5 GREAT ALBUM TRACKS FOR FRIDAY (Part 24)

I thought long and hard about this.

Do I include five songs from just the one solo album from 2003 that James Kirk has released?  Or do I include tracks he recorded in the 80s under the moniker of Memphis??  Either way, the songs would make this a more than half decent posting given some of the difficult stuff you've had to endure these past two days....

In the end I've gone for the solo album alone.

mp3 : James Kirk - Get On Board
mp3 : James Kirk - Rehab
mp3 : James Kirk - Houston, Texas
mp3 : James Kirk - Felicity
mp3 : James Kirk - Western Pier

This record caught out many by surprise when the German based label Marina Records released it in 2003 - including yours truly who missed it entirely.  But when I did finally catch up with it in 2007 it was never off whatever the CD equivalent of a turntable is called for months on end.

It's a record to which all sorts of Scottish indie pop royalty made a contribution.  Past and present members of Aztec Camera, Bourgie Bourgie, Del Amitri, Teenage Fanclub and Trashcan Sinatras all play on it, while two of the songs were co-written by Alan Horne and Paul Quinn.

For anyone who doesn't know James Kirk was a founder member of Orange Juice but who left the band after the release of the debut LP and before the chart success of Rip It Up. Other than the occasional guest appearance as a member of bands, he more or less put music on the back burner and instead trained to become a chiropodist.  I reckon just about everyone thought that was that....but as I said, at the tail end of 2003 You Can Make It If You Boogie was released.

It is an astonishingly good record.  All 13 of its tracks are worthy of a listen and it was tough narrowing it down to the five selected.  Of them, one is a track that is a tribute of sorts to the now disgraced Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan, one shares a title with a song made very famous by the late Amy Winehouse,  one features James rapping (well it's a form of rapping....!!), one is a 'cover' of an Orange Juice song and the last of the tracks is the lovely, melodic and smooth album closer to show it's not all jingly-jangly pop.

It's an album well worth getting your hands on.  It's not the easiest thing to find, but it is available over at the Marina Shop just now for 20 euros.  It might seem a bit hefty but I think it is worth it......

Happy Listening