The Passions - Love Is Essential

I've been going through my record collection and found many LP's that will probably never be issued on CD and widely available, so decided to put some on here so people can at least enjoy a few long lost gems from the 80's.

The Passions were a criminally underrated post-punk group from the late 70's - early 80's that got lost in a sea of similar bands. The LP "Sanctuary" (1982) is one of their best. As far as I know it's never been reissued on CD so I'm reproducing it here.

Passions bio:

As introduced on Michael & Miranda, the Passions (most of whom had been in a London punk band called the Derelicts) appeared to be part of the post-punk movement. The record is characterized by spare arrangements, stark vocals and fairly unmelodic — though lyrically interesting — songs. Subjects like unhappy love ("Oh No, It's You") and frustrated attempts at relationships and communication ("Palava"), along with "Obsession," "Suspicion," fear ("Man on the Tube") and neuroses ("Absentee"), make the world of Michael & Miranda a particularly anxious one.

Thirty Thousand Feet Over China is less bleak, though still tainted with anger, deceit and suspicion. With a new producer, Nigel Gray, and a new bass player, the quartet sounds smoother and more melodic (as on "Someone Special," "Runaway" and the nicely poppy "Bachelor Girls"). Lyrics are as sharp and offbeat as ever — check the clever, almost tongue-in-cheek "I'm in Love with a German Film Star."

Between Thirty Thousand Feet and Sanctuary, the Passions released a single, "Africa Mine," arguably their best song. A pretty, haunting, bitter and impassioned condemnation of colonialist exploitation, it could really be applied to greed by any name. "Africa Mine" foreshadowed the sound of Sanctuary, which is smooth without being bland, sophisticated without being smug, and pretty without being soppy. Barbara Gogan shows growing confidence as a singer; her new expressiveness and the addition of a synthesizer serve to fill in and soften what used to be rough edges. The soaring title track is especially memorable.

Before the Passions, guitarist Clive Timperley was in the 101ers. After the Passions, in the late '80s, Barbara Gogan turned up in New York, playing acoustic solo shows and often included the Passions' "Sanctuary" along with her new songs. She has since lived in Russia and Paris, where she has done ambient work with Hector Zazou. -- Karen Schlosberg/Ira Robbins, TrouserPress.com

Technical Note: As always I try to get the best reproduction possible by cleaning my albums with a pad, using a decent needle, and putting the transferred wave file through a basic de-clicker program to remove most pops and clicks. However, since I don't have access -- or could even afford -- a professional studio with hi-tech gadgets to really clean up the sound, like all vinyl LPs there is inherent surface noise and other imperfections I can't fix. I still think my album transfers sound better than 99% of the LPs I hear on here. Hope you agree.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• passions
• love
• essential
• barbara cogan
• sanctuary
• post punk
• new wave

[enrico0094]

Nice transfer and a classic song. Never understood why they released "Jump for Joy" as the single from this album. Thanks for posting - inspired me to go back and listen to the rest of the album now (cleaning pad and decent needle and all!) :)

[motownmaniax]

@enrico0094 Thx for the nice comment, Enrico. Classic album.

[mycroftholmes1959]

Thanks Karen and Ira!! I miss Trouser Press...

[rcmayo]

It is so f'ing awesome that you put this up.  I am at a loss for words. Except for the word f'ing. Thank you.

[DrWill33]

Sweet as a nut.