I started half-reading Fear Of Music by Garry Mulholland as bedtime literature recently. It's pretty well-written, plus he's black and british so that's 2 merit badges already. I mean, he's basically Eddy Grant! This book is a follow-up to another book he wrote called This Is Uncool, which was a catalog of his all-time 500 singles since punk and disco. Actually, Uncool is really good. Especially at the time of me reading it I was really interested in stuff he was covering and it was basically how I found out about the Undertones, Josef K etc. Also he's an entertaining writer and genuinely loves all this great new wave shit so it's always great to read someone else write on and on about 15 different Smiths singles.

Anyways Fear Of Music covers Mulholland's 250+ favorite full length LPs since punk and disco, and while I'm skipping the sections about why the first Au Pairs album is great (not interested, ladies!), I am finding out stuff like how Sound Affects is supposed to be the best Jam album, and that the reissued version of Singles Going Steady has 4 tracks not on the original pressing. Also I'm finding out that Chic produced the Diana Ross debut LP and she was so pissed about being mixed low (she likened it to singing backup to the production on her own album) that she demanded a remixing of the whole thing and Chic was all "fine take our names off the credits then." I guess this is pretty common folklore among the disco heads but it's news to me. Also whatever, I'm Chinese and didn't grow up with that album, and I figured "Upside Down" and "I'm Coming Out" are all I really need to know from it.

So I was looking online for the Diana LP and came across this great article on Popdose which breaks down all the ways in which Diana Ross is a heartless shrew by Matthew Bolin. I don't know who this writer is, but (gay voice) you simply MUST read his other blogs!!!

Here's a dude who reviews Don Henley, Todd Rundgren, and Danzig albums, and also does a feature called All Wham! All Weekend. DUDE STOP TWISTING MY ARM WE CAN BE BEST FRIENDS

"When Good Albums Happen To Bad People: Diana Ross" by my BFF Matthew Bolin

Oh yeah, this led me to Googs'ing the deluxe version of the Diana LP, and I found out this reissue from 2003 has the original Chic unreleased mix of the whole album! You can get it here via D-Trax.

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