I remembered what else I bought at the WFMU fair. George Duning‘s ‘The World of Suzie Wong’ soundtrack from 1960. It’s a superb soundtrack, featuring the awesome ‘At the Namkok’, which I first heard on the highly recommended ‘Cocktail Mix vol 4: Soundtracks with a Twist‘ compilation (apparently now out of print; I highly recommend tracking it down used). Funny though – either something shifted in me or something’s in the air, because I really don’t feel like listening to anything from the early 60s these days. I’m sure this will change in the future, but right now its late 60s early 70s all the way.

I found a couple of nice records on the street yesterday. I was down at 4th Avenue and 11th street checking out the new Academy Vinyl store. I picked up the last Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66 album, ‘Stillness’, and Henry Mancini‘s ‘Charlie’s Angels’ disco album (I have and quite like his other disco LP, ‘the copy show themes’) for a buck each. The Mancini is fun, like I expected. The Sergio Mendes, on first listen at least, is a great album. I had heard mixed things about it, and I can see why – it’s definitely less coherent and unified sounding than the earlier brasil 66 albums. But I think that actually works in its favor. As well as the groovy cover versions ‘Chelsea Morning’ and ‘For What it’s Worth’, which I had heard before, there were lots of other great tracks, many of them more understated than a lot of their stuff, but really great anyway.

The David Axlerod ‘Heavy Axe’ LP is good, if rather mixed. The first side, which is mostly cover versions (e.g. ‘you’re so vain’) is a litle cheesy for me. The vocals are prominent than I would have liked as well. The second side is much better, and is mostly originals, including the superb ‘Everything Counts’, which is a new version of my favorite ‘Holy Thursday‘. It’s slighly spooky, laid back funky stuff, with a lot of electric piano. Nice to have, and definitely pretty different from lots of the stuff I own.