Wednesday 10pm: Feature LP: Electric Light Orchestra – Out Of The Blue (1977)

Out of the Blue is the seventh studio album by the British rock group Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), released in October 1977. Written and produced by ELO frontman Jeff Lynne, the double album is among the most commercially successful records in the group’s history, selling about 10 million copies worldwide.

Jeff Lynne wrote the entire album in three and a half weeks after a sudden burst of creativity while hidden away in his rented chalet in the Swiss Alps. It took a further two months to record in Munich. Side three of the original double LP consisted of the symphonic Concerto for a Rainy Day, composed of four separate tracks which together made up a cohesive suite, instead of one continuous track. The inclement weather effects heard on “Concerto” were real and recorded by Lynne during a very rainy summer in Munich 1977. The Concerto suite would be Lynne’s last dabbling in symphonic rock[citation needed]. It was one of the first pop albums to have an extensive use of the vocoder, and helped to popularize it.

Side one
1. “Turn to Stone” 3:47
2. “It’s Over” 4:08
3. “Sweet Talkin’ Woman” 3:47
4. “Across the Border” 3:52

Side two
5. “Night in the City” 4:02
6. “Starlight” 4:30
7. “Jungle” 3:51
8. “Believe Me Now” 1:21
9. “Steppin’ Out” 4:38

Side three (Concerto for a Rainy Day)
10. “Standin’ in the Rain” 4:20
11. “Big Wheels” 5:10
12. “Summer and Lightning” 4:13
13. “Mr. Blue Sky” 5:05

Side four
No. Title Length
14. “Sweet Is the Night” 3:26
15. “The Whale” 5:05
16. “Birmingham Blues” 4:21
17. “Wild West Hero” 4:40

Tuesday 8pm: Feature LP: Beach Boys with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (2018)

The Beach Boys with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a 2018 album of remixed Beach Boys recordings with new orchestral arrangements performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It was produced by Nick Patrick and Don Reedman, who conducted similar projects for Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley.

“California Suite” (Sally Herbert) – 1:32
“California Girls” (Mike Love and Brian Wilson) – 2:45
“Wouldn’t It Be Nice” (Tony Asher, Love, and Wilson) – 3:13
“Fun, Fun, Fun” (Love and Wilson) – 2:23
“Don’t Worry Baby” (Roger Christian and Wilson) – 2:50
“God Only Knows” (Asher and Wilson) – 3:12
“Sloop John B” (traditional) – 3:43
“Heroes and Villains” (Van Dyke Parks and Wilson) – 4:07
“Disney Girls” (Bruce Johnston) – 4:36
“Here Today” (Asher and Wilson) – 3:07
“In My Room” (Gary Usher and Wilson) – 2:32
“Kokomo” (Love, Scott McKenzie, Terry Melcher, and John Phillips) – 3:50
“The Warmth of the Sun” (Love and Wilson) – 3:15
“Darlin'” (Love and Wilson) – 2:18
“Help Me, Rhonda” (Love and Wilson) – 3:00
“You Still Believe in Me” (Asher and Wilson) – 3:11
“Good Vibrations” (Love and Wilson) – 4:20

Monday 10pm: Feature LP: Fleetwood Mac – Rumours (1977)

Rumours is the eleventh studio album by English-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 4 February 1977 by Warner Bros. Records. Largely recorded in California in 1976, it was produced by the band with Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut. The band wanted to expand on the commercial success of their eponymous 1975 album, but struggled with relationship breakups before recording started. The Rumours studio sessions were marked by hedonistic behaviour and interpersonal strife among band members, which shaped the album’s lyrics.

Recorded with the intention of making “a pop album”, the album’s music featured a pop rock and soft rock sound characterized by accented rhythms and electric keyboards such as the Fender Rhodes or Hammond B3 organ. The members partied and used cocaine for much of the recording sessions, and its completion was delayed by its mixing process, but was finished by the end of 1976. Following the album’s release, Fleetwood Mac undertook worldwide promotional tours. Rumours reached the top of both the US Billboard 200 and the United Kingdom Albums Chart, and became the band’s most successful release. The songs “Go Your Own Way”, “Dreams”, “Don’t Stop”, and “You Make Loving Fun” were released as singles, all of which reached the US top 10.

Having won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978, Rumours has since sold over 40 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time, and has received diamond certifications in several countries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia. The album garnered widespread acclaim from critics, with praise centred on its production quality and harmonies, which frequently relied on the interplay among three vocalists and has inspired the work of musical acts in different genres.

Often considered Fleetwood Mac’s best release, it has featured in several publications’ lists of the best albums of the 1970s and of all time. In 2004, Rumours was remastered and reissued with the addition of “Silver Springs”, which had been excluded from the original due to tension within the band, and a bonus CD of outtakes from the recording sessions. In 2018, the album was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry, being deemed “culturally, historically, or artistically significant” by the Library of Congress.

1. “Second Hand News” 2:56
2. “Dreams” Stevie Nicks 4:14
3. “Never Going Back Again” 2:14
4. “Don’t Stop” 3:13
5. “Go Your Own Way” 3:38
6. “Songbird” 3:20
7. “The Chain” 4:30
8. “You Make Loving Fun” 3:31
9. “I Don’t Want to Know” 3:15
10. “Oh Daddy” 3:56
11. “Gold Dust Woman” Nicks 4:56

Thursday 11pm: The Beatles: Rubber Soul (1965)

Rubber Soul is the sixth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 3 December 1965 in the United Kingdom, on EMI’s Parlophone label, accompanied by the non-album double A-side single “Day Tripper” / “We Can Work It Out”. The original North American version of the album was altered by Capitol Records to include a different selection of tracks. Rubber Soul met with a highly favourable critical response and topped record charts in Britain and the United States for several weeks.

Often referred to as a folk rock album, Rubber Soul incorporates a mix of pop, soul and folk musical styles. The title derives from the colloquialism “plastic soul”, which McCartney heard in reference to Mick Jagger’s singing style. After the British version of A Hard Day’s Night, it was the second Beatles LP to contain only original material. For the first time in their career, the band were able to record the album over a continuous period, uninterrupted by touring commitments.

The songs demonstrate the Beatles’ increasing maturity as lyricists and, in their incorporation of brighter guitar tones and new instrumentation such as harmonium, sitar and fuzz bass, the group striving for more expressive sounds and arrangements for their music. The project marked a progression in the band’s treatment of the album format as an artistic platform, an approach they continued to develop with Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The North American version of Rubber Soul contained ten of the fourteen new songs, supplemented by two tracks withheld from the band’s Help! album. The four songs omitted by Capitol, including the February 1966 single “Nowhere Man”, later appeared on the June 1966 North American-only release Yesterday and Today.

Rubber Soul was highly influential on the Beatles’ peers, leading to a widespread focus away from singles and onto creating albums of consistently high-quality songs. It has been recognised by music critics as an album that opened up the possibilities of pop music in terms of lyrical and musical scope, and as a key work in the creation of styles such as psychedelia and progressive rock. Among its many appearances on critics’ best-album lists, Rolling Stone ranked it fifth on the magazine’s 2012 list “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. The album was certified 6× platinum by the RIAA in 1997, indicating shipments of at least six million copies in the US. In 2013, after the British Phonographic Industry changed its sales award rules, the album was certified platinum.

Thursday 10:30pm: The Beatles: Beatles – Help (1965)

Help! is the fifth studio album by English rock band the Beatles and the soundtrack from their film Help!. It was released on 6 August 1965. Produced by George Martin, it was the fifth UK album release by the band, and contains fourteen songs in its original British form. Seven of these, including the singles “Help!” and “Ticket to Ride”, appeared in the film and took up the first side of the vinyl album. The second side contained seven other releases including the most-covered song ever written, “Yesterday”.

The American release was a true soundtrack album, mixing the first seven songs with instrumental material from the film. Of the other seven songs that were on the British release, two were released on the US version of the next Beatles album, Rubber Soul, two were back-to-back on the next US single and then appeared on Yesterday and Today, and three had already been on Beatles VI.

In 2012, Help! was voted 331st on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. In September 2013, after the British Phonographic Industry changed their sales award rules, the album was declared as having gone platinum.

Thursday 10pm: The Beatles – Beatles For Sale (1964)

Beatles for Sale is the fourth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 4 December 1964 in the United Kingdom on EMI’s Parlophone label. Eight of the album’s fourteen tracks appeared on Capitol Records’ concurrent release, Beatles ’65, issued in North America only. The album marked a departure from the upbeat tone that had characterised the Beatles’ previous work, partly due to the band’s exhaustion after a series of tours that had established them as a worldwide phenomenon in 1964. The songs introduced darker musical moods and more introspective lyrics, with John Lennon adopting an autobiographical perspective in compositions such as “I’m a Loser” and “No Reply”. The album also reflected the twin influences of country music and Bob Dylan, whom the Beatles met in New York in August 1964.

The Beatles recorded the album at EMI Studios in London in between their touring and radio engagements. Partly as a result of the group’s hectic schedule, only eight of the tracks are original compositions, with cover versions of songs by artists such as Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Little Richard being used to complete the album. The sessions also produced a non-album single, “I Feel Fine” backed by “She’s a Woman”.

In Britain, Beatles for Sale held the number 1 spot for 11 of the 46 weeks that it spent in the top 20. The album was similarly successful in Australia, where the band’s cover of Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music” also topped the singles chart. One of the songs omitted from the US version of the album, “Eight Days a Week”, became the Beatles’ seventh number 1 in the US when issued as a single there in February 1965. Beatles for Sale was not released in the US until 1987, when the Beatles’ catalogue was standardised for release on CD.

Wednesday 11pm: Feature LP: Collective Soul (Blue Album) (1995)

Collective Soul (sometimes referred to as the Blue Album to differentiate from the second self-titled album) is the second studio album by Collective Soul. It became the band’s highest selling album to date, going Triple-Platinum, and spent 76 weeks on the Billboard 200 charts. The singles “December,” “The World I Know” and “Where the River Flows” all reached #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, while the first two singles also became major pop hits.

Frontman Ed Roland has considered Collective Soul the band’s true debut album; Hints Allegations and Things Left Unsaid was intended more as a promotional demo and a means of acquiring a publishing contract for Roland who in 1995 noted, “It’s so funny for people to compare the two. It’s like comparing one band to another band. This record is our first record, flat out.”

1. “Simple” 3:45
2. “Untitled” 4:01
3. “The World I Know” 4:16
4. “Smashing Young Man” 3:45
5. “December” 4:45
6. “Where the River Flows” 3:35
7. “Gel” 3:00
8. “She Gathers Rain” 4:31
9. “When the Water Falls” 3:40
10. “Collection of Goods” 4:14
11. “Bleed” 4:03
12. “Reunion” 2:35