Various Artists - The Drugs DO Work (2018)

The concept of this album is pretty obvious, and it came about because I was listening to J. J. Cale's 'Cocaine', closely followed by The Velvet Underground's debut, including the classic 'Heroin', and I realised that both songs had something in common, and before long I'd recalled over a dozen more songs celebrating a wide variety of illegal substances, and this album was born. There isn't much else to say about it, so enjoy this varied collection of drug-inspired songs, which is closed by The Verve's assertion that none of them actually work anyway.    

Track listing

01 Cocaine - J. J. Cale
02 Heroin - The Velvet Underground
03 Weed Party - Band Of Horses
04 In The Opium Den - Paul Roland
05 Novocaine For The Soul - Eels
06 Crack Rock - Frank Ocean
07 Ketamine - Mark Lanegan
08 Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow - The Strawberry Alarm Clock

09 Golden Brown - The Stranglers
10 Codine - The Charlatans
11 You And Your Crystal Meth - Drive-By Truckers
12 Amphetamine Annie - Canned Heat
13 Mother I've Taken LSD - The Flaming Lips

14 Sister Morphine - Marianne Faithful
15 Spice - Sam Fender
16 Animal Nitrate - Suede
17 Take Ecstasy With Me - The Magnetic Fields
18 Hippy Crack - Beans On Toast
19 The Drugs Don't Work - The Verve

The Stranglers - Nice Numbers 'n' Sleazy Songs (1981)

The Stranglers were always the outsiders of the original punk movement - they were much older than all the other bands, and could actually play their instruments, and that included a keyboard player with a moustache!. Another thing which stood them apart was the amount of material they produced, so it's no surprise to find that they released a lot of non-album singles and b-sides. Enough, in fact, to put together a nice compilation of songs which never made it to album. It's a telling point that two of my favourites of theirs - 'Walk On By' and 'Five Minutes' - were never considered as album material, even though they would have enhanced any record they appeared on.

Track listing

01 Straighten Out (b-side to 'Something Better Change' 1977)
02 Go Buddy Go (b-side to 'Peaches' 1977)
03 Shut Up (b-side to 'Nice 'n' Sleazy' 1978)
04 Walk On By (free 7" with 'Black And White')
05 Mean To Me (b-side to 'Walk On By')
06 Tits (b-side to 'Walk On By')
07 Old Codger (b-side to commercial release of 'Walk On By')
08 Sverige (Jag Ar Insnoad Pa Ostfronten) ('Sweden' in Swedish 7" single 1978)
09 Five Minutes (7" single 1978)
10 Rok It To The Moon (b-side to 'Five Minutes')
11 Yellowcake UF6 (b-side to 'Nuclear Device' 1979)
12 Fools Rush Out (b-side to 'Duchess' 1979)
13 Tomorrow Was The Hereafter (7" single 1980)
14 Bear Cage (7" single 1980)
15 Choosey Susie (b-side to 'Peasant In The Big Shitty' 1980)
16 Top Secret (b-side to 'Thrown Away' 1981)
17 Maninwhite (b-side to 'Just Like Nothing On Earth' 1981)