200 FAVE ALBUMS: #114. More added later this week.

THE CAFFE` LATTE`

200

MOST RECOMMENDED ALBUMS

Some are the best selling, while others may be obscure, but the albums listed here are all worthy of a listen. No compilation/ best of sets. Only exceptional live albums included. This is a personal listing of the albums I enjoy the most to this day.

#114

COMMUNARDS: THE COMMUNARDS

 

 [1986] 

He may have looked puny and weak with his camp and high voice, but Jimmy Somerville was way ahead of his time. Unlike so many of his contemporaries, he burst onto the music scene without compromise and demanded we take him as he is. With Somerville, there was to be no hinting at his sexuality; nor any watering down his gay politics for the mainstream. This was the era of androgyny and Somerville was the most "in your face" gay pop you could get. 

He declared his arrival as a member of the trio Bronski Beat, but then quit and returned as part of The Communards with Richard Cole. Together, they crafted a self-titled debut album. Somerville's falsetto is its bedrock. There is the heavenly disco remake of "Don't Leave Me This Way" and the jazz standard "Lover Man". "So Cold The Night" has the allure of MIddle Eastern rhythms. Somerville's brazen vocals are complemented by Sarah Jane Morris. The album has since dated, but it is a time capsule of 1980s gay pop. Highlight tracks: Don't Leave Me This Way; You Are My World & So Cold The Night.