Saturday, May 19, 2012

No Trouble With Classic Any Trouble Single

Whenever I listen to early Joe Jackson, Rockpile, or 'My Aim Is True'-era Elvis Costello, I almost always think about following it up with 'Where Are All the Nice Girls?' by Any Trouble. That's exactly what happened last night after playing Jackson's "The Harder They Come," and it was such a nice fit. If you don't know the band's story, in a nutshell, Any Trouble was part of Stiff Records' glory days. The lads made two critically acclaimed albums (including the 1980 debut 'Where Are All the Nice Girls?') for the label. Inexplicably, the public didn't take to either one of these works. Any Trouble stuck around a few years beyond those first two albums, and there was even a reunion album in 2007, but I don't own anything beyond the Stiff output. Is any of the post-1981 material worth my while? If you have any thoughts, let me know.

Let's listen to Any Trouble's first single. The B-side of the power-pop classic "Yesterday's Love" was a slightly different (and more lo-fi) version of the album track "Nice Girls." If you can't find the 7", this take can also be found as a bonus track on the
2007 reissue of 'Where Are All the Nice Girls?'

Any Trouble - Yesterday's Love (mp3)
Any Trouble - Nice Girls (mp3) (single B-side version)

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