Album of the Week: Unorthodox Behaviour

Here's what I have for potential albums for the Album of the Summer Poll, coming up in a couple weeks: Confessions II by Madonna, I Must Be Dreaming by Alabama Shakes, Lost Weekend by Phoebe Bridgers, Loveland by Suki Waterhouse, petal by Ariana Grande, Reality Awaits by the Strokes, and Thrasher by Brandon Flowers. Honestly, though, the idea of trying to scrape together even like ten votes on this rapidly deteriorating blog is making me sad. I don't think I have it in me to send more emails into the void. Maybe I should've asked people in person when I saw like fifteen blog contributors at Bonner's a couple weeks ago.

Record Club:

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WEEK 389 — July 12-18, 2026

Unorthodox Behaviour

by Brand X

LISTEN:

Spotify | YouTube | Bandcamp | Apple

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PICKED BY VOTE

CATEGORY OF VOTING: "Join the Band" — This is the flipside of the category from a couple weeks ago, "Going Solo." That one was RC bands whose members have a solo album, but this one is solo artists who are also part of a band. So now we're gonna cover an album from that band. The inclusion of Phil Collins in this category was sort of a half-joke, since we've already covered his main band, Genesis. We covered Phil Collins as a solo artist last summer because of his membership in (and eventually leadership of) Genesis. So now, due to popular demand apparently, we are covering Phil Collins' other band, Brand X. I'm learning about this other band in real time. Let's check it out together.

LOSING ALBUMS: Highwayman 2 by the Highwaymen (featuring Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson); Lanquidity by Sun Ra (featuring Marshall Allen); Mutiny After Midnight by Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds ("featuring" Sturgill Simpson); Walk Through by Gina Kaz (featuring Music with Gina... I would've had to explain this one if it won, but it didn't, so your loss).

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ALBUM DETAILS

GENRE: Jazz fusion, jazz-rock, progressive rock, jazz-funk

RELEASED: June 18, 1976

LENGTH: 41:01

TRACKLIST:

1. Nuclear Burn
2. Euthanasia Waltz
3. Born Ugly
4. Smacks of Euphoric Hysteria
5. Unorthodox Behaviour
6. Running on Three
7. Touch Wood

LYRICS: I'm pretty sure it's all instrumental

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ARTIST DETAILS

PRONOUNS: Each individual band member prefers he/him/his

ABOUT: Brand X formed in 1974 in London, England. They were an intermittent band, meaning that they went through periods of activity and long stretches of inactivity. Brand X were active from 1974 to 1981, and then 1992 through 1999, and finally from 2016 to 2020. The first lineup, and the lineup present here on this album, was John Goodsall on guitar, Percy Jones on bass, Robin Lumley on keyboards, and Phil Collins on drums. Membership history is a little murky. Phil Collins, for instance, was a "sometimes" member in the '70s, and not a member at all in those more recent iterations. There were more than a half dozen other members throughout the years. Percy Jones dropped out in the 2010s due to "unethical behavior of management." After John Goodsall died of COVID in November 2021, Jones and Lumley officially retired the name Brand X, though also claimed that management was misrepresenting this reality on Facebook, trying to claim they still existed. Robin Lumley died in March 2023.

DISCOGRAPHY: Wikipedia lists nine studio albums, but it appears that two of those are demos and outtakes. So let's say that this album is their first of seven studio LPs. Additionally, there are six live albums, and one major compilation album. 

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ADDITIONAL INFO

READING SOME SHIT: a 2017 interview with Goodsall

WATCHING SOME SHIT: performing—crucially, with Phil Collins on drums—in 1979

RECORD CLUB CONNECTIONS: We've already discussed that the drummer of Brand X at the time was Phil Collins, who was drumming and fronting Genesis at the same time he was moonlighting with Brand X. I couldn't find any RC connections with any of the other members. John Goodsall is the second RC alumni to have passed away from COVID, after Tinted Windows' Adam Schlesinger.

And now, all the other RC brands with X in them: CaleXico, Hello EXile, Atrocity EXhibition, INXS, HeauX Tales, MonotoniX, TaXimen, T. ReX, AoXomoXoa, MaX Roach, Malign HeX, WaX Fang, Blame My EX, TriXie Mattel, WaXahatchee, Mojo NiXon, SeX over Love, GNX, and Charli XCX. (Also the second "Brand" after BRANDi Carlile.)

MENTIONS ON THE BLOG: Plenty of Genesis and Collins mentions, but never Brand X. I'd never even heard of them prior to putting them on the RC summer polls, so this will be good to get to know them!

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RECORD CLUB ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

This week's discography dive album: The Animal Years by Josh Ritter

This week's follow-up album: Terrestrials by Pond and/or Swamp Dogg Contemplates the Afterlife by Swamp Dogg

Listen with us! Keep your favorite Record Club artists in the rotation!

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COUNTDOWN:

69 Weeks Until Week 420

We are tracking and counting down every week from here on out till Record Club Week 420. We started this countdown 69 weeks out. During Record Club Week 420, we will be covering Donny Most by the esteemed Happy Days virgin Donny Most. The goal for Week 420 of Record Club is that it will feature 69 reviews from 69 different people. 

THIS WEEK: We are 31 weeks away from Week 420.

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Happy listening, RC family!
Have a great week!