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It's often a good idea for a member of a band (usually the frontman) to try out a solo career. We've covered this in the section “Gone solo in the game”, and to some extent in the recent “Rock and roll I gave you the best years of my life”. There can be many reasons why one would go solo, but then again, there are often just as many not to. The music world is full of people who tried a solo career and did, or do, very well, but littering those gold-paved streets they walk are another breed, the men and women who thought a solo career was a good idea, and found to their cost that it was not.

Would anyone like to guess which of the two we're focussing on in this section? The artistes featured here will not always be nobodies. Sometimes really famous or successful people go solo and yet find they're not able to crack it. Future stars of this slot include the likes of Bob Geldof, Richard Ashcroft and (sign to ward off evil!) Gary Barlow, to mention a few. In this section we'll try to deconstruct the artist's solo career as separate from his or her band, and discover or hypothesise why they failed to set the world alight when out on their own (we will NOT be using the catchall explanation “Cos they were sh1t!”), and why they thought they would.

The first of our “career overboard” stars is El DeBarge. You remember DeBarge. They were huge in the eighties. Well, big. Well, sort of. Well, they had one decent song that I remember, that being “Rhythm of the night”. They were moderately successful, until they all got drug addictions, some ended up in prison and one sadly died. But the mogul behind Motown records, one Berry Gordy, thought he saw something in the lead singer, and eldest boy, Eldra Patrick, known as “El”, and he decided that a solo career for this guy was the way to go.

He began pushing El's star up into the heavens, proclaiming that DeBarge (the band) had been nothing more than a “vehicle to launch the solo career of lead singer El” (quote remembered, but not its source: some music magazine from years back, maybe a radio show), and after he convinced a star-struck El to leave the band, they more or less withered away; though they released two more albums after his departure, neither successful.
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Ah, but El's rise to fame! Meteoric, eh? Well, no. He released his first solo album the next year, 1986, and was in fact quite lucky really that the single from it, “Who's Johnny”, was chosen to feature in the sci-fi/comedy film “Short circuit”, netting him a number three hit single and sudden international fame. It was, however, not to last. His next album took three years to produce, but despite all the care and time he put into it, “Gemini” was absent from the charts.
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DeBarge by now having faded away, and El's one and only hit single now three years old, people were not really interested anymore, and other things were happening. In a very real way, the world had moved on while El DeBarge tinkered away in his studio. Nothing wrong with taking your time on a project, of course, but you have to have your timing right or it's all for nothing. Which it was.

Between this time and the release of his third solo album, El collaborated with music producer supremo Quincy Jones on a single that also featured Barry White and James Ingram, 1990's “The secret garden”, then in 1992 he unleashed “In the storm”. The world however was underwhelmed, and the album again failed to chart. This despite the fact that it received critical acclaim; plaudits though do not equal record sales, and “In the storm” was another commercial failure for the “superstar” from DeBarge.
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It was two years later when he released his fourth, “Heart mind and soul”, which again, despite the input of Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, and the legendary Stevie Wonder, failed to set the charts alight. His next appearance was in 1998, when he sung with the reunited members of DeBarge in concerts off the back of renewed popularity due to DeBarge's records being sampled by rap artistes. However, after that he more or less hit the slide, being arrested and then jailed for drug possession --- as indeed had most of the band by then --- and while in jail he found God (not sure why God is always spending time in jail, but so many people have found him there...)
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2010 saw the “rebirth” of El DeBarge, as he signed to a new label and released his fifth solo album, “Second chance”. It appears to have been very successful, with the first single taken from it, the title track, having been nominated for two Grammys this year. El's past has come back to haunt him, though, as he suffered a relapse this year and checked himself into rehab, cancelling all appearances and his forthcoming tour. He expects to head out on the road later in the year.

With a total of five albums, four of which failed to chart in the US (his latest got in at 57) and fifteen singles, of which only three charted in the US and two in the UK, one could hardly describe El DeBarge's solo career as being that of a superstar, or even moderately successful. And yet, he struggled against the odds and managed to link himself with some big names in rap and R&B --- 50 cent, Mary J. Blige --- worked with big-name producers and even musical legends like Stevie Wonder. He refused to let his drug addiction drag him down, fought it and struggled through his own heart of darkness to emerge on the other side, a changed man.

On the face of it, the decision to branch out on his own seems to have been an ill-advised one in the case of El DeBarge, but who knows? He's just hitting fifty, and although this may seem a little old to try to reinvent himself, others have done just that when much older. So although he's not exactly had a stellar career so far, perhaps the best is yet to come.

Random Track of the Day
Thursday, October 21 2011
Way back when we started this series (August, I think?), one of the first bands featured were Nightwish. Back then, there existed some uncertainty as to what album the track was from. Well here they are again, and this time there's no ambiguity.

The riddler --- Nightwish --- from "Oceanborn" on Spinefarm
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Some confusion as to what label this album is on though, as three are mentioned, but as Spinefarm are the first we'll go with that. A nice boppy, rocky number from “Oceanborn”, their second album, “The riddler” gallops along at a great pace, with arpeggiated keyboards and the great Tarja at her operatic best. Strangely enough, parts of the melody remind me of Chris de Burgh's hit, “Don't pay the ferryman”... Rather like Riverside, I'm only occasionally dipping into this band's work, but each track I hear keeps me coming back for more.

Random Track of the Day
Saturday, October 22 2011
Strange, the nature of randomness. Here we are, with another track from a band that a) I know very little of, b) have not listened to a full album of and c) only downloaded last week. And yet everything I hear from Cain's Dinasty I like!

My last sunrise --- Cain's Dinasty --- from "Madmen, witches and werewolves" on RedRivet
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Come on! You HAVE to love a band who close their album with a track entitled “**** you forever” --- these guys are class! Another great track from the album “Madmen, witches and werewolves”, their second, so far. Expect to hear a lot more of these guys!

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Ah, who doesn't like Jackson Browne? What's not to like? Here he is with one of his big, feelhood hits from the eighties, “Somebody's baby”.

This desert life --- Counting Crows --- 1999 (Geffen)
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The first --- and originally, only --- thing that impressed me about this album when I first heard it was the second track, “Mrs. Potter's lullaby”, which I loved. But I was disappointed in the rest of the album. So much so, in fact, that yesterday I was considering featuring it in my “Nice song --- shame about the album!” spot. It was only when I started listening to it again I became aware of how decent an album it is, and I felt I couldn't feature it in that slot. So instead I'm now reviewing it as an album in its own right. If you knew how much my opinion of it has changed within six months, you would be amazed, but you don't so you won't, so here's the review instead.

It starts off with the bouncy “Hanginaround”, which I believe featured in the movie “Cruel intentions”. It's kind of a hymn for bums, as it were, written when things were not happening for lead singer Adam Duritz, and he was at something of a crossroads in his life, wondering where his career was going. The song has a lot of handclaps and good backing vocals, and comes across as more a wake-up-and-do-something-about-it song, when he sings ”I've been bummin' around/ For way way too long!” It ends on a kind of distorted piano melody, which then more or less segues into what I still consider the best track on the album, the toe-tappin', country-flavoured “Mrs. Potter's lullaby”, with its honky-tonk piano and organ, and some really nice pedal steel guitar from Dave Immergluck. This is a song I can never listen to without wanting to dance. Great lyric: ”The last one out of the circus/ Has to lock up everything/ Or the elephants will get out/ And forget to remember what you said.”

“Amy hit the atmosphere” is a brooding, moody ballad with atmospheric synths, piano and nice expressive guitar by David Bryson. The song builds up nicely to a good crescendo ending, then “Four days” reminds me of Irish country/rock forgotten heroes The Stars of Heaven: a nice rhythm and beat to the song, runs along at a decent clip with some nice jangly guitars. “High life” is a pleasant bopper with something of a tortured vocal, and some great synth work.

“Colorblind” is carried entirely on a nice piano line, sounding extremely REM, so much so that I realise I've heard this before and thought it was Michael Stipe and the boys. Haunting little bittersweet ballad, great little song but it's scary how like REM it is!

I find this band very influenced by country rock, the likes of the Eagles, and “I wish I was a girl” is no departure from that, though there's some very rocky electric guitar in it. It's a kind of mid-paced ballad, as indeed is “Speedway,” though more laid-back than the track that preceded it. In fact, a lot of this album is low-key, laidback and slow an' easy. The album closes on a sort of blues/boogie number, “St. Robinson in his Cadillac dream”. Great organ carries this final track, reminiscent of some of the best work done by the Hooters. Great bit of mandolin helps the song along to the finish line.

The track is just over five minutes, though runs for fifteen, and if you let it continue you will find a “hidden track” called “Kid things”, coming in at around the 8:30 mark. It starts off with recorded snippets like Neil Armstrong on the moon (fake) and a radio tranmission, then the track is a rocker in the mould of the Rolling Stones' “Start me up”. There's also a lot of NASA-style tomfoolery after the song, which is quite fun to listen to.

As I say, my opinion of this album has radically changed since I first listened to it. I still don't think it's the greatest album ever recorded, nor indeed does it make me want to rush out and buy the rest of Counting Crows' catalogue, but I can now listen to it all the way through and not just stop after “Mrs.Potter's lullaby.” I'm glad I finally got past that, because what you discover there is actually well worth taking the time to experience.

TRACKLISTING

1. Hanginaround
2. Mrs. Potter's lullaby
3. Amy hit the atmosphere
4. Four days
5. All my friends
6. High life
7. Colorblind
8. I wish I was a girl
9. Speedway
10. St. Robinson in his Cadillac dream

Random Track of the Day
Sunday, October 23 2011
Bit of semi-culture from the random-o-meter for a rainy Sunday, from Clive Nolan, keysman with prog rockers Arena, and Oliver Wakeman, son of Yes legend Rick, from the album “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, which is of course a musical interpretation of the Sherlock Holmes classic.

Death on the moor --- Clive Nolan and Oliver Wakeman --- from "The Hound of the Baskervilles" on Verglas
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As it happens, I've just been reading this for my sister, and only finished it last night. How's that for serendipity? The album is interesting, though I'm not totally gone on it, however the keyboard work is excellent and the songs and narration give you an overall flavour of the Conan Doyle masterpiece. This is from about two-thirds into the story, and is a very small spoiler, so if by some chance you too are reading the story you might want to wait till you've finished it before listening to this. Ho, Watson! The game's afoot! Etc...

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Is there anything that stirs the soul as much as the sound of the blues? Whether it's strummed guitar, harmonica or low-slung bass, mournful piano, sax or trumpet, the blues always brings a little lump to the throat, and let's be fair: they speak to a way we've all felt, at one time or another. And of course the blues have been around for a long time, so there's a lot of really good music there.

This section will feature what may perhaps not be considered the best of the blues, but my own favourite tunes. Some will be by blues masters from way back, some will be more recent, and I'll try to include as varied a mix as I can each time.

So sit back, dim the lights, crack open a bottle of Jack and deal the cards, cos it's time to pay our dues to the blues!

Getting going with this great one from Eddie Taylor, a man who was born in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, but plied his trade in the mean streets of the Windy City, here he is with “Leave this neighbourhood”.


The great Memphis Slim, with “Slim's blues”.


And the legendary John Lee Hooker, with “Whiskey and wimmen”. Oooh yeah!


The interestingly-named Pee Wee Crayton, with “Telephone is ringin'”.


One of the relatively younger guns now, with one of my favourite early blues tunes from him, here's the late, great Rory Gallagher with “Should've learned my lesson”.


How could we leave out the one, the only, BB King? We can't, and here he is with “The thrill is gone”.


The legendary (be using that word a lot in this section, methinks!) Howlin' Wolf, with an explanation of what the blues is, then a great performance of “How many more years”.


Another of the young guns, who thankfully is still with us, Robert Cray, and “My last regret”.


And back to the old guard, it's Lightnin' Hopkins, with some advice for gamblers...


And to finish up, one of the finest proponents of the blues from this century, sadly no longer with us, it's Gary Moore, and “No reason to cry”.

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The worm guesses you'd call it the curse of the one-hit-wonder: is there anything else John Parr is remembered for other than “St' Elmo's Fire” (also known as “Man in motion”)? Great song though!

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Another one-hit wonder, more famous than anything else for its crazy opening line (repeated halfway through) --- try saying THIS after six pints of wicked strength lager!

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Nick Cave
Time to check out the smoother, more laid-back side of an artiste usually not associated with ballads or slow songs. This time it's the dark prophet of doom himself, Australia's most menacing export, Nick Cave, with a selection from his long catalogue. Think all the man does is spit venom and growl? Think again...

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From her to eternity (1984)

Concentrating solely on his work with the Bad Seeds, we begin with what was the debut album for them, 1984's “From her to eternity”, and a nice if sharp ballad called “The moon is in the gutter”.

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Kicking against the pricks (1986)

His second album, “The firstborn is dead”, is far too dark and sparse an album to contain any ballads at all, so we're on to his third, a collection of covers which goes under the name of “Kicking against the pricks” and was released in 1986. On this he does a very good version of the old standard, “By the time I get to Phoenix”.

Also a rather nice arrangement of the traditional song “Jesus met the woman at the well”...

His version of “Muddy water” is good too.

Two years before Marc Almond got his hands on it, Nick was covering Gene Pitney's classic “Something's gotten hold of my heart” (and much better too!)

He does a great version of the Seekers' “The carnival is over”

And a dark, moody and brilliant version of Johnny Cash's “The singer”.

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Your funeral ... my trial (1986)

That same year came “Your funeral … my trial”, which gave us the great “Sad waters”.


The eerie “Stranger than kindness”

And the haunting title track


After that somewhat mammoth undertaking, it was not surprisingly two more years before we saw any more Cave output, this being 1988's “Tender prey”
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Tender prey (1988)

This gave us the beautiful “Slowly goes the night”

The country/gospel “New morning”

And the lovely “Watching Alice”.

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The good son (1990)

“The good son”, released in 1990, has some lovely slow tracks on it, in fact they're in the majority. Tracks like the opener, “Foi na cruz” (which apparently translates from Portuguese to “It happened on the Cross”)

The achingly lovely but stark “Sorrow's child”

The beautiful “Ship song”

“Lament”

and the closer, “Lucy”, with its beautiful piano ending.


Another two years on, and Nick released his seventh album, “Henry's dream”.
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Henry's dream (1992)

Unlike his previous opus, this only included two slow tracks, the sombre “Straight to you”

and the forlorn love song, “The loom of the land”.


And another two years saw the emergence of “Let love in”.
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Let love in (1994)

This album, one of his classic best, contains four slower songs, among them the darkly beautiful “Nobody's baby now”.

The title track (with an “I” in front of it!)

The ominous “Ain't gonna rain anymore”

and the satirically autobiographical “Lay me low”, wherein Cave envisages his own funeral


And then 1996, (yes, another two years later) unleashed upon us the excellent, dark and funny “Murder ballads”.
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Murder ballads (1996)

Including the sad tale of “Henry Lee”

Already just featured in our “Marriage made in...?” section, Kylie joins him for “Where the wild roses grow”

Another sad tale of murder and loneliness in “The kindness of strangers”

And finishes up with a rare cover, Bob Dylan's “Death is not the end.”

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The boatman's call (1997)

Only a year later Nick released his superlative “The boatman's call”, which is heavily influenced by ballads and slow tracks, like the opener, “Into my arms”.

I could feature virtually the whole album, but I'll just pick the best of the bunch, like “People ain't no good”

“Brompton oratory”

The savagely dark “Where do we go now but nowhere”

And the lonely “Far from me”

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No more shall we part (2001)

Then the longest hiatus in Cave's career, with four years until the release of “No more shall we part”, which features such gems as the title track

The heartbreaking “Love letter”

The wonderful “We came along this road”

And the powerful closer, “Darker with the day”.

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Nocturama (2003)

Two more years passed before “Nocturama” hit the shelves. It's not one of my favourite Cave albums, although it may be heading into the “Last Chance Saloon” before long, but it does have “He wants you”

“Right out of your hand”

“Rock of Gibraltar”

and “She passed by my window”

The mournfully beautiful “Still in love”

Not to mention “Wonderful life”. Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to give this album another chance!


Only a year later Cave released not one, but two albums, at the same time.
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Abbatoir blues/The lyre of Orpheus (2004)

The first of the two, “Abbatoir blues”, is a mostly heavy, rock record, though the title track is slow and bluesy

Then there's the weird “Cannibal's hymn”

But it's “The lyre of Orpheus” that contains the most laid-back, relaxing, slow ballads, like “Babe you turn me on”

The gospel-like “Carry me”

“Spell”

“Easy money”

And a song that apparently featured in one of the Harry Potter movies, though they're not something I'm personally interested in, a track called “O children”.


That brings us to his last, to date, album, released in 2008, “Dig!!! Lazarus, dig!!!”
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Dig!!! Lazarus, dig!!! (2008)

It doesn't really have any slow tracks, the closest being “Hold on to yourself”.


So there you are: if you thought all Nick Cave wrote about was death and betrayal and revenge and lost love and devils and murder and agony and loneliness and anger, well you were right. But he has been known to write such material in ballads and slower songs too, as this feature has, I hope, demonstrated. Either way, he's a great artist with a lot to say, a very distinct and unique way of saying it, and if you haven't checked him out before now, well it's high time you made his acquaintance. “Please permit me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste...” ;)

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A band I'm struggling to like, but slowly getting to grips with, album by album, track by track, is Spock's Beard. I should like them. All the elements are there: prog rock, great lyrics, and of course the Star Trek connection. But somehow it's become hard work, though I think I'm finally beginning to warm to them.

And so they feature in our “More than words” section. Prog rock bands of course often write very deep and meaningful lyrics about diverse and often weird subjects, but I feel this deserves inclusion because it is about something at once normal and mundane, and also totally surreal. It's in fact the opening movement, if you will, to a suite which goes under the banner heading of “A flash before my eyes”, and it concerns the last moments before death, as the subject of the song sees a truck come screaming towards him at an intersection and knows he is about to die. The song traces his life in that “flashing before your eyes” phenomenon that's supposed to occur just before you die.

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The ballet of the impact --- A flash before my eyes, part 1 (Spock's Beard) from “Octane”, 2005.
Music and Lyrics by Dave Meros and John Boegehold

The song is itself split into three parts; the first, I guess the overture, is called “Prelude to the past”. It's followed by “The ultimate quiet”, a slower, more moody and atmospheric instrumental, until “A blizzard of my memories” kicks in the lyric as the guy realises he's about to die. But it's not just that, oh no.

There are unspoken but written narrative passages that accompany each section of the suite, and in order for the song to be properly appreciated, it's necessary to reproduce them below, along with, and before, the lyric, as it is more the former than the latter that tell the real story, and make this song such a triumph, and so different to many other prog compositions.

The juxtapositioning of the ordinary, everyday things like the coffee cup on the seat, Jagger singing and the fact that one of the thoughts in the guy's head is that he has just paid off this car, with the wholly supernatural, like angels dancing down from Heaven, and his sudden fear that Heaven may not exist after all, that all that may await him after this life could be darkness, really makes the song.The whole of “A flash before my eyes” takes up more than half the album, over thirty-one minutes of the overall fifty-five.

So this is the song itself with the narrative underneath, and then the lyric.


9:27 a.m., today...

Suddenly, I'm aware of everything that surrounds me. About fifteen feet to my right, there's an old man picking out roses at a flower cart. He's leaning on a carved wooden cane, but barely maintaining his balance as a flurry of pigeons rises from the sidewalk around him. A few steps away on the corner, there's a little blonde girl with a pink plastic purse, holding her mother's hand as they wait to cross the street. I see all of this through the delicate, miniature rainbow made by the sun reflecting off the coffee spray from my "world's greatest dad" cup, which a moment ago was balanced on the passenger seat.

The intersection of West Lexington and Grant Avenue has become the cosmic nexus of all I am, ever was and will be. As profound as all of that seems, some small part of my brain is distracted by the irony of Mick Jagger singing "You Can't Always Get What You Want", coming from the radio of the speeding truck that has just begun ripping through my newly-paid-off, freshly washed Honda Accord.

So, is this it? Is this where an army of angels appears in blinding white light to sing me to my eternal rest? Is this where I sink forever into that darkest bog of dreamless sleep? I never really bought either poetic scenario, but it looks like I may finally get the answers to all of those herb-fueled philosophical questions that sprung up from endless, all-night discussions in college. Of course, this is a lot sooner than I ever imagined having to confront the ultimate reality.

There is one thing I know for sure. If I ever wake up, this is going to hurt like hell...

”The windshield explodes/ Like a bomb packed with diamonds.
There's a deafening silence; /Time flows to a crawl.
As the ballet of the impact/ Spreads out across the blacktop,
Angels dancing like raindrops /In the air as they fall.
So this is how it goes.
So this is how it ends.
A flatbed runs a red light:
No time to comprehend,
As a blizzard of my memories
Lights up like fireflies
In the sliver of an instant
In a flash before my eyes...

Random Track of the Day
Monday, October 24 2011
A new week, another Monday, time for some ELO. Taken from one of their earlier, and less successful albums, this is a song which nevertheless provided them an early almost-top ten hit, and began what would become something of a theme in ELO songs, of the western/cowboy lyric.

Showdown --- Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) --- from "On the third day" on Jet
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Time for some more girl power! Another five tracks by ladies who have made it big in what was traditionally a male-dominated walk of life, and who have now firmly stamped their identity on the music biz, deserving to be there just as much as their male counterparts.

One of the most independent and outspoken women in rock, here's the inimitable Kate Bush, with “Running up that hill”.


An utterly amazing voice, and one my favourite female singers, it's Sam Brown, with “Stop!”


Can't keep a good woman down, Ike! This is of course Tina Turner, but let's take something less obvious than her major hits. This is from the album “Break every rule”, and in fact the closing track, “I'll be thunder”.


Good rockin' from another stalwart, Stevie Nicks, with a track from her “Bella donna” album, this is a live version of “Enchanted”.


And to end up, here's one of my all-time favourite Madonna tracks, the lovely ballad “This used to be my playground”.

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A nice slice of Scottish rock today, the worm remembers Big Country, and one their big hits, “Fields of fire”.

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The last sound you're going to remember as you finish an album is the closing track, so as we've said before, it had better be good, or no matter how good the album is all you're going to remember is THAT track; you'll be humming it and not the seven/eight/nine others that came before it. Of course, a great closing track can also redeem a largely unremarkable album: if the last track is great, you'll remember it and not the other tracks, as above, but with a different emphasis.

An album I reviewed near the beginning of this journal, Pendragon's “Believe”, has an absolutely breathtaking closer, and this is it: “The edge of the world”.


Supertramp's final album with Roger Hodgson, “Famous last words”, gives even more importance and weight to the final track, “Don't leave me now”. From the opening mournful sax to the desperate, closing guitar solo, it's a classic the like of which we would consider ourselves lucky to hear again.


A great closer to a great album, Dio's second, “The last in line”, this is called “Egypt (The chains are on)”.


Although the CD version is longer and has more tracks, the vinyl copy I bought thirty years ago now of Pallas' “Arrive alive” had only five, and closed with this excellent epic, “The Ripper”.


And finally, the closing track to Roger Waters' magnum opus, this is “Amused to death”.


Play any of those songs and guaranteed you'll be humming them to yourself long after they've faded or crashed into silence. Incidentally, every album featured above is excellent, but even if they weren't, each of these tracks would go a long way towards helping to redeem them.

Next time I'll endeavour to pick great closing tracks from albums which are, shall we say, less than great. Till then...

Random Track of the Day
Tuesday, October 25 2011
Today's Random Track of the Day slows things down nicely, with another example of that fine electronica duo Air, and a little piece taken from their “Premiers symptomes” album.

Le soleil est pres de moi --- Air --- from "Premiers symptomes" on Source
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Nice little atmospheric, ambient piece, laid back with as usual a preponderance of keyboards and synth, and nice use of the vocoder, “Le soleil est pres de moi”, which means the sun is close to me, is one of those dreamy, nod-off-to-sleep tunes that would be at home on any chill collection mixtape. The album is actually a compilation of many of Air's early singles, and you don't need A-Level French I'm sure to work out that the title of the album translates to “first symptoms”.

A special message from Trollheart --- service interruption
 

Although I've made it my business, insofar as I can, since I began this journal to update it every day, tomorrow there will be NO update, as I have to take my sister to the hospital, and thanks to ridiculously long waiting lists it's likely we'll be there all day.

Please bear with me, and normal service should be resumed on Thursday, when I'll run TWO Random Tracks of the Day and two Daily Earworms.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Troll

Random Track of the Day
Wednesday, October 26 2011
As promised, since I wasn't here to update the journal yesterday there are two RTOTDs today. This is the first, ostensibly for Wednesday, and a surprisingly good track from the band who made me doubt the worth of “Chasing cars”. Yeah, it's Snow Patrol.

Tiny little fractures --- Snow Patrol --- from "Final straw" on Fiction
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Yes, a decent track for once, or maybe “Songs for polar bears” was just a weak debut. Either way, this is a good little indie-rocker with a nice line in chorus and backing vocals.

Random Track of the Day
Thursday, October 27 2011
And here's today's proper Random track, from Journey, one of my favourite bands. Title track from their millions-selling breakout album, “Escape”.

Escape --- Journey --- from "Escape" on Columbia
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Proving Journey can rock with the best of 'em, it's a good rocker with odd elements of Genesis, of all bands, in the melody. Steve Perry on fine form, and although there are much better tracks on the album (including of course their huge singles “Who's crying now” and “Don't stop believin'”) it's definitely worthy of inclusion on the album. Nice guitar from Neal Schon near the end.

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And the worm, having had yesterday off, has to work twice as hard today to make up the hours. So here's his first selection, one of Prince's early hits, from the album “1999” (seems such a long time ago now, doesn't it?) and “Little red Corvette”.

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And the second selection the worm would like to point you to today is a great hit from ex-Eagle, Glenn Frey, which indeed featured in the TV series “Miami Vice”: it's “Smuggler's blues”.

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Time to again buy your tickets and take a perilous journey into the deep, dark and twisted depths of my musical taste! Yeah, more weird sh*t I like: stuff that normally wouldn't be featured here as it's kind of outside the spectrum of the music I would confess to listening to, but good nevertheless. Try these for size!

As we're a few days short of Halloween, where else to start but with the weirdest soundtrack of them all, Halloween-themed although it's a Christmas story? The residents of Halloweentown celebrate the season that scares as they sing “This is Halloween.” Was that a trick of the light, or did something just move there in the darkness?


Great song from the tail-end of the sixties, this is Peter Sarstedt, with a song always recognised by its distinctive accordion intro: “Where do you go to my lovely”.


The enigmatic Christie, with “Yellow river”.


The great Judy Collins, with one of her big hits, “Both sides now”.


And just for the hell of it, here are the gang from “Spitting Image”, with a lampoon of that awful “Birdie dance”, this is called “The chicken song”! Take note of the mad lyric!


Okay, those of you who have survived the trip (there were no guarantees: please check the back of your ticket), the exit is here --- careful now, you'll be a bit woozy, that's it, slowly does it --- and we hope to see you again real soon, y'hear? :)

Karmacode --- Lacuna Coil --- 2005 (Century Media)
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Tell you what, those Italians sure know how to rock! This is Lacuna Coil's fourth album, with a mixture of European and Middle Eastern flavours, the latter immediately apparent from the opener, “Fragile”, which rocks along at a good pace with both a double-vocal (male and female) and a double guitar attack. Some nice synthy strings help the song along. Second track “To the edge” (is there a hidden allegiance to Yes here? Albums “Fragile” and “Close to the edge”... hmm) is another heavy track, with vocals initially by Cristina Scabbia, then joined by her vocal partner Andrea Ferro, while the two guys on guitar --- Marco Biazzi and Cristiano Migliore --- let rip. “Our truth” has the same sort of arabic chants that were in the opener, but sounds essentially similar to the previous track.

“Within me” at least breaks up the heavy, faster tracks with a nice mellow ballad, Cristina taking the lead on this one and the beat a nice, swaying sort of waltzy one. This track proves that the guitarists can take it down a few notches when required, that they're not just mad axemen, and the other Marco, Zelati, on bass and keyboards, adds some nice touches on the keys. Tall order that, to play both bass and keyboards, but he manages it well. Not so sure how he'd manage live though.

Back to the heavy tracks then for “Devoted”, this time Andrea taking vocals first, then joined by Cristina, and the guys are off hammering those guitars again. “You create”, meanwhile, is an interesting track, basically Cristina chanting behind an arabic-sounding guitar melody. It's a short track, just over one and a half minutes, with at the end a spoken part by Andrea, and the melody and chant continue into “What I see”, while “Closer” starts out with a funky bass line then pulls in some mad synthesisers, with a nice heavy beat and some great vocals by both the singers.

“Without fear” is a nice change, sort of mid-paced and very catchy with some nice vocals (in what I think is in her native Italian) from Cristina and lush keyboards from Marco Zelati. The album closes on a rather good cover of Depeche Mode's “Enjoy the silence”, which has become their biggest hit. Not too surprisingly I guess: everyone knows the song, just a pity Lacuna Coil are going to be known outside their own fanbase for just this one cover. Nice to hear a new-wave song get the heavy rock treatment, even so.

A lot of this album is very similar, which is a situation I'm finding more and more with bands of this genre. However there is a lot to recommend it, and if you like this sort of dramatic/progressive hard rock, then you're likely to enjoy “Karmacode”. Whether or not it's typical of their output I have to admit I don't know, as this is the first, and so far only one of their albums I've sampled to date.

TRACKLISTING

1. Fragile
2. To the edge
3. Our truth
4. Within me
5. Devoted
6. You create
7. What I see
8. Fragments of faith
9. Closer
10. In visible light
11. The game
12. Without fear
13. Enjoy the silence

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It's Friday and the worm wants to ROCK! Just as well those wild-eyed boys who had been away are back, huh? Better get down to Dinos...

Random Track of the Day
Friday, October 28 2011
If the worm can rock, so can the random-o-meter! One of my very favourite bands today, cruelly underappreciated in my opinion, a band called Ten, with a track from their album “The name of the rose”.

Don't cry --- Ten --- from "The name of the rose" on Now & Then
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Great vocal melodies as ever, Gary Hughes in great form and some truly killer AOR stuff on “Don't cry”, from their second album, released in 1996. As I say, a band who deserve far more recognition than they've got to date. Check out their catalogue of nine albums for more.

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Evenin' all. Inspector Quaver 'ere, with rather h-exciting news. We 'ave now captured, tried an' prosecuted our first case under the new h-Offences h-Against Decency and Taste Act 2009, subsection 3(a), to wit: Crimes h-Against Music. As you will all be aware, the filming of court procedure is prohibited in the h-United Kingdom, unlike h-elsewhere --- I believe it may 'ave been Mister David Bowie who remarked, “This is not h-America” --- and indeed it is not. So we are h-unable to record by video or take photographs of the actual trial.

'Owever, a case such as this is bound to make all the local rags, as you can see from the front pages from tomorrow's papers, shown below.

THE CASE OF THE SOAP SINGLE, AKA ANYONE CAN FALL IN LOVE, APPARENTLY.
CASEFILE: SCAMTF20111028/MP/FQ/444-FTE95
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Anyone can fall in love --- Anita Dobson --- 1986 (BBC Records)


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'Aving successfully prosecuted our first case, the lads an' me are now off to celebrate with a few swift bitters down the Dog an' Hound --- strictly off-duty of course! We are in the process of making further arrests, and when those cases come to court you can be sure you will read about them.

For now, a dangerous felon is be'ind bars, and the world is, I fancy, just a little bit safer tonight. No need to thank us, just doin' our jobs.

Until then, good night all, and remember, crime never sleeps, nor does the Met!

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Random Track of the Day
Saturday, October 29 2011
More rockin' today from the random-o-meter, this time from the unflappable Tom Petty, and a track from his most recent commercial success.

Into the great wide open --- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers --- from "Into the great wide open" on MCA
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I was never a massive fan of Tom Petty. I didn't --- and don't --- dislike him, I just was never that much bothered with him. I did enjoy “Full moon fever”, for the most part, which was his first real “chart” album, with singles galore, so when this was released I bought it. I find it more commercial than “FMF”, a lot less of the rock and a lot more of the pop side. This is the title track.

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Okay then, time to strap on your six-guns, tilt forward your hat in a menacing way, chomp down on that cee-gar (but I don't smoke!) and mosey on down to the Last Chance Saloon, to check out another album in my collection that really did not impress me on first or subsequent listens, and which I have filed away until now.

Personally, I feel it was a tragedy when the late Ronnie James Dio was fired from Black Sabbath. I like the Ozzy-era albums, but RJD really added a sense of majesty and wonder to the catalogue, bringing his own style of fantasy, epic songs, costume and great lyrics to a band which had, up to then, been pretty mired in a kind of ever-decreasing circle of similar black metal music. Which is not to say that I didn't like the previous albums --- “Vol 4” is a great album, and I love “Sabbath bloody Sabbath”, and of course there's the excellent “Master of reality”, not to mention “Paranoid”, but to me Sabs were stuck in something of a rut until Ronnie came along, and I felt he, in the parlance of TV and the movies, “revitalised the franchise”.

So I was sad to see him go, even though he would later make a triumphant return for one album nine years later. Sadder though was I to hear that his replacement would be Ian Gillan! Now, I'm a Purple fan, though not a big one, but I never liked anything Gillan put out with his own band, and his snotty claim on joining, at the second asking, mind you, Black Sabbath, that they should not be described as a heavy metal band, was a real slap in the teeth to their longtime fans (like me), in addition to being, well, how can I put this? Insane? Sabs not metal? You might as well say Maiden weren't metal!

So, the stage was set and the battlelines were drawn, and I was in a frame of mind, not surprisingly, to hate the new album, which turned out, as it happens, to be the only one Gillan did with Sabbath. I was not disappointed. Or I was, depending on your viewpoint. Essentially, I felt that Gillan had done as I had expected and feared, and ruined one of the godfathers of metal. I hated the album.

Born again --- Black Sabbath --- 1983 (Vertigo)
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So, was I right to hate it? Did I give it a chance? Well, probably no to the second, with judgement (obviously) reserved on the first, as this is the main question we are here to find an answer to. To be fair, the first I heard from the new lineup and from the then-forthcoming album was at a rock festival in Dublin (yeah, we had the odd one --- think it was called Monsters of Rock. Or is that Donington? Well, something similar anyway) and it was a little hard to make out the music, but when I got the album I was almost glad I had had difficulty hearing it onstage, as it really sounded awful to me. Has time mellowed my opinion, changed it? Will this last listen redeem this lost lamb (well, wolf I guess) from the Black Sabbath flock? I wonder, I really do...

It starts off heavy enough, though I could do without Gillan's trademark annoying scream. Right from the off, I don't find his voice as strong as either Ozzy or Dio --- they're in a different class. I also note some similarities in the opener, “Trashed”, to a lot of Deep Purple material, particularly “Speed king” and “Highway star”. Is he involved in the writing? Let's have a look. Yes, but in collaboration with the rest of the guys. Still, you can certainly feel his influence on this track. Nice solo from Tony Iommi, little heavier and more contemporary than usual.

My concern, of course, is that Gillan would use Sabbath as a backing band, making it more of a case of Ian Gillan and Black Sabbath, but as the album goes on I'm getting that impression more and more. “Stonehenge” has a nicely atmospheric, dark opening, very reminiscent of Ozzy-era Sabbath, nice keys from Geoff Nichols, very prog-rock to be honest. It's a short song, and indeed an instrumental, but it at once fits in nicely and stands out from the usual Sabbath fare. Then we're into “Disturbing the priest”, a song written for the Madman if ever there was one. Gillan does an okay job on it, to be fair. It's very heavy, more screaming, a slower track than the opener, more a cruncher than a rocker. Although the title screams, as I say, Ozzy Osbourne, the song itself is pure classic Dio, and I could very easily hear RJD singing this one.

Another very short instrumental follows, more a collection of noises really, which goes under the title of “The dark” and leads into the longest song on the album, “Zero the hero”. At just over seven and a half minutes, it comes over to me as an attempt at a Led Zep copy, and I don't see it as a Sabbath song at all. Great extended guitar solo in the middle though. Very much overlong: the same basic melody goes all the way through, and there's little change as the song blunders on towards its conclusion. To be honest, I heaved a sigh of relief once it ended.

“Digital bitch” is a lot of fun, written apparently about Sharon Osbourne (sentiments I heartily concur with!), a more straight ahead rocker than really anything else on the album so far. A good song, but I would have to say not a great song. More than halfway through the album and nothing has really grabbed me by the throat up to now, as I would expect a Sabs album to. Whether it's the manic energy of Ozzy or the sumptuous vocals and sweeping lyrical themes espoused by Dio, I've always had my attention kept by any previous Sabbath album, and though I haven't heard the later ones with Ray Gillen or even Tony Martin, I find Gillan's vocal presence the least riveting I have heard on a Sabbath album.

The title track is a ballad, of all things, very bluesy, and the second-longest at just over six and a half minutes. Nice echoey guitar from Iommi and some really nice effective bass from Geezer Butler, and in complete fairness this sort of song does suit Gillan's voice, though I could just as happily hear Dio sing it (maybe not Ozzy); so far it's the best thing on the album, but is it too little too late? It is. “Hot line” is throwaway basic filler, while the closer, “Keep it warm”, is, well, more filler. Oh dear.

I would have to say that my original impression stays. While Iommi's guitar playing is as flawless as ever, the whole direction of Sabbath changed, for me, on this album, and not for the better. “Born again” can't hold a black candle to the likes of “Master of reality”, “Sabotage” or “Heaven and Hell”, and I'm not surprised Gillan didn't last as the singer: his style never seemed to mesh with the ethos and craft of Black Sabbath, and they soon parted ways. Hopefully before he had a chance to ruin the band.

Honestly, if this was Black Sabbath “Born again”, then I could recommend a backstreet doctor that could have performed a certain operation that might have saved us all some grief.

TRACKLISTING

1. Trashed
2. Stonehenge
3. Disturbing the priest
4. The dark
5. Zero the hero
6. Digital bitch
7. Born again
8. Hot line
9. Keep it warm

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The worm is certainly not averse to the odd dance song now and then, and this is one of the better ones, from D:Ream (see what they did there?), with “Things can only get better” --- surely an anthem for the times?

Random Track of the Day
Sunday, October 30 2011
Although Norway is generally regarded for its black, doom and death metal bands, there has been some really good music that has come from the Land of the Midnight Sun that is not metal of any flavour. Case in point, a band I have heard a lot about, but not listened to their albums yet. They're called Gazpacho.

Snail --- Gazpacho --- from "Missa Atropos" on HWT
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Believe it or not, “Missa Atropos” is the sixth album from these guys. I really must make a better effort to listen to some of their music. This is their most current album, though it comes from 2010, and there's a new one in the pipeline for next year. This is a track called “Snail”.

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We've so far featured two artistes in this section, and they've both been guys. BOO! I hear you ladies say. HISS! What about the girls? You sexist pi--- all right, all right! Point taken. There have of course been many successful female solo artistes, as as promised at the end of our last edition of “Gone solo in the game”, this time we're going to examine the solo career of that blonde icon of the seventies and early eighties
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With a fairly prolific career in music, Debbie Harry is of course best known for her work with the new wave band Blondie, and has become identified with such hits as “Heart of glass”, “Atomic”, “Sunday girl” and “Hanging on the telephone”, but although she still works with the band she has over the span of her career branched out, both into solo ventures and collaborations, as well as guesting on many tracks, and indeed fronting the avant-garde jazz band The Jazz Passengers. As ever, though, it is her solo career with which we are concerned, and on which we will concentrate here.

Her first solo album was released in 1981, when she was taking a break from Blondie. With a sleeve designed by “Alien” artist and creator of visual nightmares, H.R. Giger, the album was moderately successful, though hardly broke the charts wide open like her Blondie output.

Koo koo --- 1981 (Chrysalis)
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As I mentioned in the feature on Ric Ocasek a month and a half ago now, the debut solo album is always the hardest. The decision made to break out of the relative comfort of the band they're with, the artiste is no doubt faced with some trepidation as to how his or her own music will be received, not only by longtime fans of the band, but by others, who may not have liked the band. In short, the artist has to please both sides of their new fanbase: those who already know them, and those who don't.

“Koo koo” (strange title!) turns out, not surprisingly, to be a far cry from the pop/punk/new-wave rock of Blondie, much more influenced by funk and dance than rock or punk. The opener “Jump jump” does not, to be honest, impress, and were this not the Debbie Harry, this is probably where I might stop, as the signs are not good. But we're committed to checking this album, and her others, out in their entireity, so let's perservere. Decent keyboard solo, but very very lightweight, with little improvement for “The jam was moving”, which was apparently chosen as a single. Hmm. Nice but of guitar there from Nile Rodgers, from seventies disco band Chic, while his partner, Bernard Edwards, takes bass duties. Still very dance-oriented though.

Bit of rock tries to force its way through on “Chrome”, which does have more of a Blondie feel, and though I don't want to fall into the trap of rating songs as like-Blondie/not-like-Blondie, it is part of this brief that we compare the artiste's solo output to that which they produced, or produce, within the band structure. This is the least dancy of the tracks so far, and therefore my favourite as I listen. Harry and her Blondie bandmate and boyfriend, guitarist Chris Stein, write about half of the material on the album, with the other half penned by the Chic duo, with or without input from Stein and Harry. “Chrome”, perhaps unsurprisingly, is a Harry/Stein original.

Back to the funk then for another Chic-written number, “Surrender”, and the hard edge is gone, almost forgotten. I'm sensing opportunities missed here. It's almost as if Debbie is allowing Edwards and Rodgers to dictate the kind of music she records, and while they do produce the album, I think it's a pity that they exercise such tight control over the material. “Surrender” is, frankly, crap. Not much better is “Inner city spillover”, where Debbie goes all reggae. Interestingly, this is one of the songs she writes with Stein, and while weak it's at least devoid of the funk influence of her producers. In fairness, it's not too bad, but I'm not a fan of reggae music, so I guess I'm biased in that way. That said, I certainly prefer it to anything else so far, “Chrome” excepted.

And here comes the funk --- complete with horns --- for “Backfired”, which was also a single. I feel both of these releases perhaps would have given a false impression of Debbie's solo work, and something like “Chrome” would have been a better bet. This has elements of semi-rap in it, sharp, jangly guitar echoing the melody of her hit single with Blondie the previous year (well, that year --- 1981, but the album was released in 1980), “Rapture”, which itself was seen as something of a departure from Blondie's recognised musical style, the rap in itself intensely embarrassing and laughable. She obviously hadn't learned from that...

Having let Stein and Harry have their head, to some extent (STOP that dirty laughing!) on the first part of the album, the Chic duo keep something of a stranglehold on the second half, or side, writing or co-writing four out of the five remaining tracks. The first, and indeed only, ballad, “Now I know you know” is really not bad, echoes of Judie Tzuke in there, and Debbie on fine song, with some nice laid-back guitar and piano, but the following track, “Under arrest”, actually comes even closer to Blondie's own style, with a staccato, hard-edged pop/rock tune --- must be the input from Debbie and Chris on this one, although Edwards and Rodgers collaborate on the writing.

I fear for a song which has a title of “Military rap”! Still, it maintains the new-wave/punk style favoured by Blondie, even if there is a really bad attempt at a rap in there, along with some very Mexican-sounding bugles...! Fast, certainly, and not a funk lick in sight. The only track on the second side of the album without writing input for the Chic guys, and the better for it. But they're involved in the closer, “Oasis”. Hang on though: a promising start, with its eastern/arabic flavour and whistling keyboards, tom-toms and some very nice, if funky, bass.

So a decent end, then, to an album which started badly, but improved a little as it went on, until there was a final sprint for the finish line, and although I would doubt I'd listen to this album again, I'm a little more impressed with it now than I was when it began. As a debut though, I'd have to say that if this was someone other than Debbie Harry, with her already legion of fans to buy this record (whether or not they liked it is another matter), I doubt she would have secured a deal for a second album. Hey, fame is certainly handy when you decide to take that solo flight!

TRACKLISTING

1. Jump jump
2. The jam was moving
3. Chrome
4. Surrender
5. Inner city spillover
6. Backfired
7. Now I know you know
8. Under arrest
9. Military rap
10. Oasis

Personal problems prevented Debbie from releasing a follow-up to “Koo koo” until 1986. By that time Blondie had split, largely due to the illness contracted by Chris Stein, though they would reform fifteen years later in 1997. Debbie's next album was not under the control of the “Chic gang”, but was in fact produced by one of the J. Geils Band, one Seth Justman, and though he co-wrote some of the songs with her and Stein, this time they had greater artistic freedom, and Debbie and Chris wrote or co-wrote eight of the nine tracks on the album.

Rockbird --- 1986 (Chrysalis)
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With a name like that, you have to hope this album would be more a rock album than a dance one, but let's see. Kicking off with a very frantic piano, “I want you” harks right back to the fifties, with a very Lewis/Richard fast piano melody, and a start/stop melody somewhat reminscent of the Jam, but definitely a step up from the debut. Although horns again feature quite prominently, this time they're used more in a jazz/ska vein than a dance mood: bold, brassy, exuberant. The opener certainly sets the mission statement, and though its 50s bubblegum pop/rock is still lightweight, it's closer to the sort of thing Blondie would be expected to produce.

“French kissin' in the USA”, ironically the only track on the album without any input from either her or Stein in terms of writing, turned out to be the huge hit single from the album, and remains one of her most popular solo songs. Very pop oriented, it's a lot slower than the opener, but not a ballad. It seems to feature a lot of programmed drums and synths, fitting well in to the sound of the mid-eighties, while “Buckle up” is more of a boogie, again replete with horns and brass, kind of Madness-like in style. “In love with love” is lightweight pop, very new romantic, close to the likes of Fiction Factory and the lighter moments of Depeche Mode.

Horns again feature prominently in “You got me in trouble”, with a pop/dance flavour, and things slow down nicely for “Free to fall”, a nice sort of mid-paced semi-ballad, and then kick back into high gear again for the rockin' title track, with some nice fast piano, some good hard guitar and decent backing vocals. Both “Secret life” and the closer “Beyond the limit” sort of pass by without making any real impression, and sadly do the reverse of “Koo koo”, which started badly but ended strongly. Still, on balance, “Rockbird” is a great improvement on the debut, and allows Debbie to spread her wings (sorry!) a little more.

TRACKLISTING

1. I want you
2. French kissin' in the USA
3. Buckle up
4. In love with love
5. You got me in trouble
6. Free to fall
7. Rockbird
8. Secret life
9. Beyond the limit

Debbie has only released five solo albums to date, so I'm going to try to feature them all. The next, her third, was released three years after “Rockbird”, in 1989, and is interesting because for one thing she had a hand in producing it (her first, to my knowledge, attempt at any sort of production) along with Chris Stein and Mike Chapman, producer of the Blondie albums. Also interesting because she decided to release it under her full name, so it carries the name Deborah Harry, but to us she's still Debbie.

Def dumb and blonde --- 1989 (Chrysalis)
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Best known for its hit single, “I want that man”, written by the Thompson Twins, the album displays something of a shift back towards the rock Blondie were famous for and away from the lighter, pop and dance flavour of her debut, so that the three albums can be seen as a progression, almost as if Debbie were meeting her Blondie career head-on, or perhaps deciding that the experimentation she had indulged in on the previous albums had not worked, and she should return to what she knew, and was good at.

“Lovelight”, the only song written solo by Chris Stein, is a sort of new wave/pop track with interesting guitar work, while “Kiss it better”, a collaboration with the Thompsons is really more like one of their songs: weirdly, as the opener, written by only them, is more a Debbie Harry song, and yet when she adds her influence the result is less than her own signature sort of music. Lots of synthy bass and jangly guitar, very poppy. Meh. Throwaway, say I. Next up is a much harder, rockier, almost punky track, “Bike boy”, with hard, sharp guitar, pounding drums and lots of shouts of “Oi!” or something similar, which a lot of the punk tracks seemed to have. Good, solid stuff though.

This album is her longest so far, with a total of fifteen tracks, so I'm going to have to cherry-pick or just refer to some in a few words, unless I want to spend all night on this part of the review. So we'll pass over the largely forgettable “Get your way”, and concentrate on the really rather good “Maybe for sure”, which has a nice keyboard intro and then goes into a very Blondie melody, quite like “Sunday girl” in fact. Nice to hear her returning to her roots. Great song.

NOT so good to hear her going down the reggae route again! Still, “I'll never fall in love” isn't a bad song, but I could live without it. “Calmarie” is an atmospheric, almost Native American-type song, with chants and gentle percussion, with Debbie singing in another language (Italian?), with I think smatterings of English in there too. Almost Enya-like in its mood and style, it's a really nice, laid-back song that really showcases the true beauty of her voice when she takes it down a notch. “He is so” is another Blondie-like song, mid-paced and with a great melody, good hook. Really nice keys work near the end.

“Comic books” is pretty madcap, flying along at punk speed, with stabbing keyboards and churning guitars, while “Forced to live” kicks the speed up even more, so that you really get the impression you're listening to someone like maybe Siouxsie and the Banshees or Hazel O'Connor, with Debbie (sorry, Deborah!) at her loudest, grittiest, sultriest punk bitch best. After all that craziness and speed, things slow down for penultimate track “Brite side”, a nice little ballad with rather good drum programming and quite a reserved, restrained melody. Is this the same woman who just moments ago was shouting her head off?

Closer “End of the run” is also the longest track on the album, and indeed her longest to date, at just over seven minutes, and has a nice guitar intro followed by a spoken vocal which reminds me of Faith Hill's later “Beautiful” off her album “Cry”: stuff like this is hard to pull off properly --- you're essentially creating poetry to music. But it works for Debbie, and she intersperses the spoken word stuff with some lovely breathy singing, really making the song something special, and bringing a rather triumphant end to what is, so far, her best solo effort and her most complete album.

TRACKLISTING

1. I want that man
2. Lovelight
3. Kiss it better
4. Bike boy
5. Get your way
6. Maybe for sure
7. I'll never fall in love
8. Calmarie
9. Sweet and low
10. He is so
11. Bugeye
12. Comic books
13. Forced to live
14. Brite side
15. End of the run

1993 saw the release of Debbie's fourth solo album, and her second under her full name. This would also see the end of a fifteen-year association with label Chrysalis, who had released all the Blondie albums as well as all of Debbie's solo material, up to and including this one.

Debravation --- 1993 (Chrysalis)
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It starts off badly, I have to say, with the europop dance number “I can see clearly”, which to my mind throws her firmly back to the days of “Koo koo” and the over-involvement of the boys from Chic, though they haven't been in her music at all since. Nevertheless, there's an uncomfortable sense of deja vu here, and it's not helped by the second track, another ill-advised attempt at a rap, which once again scores high in the embarrassment factor. In fairness, the rap in “Stability” is only peripheral, but the rest of the song is pretty sub-Madonna pap. Not in love with this.

Luckily, things take a turn for the better then with “Strike me pink”, a Kim Wilde-like ballad with soft percussion and nice piano and keyboards, and a nice little soulful sax break. Keyboard-heavy beyond a doubt, Debbie employs the talents of no less than thirteen keyboard players --- not including Guy Pratt, who plays keys as well as guitar , as opposed to eight guitarists. So the album has a very sort of europop feel to it, yet not as dancy or disco as “Koo koo”, with some nice melodies and some very good ideas.

“Rain” is not bad, if a little limited, although it gives Debbie a chance to clean out her pipes, and has a nice guitar solo in it. “Communion” is nice, mid-paced bopper with a nice line in piano and some very good backing vocals, with it has to be said some extremely dodgy lyrics:- ”Take, eat, this is my body/I give it to you/ Take, drink, this is my blood/ Do it in remembrance of me/ So you won't forget me.” I'm sure the religious right would have had a field day with THAT one! Not a bad song though.

“Mood ring” has a very oriental feel, with some seriously funky bass and some really nice keys, a nice ballad, the first time she's had two on the same album. Again some really nice saxophone adds to the atmosphere of this song, then we're into “Keep on going”, which rather surprisingly maintains the low-key, laid-back and relaxed tone of the previous track. “Dancing down the moon” rocks things back up again, and for a while now fears that Debbie was going to return to the dance-oriented “Koo koo” have evaporated, as the album has improved, really in leaps and bounds, as it's gone on.

“Standing in my way” has a very Pretenders vibe to it, more fast rockin', with more than a nod back to the Blondie era, quite “One way or another”, in fact. Some great keyboards redolent of Dire Straits circa “Walk of life”. “The fugitive” is down and dirty soul, but the weirdest contribution has to be that of cyberpunk author William Gibson, who wrote the lyric for closer “Dog star girl”, and perhaps in deference to the great man the melody is quite industrial/electronic and futuristic sounding.

Mention should be made of the appearance of REM on the track “My last date with you”, which appeared only on the US version of the CD as an additional track, but as it's not on my copy I can't review it. However, Micheal Stipe and the boys are pretty heavyweight guests to have on your album.

I still at this point prefer “Def dumb and blonde”, but this is a worthy successor, and shows Debbie developing both as a musician and as a songwriter.

TRACKLISTING

1. I can see clearly
2. Stability
3. Strike me pink
4. Rain
5. Communion
6. Lip service
7. Mood ring
8. Keep on going
9. Dancing down the moon
10. Standing in my way
11. The fugitive
12. Dog Star girl

Although Debbie also worked with other artistes down the years, including Talking Heads, Giorgio Moroder and Fall Out Boy, and indeed joined and then fronted the Jazz Passengers in the mid 1990s, as I mentioned it is purely her solo work we are concerned with here. So as with Phil Lynott we didn't go into his association with the Three Musketeers or any other projects he was involved in, so too here we will leave such collaborations and contributions, including her many film soundtracks, to others.

Nonetheless, it does go part of the way to explaining why Debbie's next, and so far most recent, solo album did not emerge until fourteen years later. It's the longest of her albums by far, with a total of seventeen tracks, and her first not to be on the Chrysalis label.

Necessary evil --- 2007 (Eleven Seven)
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Quite a polished feel from the off, with nice production on a smooth mid-paced opener with nice bass and good keyboards, understated guitar and indeed rather restrained vocals from Debbie on “Two times blue”, which was in fact the first single to be released from the album. Very catchy, stays with you long after it's ended. Good start indeed. “School for scandal” continues her return to the rock songs that characterised her last two albums, with a good mix of guitars and keys and some solid drumming, then we're into the first ballad, “If I had you”, which to me has a very REM flavour, a kind of waltzy rhythm, possibly picked up after her association with them on her previous album. There's also a little Bryan Adams in there too, maybe also a nod to Coldplay.

Three solid songs. Not bad. Can she maintain this quality throughout? Let's see. Well, “Deep end” is sort of new wave for the twenty-first century, with low growling guitar and heavy bass, slow measured percussion and Debbie doing her best Blondie, while “Love with a vengeance” comes across very Queen-like, with its busy bass and handclap beats, and then we're into the title track, a raw, edgy, sharp tune with very punk overtones and Jam-like guitar. “Charm redux” is the first ever instrumental on a Debbie Harry album, very electronica with the title chanted behind the music, a short little track at just over a minute, then “You're too hot” is another rocker with a deceptive opening, and “Dirty and deep” is just that, very Janet Jackson with its programmed keyboards and low vocal, and its harkback to previous track with the refrain ”Don't touch me/ You're too hot!”

Another ballad follows, nice little acoustic guitar on “What is love” and “Whiteout” is a pretty screaming rocker, with “Needless to say” then taking the tempo right down for the third ballad on what is really turning out to be a pretty flawless album, and pushing “Def dumb and blonde” for the place of best DH solo album. It's interesting that this time around she has decided to collaborate on, or write herself, most of the tracks without the input of Chris Stein, who is only involved in two, near the end. Most of the songs, in fact, are written by the triumvirate of herself and producers Barb Morrison and Charles Nieland, and the songwriting team seems to have struck gold.

“Heat of the moment” has an almost voodoo/jungle vibe, mostly driven on percussion, with just the one lyric --- yeah, you guessed it! It's a short song, and gives way to “Charm alarm”, on which the trio pull in an extra helper for songwriting duties, one Guy Morrow, and it's a sort of funk/dance fusion which unaccountably reminds me of Matt Johnson's The The...! Chris Stein then comes into the picture, as mentioned, writing both the next song and the one after it. “Jen jen” is almost New Order in its guitar and drum machine opening, with an African chant of some sort forming the lyric, and some pretty cool guitar work --- very different indeed. As a matter of fact, I don't even hear Debbie singing on this...

Not so great is “Naked eye”, his other contribution, possibly the weakest track on the album, a little confused I feel, then the closer, “Paradise” is, I believe, one of the songs recorded by the Jazz Passengers. It's a nice smooth ballad, with not at all surprisingly some smooth and sweet sax to take the song to its conclusion, a good way to close what has turned out to be a really good album overall.

TRACKLISTING

1. Two times blue
2. School for scandal
3. If I had you
4. Deep end
5. Love with a vengeance
6. Necessary evil
7. Charm redux
8. You're too hot
9. Dirty and deep
10. What is love
11. Whiteout
12. Needless to say
13. Heat of the moment
14. Charm alarm
15. Jen jen
16. Naked eye
17. Paradise

So, what are we, in the final analysis, to make of the solo career of Debbie Harry? Well, like our first star to feature in this section, Phil Lynott --- and unlike our second, Ric Ocasek --- it seems clear she is unafraid to try new things, branch out and extend her reach beyond the type of music she usually plays in Blondie. Her embracing of dance, techno, funk, reggae and other styles, as well as some of the lyrical themes visited over her five solo albums demonstrate an artist who is prepared to take chances, experiment and is not all that pushed about commercial success, as she waited almost as long as some people's music career lasts between her fourth and fifth album, so she's not about to rush any product out to placate record labels.

“Necessary evil” was four years ago now. By Debbie's standards, that's a short hiatus, but it will be interesting to see if, and when, she heads into the studio again. One thing is for certain: whenever she does, and whatever comes out of those sessions, it won't be predictable.

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Bit of soul funk from the worm-master today, this is Sister Sledge with one of their huge hits, “We are family”.

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There are few who would doubt the singular genius of Paddy McAloon. Here he is with Prefab Sprout, and one of their early hits, the intensely powerful and emotional “When love breaks down”.

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BOO! It's Halloween: time for ghosties and zombies and vampires and all sorts of weird and dread creatures to stalk the night seeking candy and treats at the doors! Lock up your supply of funsize Mars Bars --- they're out there and they're hungry!
To tie in with the spooky celebrations, here is a selection of themed songs all about, you guessed it, supernatural creatures.

Start off with the great Annie Lennox, with her lovely bitter ballad, “Love song for a vampire”. Get yer teeth into this! (Sorry, sorry!)


Vampires not your thing? Try werewolves instead...


Japan had a great song way back when, entitled simply “Ghosts”...


… and the Cranberries sang about zombies....


… while the Eagles were more concerned with witchy women!


Of course, we couldn't leave out the Halloween song, from the late Michael Jackson!


Then there's Tom Waits, who's not afraid to go “Whistlin' past the graveyard”. Think the ghosts would run from him!


Perhaps one of the best and most famous songs about supernatural beings, here are Blue Oyster Cult, with “Don't fear the Reaper”.


You could always dance with the dead, like Axxis...


… or do the Graveyard Waltz with the Hooters.


Okay then, that's our little contribution to the ghostly goings-on that take place on this unhallowed night. Mind your step as you're leaving, and keep checking behind you! MWA-HAHAHAHA!

Random Track of the Day
Monday, October 31 2011
Another good track taken from my extensive collection by random selection, this is one of my all-time favourite artistes, the late great Dan Fogelberg.

Hard to say --- Dan Fogelberg --- from "The innocent age" on Full Moon
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A great song from a truly great double album, “The innocent age” is described on the cover as “a song cycle”, and indeed it is, beginning with songs about birth and following through a life to the inevitable conclusion we all face. Most of you may know Dan for his hits like “Longer”, “Leader of the band” and the perennial Christmas favourite, “Same old lang syne”, but this is a nice little country-tinged ballad about trying to figure out why a romance just didn't work out. Backing vocals by Glenn Frey, too. Sadly, we lost Dan four years ago, and are unlikely to see a songwriter of his calibre and gentle grace again.

Random Track of the Day
Tuesday, November 1 2011
A new month begins, and we have a good one to start us off on Random Track of the Day, from a very underappreciated talent. This is Lana Lane, whose album “Lady Macbeth” I reviewed a lot earlier, and who also lent her voice to Gary Hughes' project “Once and future king”, which I also reviewed some time ago.

Souls of the mermaids --- Lana Lane --- from "Queen of the ocean" on Think Tank
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Seriously, ignore the stupid “Little mermaid” video --- it's the only version of this song I could find on YT --- and enjoy the song. It's from her “Queen of the ocean” album, a great little rocker called “Souls of the mermaids” (hence the annoying video).

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Thought it might be time for another whistle-stop tour of a band, give you a flavour of what they're about, feature some tracks from their repertoire, and perhaps introduce you to some music you may up to now not have heard, or perhaps even be unaware existed. This time around it's British prog metal band
Balance of Power

I did feature one of their albums here some time ago, the excellent “Perfect balance”, but that was a while ago, and they have created a lot more good music prior to, and since, that release. First though, a little history.
Balance of Power were formed in London around 1995, and have to date released six albums, one of which also contains a CD of live music AND a DVD, but more of that later. The current lineup of the band is below, though as with most bands who have been together for a while, there have been some changes since they started out, as noted below.

Corey Brown --- vocals (see note 1)
Pete Southern --- guitar (see note 2)
Tony Ritchie --- bass (see note 3)
Lionel Hicks --- drums

Note 1: Original vocalist was in fact Ritchie, who now concentrates on bass duties. He was also a founder member, though after Balance of Power's first album, “When the world falls down”, he was replaced as vocalist by Lance King, who remained in the post until 2003, just before the recording of their last proper album, “Heathen machine”, when he was replaced in turn by John K. Corey Brown is the current vocalist, but although he played with the band on some gigs he has not yet been involved in any albums.

Note 2: When the band formed there were in fact two guitarists, Paul Curtis and Bill Yates. Curtis left after the first album, but Yates stayed on for three more albums, sharing guitar duties with new man Pete Southern. After 2001's “Perfect balance” he left, leaving Southern as the sole axeman for their, to date, last album.

Note 3: As mentioned above, Ritchie was originally vocalist on the debut album but switched to bass guitar when he was replaced by Lance King. He was a founder member of the band, but prior to King's arrival, bass duties were taken by Chris Dale, also a member of the original lineup.

(It should also be mentioned that although on some BoP albums there were no keyboards (or at least, no keyboard player credited), Ivan Gunn, founder of the band, took these for the first and second albums, with Leon Lawson coming in for the next two. “Ten more tales of grand illusion” does not credit any keysman.)

When the world falls down (1997)
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Their debut was first released in Japan, and it's a damn good first try. Right from the off, after the atmospheric keyboard intro it goes into full-fledged rock mode, with great vocal harmonies, catchy melodies and to be honest, more an AOR feel than prog metal, featuring their signature tune, the eponymous “Balance of power”. But it's tracks like “Hide your heart”

and “These are the days”

that make this album stand out from the crowd. Admittedly, this is more an AOR effort than true progressive metal, but future albums would take on a much harder, heavier edge, and establish Balance of Power as true exponents of melodic, mature and powerful prog metal. As debuts go, therefore, it's not the strongest but neither is it a bad album, just that what would follow would make “When the world falls down” seem just a little ordinary.

Book of secrets (1998)
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Only a year on, but what a change for Balance of Power's second album. New vocalist Lance King replaced Tony Ritchie, and their sound became much heavier and more in the vein of metal than rock, with a concept album based on, believe it or not, the Bible Code.

With ongoing narration from Rob Brown, the album tells the story of the coming final days of the Earth, and you can hear the urgency in the much-heavier music that populates the album, like “Walking on top of the world”

and the excellent “Seven days to nevermore”

As mentioned, this album marked the debut of singer Lance King, and also the swansong for founder member and keyboard player Ivan Gunn. It also featured the debut for guitarist Pete Southern, who would become BoP's main axeman and stay with them to the end. The album was produced and engineered by Lionel Hicks, and he certainly seems to have done a very good job!

Ten more tales of grand illusion (1999)
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Only a year later they were back with their third album, “Ten more tales of grand illusion”. This continued the heavy metal influence and more or less eschewed the commercial/AOR feel of the debut. Again produced by Hicks, the album heads almost into the realms of speed/thrash metal at times, while still retaining the melodic style that characterised previous albums.

Examples of the growing maturity of Balance of Power include the likes of “Blind man”

and the shattering “Sins of the world”

This album spelled the end of Chris Dale's involvement, and for the follow-up he would be replaced by Balance of Power's original vocalist, founder member Tony Ritchie on bass.

Perfect balance (2001)
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Already extensively reviewed by me earlier, “Perfect balance” is indeed that, the perfect coming together of this band and without question their best album. It features the last appearances of Lance King behind the mike, and Bill Yates on guitar, and whereas no keyboard player was credited on the previous album (if there was a keysman; it sounds like there was) this time Leon Lawson takes up those duties. The development of the band is now complete: they have mostly dropped the soft-rock leanings of “When the world falls down” more and more, and concentrate on a heavier, more powerful sound.

To be fair, just about every track on “Perfect balance” is excellent, but as we can only pick two we'll go for two of my favourites, the stunning “Shelter me”

and the wonderful “One voice”

both of which showcase the melodic rock element of this band, the way they can rock like demons but still retain the musical expertise and songwriting ability that can make their songs seem very commercial, even if they haven't achieved anything in the way of chart success, or even much recognition.

Heathen machine (2003)
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To date the band's last album, apart from a compilation featuring live material released in 2005, “Heathen machine” is the first (and so far only) Balance of Power album to feature new vocalist John K. As mentioned, Bill Yates had also departed by now, leaving Pete Southern as the sole guitarist. Leon Lawson remains on keyboards.

It's another powerful album, and if it is to be their last then it's a fitting ending, bristling with great songs, like “Chemical imbalance”

and “No place like home”


New singer John K doesn't sound out of place, and the band seem to be meshing even more tightly together despite the loss of one guitarist. Hopefully we may hear more of them in the future, though I believe at the moment most of the band members are working on separate projects, but hey, never say never!

Finally, although I generally don't tend to include “greatest hits” and live albums in this section, mention must be made of 2005's “Heathenology live” triple album.
Heathenology Live (2005)
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Not only did this boxed set contain remastered versions of tracks from the first four albums, which goes under the subtitle of “Archives of power”, there is also a live recording of the guys in concert PLUS a two-hour live DVD of Balance of Power live in 2004, as well as extra material and a full-colour 24-page booklet! Now THAT's what I call value!

If you haven't heard of Balance of Power before, you could do a whole lot worse than check them out. They've certainly done a lot to try to make their mark in the world, even if the world has largely ignored them. But they've kept going, produced some excellent music, and as I say, it's possible that we have not yet heard the last of them. If there's any justice in this world, Balance of Power will be back, and this time, maybe the world at large will sit up and take notice. Or fall down. Either would be good.

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No-one was particularly surprised when, after the Jam split, Paul Weller was the one who went on to hack out a solo career. What was surprising was the route he took. Having spent many years fighting the cause of mod and punk in that seminal band, his own solo work took on a much more commercial, relaxed and poppy direction, when he formed the Style Council. Gone was the Angry Young Man, and in his place a Relaxed, Contented Older (and much Richer) Man.

This, at any rate, is one of their big hits, one to get your feet moving (wish I had feet!), it's “Walls come tumbling down.”