Quintessential Albums :: Pictures For Pleasure :: Charlie Sexton

Quintessential Albums :: Pictures For Pleasure :: Charlie Sexton

A Little History:

Pictures for Pleasure, released in 1985, is the first studio album released by singer/guitarist Charlie Sexton. The album was the first solo effort by the then 16-year-old musician who had already secured a reputation as a skilled guitarist.

Pictures for Pleasure can best be described as a combination between Sexton’s blues rock roots and the more commercially viable (at the time) new wave genre. The album produced the Billboard Hot 100 # 17 hit Beat’s So Lonely.

Before its release, the teenaged guitarist had been bashing out blues and roots-rock around his native Austin, Texas, but the market for that music was limited — hence the decision to layer the record with drum machines and synthesizers, and go for a more “new wave” sensibility.

The album was recorded in Los Angeles, California. The album…