The 1985 Listening Post - One the Juggler - Some Strange Fashion

One the Juggler - Some Strange Fashion

#428/1063

1985 Housekeeping

One the Juggler

Some Strange Fashion

Genre: Rock

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Everyday

Total Control

Sleeper

I had no idea that there was a second OtJ album so kudos to Sheffield for finding this link to a download on someone’s blog.

It’s impossible to not listen to this and not think of what’s coming on the horizon in terms of Power Pop and Indie. Specifically, bands like Jellyfish and artists like Jon Brion (of jellyfish) and Super Furry Animals and so many others. I’m not sure how the addition of Mick Ronson as producer turned it into a LESS guitar driven curio but they did. Cellos and keyboards abound here. I don’t know that I love it the way I did Nearly a Sin but, for a record that NO ONE has heard and was the last gasp of a fantastically named band…pretty damned good. 

https://mrworthyandwhammo.blogspot.com/2012/11/one-juggler-some-strange-fashion.html?fbclid=IwAR24yur48VrAusckqkfLiujPmxMzNVGXhVw8sTNOct93Hy71Wt3nKdnWsHo

The 1984 Listening Post - One the Juggler - Nearly a Sin

One the Juggler - Nearly a Sin

#200!!!

1984 Housekeeping

One the Juggler

Nearly a Sin

4.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Enjoy Yourself

Passion Killer

Sister Soul

Damage is Done

let’s celebrate getting to 200(!!) albums in 1984 with one that you would have to dig up yourself as it’s not available anywhere. Although I have managed to get all the tracks onto my hard drive and I am currently streaming them to my Echo. 

I don’t recall how One the Juggler came into our lives. It might have been a discounted record at Sounds in the East Village. And I don’t even think I listened to the rest of the record more than once, if that. But that opening track, “Enjoy Yourself” stuck with me. Or maybe it was the name of the band. The song was a 1 1/2 minute trifle. And yet, as soon as it plays I can remember every note. 

From there it’s Alarm-y jangle rock. I hear Bowie, but I also hear The Clash. And some Love & Rockets. And a bit of The Kinks. And Lennon.

As the first side comes careering back into focus and memory I must say, OtJ could’ve been one of the unsung unremembered groups of the era. Not glam enough, not indie enough, not anything enough and all of it. 

I always felt bad for One the Juggler. This record is better than I remembered.