There have been a number of feature albums over the years, so I decided to make a page to make a list of them all. Here they are, listed from newest to oldest.
2025
RAIN TREE CROW (self titled)
When the members of Japan decided to reform in 1989 and release this album in 1991, David Sylvian refused to allow the project to be released under the name Japan. Intended to be the first of multiple albums, the individual members clashed and the album remains the only release under the new name.
Musically it sounds similar to where each band member had evolved to individually as solo artists and feels like a natural evolution from the previous Japan albums.
This was the final feature album before the show ended in October 2025.
SCRITTI POLITTI – CUPID &PSYCHE 85
Scritti Politti’s second and best known album from 1985 is a delightfully mixed bag of songs with the very electronic based Wood Beez at one end and the reggae inspired Word Girl at the other.
2024
THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN – PSYCHOCANDY
Psychocandy is the debut release from The Jesus And Mary Chain, released in 1985. This album has a level of distortion and reverb unmatched by any of their other albums. Occasionally when Trash Disco played a track or two from this album, some listeners questioned the quality of their headphones it was so distorted.
PET SHOP BOYS – PLEASE
Please is the debut album from the Pet Shop Boys, and they have been producing consistent quality ever since. Most radio tends to play West End Girls, Opportunities and Love Comes Quickly from this album, but the whole album is worth a play.
PROPAGANDA – A SECRET WISH (CD VERSION)
This is the debut album from German band Propaganda, who shared their ZTT stable with Frankie Goes To Hollywood and the Art Of Noise. The LP and cassette shared a track listing, but the CD was different. In typical ZTT style, the album was accompanied by a plethora of 12″ releases featuring different mixes.
THE POWER STATION – LIVING IN FEAR
The mostly forgotten second album from supergroup The Power Station, released in 1996. The project reunited the original four members to begin with, but John Taylor dropped out before recording, leaving Bernard Edwards to take on bass duties alongside Andy Taylor, Robert Palmer and Tony Thompson. Edwards died shortly after recording, so there is a dedication in the album notes to him. It includes a cover of Taxman, originally by The Beatles.
COCTEAU TWINS – GARLANDS
This is the first album from the Cocteau Twins, released in 1982. This album features original bassist Will Heggie, whose unique playing style helps form the sound of this embryonic form of the band. It features all the trademarks they would continue to employ – haunting, mostly meaningless vocals, guitars layered with effects and the songs arranged in a way that builds up to a satisfying musical climax.
2023
HEAVEN 17 – BIGGER THAN AMERICA
80s band Heaven 17 formed from two of The Human League’s original members (Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh) leaving Phil Oakey to continue on as The Human League. The band released their first 90s album after a break of around eight years, caused by them parting ways with Virgin. Not quite as pop oriented as their earlier work, it’s still a fine album, often overlooked in their catalogue of work. The stand out track is Freak!, which oddly was never a single.
ELECTRONIC – ELECTRONIC
A debut album from a powerhouse of a band featuring Johnny Marr of The Smiths, Bernard Sumner of New Order and appearances from Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys. The result is an all-killer, no filler album that stands on its own apart from the bands than any of them come from. It’s pure pop, save for a short instrumental interlude called Soviet. The final track, Feel Every Beat, is the perfect way to end the album – on a high.
MALCOLM McLAREN – DUCK ROCK
Duck Rock was the first album from the man behind artists such as Adam and The Ants, Bow Wow Wow and the Sex Pistols. As the New Your rap & hip hop scene was becoming more mainstream, McLaren released Buffalo Gals which rode that wave. The album, however, did not provide any other tracks like that single, veering into various genres inspired by African and Latin beats. We feature the album in its entirety, including the snippets of the World Famous Supreme Team radio show between the songs.
THE GO-BETWEENS – OCEANS APART
Oceans Apart was the last album The Go-Betweens made before Grant McLennan’s death in 2006. The two songwriters’ styles differ but never clash and it’s a strong album. This is the first Australian feature album for Trash Disco.
THE DEVILS – DARK CIRCLES
The Devils was a collaboration between Duran Duran current member Nick Rhodes and Duran Duran former member Stephen Duffy. Released in 2002, the pair got together and recorded songs they had written in Duran’s early days but never used.
FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD – LIVERPOOL
Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s second album is overlooked and underappreciated. It released with none of the hype that accompanied the first album, Welcome To The Pleasuredome, and also features the band playing themselves with little overproduction or additional musicians. The result is a more consistent album with a big sound that encourages the listener to turn it up. While there were three singles from the album (Rage Hard, Warriors Of The Wasteland and Watching The Wildlife) none of them have the same hit quality of the likes of Relax or Two Tribes. But this album remains one of Trash Disco’s favourites.
2022
GARY NUMAN – WHITE NOISE LIVE
I got this album when it first came out, and it’s such a great live album. I listened to this over and over on my headphones in my younger years. I had talked about playing tracks off this album for ages and I finally got round to including it as a feature album. It features many singles and other tracks from all his albums up to that point. It’s a double LP, and is also spawned a live EP, which was on blue clear vinyl.
THE OTHER TWO – THE OTHER TWO & YOU
In the early 90s, New Order had a little break while Bernard Sumner went off with Johnny Marr to form Electronic and Peter Hook formed Revenge. That left the other two to figure out what to do with themselves and that’s exactly what they did. They released two albums as The Other Two, The Other Two & You being the first. I found it in a shop by accident and I loved this album. All electronic, but much lighter in tone than anything New Order did.
THE GLOVE – BLUE SUNSHINE
This collaboration between Steven Severin of Siouxsie And The Banshees and Robert Smith of The Cure, with vocals by Landray, produced an album more surreal than anything put out by the members’ respective bands. It’s a one off collaboration, and features some amazing tracks. Between most of the tracks are little snippets of random music, which I do like to play out to the end on the show as I know there’s nothing more annoying than cutting off a bit of music that you were expecting to hear. The titular glove in question is straight from The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.
THE HUMAN LEAGUE – REPRODUCTION
For many years, I was under the illusion that Dare was The Human League’s first album. In some ways, it is, as the version of The Human League that created Dare is a totally different band to the one that created Reproduction, the band’s true first album. In this incarnation, Phil Oakey is joined by Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh. The sounds are less polished and the songs are stylistically quite different but the electronic basis is there. This is an amazing album and has some fantastic high points on it as well as some bizarre points. Their cover of You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling was a total surprise for me.
2021
JAPAN – TIN DRUM
Tin Drum is Japan’s final album of the 80s (until they briefly reformed as Rain Tree Crow in 1991). Japan is hardly ever played on radio but featured four singles, including Visions Of China and Ghosts, which, despite being the most melancholy, was their biggest hit. I prefer the previous album Gentlemen Take Polaroids, personally, but this was requested by someone but I can’t remember who.
FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD – WELCOME TO THE PLEASUREDOME
Frankie’s first and much hyped first album is a favourite with many fans, spawning multiple hit singles. It’s an epic double LP, but with producer Trevor Horn replacing musicians when he felt it necessary (he’s an amazing producer so who’s going to argue with him?) the album feels inconsistent. The second half of the album is less coherent and if I were putting this album together I would replace some tracks with other tracks that ended up as B-sides and replace this album version of War with the version on the B-side of Two Tribes. Other than that, it’s a great album from a band that would ultimately implode.
BRONSKI BEAT – THE AGE OF CONSENT
While I was aware of the singles at the time – Smalltown Boy, Why, It Ain’t Necessarily So – I did not get the album, so the first time I heard it in its entirety was when I recorded a podcast discussing it. It’s a lyrically powerful and important album and it’s disappointing that the issues raised on this album almost forty years ago (1984) are still a problem now.
THE SMITHS – THE QUEEN IS DEAD
I didn’t really need a reason to feature The Smiths’ third studio album. All killer, no filler, and full of young Morrissey’s Wildean lyrical humour. Lay that on Marr’s melodic guitar work and you’ve got a fine album that takes us from anti-establishment through the absurd and briefly visiting despair before declaring the obvious Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others.
SIGUE SIGUE SPUTNIK – FLAUNT IT
Sputnik was famous before they even had a record out, and arrived to much hype and publicity, proudly claiming to be the first album to feature advertising between the songs. And it was. The original album features real ads from ID Magazine, Pure Sex, Tempo Magazine and L’Oreal Studio Line. The rest are fictitious ads for various “Sputnik Corporation” entities. The album is a curiosity of its time, produced (saved?) by Giorgio Moroder.
2020
TEARS FOR FEARS – SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR
The original vinyl release of Tears For Fears’ second album album was only eight tracks long and produced the hit singles Shout, Head Over Heels and Everybody Wants To Rule The World. This expanded edition seemed to go on forever with thirty-two music tracks (not including the interview). There are some great alternative versions on this expanded version, such as Everybody Wants To Run The World, a version with different lyrics recorded for Sport Aid.
DURAN DURAN – NOTORIOUS
Notorious is Duran Duran’s fourth studio album and their first as a three piece after Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor left the band. Co-produced with Nile Rodgers, the album has funk all over it while allowing Nick Rhodes to indulge his more ambient tendencies on Winter Marches On. A solid album all round which falls just outside the band’s era of repetitive radio airplay.
ABC – THE LEXICON OF LOVE
Produced by the legendary Trevor Horn, ABC’s first album is finely produced album, complete with orchestral arrangements by Anne Dudley (of the Art Of Noise). I must admit when I was younger I was not a fan of ABC, but I have grown to like it. What’s not to like when Martin Fry can squeeze the lyrics “yippee-yi yippee-yi-aayy” into his songs. And that lazy piano version of Shoot That Poison Arrow is amazing.
2019
THE CURE – MIXED UP + EXTRAS
In 2018 The Cure re-released the 1990 album Mixed Up but remastered and with extras. Three CDs chock full of Cure goodness. CD1 is the original 1990 album remastered; CD2 is a compilation of other rare remixes from the 80s; and CD3 is a set of brand new remixes. A joy for any Cure fan.
HOWARD JONES – HUMAN’S LIB
I wouldn’t say I was a die hard fan of Howard Jones as a teenager, but I liked his singles. I also loved his Live Aid performance which showed how talented he was. As I was preparing to interview Howard back in 2017, I went through his whole catalogue of albums and was surprised at how much I didn’t know about him and his output, which continues to this day. I soon became a fan. Not content to ride the nostalgia wave, Howard continues to create quality music with excellent songwriting. This album is the expanded edition, which features the original ten tracks plus a copious quantity of additional mixes and alternate versions.
DURAN DURAN (feat. ANDY WICKETT) – GIRLS ON FILM DEMO 1978
Before Simon Le Bon and Andy Taylor even joined Duran Duran, the band recorded demos with Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Roger Taylor and Andy Wickett on vocals. This four track demo, the first of Trash Disco’s Feature Albums, features See Me, Repeat Me, Reincarnation, Working The Steel and Girls On Film. The first three of these tracks sound unfamiliar but Girls on Film is vaguely recognisable as the Duran song we know and love, but the lyrics and the verse structure and melody are totally different. The tracks have a kind of student, left of centre sound that was a world away from the kind of hits that Nick Rhodes wanted to make. It’s a curious glimpse into the past of one of the biggest bands of the 80s.
Trash Disco 