Daryl Hall & John Oates, Along The Red Ledge (1978)
The early/mid 70s saw the Hall & Oates duo create some fantastic blue-eyed soul, not all of it ‘took’ until a bit later…the first few albums went almost unnoticed until a minor hit became nearly a major and on the back of that there was some rumbling, growing interest, and the early singles were reworked and reissued and then they became a mega-act. In the 1980s – when I first knew the band’s work – they were pop stars. In-between, as disco took edge and punk was around the band made a version of new wave-tinged pop with some soul throwbacks. It wasn’t always convincing. But they were huge. I’m still working my way through the band’s whole catalogue. There’s not a lot that I love on this album when I try to pick out highlights, but I play it and like it because I’ve gone in deep with this band. And that’s what happens when you do that. It’s good to get obsessed with something, even late in life, even long after the relevance has died down. It’s funny how it happens. How it starts. And where it ends.

Sample Track: It’s A Laugh
The Vinyl Countdown is a document of every LP I listen to, brand new discoveries and old-old favourites; extremely pre-loved, previously abandoned or with the shrink-wrap having just been removed it’s all here at The Vinyl Countdown