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Julia Fordham / Lock & Key 6CD box

500-only • Signed • 6CD set includes new album & exclusive audio

By Paul Sinclair

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41

Julia Fordham will, later this month, issue Lock & Key, a special six-CD box set that collects some of her more recent studio albums (with extra tracks) and offers her new record Cutting Room Floor.

This collection features China Blue (2008), Unusual Suspects (with Paul Reiser – 2010), Under The Rainbow (2013), the first UK release of 2014’s The Language of Love, last year’s Magic and Julia’s brand new album Cutting Room Floor. All of the albums offer exclusive bonus tracks, which 14 in total across the six CDs.

The clamshell box features a 20-page booklet with unseen photos and notes by Julia and also includes a SIGNED art card.

Lock & Key is limited to just 500 copies worldwide and will be released on 18 December 2020. Secure your copy by ordering via the SDE shop using this link or the button below (it’s not going to be available via mainstream retail channels like Amazon, HMV etc.)

Lock & Key 6CD box set

*denotes exclusive bonus tracks

CD 1 – China Blue

1. China Blue
2. The World Keeps Spinning
3. I Keep Forgettin’ (feat. Michael McDonald)
4. I Want To Stay Home With You
5. Funny Guy
6. Holiday
7. My Only Valentine
8. I Will Bring You Love
9. Almost Happy
10. For You Only For You
11. Someone To Watch Over Me*
12. China Blue (Live)*
13. I Keep Forgettin’ (Live)*
14. My Funny Valentine (Live)*

CD 2 – Unusual Suspects

1. You Keep Me On My Feet
2. Fine
3. Shadow
4. UnSung Hero
5. Good Ship
6. Stolen Kiss
7. Walking Shoes
8. Say Hey Kid
9. Trusted
10. Minefield
11. Car (Demo Version)*

CD 3- Under The Rainbow

1. Skipping Under The Rainbow
2. Porcelain
3. Happy Ever Afer
4. Where Does The Time Go?
5. Lock and Key
6. More Than I Can Bear
7. Manhattan Skyline
8. Girlfriend
9. Towerblock
10. I Thought It Was You
11. Concrete Love
12. Behind Closed Doors
13. Invisible War
14. Something Right*
15. (Love Moves In) Mysterious Ways*
16. Lovin’ You*

CD 4 – The Language of Love

1. Call Me
2. Who’s That Girl
3. Happy Ever After
4. I’m Not in Love
5. Alone Again (Naturally)
6. Fragile
7. Like You Used To Do
8. Eleanor Rigby
9. The Morning After (The Night with You)
10. At Seventeen
11. Sir Duke
12. Moon River
13. You Make Me Feel Like Dancing*
14. Moon River (Strings Version)*

CD 5 – Magic

1. Magic
2. Little Bird
3. Marley
4. Angel Without Wings
5. You’re The Best Thing
6. How I Love You Baby
7. I Want To Stay Home With You
8. Spoon
9. I’ve Got Your Back
10. Kid
11. The Ugly Duckling*

CD 6 – Cutting Room Floor

1. Cutting Room Floor (Duet with Simon Petty)
2. Sunday
3. Happier Ending
4. Sequined Fishtail Gown
5. Red Rectangle
6. Invisible War (Keep Hope Alive Version)
7. Gold Fades Into Blue
8. Humble Journey
9. Flowers
10. Dream Big
11. Tinseltown
12. That Scares Me (Duet with Judith Owen)
13. Few Too Many (Live)*
14. East West (Live)*
15. Your Lovely Face (Live)*

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41 Comments

41 thoughts on “Julia Fordham / Lock & Key 6CD box”

  1. Did anyone notice that the “cutting points” of some of the songs of “Under The Rainbow” are set wrong?
    (e.g. “Girlfriend” or “Lock And Key”) – this is very disappointing.

  3. I’m a fan of Julia, I own all of the original CD’s included in this box. The reason I bought the set is the bonus tracks, the liner notes and the packaging, and to support the artist. So basically I ‘need’ only the bonus tracks, so I ripped them, with the idea to store the box away. I checked the frequency range and it turns out some of them are not quite CD quality. That’s no big wonder since they are live recordings, demos, etc.

    What is really surprising is that many of the ‘core’ album tracks are not full quality either. There’s the typical MP3 cut-off point around 16 kHz. That alone would make me suspicious, but remember I have the original CD’s and there the frequency range looks typical CD, extending to 20 kHz. I can’t see any way around this: inferior, lossy sources must have been used for this box. I can’t imagine what the reason is since Julia apparently owns all of the masters as this box specifically collects together all of of her ‘indie’ studio albums (except “Woman to Woman”).

    The JF online shop had this to say:

    “With regards to the audio quality I do know that producer Grant Mitchell spent alot of time compiling and preparing the audio properly to CD audio standards and we have had no complaints about audio and have found no issues ourselves.”

    To be sure, I also checked the discs with Tau Analyxer and Audio Checker. The results were not uniform but both detected roughly the same tracks as either CD or MPEG sourced, or ‘Clean’ or ‘Transcoded’/’Upsampled’.

    The most obvious case is CD4 “The Language of Love” where all tracks are affected. Check the comparison scans here:
    https://www.mediafire.com/folder/k4yb8kfu397ij/Fordham_box
    or at Discogs, as disabled images (you can see them only if you log in):
    https://www.discogs.com/release/16838796-Lock-Key-Album-Box-Set/images/update

    What’s a relief is that the new album ‘Cutting Room Floor’ is unaffected. Only #9 “Flowers” looks a bit suspicious. Audio Checker claims it is ‘Transcoded’, while the rest are ‘Clean’. Tau Analyxer claims all are CD quality.

    The casual listener probably would never notice anything in the sound to complain about. If you enjoy the music and that’s enough, this is a fine set.

  4. I am so eager to know is there any fans in China buy this amazing set like me? I have anticipated it since the day I pre-ordered it. But totally have no any idea about where my copy now. SO SAD!(´。＿。｀)

  5. Hi Paul, did the orders in this site be shipped in the same day as the ones from Julia’s official shop, which means the 14th?
    I am counting the days but I really don’t know the exactly date when it been shipped.

  6. Hi Paul, my copy of the Julia Fordham box arrived today, after a longer-than-expected trip through the postal system. Thanks very much, I’m so glad to have received a copy of this great set! Hope you have a great Christmas, thanks for all the fantastic info on new releases and deals you’ve given this year. Discovering your site was one of the (few) highlights of 2020!

  7. I also recieved my copy of the 6-CD-box today.

    Did anybody notice some distortion in the track “(Love Moves In) Mysterious Ways” on various passages in the song?
    I fear it is due to high recording level (aka “loudness war”) of the song(s), which really is (or would be) a pity.

    Unfortunately also to find in a huge number of other remastered records.

  8. Mine arrived safely here about an hour ago (9.30am 17th).

    I am so sorry Julia, why did I let you go ? More fool me. Absolutely loving China Blue, just listening to the first track, to which I knew all the words but had never heard this version before, it took me straight back to 1989 and the misery of leaving my friends to go and get a job.

    When I am done with this those Cherry Red re-issues from a couple of years back are going to get a hammering. Nice to have your wonderful music back in my life Julia.

    Thanks for the safe delivery Paul.

  9. The pandemic has caused me to scroll through discogs, amazon etc looking for box sets or remasters that I might have missed and just happened to type juliafordham.com in my browser a couple weeks ago and ordered immediately.

    I’m more a fan of the poppier early releases, especially the fab Larry Klein produced releases (Concrete Love original tracklisting is my all time fav) so as much of a fan as I have been, these later more jazz outings are still unexplored for me.

    I thought the cherryred releases for Swept and Falling were some of their best releases, such a wealth of notes and reflections from Larry Klein, Gary Clark, Simon Climie and notes on each track from Julia herself.

    Very happy to have one of these box sets in the mail!

  10. I think I have just secured your last one….wow….that was lucky….I have just upgraded hi fi at home so this will be a joy to listen now my hi fi does make vocals sing now…literally….

      1. Do you know if any more will be made available as I was having lot of trouble buying it for my wife for some reason and then it was sold out :( Hopefully I may not be only one who asks! Keep up great work Paul!

  13. I ordered this earlier this morning – absolute no brainer for me! Have seen Julia live quite a few times over the years. Most recently (2018) at Sage Gateshead as part of the ‘Woman To Woman Tour’ with Judie Tzuke and Beverley Craven, who, by the way, has a nice line in humour and was very funny when chatting to the audience between songs. Also, did you know Julia’s mother comes from Gateshead?!
    However, I digress, what I wanted to say is that I’ve been such a fan of Julia’s voice ever since I heard her on the radio singing ‘The Comfort Of Strangers’ and the outstanding ‘Happy Ever After’ all those years ago. A wonderful voice and if you get a chance to see her live (a pandemic not withstanding) you won’t be disappointed. This looks a lovely box set at a fab price.

  14. Would love to order from SDE, but shipping to the US is very high. Even given the COVID-related challenges, £26.00 is much higher than the £12.99 charged by Julia’s shop. (Don’t know how they ship.) Can you make an alternate shipping option other than Royal Mail available?

    1. Thanks for the consideration. Everything is going TRACKED to the USA for now. I acknowledge it’s not the cheapest, but we had a terrible situation with quite a few things going missing or AWOL a few months back and I’m just not willing to send things over a certain value ‘standard’ (non-tracked) shipping.

  15. You finally broke me Paul.

    I went Ape over Julia Fordham in 1989 one of only 4 artists that I was determined to get absolutely everything for. 7″ers, 12″ers, little 7″ boxes, live albums, cassettes, imports, CD1, CD2, promo videos (Vanderquest – I think) I had everything up to Concrete Love and then stopped. Life as usual getting in the way. So glad this is there to mop up the bits and bobs. She was fantastic live. Haven’t seen her since 1994, Birmingham, but she had presence and oodles of it.

    Ordered!

  16. Very pleased to see Julia Fordham get some promotion here. She’s been quietly producing top quality albums for many years. I managed to get a copy of the original Japanese release of ‘The Language of Love’ when it came out in 2014. It has since become one of my favourite Julia Fordham albums, together with the brilliant China Blue. Now all I want is to see some of her albums reissued on vinyl but I’m not sure how likely that is.

  17. Ordered times two. Someone close to me will want the spare for sure.

    Thanks, Paul, stay safe.

    Let us know when box sets start coming with vaccines.

  18. I’m not a fan but I have to say that this 6 cd set plus a signed card is seriously good value. There should be a lot more box sets at this sort of price. Both of the Ultravox box sets for Vienna were around £50 and they were excellent. Fantastic site Paul, I also look every day. Merry Christmas everyone.

  20. Ordered!!! Paul, thanks again for the info on all these fantastic releases – SDE is my to go website daily for updates or else I would never know whats new out !! Thanks for the work and maybe get an interview with Julia ?????

  22. I have been a major, major supporter of Julia’s since Ferneham Hall gig in 1988 and have seen her live more times than I care to count. But I have been mildly baffled by this release..

    £45 for 6 CDs and the obligatory signature I guess isnt bad value – but for her devotional fanbase the only need is the ‘new’ album – and by the title I am assuming it is made up of outtakes.

    The live songs are a bit meh, given she has released a live album recently and The Language Of Love was released in the UK, as I have a non Japanese copy, so not sure the PR blurb is correct on that one.

    However, if you havent bought the five ‘indie’ releases, it is good value and if you haven’t heard China Blue – you should do as it is magnificent.

    As the Cherry Red releases – which delivered two new to digital tracks and nowt else over 4 double packages – I would have assumed that there was more in the locker. i.e. demos.

    1. Concur wholeheartedly, Michael.

      I pre-ordered from JF’s site (sorry Paul) but my niggles are as one with the above.

      ((gave the Crimble bauble a miss…))

  23. Ordered! Been with her since Day One when I heard The Comfort of Strangers on AM radio.
    Glad to finally get a chance to order something from SDE!
    Hope all are staying safe while this vaccine gets out there.
    Looking forward to a show a day at some point in 2021!

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