Del Shannon
Home and Away - Recorded 1967 - released 2006 Comments:”Home and Away” was an album Del Shannon recorded in England in 1967 with Andrew Loog Oldham as the producer. A couple of singles were pulled from the recordings, but since none of them were commercial succesful the album was shelved and not released as a whole until 2006.
This may at first hand seem strange and unfair considering that this is actually a fine album and as consistent of many of Shannons other albums recorded in the 1960’s. The problem with ”Home and Away”, besides the lack of a hit-single, has probably been that it sounded too much old-school in 1967, when albums like ”Sgt Pepper”, ” Axis: Bold as Love” and “Disraeli Gears” dominated on the record players of the young generation.
Had the album been released in 1965 its chances would have been much better. With production and arrangements inspired by people like Phil Spector, Chris Andrews or Brian Wilson and fine catchy songs written by Billy Nichols, Skinner/Rose, Shannon himself a.o. the albums actually comes out very strong, and it is really a pleasure relive the sounds of the 60's.
A stand-out is the extremely catchy “Led Along” by Billy Nichols, which I believe with the right promotion could have been a hit-single – even in 1967. Other great tracks are the three Skinner/Rose songs (Twice as Much). Also the re-working of Shannon’s breakthrough “Runaway” works really well.
This is obviously a must for fans of Del Shannon, but also for any casual fan of music of the sixties.
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