Arguably one of the last classic rock albums of the "Golden Era" (1955-1980),
this was a reissue worth waiting for in spades!
The one official recording by Rockpile, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Billy Bremmer and Terry Williams, this 1980 release has been in my fave albums pile ever since it came out. Had this foursome not been bar and band mates for each other before "Seconds Of Pleasure," this platter would have been trumped as a supergroup. Edmunds and Williams had already been well established as far back as the sixties with hits, Lowe would be in the history books if only that he released Stiff Records' first single. That Lowe's albums ("Pure Pop For Now People," "Labour of Lust") and as well as Edmunds' solos ("Repeat When Necessary," "Trax On Wax 4") not already given them stature among the cognoscenti, their contributions to the sound of the period as individual producers would.
After all, between the two of them, they should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for their production library. Edmunds for Stray Cats, kd lang, Fabulous Thunderbirds and (fer crying out loud) Foghat; Lowe for Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, Pretenders, and John Hiatt all but sealing their rep as a pair of men that made a decade sound the way it did. Yet for all that star power, when it came time to record a proper album as a group, Rockpile made it sound like no sweat.
"Seconds Of Pleasure" took all things great about basic bar band rock and made it sound fresh. It was almost as if they came at you with the credo that anything that they couldn't make sound as simplistic as a Chuck Berry riff or Everly Brothers' harmony wasn't worth the tape it took. To that end, the band cribbed from the best, covering a pair of classics (Berry's "Oh What A Thrill" and Joe Tex's "If Sugar was as Sweet as You"), then surrounding them with originals that were every bit as perfect ("Teacher Teacher" and "When I Write The Book"). They were even so hot a band that Billy Bremmer got the lead vocal on what should have been a classic single, the bouncy "Heart."
Albums this effortless sounding are rare jewels. If you're an aficionado of this style of buoyant rock n roll / Brit Pub rock, "Seconds Of Pleasure" is absolutely indispensable. The addition of the original album's bonus EP, "Nick and Dave Sing The Everly Brothers," two unreleased live cuts and "Crawling From The Wreckage" from the "Concerts of Kampuchea" make this platter even better.
"Seconds of Pleasure" now translates into hours of pure listening pleasure! Gitit!
Teacher Teacher
If Sugar Was As Sweet As You
Heart
Now And Always
A Knife And A Fork
Play That Fast Thing(One More Time)
Wrong Again(Let's Face It)
Pet You And Hold You
Oh What A Thrill
When I Write The Book
Fool Too Long
You Ain't Nothin' But Fine
Take A Message To Mary
Crying In The Rain
Poor Jenny
When Will I Be Loved
Back To School Days(live)
They Called It Rock(live)
Crawling From The Wreckage(live)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SWVY9Q7F
And here's "Girls Talk," different album ("Repeat When Necessary"), same great band.
