Search - Sailor :: Sailor & Trouble

A timely release of early Sailor.

Peter A. Taylor | Taiwan | 10/26/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This cd release of Sailor's first two albums- the self titled "Sailor" (1974) and its follow up "Trouble" (1975) - is well overdue. Though "Trouble" contained the bands two biggest hits (mainly in the UK, Europe and Australia) the Roxyesque "A Glass Of Champagne" and "Girls, Girls, Girls"- and was a good hyper commercial album- it is the eponymous first album that is the stand out here. Full of well crafted and beautifully harmonised songs about the red light district and the goings on there, for band leader and song writer Georg Kajanus it was his defining and best moment with the band. Later albums were all good, especially "Hideaway" (1978),but none lived up to the quality of that first one. Perhaps this was so because Sailor really started out as a sort of theatrical concept band (much in the vain of Roxy Music and Cockney Rebel -the latter they toured with in the early days) who admittedly evolved into a 'pop' band with "Trouble". "Blue Desert", "Josephine Baker", and the punchy, amusing and ribaldry "Open Up The Door" are standout tracks along with the out of theme and perhaps now environmentally aware single "Traffic Jam" (my personal favourite single of Sailor's). From "Trouble", the excellent and evocative instrumental "Jacaranda", frenetic "Trouble in Hong Kong",and "Stop That Man", along with Sailor's big hit "A Glass Of Champagne" - sounding very much like Roxy Music's "Virginia Plain" methinks? - serve the cd well. As a bonus, "Harbour" the band's original b-side instrumental to "Traffic Jam" is included. Unlike the band's tradition of including an instrumental on all of their albums -with the exception of the more collaborative "Hideaway" - "Harbour" has never been offically released before (it does appear on a limited compilation release of Kajanus's two years ago). This cd is worth getting for that and the first album alone. I hope Sailor follows this release with the other albums in its catalogue and perhaps the "Hi Ho Silver" (1973) - Kajanus/Pickett album and "Tv Land" (1981)disc."