‘Da Capo’ was the first really cool record I had in my collection: the first record that I hadn’t inherited from my Dad, or bought on the strength of a hit single. In actual fact, it was so cool that I hadn’t even heard it before I laid down my £3.49. I just saw it in the racks and knew it would be good. For once, my instinct was right – well, fifty percent right –

Side One is a work of genius, perhaps even the greatest sequence of songs to appear on a single side of vinyl EVER. By turns punky, whimsical, quizzical, comical, apocalyptic, psychedelic, enigmatic, acoustic and electric – all human life is there.

‘Stephanie Knows Who’ is an aggressive number with a driving harpsichord solo and a ten second sax break that nods to modal jazz – ‘Orange Skies’ is a cotton candy soft pop track that evokes long Summer days and the unbearable, sickening wonder of puppy love – ‘Que Vida’ is an electric organ and cowbells vamp with inscrutable, cod-philosophical lyrics and a clockwork orchestra counter melody – ‘7 & 7 is’ is a two minute onslaught of heavy drums and drugs paranoia that can only be stopped by a nuclear blast, with a gentle blues coda that sounds like radioactive dust settling on the charred corpses of mankind. ‘The Castle’ is the soundtrack for Patrick McGoohan trying to outrun a bouncing with balloon if ‘The Prisoner’ had been made in Portugal and not Portmeirion, all flamenco guitar and dramatic pauses – and ‘She Comes In Colours’ is a psychedelic travelogue with wide-eyed lyrics and an explosive chorus ending in a baroque blues flourish. Brilliant. Then on to Side Two…

Side Two is shit.

One track, 22 minutes long, a generic blues improvisation (based, of course, on ‘Smokestack Lightning’) that is as irrelevant today as it was forty years ago: a crushing disappointment barely worth the vinyl it’s pressed on, making ‘Da Capo’ the ultimate one sider.

But half a work of unsurpassable genius is better than none at all. Especially at 1981 prices. Be warned though, I must have listened to half of this LP hundreds of times in the last 27 years, and the frustration at not being able to flip it over never really goes away…I don’t expect it ever will now.

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