The Outfield - Albums CD Collection (6CD: 1985-1992)

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The Outfield - Albums CD Collection (6CD: 1985-1992)

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allmusic.com biography:
Ironically, given their obsession with America's favorite pastime, the Outfield got their start in London's East End. Playing under the name the Baseball Boys, the trio of bassist/singer Tony Lewis, guitarist/keyboardist John Spinks, and drummer Alan Jackman played around London and recorded some early demos, attracting the attention of Columbia/CBS Records. They were signed shortly thereafter and began working on their debut album, Play Deep, which was released in 1985. The album was a smash success, going triple platinum, reaching number nine on the album charts, and producing their biggest song, "Your Love," which was a Top Ten hit. To support the album, they launched an international tour opening for Journey and Starship. They began recording their second album in 1986 and in 1987 issued Bangin'. While not duplicating the huge commercial success of their debut, it did produce two hit singles, "Since You've Been Gone" and "No Surrender." The band's third album featured a bit of a stylistic shift and was more meticulously produced than their previous efforts. Voices of Babylon, released in 1988, produced a single of the same name, but the band's commercial success was slipping. Jackman left the band after it was recorded and they hired Paul Reed to step in as drummer for the Voices tour.
Spinks and Lewis, now officially a duo, switched labels and began recording Diamond Days for MCA. A new session drummer, Simon Dawson, joined them and helped add an electronic edge to their sound. Diamond Days produced one of their biggest singles, "For You." They followed up with 1992's Rockeye. Its single, "Winning It All," became a feature at sporting events and was on the soundtrack of The Mighty Ducks. Simon Dawson had become increasingly involved in the shaping of the band's sound and became an official member of the band at this time. They went on hiatus for much of the mid-'90s, returning to record an exclusive release for their fan club, entitled It Ain't Over, then embarking on a kind of '80s revival tour. In 1998, they released Extra Innings, which was a compilation of several songs they wrote during the '90s, and also featured four new songs written in 1998. The band reunited in 2006 for the release of Any Time Now.

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The Outfield - Albums CD Collection (6CD: 1985-1992)

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The Outfield - Play Deep (1985)
EAC-FLAC Image with CUE & LOG - 284 MB | Full Scans | MP3 CBR 320 Kbps - 105 MB
Pop Rock / Power Pop | 38:49 minutes | Label: Columbia Records / Cat. # CK 40027-2

allmusic.com says: Play Deep, the Outfield's debut album, contains a couple of singles that settled quite nicely into mid-'80s radio. Guided by Tony Lewis' airborne vocals and John Spinks' regimented guitar bluster, they managed to place two of the album's best songs within Billboard's Top 20. "Your Love" made it all the way to the number six spot in March of 1986, thanks to Lewis' high-pitched holler that dominates the opening of the song and a harmonious chorus that is overly smooth and rock savvy. Peaking at number 19 four months later, "All the Love in the World" is a an unblemished rock tune with a an effectively echoed vocal track, again highlighting the band's sweet-sounding consonance that's mixed in with rugged guitar work. The uncharted material sounds just as fluent and is anything but filler, especially efforts like "Say It Isn't So" and "I Don't Need Her," along with slower songs like "Everytime You Cry." Play Deep is a worthy first release from this British trio, lead by a novel guitar and vocal concoction.

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The Outfield - Albums CD Collection (6CD: 1985-1992)

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The Outfield - Bangin' (1987)
EAC-FLAC Image with CUE & LOG - 294 MB | Full Scans | MP3 CBR 320 Kbps - 113 MB
Pop Rock / Power Pop | 42:58 minutes | Label: CBS Records / Cat. # 450609-2

allmusic.com says: Although Bangin'was not as huge as the Outfield's runaway debut, it's still another flawless piece of pop craft. This trio knows hooks and is never afraid to use them. Swirling in the center, as always, is the precise and economic guitar of John Spinkswhose sentimental songwriting becomes even more forlorn and desperate when passing though the pipes of sonorous singer Tony Lewis. Most songs are variations on the classic unrequited love theme, and thus avoid pretension like (gasp!) early Beatles. Plus, the impassioned vocal delivery over tight playing constantly pulls the listener inside the soaring songs. And in the end, the songs are all that matter. "Bangin' on My Heart," "No Surrender," "Moving Target," "Main Attraction," and "Since You've Been Gone" pack picture-perfect power punches. In fact, Bangin' maintains a consistent quality exclusive to only the upper echelon of rock. Mistakenly lost in the Police files, the Outfield are a true find, and Bangin' deserves any pop fan's attention.

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The Outfield - Albums CD Collection (6CD: 1985-1992)

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The Outfield - Voices Of Babylon (CDS 1989)
EAC-FLAC Image with CUE & LOG - 111 MB | Full Scans | MP3 CBR 320 Kbps - 41 MB
Pop Rock / Power Pop | TT - 15:06 minutes | Label: CBS Records # 654739-2

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The Outfield - Albums CD Collection (6CD: 1985-1992)

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The Outfield - Voices Of Babylon (1989)
EAC-FLAC Image with CUE & LOG - 294 MB | Full Scans | MP3 CBR 320 Kbps - 92 MB
Pop Rock / Power Pop | TT - 35:13 minutes | Label: CBS Records # 463445-2

allmusic.com says: The world quit listening, but the Outfield continued to make tight, glistening pop records. Even though hook virtuoso John Spinks tries for lyrical content that digs deeper than Josie leaving on a vacation far away, all that matters is that Voices of Babylon showcases sharp harmonies, crackling guitar, and the always remarkable vocals of Tony Lewis. Thus, the Outfield recedes into history as yet another shining power pop band unjustly ignored and lost forever. 'Tis truly tragedy worthy of the Bard himself.

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The Outfield - Albums CD Collection (6CD: 1985-1992)

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The Outfield - Diamond Days (1990)
EAC-FLAC Image with CUE & LOG - 271 MB | Full Scans - 76 MB | MP3 CBR 320 Kbps - 85 MB
Pop Rock / Power Pop | 37:24 minutes | Label: MCA Records / Cat. # MCAD 10111-2

allmusic.com says: After the Outfield's Voices of Babylon album, drummer Alan Jackman parted ways, and the band released Diamond Days as a duo. Even though the album's finest song "For You" made it to number 21, it was truly Diamond Days' only bright spot, with the rest of the album suffering from limp harmonies and a lack of pop energy which circulated through their past releases as well. Both Tony Lewis and John Spinks fail to rekindle any of the avidity that was prevalent on earlier songs like "Your Love" or "Since You've Been Gone," coming up short and sounding like a tandem without any direction. Absent is Lewis' vocal muscle and the guitar grind of Spinks, replaced by rather slipshod efforts like "Magic Seed" and "After the Storm." "John Lennon" shows a minute hint of promise but just can't get off the ground for full flight. With Diamond Days, the Outfield attempted to simmer down their pop enthusiasm in order to please a somewhat older crowd, but it seems this route affected both their vehemency as a pop band as well as their songwriting strengths.

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The Outfield - Albums CD Collection (6CD: 1985-1992)

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The Outfield - Rockeye (1992)
EAC-FLAC Image with CUE & LOG - 295 MB | Full Scans - 102 MB | MP3 CBR 320 Kbps - 94 MB
Rock / Pop Rock / Power Pop | 41:16 minutes | Label: MCA Records / Catalogue # MCAD 10476-2

allmusic.com says: The Outfield were a great power pop band whose big '80s production sound was the antithesis of what power pop fans wanted. The fusion of Dwight Twilley-style melodies with Journey bombast was intriguing for the moment, but inhibits the luster of the group years after the fact. For bright, shiny hit singles, one refers to the Raspberries and Badfinger, while Crowded House comes close to what vibe could have been a blessing to this group. Rockeye was the fifth album in seven years, and is highly listenable throughout – the trio pared down to a duo, John Spinks' 11 new compositions feature only one Tony Lewis co-write, and the material is still first rate pop chock full of hooks. They don't break any new ground with "Winning It All" or "Closer to You," and the sound is interchangeable with some of their previous work, "The Way It Should Be" in the same vein, while "Under a Stone" resembles a British version of The Cars with Dave Fitzgerald providing the saxophone. If Split Enz went the 38 Special route, you might have the ingredients that make up Rockeye – it sounds like an unholy marriage on paper, but the album is pleasing and works on many levels. "Young Love" feels like it is going to be redundant, but it twists at the right time to rescue itself. Ten Years After guitarist Alvin Lee shows up to provide the solo for "Jane," and it is too bad Jefferson Starship didn't cut this quasi-psychedelic number instead of that dreadful album rock classic Mickey Thomas got to hit with when Marty Balin exited the band. Alvin is an added plus to what is the most new-wavey cut on the disc, the kind of stuff to make a band like this very hip indeed. Lee's solo is neo-metal, a nice contrast to the modern rock sensibility everywhere else on the tune. Rockeye seems to be a forgotten album of '80s rock, but it deserves a better fate – despite the sameness of tracks like "Take Me Home" and "Tonight You're Home," the vocals of Tony Lewis are what give the group the "progressive rock" tag; he could sub for the band Yes when Jon Anderson goes on hiatus. But the incessant thump thump Cars/'Til Tuesday/Girls Night Out riff under "Tonight You're Mine" keeps things from getting too mainstream and it is a shame the late Cars bassist Ben Orr didn't get a chance to cover it. There's not a bad track on Rockeye. Though having a song included on a Mighty Ducks film soundtrack wasn't enough to insure it a better fate, enough substance is here to demand more attention for this mostly neglected work sometime down the road.