Gone Digital: Red Flag, John & Mary, Lloyd Cole, Loudon Wainwright III, and Joe Jackson

If it’s Tuesday, then it must be time for Gone Digital, our weekly look at five albums which may not even realize are part of Rhino’s digital catalog. As ever, the types of music we’ll be covering will be all over the place, but that’s Rhino for you: we’re all about variety!

• Red Flag, NAÏVE ART: SPECIAL EDITION (1989): Given their voices, it may not surprise you to learn that Chris and Mark Reynolds, the brothers who founded this synthpop band, were born in Liverpool, but it wasn’t until their family moved to California that Red Flag came into existence. Their sonic similarity to Depeche Mode helped them tremendously in terms of finding success, with their single “Russian Radio” proving to be their breakthrough. Unfortunately, it was that single and this album which ultimately proved to be the sum total of any significant commercial success for the group, but NAÏVE ART is a synthpop classic that’s well worth revisiting.

• John & Mary, VICTORY GARDENS (1991): John Lombardo was a founding member of 10,000 Maniacs, but a few years after leaving the band due to what he has described as “creative and political” difference, he teamed up with Mary Ramsey to form the perfectly-named duo John & Mary. This was their debut LP, and they dropped their sophomore effort, THE WEEDKILLER’S DAUGHTER, two years later, after which John rejoined the suddenly sans-singer Maniacs  (Natalie Merchant had opted to go solo) and brought Mary with him, but in case you’re wondering, the duo eventually revived the John & Mary name for a third album, THE PINWHEEL GALAXY.

• Lloyd Cole, BAD VIBES (1993): After two well-received albums on Capitol Records as a solo artist, Lloyd – late of the Commotions – made the jump to Rykodisc for his third release, which arrived in the U.S. quite a bit later than it hit record stores in the UK. Mixed by Bob Clearmountain and featuring guest musicianship from Matthew Sweet, Anton Fier of the Golden Palominos, and others, it’s perhaps not Cole’s most upbeat effort, but the single “So You’d Like to Change the World” is among his all-time best.

• Loudon Wainwright III, SOCIAL STUDIES (2000): A slightly unique effort by LWIII, this album was produced for NPR and is arguably the most unabashedly topical LP of his career. “It's something that no-one does anymore; write songs about current events,” Wainwright said on his website. “When I was young there were a lot of topical songwriters around; maybe folk music had more impact on culture back then. I see these songs as a kind of musical journalism.” So when you hit “play” and find yourself listening to tunes about Tonya Harding, O.J Simpson, and Jesse Helms, you’ll know why.

• Joe Jackson Band, VOLUME 4 (2003): For longtime Jackson fans, this album was a dream come true, reuniting our man Joe with his classic band – Graham Maby, David Houghton, and Gary Sanford – for the first time since 1980. At the time, Jackson described the material to USA Today as being in the spirit of his first few albums, “but with a bit of the greater maturity I’d like to think I’ve acquired.”  Indeed, VOLUME 4 was – and remains – one of the strongest albums of Jackson’s late career.