Rodriguez: Coming from Reality [UME]

Why you'll love it

This remastered Back to Black series LP comes with a lyric inner sleeve. Coming from Reality is the second and final studio album from the Detroit songwriter whose story later inspired the documentary Searching for Sugar Man.

This edition

• Remastered
• Back to Black series
• Lyric inner sleeve
• Stereo mix

About the album

Sixto Rodriguez had a habit of being famous somewhere he'd never been. After his debut Cold Fact, Sussex sent the Detroit singer to work with producer Steve Rowland and a crew of British session players, guitarist Chris Spedding among them, and the result was a warmer, more orchestrated record than the first.

"Climb Up on My Music" opens with a loose, fuzzy groove, "I Think of You" and "Halfway Up the Stairs" are gentle and string-kissed, and "Sandrevan Lullaby" shows off arrangements by Phil Dennys and Jimmy Horowitz. "Cause," the closer, is one of his most quietly powerful songs, a plain-spoken story told over a lovely, rising arrangement.

In 1976 the album turned up in South Africa under a new name, After the Fact, where his songs had found a devoted audience he knew nothing about. It took a few decades and a film crew to pass the message along, which by music industry standards counts as prompt.

Also at Kops: more Rodriguez on vinyl · browse Folk

Tracklist

Listen

On Sussex / UMe (cat# 770 773-1), a reissue of the 1971 album.