumentation and arranging by producers T-Bone Burnett and Mitch Froom (who went on to revive production creativity in such disparate acts as Los Lobos and Crowded House during the 90s). Like Carrack, Case has a soulful voice but with a bit more grain to it. I played the first side of this one three times. Great, great stuff. (Unfortunately, the second side's a bit flat.)