Los Secretos are a Pop Rock band from Spain born in 1980. In 1998, they were the only survivors to that was called “la Movida Madrileña” (the 80′s Madrid Scene). Their music had artists’ influences as Dylan, Springsteen, Jackson Browne, James Taylor or Crosby, Still, Nash and Young.
Álvaro Urquijo is a guitarist, composer and singer born in Madrid on 1962. He founded “Los Secretos” together with his brothers Enrique and Javier.
The precedents already are explained; two sufficient points to place the personage. He has been so many years one of Los Secretos, a history plenty of beautiful songs.
An album is not supported only by the name of the artist. If there are no songs, everything exceeds. It’s a question of putting to do it and do it fine. This it the success of this album. Ten songs, one after other one, perfectly elaborated. And, which is more important, inspired. All that, though it turns out to be obvious, not all the artists obtain it. Álvaro has demonstrated always with Los Secretos that he could do songs, very good songs. It was necessary to verify, if he knew to do songs alone with another idiosyncrasy and responsibility.
It’s necessary to forget of Los Secretos though not completely. It’s necessary to think about the songs, about the lyrics. It’s necessary to know that he doesn’t like the fuss. He likes the very transparent guitars, the smoothness of the sound of the steel-guitar, the sound of the harmonica, the simplicity of a melody and the emotion of a lyric. Slightly very silly in an age of exuberant remixes, of disproportionate miscegenations, of false yellow hairs. Not, his first solo album won’t change the history of the rock. In exchange, he recovers the taste for returning to listen songs. No tags. Or if anything, the emotion.
Tracks:
Como En Un Cuento / Promesas / Cada Minuto / Por El Bulevar De Los Sueños Rotos* / Ya No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti / Fruto Del Corazón** / Solo Para Jugar*** / Miénteme / Prisionero / Dame Esa Oportunidad
All songs written by Álvaro Urquijo except:
* Álvaro Urquijo / Joaquín Sabina
** Álvaro Urquijo / José María Granados (Mamá)
*** Ian Gomm (“Hold On” cover)
Personnel:
Alvaro Urquijo: vocals & guitars / Juanjo Ramos: bass / Eric Franklin: drums / Ramón Arroyo: guitars & mandoline / Jesús Redondo: keyboards / Pedro & Enrique Gil: chorus on “Fruto Del Corazón” & “Dame Esa Oportunidad”
Produced by Nigel Walker.
Álvaro – Urquijo – Selftiled (Flac)
Álvaro – Urquijo – Selftiled (mp3-320)
Both files with complete HQ scan artworks.
Note: The album is “Out Of Print”
Contents recovery record for repairing corrupted files with Repair Archive function of WinRAR (Alt+R).
They came from Belfast (North Ireland). Originally founded in 1978 as No Sweat, they were sued by Pete Townsends Eel Pie Records, which had a band of the same name. They changed their name to THE SWEAT and had several hits in the early Eighties.
The Boys were perhaps punk’s saddest casualty. They could — indeed, should — have been enormous. Certainly they were one of the finest live acts around, but still they were to languish in comparative obscurity, with even their continental success seemingly working against them. Even worse, when their debut album was reissued on CD, it arrived with a sticker on the front proclaiming the involvement of ’80s AOR superstar John Waite — a claim which has absolutely no grounding in reality. More recent reissues have redressed the balance (or at least dumped the sticker), while the band itself has regrouped on occasion, to thrill a new generation with those classic numbers. But still the story of the Boys is one filled with great songs, an arsenal of killer hooks, and too many lost opportunities to count. (all music… read more)
The Boys’ is chock full of fast, tuneful and powerful songs and still stands as probably their best record. From the Brats re-treads of “Sick On You” and “Tumble With Me” to the set closer “Living In The City“ it‘s a breeze of fresh air and this wonderful record debuted at number 50 in the album start and then promptly disappeared. Blame for this has been apportioned to the recent death of Elvis Presley meaning that the pressing plants couldn’t cope with producing enough records, but in truth it was probably more down to the hapless NEMS label’s shortcomings.
Thus armed with no great expectations, Good as Gold came as something of a surprise, starting with the first track. Gone was the raging rhetoric, replaced by a startlingly pretty pop song, “China” filled with articulate, ringing guitars and John Griffith’s newly smoothed-up vocals. With ex-Stiff Little Fingers drummer Jim Reilly in the lineup, Red Rockers switched to melodic pop-rock, much like 415 labelmates Translator but with more emphasis on electric drive and generally less-exceptional songwriting.
New Orleans, Louisiana, 1979. Formed with the name of the Rat Finks doing cover tunes. Later they changed their name to the Red Records inspired in a Dils song and moved to San Francisco to sign with 415 Records and put out “Condition Red” in 1981.
By virtue of their late ’70s emergence and a deal with Stiff Records in Europe, the Sports were accidentally New Wave. But they were always too soulful and too capricious to join that club (or any) by choice. With new guitarist Martin Armiger, their second album Don’t Throw Stones had some of punk’s nervous energy but Stephen Cummings couldn’t shake his R&B groove, nor Andrew Pendlebury his jazz/rockabilly bent. The divergent talents of the band’s creative core would make for some of the most volatile swingin’ pub rock of the era, and “Suspicious Minds”, “Live, Work and Play”, “Who Listens to the Radio?” and “Don’t Throw Stones” were early warnings of a formidable knack for twisted pop songs. (by Michael Dwyer – Australian Rolling Stone)
Condemned at the time for offering up little more than a straight carbon copy of its predecessor, the second Boys album has since ascended to the pantheon of power pop greats, a combination of the band’s own inestimable position at the forefront of what, by early 1978, was already a burgeoning movement, and their seemingly effortless grasp of the rudiments of, indeed, a great pop song. “Brickfield Nights,” the opening track (and the band’s third single), is almost Spector-esque in its vision, a Wall of Sound that totally predicts all that the Ramones would later do with Spector himself, but transplants the action and emotions into a strictly English setting, a soaring paean to the lost innocence of youth, set to a transistor blast of melody. Elsewhere, “Taking On the World,” the deliberately Ramones-esque “Neighbourhood Brat,” and the sourly recriminatory “Do the Contract Hustle” all illustrate the Boys’ vivid sense of musical humor. Delving into the bonus tracks only amplifies the group’s achievement. Songs the quality of “Teachers Pet,” “Schooldays,” and “She’s No Angel” are hard enough to find in any band’s catalog. The fact that the Boys could simply bury them away on B-sides or the shelf only amplifies the sheer wealth of quality material that was at their disposal. ~ Dave Thompson, All Music Guide ~ 
A little biography of this great artist.
The Bongos recorded their early singles and their well-received debut EP for UK-based Fetish Records. Their debut U.S. album, Drums Along The Hudson, compiled from the band’s British singles, was released in 1982 to mostly favorable reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. While Trouser Press suggested that the group “may trade a certain amount of substance for easy appeal,” it added that “there’s no better musical equivalent of whipped cream anywhere.”
Courtesy of “Gumby”, the only album released by this good New Wave band.
