The Secret Life of the Album Cover
No. 1: "Fugazi" by Marillion
Note: The original image files have gone the way of all flesh, so if you're reading this for the first time, please ignore all references to figure this or that (Fig 2, Fig 5 etc) as there is now only one large picture. I couldn't be bothered chopping it all up again.

In another new section to my journal, I'll be taking a look at some of the more interesting album covers in my collection. Time was when an album sleeve meant something, said something to you, and quite often there were many little interesting details about it that perhaps on first look didn't immediately jump out at you, but that afterwards you noticed, and appreciated. Of course, for those of us in the know (and old enough!) the master of this was Hipgnosis, who of course designed some of the best sleeves for bands like Genesis, ELO, Pink Floyd and The Alan Parsons Project, to name but a few in their illustrious catalogue. The artwork on their covers became iconic and timeless: who can forget the simple yet stunningly effective cover for Pink Floyd's “Dark side of the moon”?

But Hipgnosis had not cornered the market, and there were a lot of really fascinating and deep album covers out there, back when people bought vinyl records and there was something to look at, as opposed to just a 60 x 60 Jpeg of so-called “album art”! Back then, album covers were almost as important as the album itself: you would put on the record (taking it VERY carefully out of the inner sleeve and placing it on the turntable --- what? Oh, look it up on Wiki!) and then like as not sit back with the sleeve and read not only the lyrics, but the liner notes too as the album played, and admire the intricate artwork on the cover. Ah, those were the days!

(Cough!) Excuse me, the old rheumatism plays up now and then. What was that sonny? Speak up! Oh yes indeed: the point of this piece. Well, I was gettin' to that, young feller! Shee! You young 'uns have no patience these days. Why, in my time.... zzzzzzzz. What?! Oh, sorry! I tend to nod off sometimes. Age, you know. Anyway, back to the intro. Where was I? Oh yes, I remember!

Mark Wilkinson was the incredibly talented artist who designed the first four of Marillion's album sleeves, and their single sleeves too. After Fish left the band Wilkinson went with him, to design the covers of the ex-frontman's solo albums. Marillion album covers suffered from that, their next few being quite ordinary. I always felt Mark Wilkinson's work added an air of wonder and mystery to Marillion albums, and that was definitely lost when he went to work with Fish. Perhaps fittingly, though, as after Fish left the band began moving in a much different and less progressive rock direction. The below cover is for their second album, the slightly more commercial “Fugazi”, released in 1984, and the cover says a lot more than perhaps you would at first realise. In order to address this, I've cut out certain sections of the album cover --- front and reverse --- and will discuss each in as much depth as I feel I can. But first, a general overview.

https://israelmaster.files.wordpress.../06/fugazi.jpg



Up until their fourth album, “Clutching at straws”, the last with Fish as vocalist and frontman, Marillion had always issued their albums in what were known as “gatefold” sleeves. Simply put, this means that the artwork for the album was spread over both the front and the back of the cover, and so you had to open it out to see it in all its glory. “Fugazi” is a typical example of this. Looking at the front only you can see some of the story, but open it to its full width and you see so much more.

The basic idea is of a figure lying prone on a bed, in what we assume to be a small bedsit. The figure does not look comfortable, in fact looks washed out and wasted, and is listening to music while drinking wine. Around him, other things are happening (or he is hallucinating them) that he either does not see or does not care about. Whether meant as such or not, I always find the figure on the bed strikingly reminiscent of the crucified Christ, after he has been taken down off the cross. The headphones on the Walkman also for me symbolise the crown of thorns Jesus was forced to wear while being crucified. So you could say this is the artist, perhaps, stretched on the rack of his own genius, crucified on the cross of his own endeavour? Perhaps nothing like this: that's just what it says to me.

It could also refer to the fact that, having expended their heart and soul creating one of the most impressive debut albums in 1983's “Script for a jester's tear”, Marillion (represented by the figure on the bed, who became known generically as “the Jester”, but to me will always be identified with Fish, again the fact that Wilkinson's last sleeve for Marillion was the last with Fish bears this out somewhat) had felt like they had nothing left to give. Or maybe crafting this album had drained them. Perhaps the “Jester” is thinking of what will have to be done to follow this up, and is daunted and depressed at the magnitude of the task before him.
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That's the basic idea I get from the sleeve anyway, but now let's take some elements from the cover and analyse them in more detail. In figure 1 below, we see that though the figure on the bed is barely clothed, his reflection in the mirror wears the full costume of the jester. Is this two sides of the one person? Is it an alternate identity of the man on the bed? Which is the real one? Is the mirror reflecting the dreams and aspirations of the man on the bed, or is it in fact the Jester in the mirror who is real, and his reflection (through the mirror on the other side) is nothing more than a man, struggling to come to terms with his world and put this into song? The figure on the bed can be seen to be wearing a partial jester's outfit, but whether he has taken it off or was in the process of putting it on is uncertain. Without question though, there is a link between the two images.
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Figure 2 shows the head of the man on the bed, as he listens to a Walkman (hey, again:look it up!), but seems oblivious to the music, if indeed music is playing. The scene recalls one of the lines in the title track: ”Sheathed within the Walkman/ Wear the halo of distortion/ Aural contraceptive/ Aborting pregnant conversation”, obviously Fish's lament that with the proliferation of hand-held cassette players like the Sony Walkman, people stopped talking to each other so easily, wrapped up in their music. As true then as it is today. I also mentioned the symbolism for the crown of thorns earlier. You can see too in his eyes that they are painted like that of a clown: which face is real, or are they all just masks?
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A magpie sits on a chair, holding a ring in its beak. This would later come back in the double live 1988 compilation called “The Thieving Magpie” (“la gazza ladra”), but the ring at least in the magpie's beak could also refer to a line in “Emerald lies”: ”And the coffee stains gather/ Till the pale kimono/ Sets the wedding rings dancing/ On the cold linoleum.”
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The magpie is stalked by a lizard, presumably the “she-chamelon” from the track of the same name on the album. Perhaps the fact that it (presumably she) is trying to catch the bird and rob the wedding ring, can be seen as a metaphor for a groupy (which the she-chameleons in the song are identified as) threatening a marriage? Of course, the magpie has stolen the ring in the first place, so maybe not...
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A copy of Billboard magazine lies on the bed, at the figure's feet. As influential a magazine as this is, perhaps he has read a bad review of the album? It's not clear, as you can't actually read the headline. Perhaps it was included for exactly the reverse reason, that Billboard loved the previous album? I don't think Marillion “broke” the US that early, though.
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Is that picture La Pagliacci, the clown from the Italian opera? I thnk it may be.
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Spilled red wine could have different meanings. Perhaps it's just that the figure is drunk, and falling asleep or through carelessness has let the wine spill. Then again, the meaning could be deeper, as red wine is often used as a metaphor for blood, and perhaps this represents the labour the artist has put into his creation?
http://www.trollheart.com/Fugazi front section 8.jpg
Whereas a red rose held in the hand surely symbolises love, possibly lost love?

(Part 2, concentrating on the reverse of the album sleeve, coming right up!)

Secret Life of the Album Cover (continued)
 

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That's all from the front cover. Now let's explore the back, and the first thing we see is that, amid a small collection of records strewn on the floor of the figure's room is the 12-inch single for “Punch and Judy”, released from this very album.
http://www.trollheart.com/Fugazi10.jpg
A woman's high-heel shoe. Don't need a degree in psychology to work out what THAT represents!
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And a jack-in-the-box, a pop-up jester on top of the TV. As mentioned, up until their fourth album the jester was the unofficial symbol or sigil of Marillion. On the back of the next album, “Misplaced childhood”, the jester is seen escaping out a window, and on “Clutching at straws” he is not seen, except for the jester's cap dangling out of the main figure's pocket on the cover.
http://www.trollheart.com/Fugazi12.jpg
This is a good one. Not only is it a stylised representation of the front of their debut album, “Script for a jester's tear”, but it's also a jigsaw, with a piece missing, and one of the songs on “Fugazi” is indeed called “Jigsaw”.
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The stuff of drug or alcohol-induced nightmares, a demonic hand clawing its way out of the TV screen. Perhaps also a comment on how television was, and is, taking over people's lives to the extent that they are virtually slaves to it.
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Not of any symbolic significane, but for those who are too young to remember, THAT my children was what we used to call a “video recorder”, or VCR, short for Video Cassette Recorder, and back before there were DVDs and SKY boxes, that was how you recorded a programme from the TV onto magnetic tape. See? This column is educational, too!
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A toy train, perhaps a memento from the figure's childhood, perhaps hinting at the title of the follow-up album, “Misplaced childhood”.

So there you are. And you thought an album cover was just a pretty drawing! Well, some are, or were, and it would be mad to claim that every album cover told a story, or was discussable to this extent. Many were not. Many were just photos, pictures, symbols or even just letters. But there were many which, on closer examination, turned out to be far more than the sum of their parts.

I hope you've enjoyed this journey through one of the great album covers of the early eighties, and I'll be looking at another one in the not too distant future.

Apologies for the somewhat skewed nature of the full album sleeve. In order to get the sort of detail I needed, particularly for the cutaway sections, I had to photograph my own CD sleeve and no matter how steady you try to hold it, it's always going to end up just a little off-centre.

Thunder and lightning --- Thin Lizzy --- 1983 (Vertigo)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Lightning.jpg

The last Lizzy studio album ever, due to the untimely and tragic death of frontman and bass player Phil Lynott, “Thunder and lightning” stands as one of their finest recordings. It's so good that, if you didn't know better, you would think Lynott knew he was going to die, and was determined to make the best album possible before he went. Chock-full of power chords, swirling keyboards, thumping drums and songs with the sort of hooks that fish get entangled on, it's a tremendous swan song for the band, and a fitting monument to the powerhouse of rock music that was Thin Lizzy.

Kicking off as they mean to go on, the title track finds the band in exuberant form, rockin' hard under the twin guitar attack of Scott Gorham and John Sykes. It's a song that absolutely flies along, a true metal classic, grabs you by the throat and shakes you around like a dog with a rabbit, and does not let go. At the end of it you feel absolutely drained, but in a good way. Turn this up to 10 and watch your speakers hop off the shelf! The lyrical theme is nothing special, no great message, just a get-down-and-rock anthem, and it works beautifully as an opener, and as a statement of intent.

Things keep rockin' for “This is the one”, then slow down for one of the finest tracks on the album. There are, to be fair, few ballads in Thin Lizzy's repertoire. Unlike other rock bands like Bon Jovi, Queen, Rainbow or even Whitesnake, you would be hard-pressed to point to a classic Lizzy ballad. Even their most famous “slow song”, the superb “Still in love with you”, speeds up halfway through. So it's with no small sense of achievement that they've crafted the wonderful “The sun goes down”, which in a really ironic and tragic way could be seen as a musical epitaph for Phil Lynott, who would breathe his last three years later. Driven on an inspired keyboard base, Darren Wharton at his very best, with minimal percussion and a great guitar solo halfway through, it's a fantastic song, but don't ask me what it's about!

”There is a demon among us/ Whose soul belongs in Hell/ Sent here to redeem us/ She knows it all too well/ She comes and goes/ She comes and goes/ He knows it all too well/ But when all is said and done/ The sun goes down.” Despite the cryptic lyric though, it's a great song and definitely one of the standout tracks on the album.

Things kick back into high gear then for “The holy war”, with an interesting lyric concerning the fanaticism of those who fight wars for religion. ”And if God is in the heavens/ Why did God let children die?/ If you don't ask these questions/ There is no reason why.” It's a vicious and powerful attack on organised religion, and Lynott is in fine voice throughout, with the guitars of Gorham and Sykes again taking centre stage. Then we're into one of the very best tracks on the album.

Released as a moderately successful single, “Cold sweat” smashes its way onto the stage, beginning with a muted guitar intro before the double axe-attack kicks in, and Phil steps things up a gear as he flies off at ninety-words-a-minute vocal, relating the tale of a gambler who believes he can make the big score. ”I've got a whole month's wages/ I haven't seen that much in ages/ I might spend it in stages/ Move out to Las Vegas.” In the same vein as the title track, it's a stormer that granbs hold and doesn't release you till the final guitar chords churn out the end of the song, and again you feel like you've been chewed up and spat out. In a good way. Brian Downey's thundering drums add great backbone to this track, and it's an instant Lizzy classic by the time you've heard it once.

Think you'll be able to catch your breath after that? Fat chance! “Someday she is going to hit back” is another fast rocker which never lets up, the story of an abused woman who has had enough. It opens with a powerful instrumental, almost cinematic intro, then gets going and never stops. ”Woman don't like it!” growls Lynott menacingly ”Hurting her this way/ Someday she is going to hit back!” There's a great guitar duel throughout the song, but even at that there's an air of commerciality about the song, though it was never released as a single.

So, after that then “Baby please don't go” has to be a ballad, right? BUZZZZ! WRONG! A little slower yes, but still another rocker, in the mould of “Dancing in the moonlight”, but considerably faster. The guys basically keep their foot pressed to the pedal right to the end, with “Bad habits” echoing elements of “Do anything you want to” and “Jailbreak”, with the brilliant line ”Boys will be boys/ And girls will be trouble!”, then the album comes to a speeding and crashing close with “Heart attack”, again almost prophetic in its lyric: ”Mama I'm dyin' of a heart attack/ Heart attack/ I love that girl but she don't love me back” and later ”Papa I'm drinking for an overload,/ Overload, overload!/ The gun in my pocket is all ready to explode/ Papa I'm dying of an overdose,/ Overdose, overdose/ I tried to warn you don't come too close.” Terribly sad, in the light of future events, but there's no denying it's a powerful killer punch to bring to a triumphant end the last studio album ever recorded by a band who secured their place in rock history, and who will always be remembered fondly.

TRACKLISTING

1. Thunder and lightning
2. This is the one
3. The sun goes down
4. The holy war
5. Cold sweat
6. Someday she is going to hit back
7. Baby please don't go
8. Bad habits
9. Heart attack



Suggested further listening: "Jailbreak" and "Renegade" plus "Life", double-live album from this tour, last ever recorded Lizzy output.

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of “The War of the Worlds” --- Jeff Wayne --- 1978 (Columbia)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...WayneTWOTW.jpg
So far as I know (though I could of course be wrong; has to happen sometime!) this was the first “rock-opera” written originally for vinyl, as in, there were many rock operas of course, but all the recordings accompanying them were more soundtracks to the show, be it stage or film. This particular project was the first I ever remember that began its life on record, and then later spawned other media like a stage show, DVDs, computer game etc.

Conceived by composer Jeff Wayne, and bringing together some of the cream both of the UK's acting and musical talent, this album formed a huge part of the soundtrack to my teenage life. I recall one summer morning in 1979 lying in bed listening to my little radio, and delighted to hear the opening track, “The eve of the war”. When it had finished I was more than surprised to hear narration and then the second track, then the third and so on. Sitting up in bed, I realised with delight that the DJ had either snuck off for a cigarette break, got waylaid somewhere in the radio station or had decided to let the album play, at least part of the way through. Now, this was before YouTube, before itunes, and the only way you could hear an album in its entireity was to buy it. In 1979 I was 16, so I wasn't exactly flush with cash, and a double album like this was going for somewhere in the region of 12 Irish pounds! That doesn't seem much by today's prices, but consider that a newly-released single album could be purchased for about £5.99, and you can see how expensive it would seem. Before I would take the plunge and buy this album I would have to know it was worth it.

As I listened in rapt amazement that July morning, and the DJ failed to fade in and change the record, and the entire thing played out before my disbelieving ears, I made my mind up to buy it that very day, and so I did. I never regretted it. Now a piece of musical history, the album screamed class, from its amazing sci-fi cover to the names of the individual tracks, and the gatefold sleeve that opened to reveal a painting from the story and more credits that you could read in one go, to the airplay it was getting at the time. Without doubt, this was the “must-have” album of 1978!

Built of course on the solid grounding of the story of H.G. Wells' 1898 classic, the album alternates between songs, instrumental passages and spoken narration/action. It's all seen from the perspective of The Journalist, played by the inimitable late Richard Burton, and his mellifluous, grandiose voice adds real gravitas to the persona of the character. The album kicks off with a voiceover from Burton, as he ominously intones, without any music whatsoever behind him, ”No-one could have believed/ In the last years of the nineteenth century/ That human affairs were being watched/ From the timeless worlds of space./ No-one could have dreamed that we were being scrutinised/ As someone with a microscope/ Studies creatures that swarm and multiply/ in a drop of water./ Few men even considered the possibility/ Of life on other planets./ Yet, across the gulf of space/ Minds immeasurably superior to ours/ Regarded this Earth with envious eyes./ And slowly, and surely/ They drew their plans against us.”

The music then kicks in, with what you will probably have heard at some point, even if it's a crappy cover version on one of those “space themes” albums, or off the radio. “The eve of the war” sets the tone, with an urgent synthesised soundtrack, piano and keyboards by Ken Freeman, as well as string sections building up the drama as the tune rocks along on a boppy drumbeat. The track ends dramatically, but the theme is continued, and becomes the unofficial motif of the album. There is both spoken narration by Burton and some singing on the track. In his character as the Journalist, Burton describes how, one night in August, strange cylinders are seen coming from Mars towards Earth. Concerned, Burton consults his friend Ogilvy, who is an astronomer, but he assures everyone there is no danger. This then becomes the only lyric to the tail-end of “The eve of the war” as Burton recalls his words ”The chances of anything coming from Mars/ Are a million to one, he said/ The chances of anything coming from Mars/ Are a million to one/ But still they come!” This lyric is actually sung by the Moody Blues' Justin Hayward, whose role is that of the Journalist's thoughts. A strange one, but it works.

“The eve of the war” continues its musical theme until the first of the cylinders are discovered on Horsell Common, and Ogilvy arrives to examine it, but is pushed back by the intense heat as the lid of the thing begins to move. Is someone, or something, trying to get out? Burton recalls how weird it is, how everything seemed to be so ordinary, so normal, up until this moment, and he finds it hard to believe what is happening all around him. The second track, “Horsell Common and the Heat Ray” is introduced on an ominous, waiting bassline, then joined by synth as the humans have their first view of a Martian, as it comes struggling out of the cylinder. It's a musical passage which to me recalls Genesis' “The colony of Slippermen” from “The Lamb lies down on Broadway”. As the tune progresses, Burton's horrified Journalist relates how, after the Martian has exited the cylinder, an unearthly heat ray turns on the crowd, frying people where they stand.

The second track is over eleven minutes long, and with “The eve of the war” forms what was originally the first side of the double-album, clocking it at just over twenty minutes. Running from the destruction, Burton escapes and writes an account for his newspaper before falling asleep. Waking, he hears weird sounds of hammering from the crater created by the impact of the Martian cylinder. It seems the invaders are building something, but no-one knows what, and anyone who dares to venture too close is easy prey for the deadly heat ray!

It's kind of hard to describe the way the music paints the landscape for the story: you really have to hear it to understand. But “The war of the worlds” is as much an album on which you listen to the narration and the action as much as you listen to the actual music. It really IS a story, and whether or not you've read the book, or seen any of the films, you find yourself drawn into the story. As “Horsell” comes to a fading close, the army arrive and set up, and another cyclinder is seen in the sky, heading Earthwards, and Burton realises that his own house is now in range of the heat ray, as the Martians clear their path.

Side two opens with “The Artilleryman”, and we are introduced to the second character in the drama, a soldier played by David Essex, whose platoon has been wiped out by the Martians. He ends up in Burton's house, running from the invaders. He tells Burton that the Martians have constructed massive fighting machines, and are now on the move. The ominous bassline carries the track, then kicks into what becomes the theme of “Forever Autumn”, the hit single from the album, as Burton and Essex both decide to flee to London, the latter to report to HQ, and Burton to seek his girlfriend. The sense of urgency grows as the two make their way across the countryside, hiding from Martian fighting machines. The Martians, when attacking, let out a hideous cry which sounds like “Uuu-llaaa!”, and becomes their musical battlecry, recurring throughout the album.

It's without doubt a keyboard and synth-driven album, and the soundscapes lain down by Ken Freeman characterise the story and paint the picture of humanity on the run. But it's also the vocal and acting performances of people who up until now have never acted that make the album so special. It's like watching one of those old episodes of “The Twilight Zone” set to music. Truly phenomenal.

During one of the Martian attacks Burton and Essex are separated, the Artilleryman running away while the Journalist jumps into the water. When Burton emerges, everyone is gone, and he must continue on his own towards London. However, when he reaches his girlfriend's house, it appears that both she and her father have already left. Then we get the hit single, “Forever autumn”, sung by the talented Justin Hayward, as he voices Burton's depair that he has missed his girl, and hope that he may be reunited with her. You surely know the song, driven on flute and acoustic guitar, with a beautiful lyric that tugs at the heartstrings: ”Through autumn's golden gown/ We used to kick our way/ You always loved this time of year/ Those fallen leaves lie undisturbed now/ Cos you're not here.” The song is however interrupted by narration from Burton, unlike on the single, as he makes his way towards the coast and a boat out of England.

This leads to the standoff at the dock, where the valiant warship “Thunder child” holds off the Martians long enough for the passenger steamer to get out of range and escape. Burton, however, has been forced back, having seen in despair the face of his love already on board the ship but unable to join her, and he is left on the shore as her ship sails away. But at least, he consoles himself, she is safe. The song “Thunder child” closes the second side, and first disc of the album, and is sung by Chris Thompson, taking the role of “the Voice of Humanity” as they urge the valiant warship on to their defence, wish it success and finally salute it as it bravely slides beneath the waves.

When the album was originally released, on vinyl, the first record (sides 1 and 2) was subtitled “The coming of the Martians”, and this ends with “Thunder child” and the escape of the steamer. Side 3, record 2, opens “Earth under the Martians.” There is no resistance left. The army have been swatted aside like flies, the government (never mentioned, but one assumes) fled, and the Earth (ie England) is now ruled by the invaders. The final words of part 1 are Burton despairingly declaring “The Earth belonged to the Martians.” This is symbolised and driven home by the opening track, “The red weed”, which depicts a new weapon the Martians inflict on the Earth, a thick, choking weed that strangles all flora and vegetation, replacing it and turning the Earth from green to red. The synth lines evoke a slimy, writhing red snake, making its way across the planet and choking every growing thing it sees, replacing it with its own hellish vegetation. Freeman has great fun with the keyboards, throwing in all the weird sounds he can, to build an alien landscape on Earth. It's almost all keyboards and synth, with a little bass and the odd flurry of percussion, and some nice guitar work near the end, but essentially it's Freeman's baby.

Burton staggers through the “lurid landscape”, completely alone, until he comes across the body of a parson lying in a ruined churchyard. Unable to leave him he decides to bury the priest, but just then a female voice calls “Nathaniel!” and the parson's eyes flicker open! Phil Lynott makes his entrance with his total star turn as the insane Parson Nathaniel, while Julie Covington is his wife, Beth. The church has been destroyed by the Martians, and the parson, believing them to be devils, has lost his mind and now launches into “The spirit of Man”, a duet between Lynott and Covington, another standout from the album. ”If just one man could stand tall/ There must be some hope for us all/ Somewhere in the spirit of Man.” she sings, but Lynott's parson has lost his faith: ”Tell me, what kind of weapon is love/ When it comes to the fight? / And just how much protection/ Is truth, against all Satan's might?” he asks, declaring fatalistically ”Forget about goodness and mercy/ They're gone!” He is convinced that the Martians are God's judgement upon the evil of men, and have been sent to destroy humanity.

“The spirit of Man” is an oddity: half fast-rocker, half-ballad as Lynott and Covington exchange views on the possibility of survival, Covington insisting ”There must be something worth living for/ There must be something worth trying for” while Lynott snaps ”When the demons arrive/ The survivors will envy the dead!” Just then another cylinder arrives, crashing into the church-house, killing Beth and trapping the trio in the pit it has made. As Parson Nathaniel and Burton watch from hiding, they see the Martians take human captives. The musical theme from “The red weed” returns, and the two men watch in horror as the Martians drain the blood from humans and consume it. This finally pushes the parson over the edge, and believeing he can save them --- ”Those machines are just demons in another form!/ I shall destroy them with my prayers! / I shall burn them with my holy cross!” --- he decides to confront the Martians, and Burton has to knock him out. Moments later he is taken by the questing Martian machine, and there is nothing the Journalist can do to prevent it.

“The red weed, part 2” takes the third side of the record to its conclusion, as the Journalist comes out of hiding and makes his way along the road. All of a sudden he comes across his old friend, the Artilleryman. Not recognising him at first, Essex's character challenges him, but quickly each realises who the other is, and the Artilleryman invites Burton to the place he has found, as side 4 kicks off with the last actual song on the album, the overly optimistic and totally unrealistic plan the Artilleryman has to rebuild society, as “Brave new world” relates his idea about living underground, in the sewers, starting everything from scratch.

It's a guitar driven song, bouncing along with hope and promise, but with an edge of madness too, featuring some great lyrics ”Take a look around you/ At the world you've loved so well/ And bid the ageing empire of Man/ A last farewell/ It may not sound like Heaven/ But at least it isn't Hell!” It's Essex's only real chance to shine on the album, and he doesn't waste it, putting in a convincing performance, both spoken and sung, as a man who really believes he can rebuild the world in a very short time. Sadly, Burton sees that the Artilleryman has made only the smallest of progress, and realises the impossibility of his companion's dreams coming true. As he sings ”Listen! Maybe one day we'll capture a fighting machine, eh?/ Find out how to make them ourselves/ Then WALLOP! Our turn to do some wiping out!/ WHOOSH! With our own heat ray!/ WHOOSH! And them running and dying/ Beaten at their own game! / Man on top again!” Burton shakes his head and slips away, leaving the Artilleryman to his grandiose dreams.

Having finally reached London, Burton wanders the deserted streets, with “Dead London” as his background, a bluesy reworking of the “Horsell Common” track and with bits of “The red weed” thrown in, guitars and sax playing equal parts with piano keeping the beat like a metronome. Suddenly, struck by the seeming hopelessness of his situation, all fight goes out of the Journalist and he decides to commit suicide by offering himself up to the Martians. Heartsick, weary, with his girlfriend who knows where and his species on the edge of extinction, he no longer wants to live. However, the fighting machine he approaches has a dead Martian in it, and it seems that (no spoiler here, we all know how this ends, don't we?) the invaders have been destroyed by germs in the Earth's atmosphere.

The theme from “Eve of the war” reprises as the album ends, as Burton contemplates the nature of life, how something so microscopic as bacteria could lay low such seemingly unstoppable creatures. He envisions the return of all those who have fled, and that life will come back to the city. They will rebuild, and his lover will also come back to him. The final melody on the album is a triumphant march of victory (why, since Man did not defeat the Martians? Oh well...), and fades out.

Unfortunately, Wayne saw fit to thrown in an epilogue, concerning NASA as they watch over the first manned landing on Mars, and we hear the sound we heard on Horsell Common as the Martians moved about in their cylinders. Oh dear... I could have done without this, particularly the annoyingly nasal voice of the NASA controller, but I usually stop the album before this anyway.

Whatever way you look at it, “Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds” is a classic album, and if you haven't heard it this far into your life, do yourself a favour and pick it up. It's a slice of music history you'll want to be part of.

TRACKLISTING
Part I: The coming of the Martians
1. The eve of the war
2. Horsell Common and the Heat Ray
3. The Artilleryman
4. Forever autumn
5. Thunder child
Part II: Earth under the Martians
6. The red weed, part 1
7. Parson Nathaniel
8. The spirit of Man
9. The red weed, part 2
10. Brave new world
11. Dead London
12. Epilogue
13. Epilogue, part 2 (NASA)

Arrival --- Journey --- 2000 (Columbia)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ver_art%29.jpg

So, what's my favourite Journey album? “Escape”? Nah. “Raised on radio”? Do me a favour! “Frontiers”, maybe? Not even close. Although these albums are seen as being the best in Journey's large catalogue, particularly because of the hit singles that came from them, that's not how I see it. I often think a “classic” album like “Escape” for instance can rely far too heavily on its hit singles, and this then allows the acceptance of lower-grade, often filler tracks. It's like Manchester United without Wayne Rooney, or Liverpool without Steven Gerrard: without these lynchpins what is left is often shown up to be far below the grade, and this I find definitely to be the case with the three albums listed above. To my mind, a band's best album should be one which you can listen to all the way through, without having to skip one track. Now, few bands release albums of such calibre: there's usually one or more tracks that need to be fast-forwarded through, but on this album I really believe Journey got it almost perfect, despite the prevailing wisdom among the band's fans.

Even though it was less a commercial success than the aforementioned albums, my personal favourite album is 2000's “Arrival”, and here's why. From the opener “Higher places” to the closer “We will meet again”, the boys hardly put a foot wrong, and it's as close to a perfect Journey album as I've seen them come. Admittedly, I have yet to sample the delights of the new “Eclipse”, so I'll stick a caveat on that statement --- of what I've heard of their output to date, I consider “Arrival” to be far and away the best.

The first test for new singer Steve Augeri, who had the almost impossible task of replacing talismanic singer and longtime member Steve Perry, it's actually scary how similar the guy sounds to his predecessor! In fact, if you were handed this album, and a Perry-era disc like “Escape” or “Frontiers”, I really believe you'd be hard-pressed to notice the difference. The guy's voice is clear and distinct, powerful and able to reach the high notes with Perryesque ease. “Higher place”, as mentioned, kicks the album off in superb style, rocking along at a great pace, Schon and Cain as ever on top form, and new drummer Deen Castronovo making his presence felt in no uncertain fashion. It's the ballads that really make this album though, and people can say what they want, sneer as they like at the “soft-rock”, “slush-rock” or whatever that Journey produce, but man, they know how to pen a great ballad! There are no less than seven distinct ballads on this album, almost half the song count, and each one is a classic. Nearly.

First on the scene is “All the way”, a lovely piano-led tune on which new guy Augeri helps out with the writing, and he seems to know what he's doing: ”Speak your heart and I will listen/ Don't hold back, we'll find what's missin'/ I'll take you all the way/ Close your eyes and think forever/ If you believe we go together/ I'll take you all the way.” Okay, it's not “Who's crying now?” but it's a damn fine ballad. Moving things up a gear then for the next track, “Signs of life” is a refusal to lie down after bad things have happened. It's a mid-paced rocker, with great drums and piano, and a lyric that just makes you want to say YEAH! ”Try to not think about you/ I'm not a dead man walkin' without you/ You know I'll be alright/ I'm showin' signs of life/ You left me barely breathing/ But I've had time for the healing/ Now I've opened my eyes/ I'm showin' signs of life.” Castronovo's drums punch a triumphant military beat throughout the track, and as usual Neal Schon lets his guitar do the talking, even throwing in a cheeky riff from “Who's crying now” near the end!

Things stay fast for “All the things”, then slow down again for the second ballad, “Loved by you”. It's a gorgeous little song, with Jonathan Cain again taking control of proceedings as his fingers fly like whispering breaths across the keyboard. Sung with power and passion by Augeri, particularly the chorus, this sends a shiver down my spine whenever I hear it: ”If I should die before I wake/ I'd go into the night whispering your name/ If lying in your arms is the last thing that I do/ At least I'll know that I've been loved by you.” The following track is also a ballad, but a little heavier and more urgent, evoking a sense of urgency and things which have to be done before it's too late. Introduced in a lovely little piece of pick guitar, “Livin' to do” is a real bluesy ballad, and again Augeri's voice shines through on this, as on most if not all tracks.

“World gone wild” and “I got a reason” recall memories of tracks like “Be good to yourself” from “Raised on radio” and “Faith in the heartland” from later “Generations”, but for me they're a little unremarkable, and it's not till we get to “With your love” (yes, another ballad) that things again click into place for me. It's not that the previous two tracks are poor: they're not, but the overall quality of the ballads on this album forces most of the faster tracks into second place for me, and while I realise it's few albums that would consist only of ballads (step forward, Air Supply!), and you need a few uptempo tracks on any recording, these two just don't cut it as well for me as those which have gone before, or indeed some of the ones to follow. I have to admit though, “World gone wild” features a, well, wild guitar solo from Schon to take it to its conclusion. Great to see the man can still rock out with the best of them!

Once you hear those crystal clear piano notes you know another ballad is on the way, and “With your love” does not disappoint. With its lyric it surely was and will be played at many a wedding of Journey fans: what girl wouldn't be impressed to hear lines like”On this day, to be standing here with you/ There's no doubt: I know this love is true/ See my tears; only you can understand/ A state of grace; I feel blessed to hold your hand.” Another great solo from Neal completes a great, great ballad, and before there's time to draw breath and let that sink in, we're into another. With a powerful punchy drum intro and then the ubiquitous piano, “Lifetime of dreams” is another of those songs you just know people will be holding lighters up at concerts for, and swaying side to side. It's not quite as deep as the previous song, but a nice ballad nevertheless. In ways it's sort of reminscent of Bryan Adams' megahit “Everything I do”...

“Live and breathe” is a heavier ballad, somewhat in the mould of “Livin' to do”, and the penultimate slow song on the album. There's real passion in the singing here, and for once it's less piano-driven, riding along on a nice guitar and bass line, with keyboards taking more of a background role. Castronovo's drums punctuate the track perfectly, giving it that slightly heavier feel, as Schon's guitar breaks out the power chords as if he's just realised what you can do with an electric guitar!

“Nothin' comes close” is a good standard rock song, but nothing about it stays with me the way some of the other tracks on this album do. I wouldn't go so far as to call it filler, but I could certainly listen to “Arrival” without it. “To be alive again”, on the other hand, is an instant classic. There's a great exuberance about the song, with the band clearly enjoying themselves. Great hooks, great chorus, nimble fingerwork on the piano keyboard, Augeri's powerful voice and solos from Schon --- what more could you ask for?

There's one more ballad to finish up with, and it's a good one, though not in fairness a great one. Given the admitted oversaturation of ballads on this album, it's possible we could have gotten away without “Kiss me softly”, but it's not a bad track, certainly a better closer than “We will meet again”, which actually closes the album. To be honest, my choice for closer would have been “To be alive again”, but that's how the disc spins, I guess. Sort of takes away from the general brilliance of the album that it ends relatively weakly, although it must be said that it's only due to the superior quality of the tracks which have preceded these last two that they are seen as substandard: on another Journey album they would probably be hailed as triumphs. Shows you how high the bar was raised on this album.

I would suppose that anyone who was worried that Journey would fold, or be less than they were, after the departure of Steve Perry, had their answer with this album. Although it suffered low sales and chart position, I believe that was more down to fans not giving Steve Augeri a chance, and assuming that he would ruin the album. Perry purists, I'm looking at you! Hey, it's your loss!

TRACKLISTING

1. Higher place
2. All the way
3. Signs of life
4. All the things
5. Loved by you
6. Livin' to do
7. World gone wild
8. I got a reason
9. With your love
10. Lifetime of dreams
11. Live and breathe
12. Nothin' comes close
13. To be alive again
14. Kiss me softly
15. We will meet again



Suggested further listening: "Escape", "Frontiers", "Raised on radio", "Generations", "Trial by fire"

A somewhat inadequate note of thanks...
 

To those of you who have been publishing your journals for years, and have four or in some cases five-figure viewing stats, a mere thousand views will not seem a milestone, but it is to me. When I originally started my journal some years ago, I was unable for various reasons to maintain it and so it ended up being deleted. Almost exactly two months ago to the day I tried again, and have done my best to keep my journal current and interesting. However, while I was busily adding entries after one month I began to feel a little discouraged at the lack of comments being made. Was anyone reading? Was I wasting my time?

Then I looked at the views count and it was clear that people were, and are, reading. Even allowing for my own edits, the number of views suggests that a reasonably large amount of people are interested in my ravings --- either that, or one person is VERY interested, and if so, thank you my one loyal reader!

Seriously, it's great to know people are reading what I'm writing, and I'm delighted to mark this milestone, the first 1000 views of version 2.0 of my journal. More comments would be nice --- can't improve it if I don't know what you want! --- but statistics show something like only 1% or less of people who read forums like this actually reply to the posts. Doesn't mean that they aren't reading though, and hopefully enjoying what's being written.

So thanks again for sticking with me. More sections coming up soon, and if you don't like what I'm putting in the journal, or have any suggestions, comment and let me know. Otherwise, I'm afraid, there is no way to ever stop me!

So a toast then, to the first thousand views, and here's to the next thousand!

Thanks again.

Trollheart.

Suggested further listening....
 

In recognition of the sadly-departed AllofMP3.com, and all the great bands that I found out about and got into thanks to their recommendations, I'll be updating my current albums reviews and including in future ones a footnote at the end, with "suggested further listening", so that if you find you enjoyed the album reviewed, you know where to look next. Just another little service for those who may be taking their first steps into the wonderful world of rock music, or indeed, anyone who needs it.

Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe --- Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe --- 1989 (Arista)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Howe_album.jpg

Conceived as Jon Anderson's attempt to break out of the strictures he felt the recent Yes albums (“90125”, “Big generator”) had placed on him, this was a project which involved former members of Yes coming together to record what was essentially a new Yes album done the “old Yes” way. You can tell by the names who were in the project --- Rick Wakeman of course, legendary keysman on some of Yes's best albums, Steve Howe, who left to join Asia, and drumming icon Bill Bruford from King Crimson. Contractual and copyright problems prevented the new supergroup from using the name Yes, so after some brainstorming they decided the safest option was to just use their names. Makes for a long album title, but hey, like everyone else, we'll refer to them from now on as ABWH, okay?

I seem to recall I bought this album on the strength of the cover alone (though of course I knew the names of the performers, so knew what the music was likely to sound like) --- who wouldn't, with that fantastic Roger Dean artwork, which certainly appealed to someone who was getting into the likes of Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo? I bought this on vinyl originally, and it was presented in a beautifully lavish gatefold sleeve. To be honest, I had never been a huge fan of Yes, but I had enjoyed the last two albums, and I liked Rick Wakeman's work. I was also familiar with Anderson's collaborations with another of my favourite artistes of the time, the singularly talented Vangelis. So it wasn't a difficult sell as far as I was concerned.

But the needle tells all (sigh! Ask your parents, willya? MAN I feel old!), so what sort of music have we here? There's a deceptively gentle opening, tinkling piano as Wakeman introduces the first piece of music, and you feel yourself settling back. BAD idea! Within a few moments Bruford's drums come crashing through, the pace jumps to about third or fourth gear, and the first song is well into its stride. The clear, piercing voice of Jon Anderson dispels any initial belief that this may have been an instrumental. As it goes, ABWH is broken into four multi-part compositions, with some self-contained complete tracks complemeting these larger works, but all seems to feed into the one overall concept, and the album plays very much like one huge slice of music, almost an hour in length. The aforementioned piano intro is called “Sound”, and forms the first of a triplet of songs that make up the first composition, called “Themes”. As the drums kick in and the singing begins, we're into “Second attention”, which goes on for about half the track. Really, it's a bit fatuous to call “Sound” a third of the track, as it's really nothing more than a piano intro, a few seconds long, not even a minute really, and the rest of “Themes” is divided between “Second attention” (the larger part) and “Soul warrior”, which is totally instrumental, and runs for just over a minute and a half.

The next track is a self-contained one, just over three minutes long. “Fist of fire” is much slower, heavier and darker than the previous. There's a real sense of ominousness about this: stabbing keyboards, thumping drums and Anderson's urgent vocal carrying the track. ”Through the darkest age/ We could surely fly/ Through the darkest age/ With the fist of fire.” There are some great keyboard solos by the Wizard King here, good backing vocals too (multi-tracked?). This leads into the second multi-part composition, called “Brother of mine”, on which Asia and ex-Yes keysman Geoff Downes lends a hand with the writing. The whole thing starts off with a gong sound and then a slow, soulful intro: ”So, giving all the love you have/ Never be afraid/ To show your heart.” It opens with “The big dream”, a jaunty romp which takes us up to “Nothing can come between us”, where the song speeds up a bit and the theme from “Brother of mine” is repeated, as happens throughout the multi-parters. Nice guitar work here, before things really take off for the final part, “Long lost brother of mine”, which brings the piece full circle.

The way the parts of the multi-compositional pieces meld and flow together effortlessly makes it somewhat difficult to note where one part ends and another begins, and there's definitely no gaps as the parts slide from one to another like tributaries of a river coming together. It's not a criticism, nor is it a problem when listening to the album, as the music is so uniformly brilliant that you really cease to care what one section is called, and just really listen to it as one continuous piece of wonderful music, four legends at the very pinnacle of their game, consummate professionals working not to outdo each other, but to come together in such a way as to almost become one single entity, dedicated to producing the very best music they can.

After the multi-layered “Brother of mine” there's a single track next, but no less brilliant in its way. “Birthright” has a dark, brooding tone, with a steady drumbeat, and chronicles the lasting effect on the Australian Aborigines of the nuclear tests carried out by Britain at Maralinga in the late fifties and early sixties: ”This place ain't big enough/ For stars and stripes/ This place ain't big enough/ For red and white.” About halfway through it morphs into something of an Irish jig, and gets a little faster as it approaches its conclusion. The song is really a vehicle for Steve Howe's guitar, and does he dazzle! It's followed by one of only two ballads on the album, the gently understated, almost hymnal “The meeting”, where Anderson and Wakeman bring things down to a whisper with one of the nicest songs I've heard in a very long time. The gentle piano perfectly complements Jon Anderson's choir-boy voice, and yes, there is something spiritual about the song, even in the lyric: ”Surely I could tell/ If you asked me, Lord/ To board the train/ My life, my love/ Would be the same.” It closes the first side of the album in gentle triumph, almost a lullaby, fading slowly away but remaining in the ears long after the last chords have been played, and the last notes have receded into the night.

Side 2 kicks off with another multi-composition, under the banner heading of “Quartet”. Featuring, yes you guessed it, four parts, it starts off with “I wanna learn”, a boppy, joyful, almost childlike song about discovery and wonder, as Anderson cries ”I wanna know more about life/ And things that can fly in between my mind/ I wanna change all that I dream about/ My waking and my so many lives.”

It's relatively short, about two minutes, but then the whole track is just over nine, so with four sections about two per section is right. Second part is “She gives me love”, keeping the happy theme going and essentially continuing on the same song. Anderson cheekily namechecks one of the old Yes songs as he sings ”Through the gates of delerium so fast...” Apparently there are other examples of this throughout the album, though not being a 70s-era fan of Yes I couldn't point them out for you. “She gives me love” seamlessly becomes “Who was the first”, which is almost exactly the same melody but with different lyrics, until the climax of the track is reached with “I'm alive”, where the theme from “The Meeting” returns, to slow the track down and bring it to a gentle and very satisfying close.

“Teakbois”, the next self-contained track, I could in all honesty have done without. It's totally anachronistic, basically the song of a band forming behind a really annoying Calypso beat. It has its moments, but if there's a bad track on the album (and there really isn't), then this is it. Unfortunately it also runs for over seven minutes, close to but not equalling the three multi-parters so far, which is a pity, as the space could have been used for a much more appropriate song I think this was just basically a jam for the guys, a bit of fun. Not for me, though...

Luckily things are soon back on track for the final multi-composition, as “The order of the universe” takes the album towards its ending. Another nine-minute piece, it kicks off with a powerful dramatic instrumental which goes under the title of “Order theme”, before the main part of the song, “Rock gives courage” blasts in, a real hard-rocker in the mould of (sorry guys, I know you don't want to relate to 90125 but...) “Owner of a lonely heart” or “Our song”. Things speed up then for the third part, “It's so hard to grow”, reintroducing the central theme: ”You can't imagine it/ How hard it is to grow/ You can't imagine it/ Can you imagine/ The order of the universe?” The remaining part, called “The universe” is basically an instrumental ending to the song, a retracing of the introduction.

As side 1 ended with a lovely little ballad, so does side 2, and indeed the album, come to a relaxing close, particularly after the histrionics of “The order of the universe”, with a beautiful little acoustic number, on which Anderson's old mate Vangelis lends a land with the composing. It's VERY Jon Anderson: ”Let us be together/ Let's pretend that we are free/ Let's all be where the angels find us/ We all have the key.” There's minimal or no percussion in the song, and it's just Steve Howe and Jon Anderson finishing the album off in fine style. ”Something that I feel/ To pour upon my soul/ Countenance of love/ For one and all”.

Amen, brother.

There never was another ABWH album. Two years later the two “sides” of Yes resolved their differences, and the result was “Union”, released under the Yes banner. Although some of its music is similar to ABWH, there are no multi-part pieces on it, and it's not a concept album, so although it is regarded in some circles as the 2nd ABWH album, to me it's a Yes album, pure and simple. An excellent one, it has to be said, but for all that, a Yes product and not a continuation of ABWH, although some songs on it were supposed to have found life on the projected follow up to ABWH. In this manner, I consider ABWH the album to be something of a rarity: unique in that it is at once an album by established members of a band, a new supergroup and a debut all in one, and is the only recorded example of this partnership (setting aside live recordings). For this reason alone it deserves to be listened to, and appreciated.

TRACKLISTING
1. Themes
i) Sound
ii) Second attention
iii) Soul warrior
2. Fist of fire
3. Brother of mine
i) The big dream
ii) Nothing can come between us
iii) Long lost brother of mine
4. Birthright
5. The Meeting
6. Quartet
i) I wanna learn
ii) She gives me love
iii) Who was the first
iv) I'm alive
7. Teakbois
8. The order of the universe
i) Order theme
ii)Rock gives courage
iii) It's so hard to grow
iv) The universe
9. Let's pretend



Suggested further listening: “Union”, “90125” and “Big generator” by Yes, “Aqua”, “Aria”, “Arena” and “Aura” by Asia

Here's to the heroes --- The Ten Tenors --- 2006 (Rhino)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Ten_Tenors.jpg

Those of you who have read my review of Josh Groban's “Closer” will know I'm partial to the odd male vocal album, as long as it's sung well. The Ten Tenors (or, as I prefer to call them, the Twenty Fivers!) hail from Australia, and as you might expect, there are ten of them. They specialise in a mixture of classic rock and operatic singing, and this album, released in 2006, has a good mixture of both. It's the sort of album you put on to relax, or when you need a good emotional fix. The voices are without exception strong and powerful, clear and distinct, as you would expect, and like the aforementioned Mr. Groban, you can listen happily to a song written in Spanish or Italian without having more than a few words of the language, and still enjoy it. Hey, people do it all the time in opera!

This album, their fifth studio release, is based almost entirely on the works of one of my favourite film composers, the late John Barry. Kicking off with “Just to see each other again”, a lovely little ballad, you immediately get a sense of the power of these guys' voices. Just to get it out of the way, let's name them off: they are Benjamin Clark, Graham Foote, Keane Fletcher, Stuart “Sancho” Morris, Boyd Owen, Dion Molinas, Dominic “Panda” Smith, Jordan Pollard, Thomas Birch and Ben Stephens. Don't ask me who sings what! They're also backed by a great symphony orchestra, but again, there seems to be little hard information on who they are.

It's not really though until you get to the title track that you get a real sense of the kind of emotions these guys can evoke. “Here's to the heroes” is a slow, powerful ballad, arranged to the theme from John Barry's score to the film “Dances with wolves”, and it works extremely effectively. The lyric has a power of its own too: ”Here's to the heroes/ Who change our lives/ Thanks to the heroes/ Freedom survives/ Here's to the heroes/ Who never rest/ They are the chosen/ We are the blessed.” Stirring stuff!

Other standout tracks include two reworking of Bond themes, the instantly recognisable “You only live twice”, also penned by Barry, and “We have all the time in the world”, which, though it featured in the 1969 “On her Majesty's secret service”, will possibly be better known, at least to those of my generation, as the music to one of those great Guinness ads, sung by the legendary Louis Armstrong. But yes, it was also composed by John Barry. Didn't know that. The non-English songs are really nice too, like “Buongiorno princepessa “ and “Les choristes”, but it's their sublime cover of Queen's “Who wants to live forever” that really lifts this album into the realms of the truly special. A great reworking, sung with passion and emotion, and different enough to make it stand out from the original.

“Somewhere in time (words without meaning)” is another reworking of one of the themes from “Dances with wolves”, and the album closes with a glorious piece called “Gladiatore suite”, featuring music from, you guessed it, the film “Gladiator”, this time composed by another great artiste, Hans Zimmer.

“Here's to the heroes” may not be the sort of record a self-respecting rock fan would expect to have in their collection, but we all need a bit of easy listening from time to time, and you really can't go wrong with this sitting on your CD shelf. Listen to it with the lights out and the music loud, and preferably with your arm around your Significant Other. Bliss.

TRACKLISTING

1. Just to see each other again
2. Here's to the heroes
3. Buongiorno principessa
4. There'll come a day
5. We have all the time in the world
6. Places
7. Les choristes
8. You only live twice
9. Tick all the days off one by one
10. Somewhere in time
11. Who wants to live forever?
12. Gladiatore suite: Now we are free/Il gladiatore



Suggested further listening “Closer” and “Awake” by Josh Groban, “Siempre” and “The promise” by Il Divo, “Sentimente”, “Amore” and “Incanto” by Andrea Bocelli.[/i]

Dawn patrol --- Night Ranger --- 1982 (Boardwalk)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ightranger.jpg

Ever heard one track by a new band and rushed out to buy the album on the strength of that one track? It doesn't happen that often to me, but back in 1982 I heard “Don't tell me you love me”, the opener from Night Ranger's debut album, on the radio, and immediately hied me to my local rock record shop, demanding the innkeeper there relieve me of my cash and place in my sweaty hands the album which contained such a gem. And so he did, and happy he was to do so.

And happy was I when I got the album home and spun it, and found to my everlasting relief that it wasn't a one-track-wonder! No, although “Don't tell me...” is far and away the best track on the album, there are other prizes therein too. But I get ahead of myself.

Night Ranger were formed back in 1982 under the name Ranger. It wasn't until they had their debut recorded, finished and pressed that they found out, rather belatedly, that a band already existed with that name, and were forced to change it at the eleventh hour. As vocalist Jack Blades (cool name, huh?) had written a song for the album called “Night Ranger”, they settled on this as their new name. The handful of copies which had already been pressed which bore the name “Ranger” were destroyed, so find one and it could be worth something!

It's a hard rock/heavy metal album through and through, and doesn't let up for one second. There are NO ballads on it, not even a slow song. The band throw down the gauntlet from the beginning, with the screeching “Don't tell me you love me” pounding its way out of the speakers. Starting off with a double-guitar attack, courtesy of Brad Gillis and Jeff Watson, it's only seconds before the rhythm section, in the shape of Blades on bass and Kelly Keagy on drums, smash in and the song just takes off. You can probably guess from the title that it isn't exactly a love song, more an anti-love song, as Blades croons ”Don't tell me you love me/ Don't tell me/ I don't wanna know!” Eh, yeah: call me in the morning, like, I'll be on the road outta town! It's a powerful, frentic opener with simply savage guitar solos and the kind of hooks that surely should have made it at least a top ten single, though staggeringly it only just barely crept into the top 40! The keys of Alan Fitzgerald make their presence known too, though the song is driven along on axepower mainly. It's a song that just drags you along as you hold on for the ride, and by the time it ends, like the musical equivalent of smashing your car into a wall at 60 mph, you just feel like you've gone twelve rounds and barely survived to tell the tale! Yeah, it's THAT good!

So, to be fair, it's going to take one hell of a track to top that, and there isn't one on “Dawn patrol”: this is the pinnacle of the album, but that isn't to disparage the rest of the songs at all. It's sort of like, well, having a race with a load of good drivers and Michael Schumacher. The other guys are probably all great, but they're up against the master, and there's no contest. Or substitute your own favourite sporting analogy here. Anyway, “Sing me away” is less breakneck than “Don't tell me you love me”, but a great song nevertheless, in the same vein, but with a more relaxed lyric, as Blades recalls a girl he once knew. Again it's quite commercial, almost AOR as compared to the previous heavy metal stormer, and would have made a good followup single, but it seems only the one was released from this album. Night Ranger wouldn't achieve their worldwide fame until the next album on which resided a little song called “Sister Christian...”

Blades truly is the architect of this band. He sings, plays bass and either writes or has a hand in writing every track on the album. “At night she sleeps” is another power rocker, somewhat in the mould of the Scorpions, with a great thumping drumbeat and a weird, quirky little keyboard riff, recalling the Cars at their best. God-damn it, THIS would have made a good single, too! Who was in charge of marketing this album??

When the first piano notes of “Call my name” are heard, you would definitely be forgiven for thinking ah, here's the obligatory ballad! But weren't you listening earlier? I said there are NO ballads on this album. None. Nada. Zip. Zero. No, this song begins slowly, but quite unexpectedly it kicks off and becomes yet another rocker. Bad move? No, not really, as it's a great track, and rather cleverly it ends as it began, with the quiet piano and a restrained vocal from Blades, but in between there's some metal mayhem, believe me! Police sirens, even! I kid you not! Certainly some balladic lyrics though: ”Summer kisses never last till September/ I thought you'd understand/ Holdin' hands ain't exclusive to lovers /Guess it was part of your plan/ The tender moments were part of your plan.”

Next we come to one of the standout tracks on the album, the glorious “Eddie's comin' out tonight”. Starting off with a deeply bassy keyboard intro, it's not long before the guitars take over as Blades introduces us to Eddie: ”He wears his trousers real tight/ And his skin's so white/ He lives beyond his means/ He wears Italian shoes/ That are used to good news/ They walk behind the scenes/ He lives a tenderloin life/ The street's his type/ In the alley's where he's king/ He got a grin on his face/ Says he loves the rat race/ He always plays to win!” Alan Fitzgerald really comes into his own on this track, where his keyboards have been somewhat subdued beneath the twin guitar tongues of Gillis and Watson. It's a powerhouse of a track, and in many ways, bringing side one of the album to a close (hey, bear with me! I'm fast approaching 50, ok? When I bought albums they were on vinyl and had two sides...).

Have to say that after that things go not downhill, but certainly level out a bit. “Can't find me a thrill” is a good rock song, as is “Young girl in love”, whereas the less said about “Play rough” the better (”So ya wanna play rough tonight?/ It's all in the way that you roll the dice/ Wanna play rough tonight? Better think once, better think twice.” Hmmm. Yeah. OK...); it's not until the penultimate “Penny” that things get back on track. To be fair, “Play rough” is purely Jack Blades' composition, and he also wrote two of the better tracks on his own, “Eddie's comin' out tonight” and “Call my name”, so I guess anyone can have an off-day.

The aforementioned “Penny” reminds me of Journey at their heaviest: good hooks, great chorus and backing vocals, but it's still a long way from “Sing me away” or “Eddie”. The album finishes on the title track --- well, the name of the band: there IS no title track. “Night Ranger” is a growling, snarling mid-paced rocker, which suddenly and unexpectedly kicks into thrash metal territory, with Keagy going absoutely Animal (remember the Muppet Show?) behind the drumkit, and the two axemen responding gleefully before the track slips down a gear and fades out on its original beat. Also contains a rather obvious section where the fans are expected to cheer, or clap, or cheer and clap. I guess I would. Not a bad closer but I think “Penny” would have been a better choice to end the album. I

All in all, after the heady adrenalin rush of “Don't tell me you love me”, “Dawn patrol” does its best to live up to the promise of that track, and on some songs the boys almost get it right, on some they fail utterly. But for a debut this is no mean shakes. There's many a band gone on to bigger things that did not produce such an impressive first album. But hey, take my advice: listen to it just for “Don't tell me you love me” --- worth the price of admission on its own!

TRACKLISTING

1. Don't tell me you love me
2. Sing me away
3. At night she sleeps
4. Call my name
5. Eddie's comin' out tonight
6. Can't find me a thrill
7. Young girl in love
8. Play rough
9. Penny
10. Night Ranger



Suggested further listening: “Midnight madness” and “Seven wishes”, though avoid “Big life”...

Loved your Marillion write up although I think fugazi is the least commercial album of the Fish era personally and the artwork represents the already fractious relationship of the band even this early on in their career.

The art represents a sort of Faustian payback for the success of the band which the band were not always comfortable (especially Fish). The state of emotional turmoil is still there but the financial trappings of success are transient; hence the wine glass instead of beer, the technological acroutements: the video player and T.V. The view from the window whilst seemingly full of monetary gains already sets in motion a picture of decay and the toy train meaning that there is a hopeless desire to hang onto innocence.

The notion of album art though is a lost art these days I think and album art was an integral part of the overall medium which seems to have been lost these days.

Long road out of Eden --- The Eagles --- 2007 (Eagles Recording Company)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...dOutOfEden.jpg

This being the first full studio album since 1979's “The long run”, which saw the Eagles break up --- ostensibly for good --- it was something of an event when announced. Discounting 1994's PR-driven “Hell freezes over”, which had after all only four new tracks on it, this was the first time anyone had heard from the legendary country rock band in 28 years, so it had better be good!

It is. Six years in the making, this was not a record that was rushed out to capitalise on the success of the aforementioned “Hell freezes over” and its associated tours. This was a proper album, a real renaissance and rebirth for the Eagles, coming smack up to date for the 21st century, and it has a lot to say. It's a double album, and unlike many similar efforts by other bands, that doesn't mean it's one disc of original material and the other made up of live recordings, unreleased tracks and remixes. In other words, this ain't “Hell freezes over again”. Oh no. This is the real deal.

It would be fallacy to say it's a perfect album; there are tracks on it I don't like, or more accurately, like less than others, but the good very much outweigh the bad, or at least the less good. The first disc kicks off with an unexpected treat, and in very low-key fashion. “No more walks in the woods” is truly an eco-ballad, using words from a poem by John Hollander to create an almost acapella song arranged for four voices, with a few guitar chords here and there. It really is a beautiful little piece, though very short (two minutes exactly), and certainly one of the standout tracks on the album. It's followed by a track that would be released as a single from the album, J.D. Souther's “How long”, which recalls the likes of “Take it easy” and “Already gone”, while “Busy being fabulous” is a swipe at career women who put their enjoyment above the needs of their family: ”You were just too busy being fabulous/ Too busy to think about us/ I don't know what you were thinking of/ Somehow you forgot about love.”

There are a total of seven ballads on the album, and “What do I do with my heart” is the first of these. It's typical Eagles, and could sit just as comfortably on any Don Henley or indeed Glenn Frey solo album. It's a nice ballad, but nothing special. It's not really till “Waiting in the weeds” comes along that we get anything really spectacular. It's again a ballad, but much longer than usual, almost eight minutes long, with a lovely piano outro and some great lyrics: ”I imagine sunlight in your hair/ You're at the county fair/ You're holding hands and laughing/ And now the ferris wheel is stopped/ You're swingin' at the top/ Suspended there with him / And he's the darling of the chic/ Flavour of the week is melting/ Down your pretty summer dress/ Baby, what a mess you're making!” Taken at face value it's a pretty creepy song, the tale of a guy who can't accept that his girl has moved on, and is, in effect, stalking her. Despite that, it's a great great song, and one of my favourites on the album. Some great guitar and piano work combine to make a truly lovely melody, with some excellent vocal harmonies at the end.

Following this is “No more cloudy days”, a Glenn Frey-penned tune and very much his sort of song: reminds me of “Part of me, part of you”. A sort of mid-paced ballad, with some really nice sax at the end, it complements the previous track very well. The guys try updating “Life in the fast lane” for the 2000's, but “Fast company” doesn't really work for me. I much prefer the two closers, “Do something”, which is a real call to action within a kind of ballad structure: ”There's no time for saving grace/ Don't just stand there/ Taking up space/” Perhaps some people might balk at such advice from a group of guys who have enough money to completely change the world, if they wanted, but the sentiment is nice I think, in a time when everyone seems to be doing their best to cover themselves and rip people off. Closer “You are not alone” is a gentle little guitar ballad, again with nice sentiments.

And so disc one comes to a close. Have we heard all the good songs? Have they kept the dross for disc two? Not a chance. Opening with the title track, disc two introduces us to Arabic chants, eastern rhythms set against the backdrop of a desert wind, and as it gets going, a powerful, politically-charged song protesting the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The opening lines set the mission statement: ”Moon shinin' down through the palms/ Shadows movin' on the sand/ Somebody whispering the 23rd psalm/ Dusty rifle in his tremblin' hands/ Somebody tryin' just to stay alive/ Got promises to keep/ Over the ocean in America/ Far away they're fast asleep.” The song reflects Henley's politics, which can be heard on his last album, “Inside job”, and it pulls no punches. It's a long song, over ten minutes, easily the longest on the album. There are plenty of digs at the Bush administration: ”We're ridin' to Utopia/ Road map says we'll be arrivin' soon.../ Captains of the old order clinging to the reins/ Assuring us these aches inside are only growin' pains.” The song presents the two wars from the perspective of a young soldier who has found himself thousands of miles from home, and not sure why? ”Back home I was so certain/ The path was always clear/ But now I have to wonder/ What am I doin' here?” The song features a truly epic guitar solo before it drops into what I guess would be the second movement.

Here, Henley sings of the “power corrupts” theme: ”We're on the road to Damascus/ The road to Mandalay/ Met the ghost of Caesar on the Appian Way/ He says it's hard to stop this bingein' / Once you get a taste/ But the road to empire/ Is a bloody stupid waste.” The song fades out on a dramatic outro, possibly symbolising the never-ending war on terror. This epic is followed by a truly beautiful instrumental called “I dreamed there was no war”, and then the paranoia-laden rocker “Somebody”, which really takes the tempo up a few gears.

Of all the ballads on the album, I could have done without “I love to watch a woman dance”, which is pure country schtick, but followed by a true Henley number, another political song, “Business as usual”, which definitely recalls the title track of “Inside job”, before the album comes to a close with two nice little tracks, “Centre of the universe”, a vocal harmony triumph, and “It's your world now”, which sounds like a father handing over the reins to his son, driven on a mariachi/Mexican melody, reniniscent of some of the Eagles' early work. You can just imagine the guys relaxing in some cantina south of the Rio Grande, tequilas in hand, toasting their success and passing on their experience to the next generation. If this is to be their swan song, they couldn't have chosen a better track to bring down the curtain on an illustrious career, and we thank them for the music.

There were always going to be the sceptics, those who would scoff and say this was nothing more than a load of old guys getting together to make some money off their fans (after all, the Eagles have had no less than four greatest hits compilations --- but then, that's the record labels, not the band), but a listen to “Long road out of Eden” proves that these lads cared about this project, put a lot of work, energy, thought and heart into it. It's a record that should, if there's any justice in the world, stand the test of time like their greatest classic, “Hotel California”, and prove that the Eagles are far from dead. At the very least, it's great value for money: nineteen tracks, and every one an original.

After they had released the record, Don Henley told CNN this was probably the last Eagles album they would ever make. On the strength of what they've come up with here, I really hope that's not the case. It has been a long road out of Eden --- twenty-eight years long --- but to my mind, the Eagles have finally reached the Promised Land.

TRACKLISTING

1. No more walks in the wood
2. How long
3. Busy being fabulous
4. What do I do with my heart
5. Guilty of the crime
6. I don't want to hear anymore
7. Waiting in the weeds
8. No more cloudy days
9. Fast company
10. Do something
11. You are not alone
12. Long road out of Eden
13. I dreamed there was no war
14. Somebody
15. Frail grasp on the big picture
16. Last good time in town
17. I love to watch a woman dance
18. Business as usual
19. Centre of the universe
20. It's your world now



Suggested further listening: “Hotel California”, “Desperado”, “One of these nights”, “The long run” and Don Henley's “The end of the innocence” and “Inside job”.

(Note: footage from this album proved exceedingly hard to come by. It was either crappy cover versions (WHY do people think we care about them playing songs on their guitars??) or restricted or even blocked content at the request of the copyright holder, so apologies for a) the dearth of clips and b) the quality of some. Believe me, this is the best there is out there!)

Thx Jack for the post and also for the clarification as to what the album art means. I must admit, though I often use Wiki to explore details of albums. meansing of songs, history etc, "The secret life of the album cover" was all done totally on the fly by me, and any and all conclusions reached therein, or any suppositions put forward (sounds painful!) are my own, and not to be taken as gospel by any means. It's just what I felt the album cover said to me.

Watch out for more of the same soon...

I stand alone --- Agnetha Faltskog --- 1987 (WEA)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...tand_Alone.jpg

Agnetha who? Ok then, what if I said “that blonde one from ABBA”? Yeah, that's her: one half of the female pair in the Swedish supergroup. This was her third solo album, and it's not half bad. Produced by Peter Cetera of Chicago, who also duets with her on one track, it's got a nice crisp clean sound about it, without being clinically pristine and devoid of emotion.

It starts off well, with a mid-paced ballad, “The last time”, replete with digital piano and churning guitar. Perhaps strange to begin an album with a track so titled, but it sets the tone of the album, which seems to be more or less centred on the idea of breakups and betrayals, and is, I guess, in that way quite a dark album. No vacuous pop record then, but that's hardly what you'd expect anyway from someone who has spent the better part of her life making music that's cherished by millions the world over. “The last time” is really more a rock song than a ballad, quite gutsy and heavy, and Agnetha's soulful voice soars over the arrangement like an avenging angel.

Much more commercial, and less impressive, is the Gloria Estefanesque “Little white secrets”, which more or less comes and goes without leaving too much of a mark, and leads into the third single from the album, the aforementioned duet with Cetera. “I wasn't the one who said goodbye” has all the hallmarks of a Chicago song --- the only thing missing is production by David Foster! It's pretty much Peter Cetera sings with Agnetha Faltskog, rather than the other way round. Don't get me wrong: it's great to hear the man's voice on record again, but he does sort of take over the song. At least it's heavier and rockier than the previous track, though that's not hard.

Then we have a Bucks Fizz cover! Yes, you read that correctly. “Love in a world gone mad” was originally on an album by the blonde Eurovision winners who brought us such anthems as “Making your mind up” and “The land of make-believe”. Give me a break! This thing is so sugary I'm glad I'm not a diabetic! Pass!

And there we have the essential dichotomy of this album. Some tracks are good rockers or rock ballads, some are pop songs and some are just over-produced nonsense, so that it's hard to take it seriously as a whole. As if to underline the point, the next song, “Maybe it was magic”, is a fantastic, powerful ballad sung with power and passion by Agnetha, and if more of the songs were like this then this would be a knockout album. As it is, for every “Maybe it was magic” there's a “Little white lies” --- you're just starting to enjoy it when something slaps you upside the head and changes your thinking, so that it's hard to form a cohesive opinion of the overall product.

It's also telling that Ms. Faltskog doesn't write, or even have a hand in writing, any of the songs on this album. You would think that a talented songwriter like her would have wanted to be involved in the creative process, but no, every song is written for her. Personally I wonder if this is why the album falls down on so many fronts: some of the songs are good, a few great, but there are some very bad ones, and I wonder had she stretched her wings a bit and engaged in some songwriting, would we have had a better album?

For all that, the second side of the album is considerably better than the first. Kicking off with a nice little pop/rock tune, which was released as a single from the album, “Let it shine” is not half bad at all. “We got a way” is pure ABBA, circa the “Voulez Vous” period. Rocks out nicely, keeps the tempo up, nice keyboard solo. At this point, you begin to let your breath out, daring to think that maybe the album is beginning to come together,and you'd not be wrong. The title track is I guess what you might call a dark ballad, although the rhythm betrays it as more a pop song, and the horns give it a very latin feel. It's written for her by (you would have to say) co-star Cetera and his ex-Chicago compatriot Bruce Gaitsch, who apparently also co-wrote Madonna's hit “La isla bonita”. So he knows a bit about songwriting, then. You can also hear a little of that song in the beat and melody of this one.

The album closes on two songs penned by two true adepts of the art, Diane Warren and Albert Hammond, and of these two it's the final track, “If you need somebody tonight”, that stands out and is a fitting closer. A gorgeous little piano-driven ballad, with yearning and a hint of desperation, a sort of much slower and restrained “Take a chance on me”.

All in all, this is no classic album, but there are certainly tracks there which make it a very good one. My advice would be, listen to the opener, skip to “Maybe it was magic” and let it go from there. Mind you, she couldn't put a foot wrong in her native Sweden, where the album went to number one! Ah, those crazy Swedes!

TRACKLISTING

1. The last time
2. Little white secrets
3. I wasn't the one who said goodbye
4. Love in a world gone mad
5. Maybe it was magic
6. Let it shine
7. We got a way
8. I stand alone
9. Are you gonna throw it all away?
10. If you need somebody tonight

Photo-finish --- Rory Gallagher --- 1978 (Chrysalis)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Gallagher.jpg

There have been many superlatives used to describe the late Rory Gallagher's playing, and attitude towards his music, but my favourite one is I believe also the most appropriate --- honest. There never was anything contrived or false about Rory's music. From the time he picked up a guitar at age nine to the moment he breathed his last on June 14 1995, all Rory ever wanted to do was play the blues. His huge catalogue of albums reflect this, and when he wasn't rockin' out Rory was pickin' out the blues, each of which he could do with consummate ease on his favourite 1961 Stratocaster. This album is one of my favourites by him, and every track is a gem.

Titled “Photo-finish”, the story goes, due to his just barely managing to record the album to the very deadline, it's full of hard rock standards that became synonymous with the great man, a few blusey ballads and some quite frankly unbelievable guitar work. Rory didn't go in for complicated album sleeves (no room for him in my “Secret life of an album cover” slot, then!), and most of his sleeves show a simple picture of him either playing the guitar, or surely about to. The exception is 1975's “Against the grain”, which shows his beloved Strat on the cover, with an inset of him. Simple, honest, no-frills, no pretensions: that was Rory.

But his music. Ah, that was something else!

Kicking off with “Shin kicker”, the album blasts off with a good rocker, a real biker's anthem: ”It's a shin kickin' mornin'/ Gotta kickstart the day/ Wind up my machine and I'll be on my way!” Like most of Rory's work it's a vehicle for his amazing guitar playing, backed up by his two stalwarts, Gerry McAvoy on bass and Ted McKenna on drums. Until now, Rory had also had a keyboard player, but he decided to dispense with Lou Martin for a harder, blues/rock edge, and it certainly worked. I liked “Deuce” and “Calling card”, and “Against the grain” was a great album, but they do lack a certain type of raw energy that's evident in abundance here. You can really tell the guys are enjoying themselves.

Rory's voice is in fine fettle as he powers on to “Brute force and ignorance”, another hard rocker written with tongue firmly in cheek. The opening guitar chords are enough to bring a smile to any Rory fan's lips. It's a lot slower than “Shin kicker”, but still strong and powerful, and like most Rory songs it develops into something of a guitar jam at the end. Then things kick into serious high gear for “Cruise on out”, with Ted playing the drums so fast you'd swear he must be an octopus! Let's put it this way: if you planned to headbang to this, check your neck is still attached afterwards! This is “Rosalita (come out tonight)” for the nearly-nineteen-eighties! I tells ya, if you can sit still for this track get yourself checked out, cos you ain't human!

Rory always had a great interest in spies and secret agents, and this comes through on the next track, the aptly named “Cloak and dagger”, a hard blues number, which sees Rory break out his harmonica. Sweet! There are two ballads on the album, the next track being the first. “Overnight bag” starts off with a guitar lick and then kicks into the tale of a wandering rocker leaving his latest lover: Packed my things in an overnight bag/ Toothbrush, a guitar: got no tail to drag/ Gonna leave on the next passin' breeze.” Ah, the freedom!
It should probably also be pointed out that Rory wrote every single song on this album himself, as he did on most of his repertoire, except where he covered old blues numbers. He also produced this album, as he does many of his others. A hands-on guy, indeed, very much in control of his own music.

Things don't stay mellow for long, as next up is “Shadow play”, another Rory standard, with a truly spectacular guitar solo, kicking everything back into high gear, before slowing down for a crunching blues number, “The Mississippi sheiks”, and then powering right back up to ten for “Last of the independents”, which I find very similar to “Cruise on out”, though that's no bad thing!Ted the octopus at it again! Everything comes to an end then in a glorious slow-burner ballad, “Fuel to the fire”.

If nothing else, “Photo-finish” establishes Rory Gallagher as one of the premier blues guitarists of his generation, and the rock world is definitely lessened by his sudden passing. Rory always lived hard, but complications brought on by a necessary liver transplant in June 1995 brought to an end a career that, although it had blazed an unfogettable trail across the firmament of rock and roll, had so much more to give. In departing though he left this world with some truly exceptional music, and reminded us all why the humble guitar is such a force in rock. Rory didn't need synthesisers, programmed drums or batteries of mixing equipment to make his music: pure and simple, he let his Strat do the talking.

When I bought this it was again one of my infamous vinyl records, so although the CD version features two additional tracks, I've never heard them before, and for me the album has always ended on “Fuel to the fire”, so that's where I'm ending my review. Never fear though: the two extra tracks are included in the download below.

TRACKLISTING

1. Shin kicker
2. Brute force and ignorance
3. Cruise on out
4. Cloak and dagger
5. Overnight bag
6. Shadow play
7. The Mississippi sheiks
8. The last of the independents
9. Fuel to the fire
10. Early warning
11. Jukebox Annie



Suggested further listening: “Top priority”, “Jinx”, “Against the grain”, “Calling card”, “Blueprint”, “Defender” …. ah hell, just listen to everything the guy has ever done!

Subsurface --- Threshold --- 2004 (InsideOut)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ver_art%29.jpg

This album was my first introduction to UK progressive metal band Threshold, and it's a corker! So good in fact that I then went and acquired the rest of their catalogue, which is just as good. It's their seventh studio album, and their fifth to feature longtime vocalist Andrew “Mac” McDermott, their three previous albums having had different singers. It only has 9 tracks on it, but there isn't a bad one among them, and that's a rare thing indeed for any album.

These are serious, deep guys and you'll find no “rock all night” lyrics here, nor any (well, one) songs about girls. You can tell they're thinkers just by looking at the sleeve, where a TV set is reflected in the lake. On the screen is the word “REFLECT” and in the reflection is the word “CONCEPT” or possibly “CONCEIT”, not sure which, but either way it's an eye-catchng cover and a statement of intent made before you even hit PLAY. So, what about the music? Interesting album sleeves and concepts are all very good, but let's be honest, it's the music we want to know about, yes?

It gets going with a real rocker, “Mission profile”, laying down the marker from the start. Threshold tend to use politics a lot in their lyrics, and this is no exception, though the politics get much heavier and involved later. McDermot's voice is clear and distinctive, bursting with power and emotion as he sings ”We've got a system, you're going to use it/ We call it freedom and you are free to choose it/ If you're not against it you've got to be for it/ Neutral is dangerous and you cannot ignore it .” Never guys to sit on the fence, Threshold espouse getting involved, seeing what's going on and trying to do something about it. Karl Groom lets loose with guitar solos on this track, and gets involved in a battle with keyboard player Richard West. It's glorious to behold.

Interestingly, West wrote or co-wrote every song on this album. Talented guy! The politics come thick and fast, and if you're someone to whom the lyrics are important AND you hate politics, you may find it hard to like this album, as it is VERY political --- you thought Floyd's “The final cut” was loaded with political messages? That has nothing on “Subsurface”! But if you are the sort of person who loves good prog metal and well-thought out and executed songs, and aren't bothered about the political messages behind the lyrics, you'll enjoy this album. The music is never anything less than powerful, forceful and technically proficient, but always melodic, in fact, there are so many hooks on this album it's a wonder more singles weren't released from it. It IS heavy though, and the tempo hardly lets up at all right through the recording. If you're looking for something to relax to after a hard day, this ain't it!

“Ground control” features a truly wonderful guitar solo halfway through, and some extremely thought-provoking lyrics: ”And everything our fathers made/ And everything they fought to save/ Is trampled under this parade /And nothing's going to stop them now/ Their policy will know no bounds/ As soon as they control the ground.” There's a definitive, unambiguous sense of a faceless “they” upon whom Threshold lay the evils of the world, and in this way the theme is quite similar to Shadow Gallery's “Tyranny”, reviewed a few pages back. I love the line ”Under the flag of liberty you'll find corruption lurking/ It's our responsibility to keep the system working .”

Mass media is tackled in “Opium” next, as we're told [i]”They'll print it on the front page /To synthesise an outrage/ But all we find is a decoy once again/ Duplicity and trickery surround us /Till all believe there is no other way.” It's a slower song, though not in any way a ballad! Crunching, angry guitars, pounding drums courtesy of Johanne James, and bursts of piano all work to make this a truly epic song, with McDermott's growling vocal riding above it all. Thing speed up then for “Stop dead”, but it's the next track, the monumental “The art of reason” that becomes the albums's piece de resistance, with its lyric (I believe) firmly directed towards former President George W. Bush with lyrics like ”We thought you'd do your best for future generations/ But all you left was a mounting debt (i don't believe that it's right)/ We thought your peace could flow like water through the nations/ But you shut down the fountainhead (i don't believe that it's right)” It's a long song, and at over ten minutes easily the longest track on the album. It's absolutely epic. Great vocal harmonies against a really dramatic melody; you can almost hear the nations of the world crying out against the injustice.

The track starts off slow and grinding, but as the anger mounts it picks up speed, and the guitars really get going, with the drums pumping like steamhammers. There's also a killer chorus: ”It was there right before our eyes / We were blind not to realise /In the rush to be globalised we signed away our freedom/ We forgot how to criticise / We were scared to be demonised / As the truth was neutralised we lost the art of reason.” Telling stuff, indeed. But again, if you're not into the lyric, listen to this for the quality of the music, and you won't be disappointed.

After an epic track like that you'd think the boys would take a breather, but nothing doing. “Pressure” is another fast rocker, keeping up the, ah, pressure, and it's not until the following track that we get the first ballad on the album, the sublime “Flags and footprints”. Taking a break from the politics for once, this is a pure love song, albeit a tragic one: ”But I believed in what you said / I trusted in your summer/ Now the leaves are turning red /And soon they'll all be coming down/ How can I go on/ If hope is what keeps me alive/ And I'm so uncertain?” In true Threshold fashion, it starts off heavy, with snarling guitar and pounding drums, but soon settles into a nice piano-driven melody, backed by lighter guitar. And no doubt you're asking yourself what the title means? Well, according to the lyric [i]”Maybe my research was sound / But maybe I just fooled around/ All flags and footprints but nothing further down /To find you, to find you.” Yeah, I don't know what it means either. Beautiful song though.

“Static” gets things moving one last time before the closing track and the second ballad on the album brings down the curtain on a wonderful record. “The destruction of words”, which is just sublime (yeah, I know I've used that word before, but really, nothing else fits. So sue me!), with excellent harmonies and a great melody, but since its central theme is the absence of words, it's best just to listen to it rather than talk about it.

“Subsurface” may seem like Threshold at their best, but if you know them, you will know that they have other albums just as good. That's the great part, I always find, in discovering new artistes. There's nothing more annoying than coming across a brilliant album, only to find the band didn't make another one or haven't yet. Thankfully, Threshold's current discography holds a total of eight studio albums, and there's a new one in the works for later this year. I for one can't wait!

TRACKLISTING

1. Mission profile
2. Ground control
3. Opium
4. Sop dead
5. The art of reason
6. Pressure
7. Flags and footprints
8. Static
9. The destruction of words



Suggested further listening: “Clone”, “Psychedelicatessen”, “Dead reckoning”, “Critical mass”, “Extinct instinct”, “Wounded land” and “Hypothetical”

Believe --- Pendragon --- 2005 (Toff)
http://www.progarchives.com/progress...4930112008.jpg

I had always heard of Pendragon, of course --- you can't be into prog rock and not know of them --- but I hadn't really any idea what their music was like until I spun this album. Just because a band is prog doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to enjoy them: I'm still trying to get into IQ and have given up largely on Spock's Beard. But from the very beginning Pendragon hit all the right spots, and after this album it was not long before I delved further into their catalogue.

I'm reliably informed that “Believe” marked something of a shift away from their root sound, possibly in the same way “Season's end” became a turning point for Marillion after the departure of Fish, and listening to their back catalogue I can see the differences, but the fundamental similarities remain: good songs, excellent musicianship, interesting themes. I guess you'd say this is Pendragon for the 21st century.

It all starts off very proggy, with swirling keyboards and flutes behind a female voice singing some sort of chant, possibly in German, with vocoders and other doo-dads going in the background, then a voice (which definitely sounds German!) says “And now, everybody to the dance floor!” And that's the first track, and the title track; I guess you could say the intro. It's followed by “No place for the innocent”, which gets a nice groove going from the beginning, guitar-led and with some very political lyrics: ”Do you believe in the president/ The bible, the Constitution?/ Do you believe in innocence/ Do you believe in throught control?/ Do you believe in Wonderland?/ Or there might just be no Al Qaeda at all!” Things keep up nicely with “The wisdom of Solomon”, with something of a reprise of the chant from the opening track, and again the guitars of singer and frontman Nick Barrett taking centre stage. There's a beautiful little solo to open the song before it gets going, truly magical.

It is, however, the epic “The Wishing Well” that forms the centrepiece of the album. Split into four parts, it totals just over 21 minutes, in true prog style, starting off with “For your journey”, a keyboard-driven prayer for the survival of humanity as we take our first steps out into the stars, leaving our planet behind. It's an extremely well-constructed piece, containing mostly a spoken vocal, with choral backing; almost lyrical poetry, very moving, very dramatic. ”Never let those eyes twinkle out. /Just always walk in the light./ Carry the crazy, the wild, the exciteable, the child./ And when you fall to your knees, and your eyes are full of tears. /It's time to make things new. / Listen to your heart, I beg you, please.”

The second part is called “Sou' by sou'west”, and is much more guitar led, faster in an almost waltzy way. Some nice acoustic guitar in here, too. The speed increases then for part 3, “We talked”, its melody sort of linking back to “The wisdom of Solomon” from earlier, with drummer Fudge Smith (yeah, that's his name: Fudge. Don't ask me.) really getting into it and carrying the beat as the song gets boppier and more frenetic, till it crashes to a halt and the final part, “Two roads” ends the composition rather powerfully, with references to Robert Frost's famous quote “Two roads..., and I took the one less travelled”.

I'll admit it: I have no idea what the song is about. I get the first part, but how it links with the others I really don't know, but then I don't think it's always necessary to know what a song is about to enjoy it. There does seem to be a central theme, spoken of in “We talked”, which is question everything, believe nothing. Sounds like a strapline for the X-Files... There's no denying though the power of this music, and even if its meaning is beyond me, I still love it. The differences, the changes, the lyrics, all just excellent.

“Learning curve” has a sort of Pink Floyd vibe to it, sort of mid-paced. I guess Nick is talking about life when he says this, but in some ways perhaps he's saying this about the album: ”It's about faith./It's about time and space./ It's about everything in your life you must face./ It's about life. It's about love./ It's about death. It's about all you can feel,/ And all that's unseen.” Great guitar solo at the end. The album closes on a perfect little ballad, the power and emotion in “The edge of the world” always moves me to tears, I'm not ashamed to say. Listen to the guitar outro (as such) and tell me it doesn't have an effect on you! It's the end of the journey, full circle as Nick sings ”As I stand on the edge of the world/ I look into your eyes/ And I realise/ That this was never meant to end/ And I can now call you my friend.”

The basic theme of the album seems to be one of a journey: a journey through space, through time, through faith and belief, and ultimately through love and back to where you started from. It's one hell of a journey Pendragon take us on with this album, and I'm pretty sure that if you're not already a fan of theirs, one listen to this album and you, too, will believe.

TRACKLISTING

1. Believe
2. No place for the innocent
3. The wisdom of Solomon
4. The Wishing Well
I) For your journey
ii) Sou' by sou'west
iii) We talked
iv) Two roads
5. Learning curve
6. The edge of the world



Suggested further listening: “Kowtow”, “Not of this world”, “The round table”, “Pure”, “The Masquerade overture”. “The jewel” and “The window of life”

Fact and fiction --- Twelfth Night --- 1982 (Twelfth Night)
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Twelfth Night were old-school progressive rock, which is to say, they made their records about obscure subjects and didn't court airplay, nor seem too bothered when it didn't court them. Despite (or perhaps because of) that, they made some truly stunning albums in their too-short career. Not many, it's sadly true, and as far as studio albums go this was their first. It should have led to a glittering string of successes alongside the likes of Marillion, IQ and Pallas, but it doesn't seem to have worked out for them, which is a real pity.

First track, “We are sane” is a savagely satirical attack on society, starting with of all things a choirboy-like aria which then turns into a series of spoken snippets, like extracts from studies ”If the thought processes of an individual/ Can be permanently limited to the point of strict conformity/ To an outside source of thought/ The said individual need no longer/ Be considered as such/ The enforcement of order becomes possible/ For anyone with enough power/ To control what is projected”. In the background someone can be heard saying ”Would you file this please Harry?” The song gets faster and a robotic voice declares "Technician we want you to build a component/ For each of our workers, to be with them always/ At all times watch closely so we can keep track of/ Their actions, their interests, their morals, their time out/ Some musak to maim them some fear to contain them/ Policy will judge them brute forces degrade them./ Practical behaviour, the cleanser the saviour /A private vocation has no sense of nation/ The maintenance of power can be fulfilling /Just as long as all the slaves are willing.” Andy Revell goes a bit mad with the guitar here, fitting the title of the song, while Geoff Mann sing and declaims like Waters on “The Wall” at his most fanatical.

“Human being” is a great little song too, very Marillion-like in its structure, another warning of dehumanisation, with great keyboards from Clive Mitten, a cool little bass solo from him too, and impressive drums from Brian DeVoil. Another great guitar solo as Revell's fingers fly up and down the fretboard . It's so sad that a voice like Geoff Mann's was taken from us. Although he cut ties with Twelfth Night in 1983 to pursue a career in the church, and recorded some spiritual albums, he was diagnosed with cancer and died in 1993. A tragic loss. Twelfth night carried on with Andy Revell as singer, though I have not yet heard any albums with him singing.

“This city” is a dark ballad, conjuring up images of windblown streets with houses looking out over them with broken windows like sightless eyes. It's pretty keyboard driven, and Mitten does great work here, though in fairness it's very hard to get away from the possessing and imposing voice of Mann, who strides each song like a colossus. We get a chance to hear Twelfth Night without him though on the next track, “World without end”, which is a very short instrumental carried again on keys, almost church-like in its execution, but very effective.

The title track is a boppy, uptempo number with again dark and satirical messages: ”If you listen carefully/ You can hear the bacon fly!” It's another keyboard-led song, with a fine line in bass, a relatively simple drumbeat all that's needed to keep it on track. The keyboard hook is very commercial, and if it wasn't for the deep lyric this could have been a hit single. Ah, the usual problem. Oh well, ”If the unthinkable should happen/ And you hear the siren's call/ Well you can always find some shelter/ Behind a door, against a wall.” Indeed. And don't forget to lie down so the nuclear blast goes OVER you, childen...

“The poet sniffs a flower” is a great little instrumental, which starts slowly, with a lovely little acoustic guitar (I believe it may be classical guitar?) melody with keyboard backing and then the drums pump in slowly, but halfway through it speeds up and gallops to the end in a very “Duke” way. The drums pick up and Andy Revell drops his acoustic and picks up his electric guitar to take the song to its ending.

And so we come to the opus on the album, the almost twelve-minute-long “Creepshow”. It's a multi-layered piece, featuring a slow, acoustic opening and seems to centre on the idea of a sanitaium being used as a sideshow, as Mann welcomes visitors. ”Welcome, welcome, first today to see the Creepshow/ Come see the exhibits/ But do not touch/ They cannot bear touch in the Creepshow.” It's a disquieting lyric, accompanied by suitably spooky music and truly inspired singing by Mann, which just teeters at the edge of insanity. The guy's range was truly scary!

It's a very unsettling song, and you can feel yourself, despite your fear, being dragged into the creepshow, tagging along with all the other watchers, observing with horror but also terrified interest the freaks and experiments housed here. Eventually we come to ”The nerve centre of the whole affair/ As you will see, it is a mirror/ To some it is the mirror of dreams/ Where every passion, desire and action/ Flit through the still spaces behind its surface/ Tantalising yet distant/ Of these, many stand before it until death.” The song ends with a dire warning: ”If you come again/ You'd better bring your ball and chain/ Another embittered attraction/ Of the Creepshow!” Brrr! Gives me chills, it does! Ending on a guitar solo worthy of “Comfortably numb”, this is one monster (literally) of a track!

After all the weirdness, horror and unease of “Creepshow”, the album ends in a much gentler fashion, with a gorgeous little song of hope, entitled simply “Love song”. Revell accompanies Mann on acoustic guitar, and you can hear the beginnings of the singer's religious conversion in the lyric: ”If you feel that your hoping heart/ Has led you into pain/ Take a tip from the Carpenter/ Forgive and love again.” After all the convoluted lyrics, themes and concepts throughtout the album it's quite amazing, refreshing and clever that Twelfth Night close “Fact and fiction” with the simplest of sentiments: as Bill and Ted once said, be excellent to each other. Can't argue with that.

If you're a prog fan and have not yet heard Twelfth Night, take my advice and download it below, and lose yourself in a band who should have lasted far longer.

TRACKLISTING

1. We are sane
I) Te dium
ii) We are sane
iii) Dictator's excuse-me
2. Human being
3. This city
4. World without end
5. Fact and fiction
6. The poet sniffs a flower
7. Creepshow
8. Love song



Suggested further listening: “Live at 'The Target'”, “Live and let live”

Water sign --- Chris Rea --- 1983 (Magnet)
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The first time I heard this album was when a workmate brought a copy in on cassette tape (insert humourous reference to my old age and technology now deemed ancient here!), which is actually quite apt, as when the album was offered to Magnet they were so disinterested that they wouldn't cough up for the recording fee so that it could be made professionally, and instead Rea had to offer them the demo he made, which was overdubbed a little here and there. Ironically, it sold very well and of course in the fullness of time Chris Rea became a huge property, selling out large venues and earning platinum status for many of his albums.

You can actually hear the rawness on the album, and yes, in a lot of places it does sound like a demo, but to be honest that doesn't take away from it at all. In fact, it kind of endears you to the album. At a time when so many artistes were overdubbing to death, tripling vocals and using all sort of electronic wizardry to make what were often mediocre songs into hits, Rea's honest and earnest approach came as something of a breath of fresh air.

The quality of his songwriting, and the power of his voice is evident from the very beginning, when you hear opener “Nothing's happening by the sea”, a slow, lazy ballad, with sounds of waves and surf and seagulls conjuring up nothing less than an ideal relaxing day, looking out over the horizon and watching the waves come and go. Recalls echoes of Otis Redding's classic “Dock of the bay”. It's Rea's deep, soulful and passionate voice that really carries the album though: every song, you feel like he's singing just for you. The opening lines of “Nothing's happening...” set the scene, to a lovely, unhurried guitar track, laid over a deep, bassy keyboard harmony: ”Salty river falls asleep in the bay/ Always gets there, never early, never late.” There's also a really nice harmonica solo in the song, adding to the almost acoustic feel of the song and making you feel even more like closing your eyes and just letting yourself get lost in the melody. If you ever feel under pressure and need to tell yourself to relax, this is the song to do it to.

“Deep water” raises the tempo considerably, very much driven by the rhythm section: great bass line. Cool saxaphone solo too! Then we're into “Candles”, a very fragile, gentle beginning, which develops into a powerful little song, concerned with freedom and oppression, and on which we first hear Chris on the guitar. It's followed by “Love's strange ways”, a nice little ballad which again suits Rea's deep, rich voice, and “Texas” is another ballad. Curiously, the same title would appear on his album “The road to Hell”, but a totally different song.

Things get a bit funky then for “Let it loose”, the drum machines giving this song a touch of the discos, though it's still a great little song, with some nice guitar and some serious synth. It leads into “I can hear your heart beat”, which became one of Chris Rea's first major hit singles; with its boppy, danceable beat it became a favourite with clubbers, giving Rea a foot into a world he had perhaps not ventured into prior to this. Next up is “Midnight blue”, a slow song but not a ballad, --- about a guy buying a suit, would you believe? ---with some great slide guitar. “Hey you” is just a throwaway piece of fun, almost calypso in its rhythm, but the album ends on “Out of the darkness”, which is perhaps one of the better tracks on the album, boppy with a great bassline and nice keys, great sax too, certainly closes the album in style.

It's a vindication of Chris Rea's talent that an album recorded on so low a budget and with such lack of interest from a record label could still produce hit singles and provide him a springboard to a long and successful career. After “The road to Hell” in 1989 Chris Rea parted company with his record label, Magnet. Considering how dismissive they had been of him about this album, I'm surprised he stayed with them that long. I bet someone's sorry they hadn't faith in him.

TRACKLISTING

1. Nothng's happening by the sea
2. Deep water
3. Candles
4. Love's strange ways
5. Texas
6. Let it loose
7. I can hear your heart beat
8. Midnight blue
9. Hey you
10. Out of the darkness



Suggested further listening: “Wired to the moon”, “On the beach”, “The road to Hell” (but not “The road to Hell part 2”!), “Deltics”, “Dancing with strangers”, “King of the beach”, “Dancing down the stony road”

Note: in an effort to fly the flag for my little country, and to prove that Ireland has more to offer than just U2 and (shudder!) Westlife and Jedward (!), I'll be featuring sporadically a selection of Irish rock albums that you may not know about, or have heard. These will be indicated by the below graphic. I've already featured albums by Rory Gallagher and the Adventures, but Irish rock has so much more to show you! Stay tuned....
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Feel no shame --- Aslan --- 1988 (EMI)

Ah, the great could-have-beens of Irish rock! Aslan were formed back in the mid-1980s and were quickly snapped up by major record label EMI for this, their debut album, after their first single became a radio smash hit in 1986. The album, “Feel no shame”, subsequently legged it to number one in Ireland and did extremely well in the UK, but the sudden success was too much for the band, who split, only to reform later on.

This, however, remains one of their most important and powerful releases, featuring no less than four hit singles in Ireland, and it firmly established them as a major new band and a very hot property. You only have to listen to it to hear the quality that was there from the beginning. It grabs you by the throat right from the start with the pounding rocker “Loving me lately”, which chugs along on the guitars of Joe Jewell and Billy McGuinness, with the drumming of Alan Downey (any relation to Brian from Thin Lizzy? To be honest, I don't know...) carrying the track along at a great lick. It's a song laden with angst, but angry angst, if you can imagine that. Pretty simple lyric, but it works very well, especially as an opener.

“Pretty thing”, one of the tracks selected as a single, and which got to number 14 in Ireland, is a whole different proposal. Sung with wracked emotion by frontman Christy Dignam, it's a lament on the woes of the world, carried on a guitar and keyboard melody, which starts off slowly for about ten seconds, before Downey's drums kick things into gear, and the song gets going. Jewell's jangling guitar would come to be as recognised by Aslan's fans as the distinctive sound of the Edge in U2. In essence, the lyric is again simple, though deeper, if that makes sense: ”Oh why, can you tell me why/ Is all this sorrow and suffering/ Still going on? / All they ever wanted was a chance to live/ Sometimes I wonder how can we still forgive?”

One of the standout tracks on the album, and the single that brought them to EMI's attention, and eventually their stable, “This is” is another deep song, slower, just as dark, and just as brilliant. ”These are the hands of a tired man/ This is the old man's shroud/ These are the eyes of a blood-crazed tiger/ Staring at the maddening crowd.” Aslan were from the very start all about speaking out on the wrongs in the world, trying to open people's eyes through music. The fact that this single was so successful on radio as a mere demo, and led to a record deal for the boys, speaks volumes about its quality, and the fact that it's still played on Irish radio a measure of the esteem Aslan are held in.

“Been so long” is a slow grinder, with a sort of reggae beat, while “Hungry” gets rockin' again, before “Heat of the cell” steps things up yet another gear, rocketing off with a hugely catchy hook and some great vocal harmonies/ ”In the heat of the cell/ Sits a shell of a man/ In the shifting sand grows an ageing tree/ In the dark of the day/ There's a madman born /There's a voice in the room/ And he's speaking to me.” The next track, “Please don't stop” was selected for a single, but I would have taken “Heat of the cell” anyday, The former is poppy in its way, fast and boppy and quite commercial, but as I said, the hooks in “Heat of the cell” should have made it a good contender for a single. Still, "Please don't stop" reached no. 7 in Ireland, so I guess EMI knew what they were doing. “Please don't stop” is a great little track, featuring again chugging drums from Downey and some great harmonica work from Billy McGuinness --- how often do you say that? Good chorus too, real stadium stuff: ”Climb to the top and shout out loud! /You're never stepping nowhere /With your head stuck in the clouds /Climb to the top and shout out loud!/ 'Cos you're never stepping nowhere, /Till you're stepping out of the crowd.”

Thing slow right down then for “Down on me”, a very honest depiction of life in Northern Ireland during what would have been what we knew as “The Troubles”, when protestant fought catholic and the IRA battled both the UVF and the RUC, as well as the British Army for control of the Six Counties. ”Freedom is a precious thing/ In this world today/ We don't know how lucky we really are/ If there's something to be said/ There is nothing you can say /So don't look down on me.” It's all driven on a guitar melody, growing more and more angry and frustrated as the song progresses, with Dignam's impassioned vocal calling out like a voice in the bomb-blasted wilderness. [i]”If you think your life's a waste of time/
If you think your time's a waste of life /Come over to this land/ Take a look around. / This is a tragic situation/ And a massive demonstration on how to die/ So please don't cry, please don't cry/ Because they're falling all around me/ And I wish I was not here/ Broken bodies they surround me /And I wish that I was not here.”

There's time to shift up through the gears once more before we close proceedings, with a fast and defiant love song, Jewell's guitar again setting the scene, with some truly excellent riffs from the young guitarist as "Sands of time" powers along. The closer is also the title song, and it's worth waiting for. Seems to be the plea of someone separated from their lover due to misbehaviour --- you could guess at abuse --- as Dignam sings like a very tired man who has reached the end of his rope ”Is it love or is it hate?/ When can I come home? / Why can't I feel no shame?” It's driven on McGuinness' magical harmonica and guitar, with a great drumbeat, almost like a train coming down the track. The harmonica gives the track a great blues feel, and it really is the perfect closer to what is after all quite close to being a perfect debut album. Who says we Irish can't rock?

The cover of the album shows a man holding a baby in his arms, and I could be wrong, but the child looks to be similar to the “boy” seen on U2's early albums, “War” and “Boy”, and who became their “mascot” early in their career. I believe this is meant to be a homage to U2, the boys tipping their collective hats to the most famous and successful Irish band in history. It's also possible that the child is wearing headphones, though I can't be sure.

Note: again, there is an extra track on the CD, but I first heard this album on vinyl, and that ended on “Feel no shame”, so although “Book of life” is included in the download below, I haven't included it in the review. This is my usual position. Hope it doesn't bug anyone, but I prefer not to review a track I'm hearing for the first time.

TRACKLISTING

1. Loving me lately
2. Pretty thing
3. This is
4. Been so long
5. The hunger
6. The heat of the cell
7. Please don't stop
8. Down on me
9. Sands of time
10. Feel no shame



Suggested further listening: “Goodbye Charlie Moonhead”, “Live in Dublin”

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Disclaimer: please note that all the tracks on this file are mixed together, segued so as to present a single, seamless piece of music. If you download it and find you don't like one or more tracks, you cannot simply skip to the next, as there IS no next --- it's all one track. So the only way to bypass tracks you don't like in the mix is to fast-forward through them. I mention this so that anyone dowloading these files knows what to expect. Comments are as always welcomed.

For those who really need to know, the mixing is done via Goldwave v 5.58, downloadable at GoldWave - Audio Editor, Recorder, Converter, Restoration, & Analysis Software. I copy each separate track and use the “mix” function to add it to the compilation. Some trial and error (mostly error!) is involved, but what I end up with is usually the best I can expect to get in terms both of equalising volume and cross-fading.

TRACK 1:- The loner (Gary Moore) from Wild Frontier.
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I've always liked to start these mixes off with a track that fades in, and so the first ever of these particular mixes features the late, great Gary Moore, with a stirring instrumental from his 1987 album, “Wild frontier”. It's called “The loner”, and is a real example of how proficient and experienced Moore was on the guitar, but also how he could make it cry, sing, laugh, do anything he wanted. It's really emotive work here, perhaps all the more poignant now that the great man is no longer with us. One of the only instrumentals I have ever heard from the man, I must say, and even at that, it's not technically a true instrumental, as during the song he lets out what sounds like a cry of despair, and at the end he sings “So lonely”, but these are the only vocal accompaniments on something which is, to all intents and purposes, an instrumental track.

TRACK 2:- Wanted dead or alive (Bon Jovi) from Slippery when wet
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Staying with 1987 then, as “The loner” fades out on some exquisite guitar, the dusty prairie wind blows in as Bon Jovi's huge hit from “Slippery when wet”, their most commercially successful album ever, and the one that broke them into the mainstream, kicks in. Written by Jon Bon Jovi himself and Ritchie Sambora, it's a tale of the Old West, of desperadoes and cowboys, likening these frontier bad boys to the rock bands of today. I guess everyone knows it, so there's probably no need to go too much into the details, but with lines like “Sometimes you tell the day/ By the bottle that you drink/ Sometimes when you're alone/ All you do is think” and “I walk these streets/ A loaded six-string on my back/ I play for keeps/ Cos I might not make it back”, you should be in no doubt as to what you're in for.

TRACK 3:- Toy soldiers (Martika) from Martika

Step two years on and we're into 1989, and we go all pop with Martika's “Toy soldiers”. Opinion is divided as to whether this was a song about drug addiction or just a bad love affair, the former being apparently claimed retrospectively by Martika when the song was a hit, but there's no doubting the drug-related lines in the lyric, such as “It's getting harder to wake up in the morning/ My head is spinning constantly/ How can this be? /How could I be so blind to this addiction?/ If I don't stop/ The next one's gonna be me” and “Only emptiness remains/ It replaces all of the pain.”

Either way, although this is a pop song and charted in the UK and US (reaching number one in the USA), it's a hard-edged pop song, and perhaps surprisingly successful, given the possible drug connection in the lyric. However, it was clear that this was going to be Martika's “big thing”, her one-hit-wonder, and true to form, her only other hit was a rather embarrassing reworking of Carole King's “I feel the earth move”, after which she disappeared from commercial sight. Not ever proven, but I would think fairly obvious that Martika was trying to hitch her star to, and cash in on the fame and attraction of another female mega-star who also used only one name and which also began with M and ended in A....

TRACK 4:- Father figure (George Michael) from Faith
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I've never been a huge George Michael fan, but to be fair he did release some pretty good songs, and like many others, I “listened without prejudice” in 1990, and it was a hell of a good album. This, however, is from his first solo effort, the famous “Faith”, and one of the better tracks on that album in my opinion. Perhaps because he had already courted controversy by releasing “I want your sex”, the somewhat questionable lyrical content seemed to go unnoticed. “Father figure” is, essentially, a “Lolita”-like song, in much the same vein as the Police's “Don't stand so close to me”, focussing on the relationship between an older man and a much younger girl, in lyrics like “I will be your preacher teacher/ (Be your daddy)” and “That's all I wanted/ But sometimes love can be/ Mistaken for a crime”. The song is very laid-back, with a gentle, at times almost whispered vocal, and an extremely catchy eastern/arabic keyboard hook. It's this that opens the song, and fades it into the mix from the end of the chanting of the chorus on “Toy soldiers”, and which again brings it to a close.

TRACK 5:- Stronger (Faith Hill) from Cry
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Although she claims to be a country singer, my own take on Faith Hill is that she is far more mainstream and pop than country. Strip away the steel guitar in her songs and ignore some of the more country-centric lyrics, and you have basic commercial pop songs. All great --- there's nothing wrong with that. I just feel that someone like, say, Emmylou Harris or Nanci Griffith deserves more to be described as country than Faith does. For me, she's more Shania than Crystal. But “Cry” is an excellent album, no matter the criteria you use to judge it, and this is one of the (sorry) strongest tracks. Beginning with a powerful acapella line, Faith tells us “This is the window to my heart/ I just want us to be free” and the guitar and piano pick up behind her as the song begins, with the full band coming in shortly after. It's the story of one of those “we-need-to-talk” moments, when one or both of the partners need space. It's a beautiful song, one of several ballads on the album, as she puts her case: “Maybe this is what we need/ A little bruisin', a little bleeding/ Some space that we can breathe in/ Silence in between.”

TRACK 6:- Baby can I hold you (Tracy Chapman) from Tracy Chapman
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Proof, if any were needed, that a love song can be short and yet still effective. Clocking in at only just over three minutes , “Baby can I hold you” is a softly played and sung ballad, with a tough message, as the singer exorts her partner to admit their feelings: “Sorry is all that you can't say/ Years gone by and still / Words don't come easily/ Like sorry.” When Tracy Chapman burst onto the scene with the single “Fast car” from her debut album, it looked like she was going to take the world by storm. Sadly, that did not happen, and though she has gone on to release several albums since this, her greatest claim to commercial fame will forever doubtless be that Boyzone covered this song. Sad, but there it is.

TRACK 7:- Crime of the century (Supertramp) from Crime of the century
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All the way back to 1974 then, for the title track from the third Supertamp album, and in many ways one of their darkest. The song itself is pretty amazing, having lyrics for only two short verses with the remainder of the five-and-a-half-minute track taken up by piano and keyboard solos to the end, the piano in fact simply repeating the same sequence of chords throughout the song, with sax taking up a parting blast as the end fades out.

TRACK 8:- This island Earth (Glass Tiger) from Diamond Sun
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Although best known for their hit “Don't forget me (when I'm gone)”, from their previous album “The thin red line”, this is the closer from their second release, 1988's “Diamond sun”, and is Glass Tiger's take on the “we-must-save-the-world-before-it's-too-late” theme. It's a long song (over six minutes) and closes the album really well, with fine vocal performance by Alan Frew, with a nice little guitar solo near the end by Al Connelly, and it leads rather well into the penultimate track on the mix.

TRACK 9:- Next profundis (Adagio) from Underworld
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Featuring some of the most proficient piano playing I have heard on any rock record, “Next profundis” is the opener to French progressive metal band Adagio's second album, “Underworld”, and well worth checking out if you haven't already heard them. Vocalist David Readman sounds just like the late Ronnie James Dio --- and the fact that the great man's name is contained within the band name is, we have to assume, purely coincidental! --- reaching the highs and the lows with equal ease, while Kevin Codfert puts just about every prog rock keyboard player to shame with his skill. It's a long track, and no, I have no idea what the title means, but it's definitely worth listening to. A powerful slice of symphonic prog metal, not to be missed, and it ends on a piano run that happily slips seamlessly into the final track.

TRACK 10:- Hope for us (Shadow Gallery) from Tyranny
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As I say, the piano intro to this track melds flawlessly (I believe anyway!) from the previous Adagio song to form almost a seamless crossover, and take us to the last track on my first mix. I've written about this track already in my review of “Tyranny”, so check there for more details. Suffice to say it's a gentle and fitting way to end this mix, as I hope you'll agree.

This mix can be downloaded here TenfromTrollheart1A.mp3

Best played through from start to finish, it runs for just over 52 minutes. If anyone is wondering, no, it's pure coincidence that the bulk of the material on this comes from the late eighties: I just thought all these tracks complemented each other, and I hope you will agree. If not, let me know!

Borrowed time --- Diamond Head --- 1982 (MCA)
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I know, I know! Again with the eighties albums! What can I say? They were my formative years, so I'm always going to look back kindly on the music of that period. Around the early 80s I was into my heavy metal period --- Iron Maiden, Saxon, Black Sabbath, Motorhead --- a real headbanger, I was! I was also into progressive rock, and this, the fourth album from Diamond Head, comfortably straddled both genres while never seeming out of place in either.

Known more for their out-and-out metal work on albums like “Lightning to the nations”, Diamond Head released “Borrowed time” in 1982, just as I was also at the height of my Michael Moorcock phase, reading all about the Eternal Champion, one facet of whom, Elric of Melnibone, forms the concept of this album. I couldn't have been happier! Sold!

Indeed, the sleeve for “Borrowed time” features a magnificent Rodney Matthews painting of Elric, Matthews having worked on the Moorcock book covers, and also well known in the rock world, having worked with the likes of Thin Lizzy, Tygers of Pan-Tang and Magnum to name but a few. The album cover, again a lavish gatefold sleeve, was reportedly the most expensive MCA had shelled out for up to that point. It's certainly eye-catching, and I'm sure it helped sell more than a few albums.

It starts as it means to go on, with a mid-paced cruncher, introduced by the powerful guitar work of Brian Tatler, until Sean Harris belts out the opening lines to “In the heat of the night”. There is a fantastic guitar solo at the end, and we crash into “To Heaven from Hell”, more of the same basic rhythm, with churning guitar and tortured vocals from Harris. Although this is a great album, I think it really suffers from a lack of keyboards. It's quite hard to make prog-rock without keys, and “Borrowed time”, great though it is, ends up coming across as an album that wants to be prog but is afraid to make the full conversion. The lyrics are cetainly worthy of any prog track though: ”On we go, up to the castle/ Death waits for our call/ Left unkempt, but quietly praying/ Remembers when to call .” The track speeds up halfway through and becomes a real metal workout, and as before, therein lies the problem with “Borrowed time”: it teeters on an edge between heavy metal and progressive rock/metal, never quite landing on one side or the other.

“Call me” is far more polished. It KNOWS it's a commercial song, a single, and has the hooks, the melody, the vocals that all bespeak airplay. It's also much shorter than those which have gone before. “Lightning to the nations” is actually a reissue of the title track of a previous album. It's heavy, fast and powerful, with a great boogie vibe and excellent vocals by Sean Harris. But as usual it's Brian Tatler's mesmeric guitar licks that carry the track. He, and Diamond Head, really deserved to do much better and be more successful than they turned out to be.

I recall Sean Harris talking in “Kerrang!” about how annoyed he was that people didn't know his band. As he tells it, the conversation would go thus:
“So, you're in a band then are you? What's it called?”
“Diamond Head.”
“Never heard of yer!”
It seems that the fans didn't like the new progressive direction Diamond Head were going in with this album and the follow-up, “Canterbury”, though I recall them both being excellent albums. I guess that explains, at least in part, why they aren't masters of the metal world.

To my mind, the album finishes on a trio of the best songs on the disc. The boys have, to coin a phrase, kept the best till last. The title track is a seven-minute epic telling the tale of Elric the Kinslayer, with urgent bass runs, dramatic guitar and as ever the passionate voice of Sean Harris weaving the tale. ”I have loved, I have lost/ I have killed those who have loved me so/ I have loved, at what cost/ Lord, I don't know!/ I'm living on borrowed time.” Great song, though again keyboards would really have embellished it and made it a true classic, I believe. It's followed by “Don't you ever leave me”, almost eight minutes long. To be honest, when it starts off it's nothing special, but halfway through Tatler ups the ante and delivers a truly soulful blues section, taking the song from the realm of the mundane into totally different territory. I'm actually really annoyed to find, playing the downloaded CD now, that it has a much shorter version of the track which doesn't include the blues part! Damn!

The closer is a blistering seven-minute-plus again, kicking in with a fantastic version of Holst's “Mars, the Bringer of War” from the “Planets” suite before it metamorphoses into a deft little riff and then takes off as “Am I evil?” gets going. More Black Sabbath than Black Sabbath, this is the song you've been waiting for. A tremendous closer and an example of what Diamond Head could do when they really tried.. ”As I watched my mother die I lost my head/ Revenge now I sought/ To break with my bread/ Taking no chances you'll come with me/ I'll split you to the bone/ I'll set you free.” As it progresses the song speeds up, till it's almost into thrash metal country. It's a great closer, and a final reminder, if one were needed, of the talent of Brian Tatler.

The NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) brought a lot of new bands to the public ear. Some went on and did really well (Iron Maiden, Def Leppard etc), some faded out and died (Quartz, Vardis, Trespass, Fist and hundreds more), and some, taking perhaps bad advice, tried to change at a time when metal was king, and their fans only wanted metal. Prog was, at that time, played by prog bands like Marillion and IQ, and although it would later branch out and reinvent itself as prog metal, this was not the time. Sadly, Diamond Head tried to be all things to all men, and it was their undoing. For all that, I still think “Borrowed time” stands as one of their greatest albums, and certainly showed, if nothing else, what they were capable of.

TRACKLISTING

1. In the heat of the night
2. To Heaven from Hell
3. Call me
4. Lightning to the nations
5. Borrowed time
6. Don't you ever leave me
7. Am I evil?



Suggested further listening: “Canterbury”

Door to door --- The Cars --- 1987 (Elektra)
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The swansong from a band who had brought us the likes of “My best friend's girl”, “Shake it up” and “Just what I needed”, “Door to door” was the follow-up to the multi-platinum “Heartbeat City”, which gave the Cars almost total dominance of the charts in 1983, with its smash hit singles “Drive”, “You might think” and “Magic”. “Heartbeat City” was always going to be a very tough act to follow, and the boys did not rush out a sixth album, taking instead three years to produce what to these ears was their most fitting finale.

It's full of both the quirky, upbeat songs that characterised the Cars in the early 80s, as well as a decent few ballads, with some surprises in store too. Opener “Leave or stay” gets things moving, with some typical cars “talking” keyboard/vocoder, which has become their signature sound , and is a boppy, upbeat number, while “You are the girl”, slightly slower but not much, keeps things rolling in a very pop-oriented way. Both songs in their own way recall elements from the hit single “Magic” from the previous album, while “Double trouble” goes for a much harder approach, very rock with its growling guitars and snarling keyboards, both Elliot Easton on the former and Greg Hawkes on the latter in fine form: three years away from recording does not seem to have dulled their proficiency with their instruments. The songs on “Door to door” are generally short, very little over five minutes and not too many over four --- some in fact less than three --- so there are no epics here, but then that's not the Cars' style. “Heartbeat City” had no songs over five minutes, and many under four. That's what the Cars do – snappy, short, catchy tunes that radio Djs and record labels alike love. A song may be the greatest ever recorded, but if it's six or seven minutes long it's unlikely to get real airplay or chart success, unless as a very truncated version. Pretty much all of the tracks from this album could have been released as singles.

Things slow way down then for “Fine line”, a smouldering little ballad on which we really get to hear the bass work of Benjamin Orr, as well as the drumming talents of David Robinson. Of course, riding high over everything is the ever-distinctive voice of Ric Ocasek, able to go from hyperactive rocker or popstar to moody balladeer at the drop of a hat. Hawkes' pan-pipe-style keyboard work also contributes a lot to this track, and it is in fact the longest on the album, clocking in at 5:22. It's pretty much the one melody throughout, which does not detract from the song at all.

Then it's pedal to the metal again for “Everything you say”, a pleasant, jaunty little rocker with some nice jangly guitar from Easton, almost veering into Country territory, but staying just shy enough of it not to be considered a country song. All songs on the album are written by Ocasek, bar the penultimate one, on which he collaborates with Hawkes. He certainly knows how to write a hit song: he's the Cars' equivalent of Jeff Lynne, and almost everything he turns his hand to turns out well. But what can you say about “Ta ta wayo wayo”, the next one up? Total lunacy, a crazy song which surely must have started out as a jam, it's just great fun and allows the band to blow off some steam, kicking the pace up several notches and showing that the Cars know how to laugh at themselves and have a good time in a way some bands would do well to emulate.

It's back to business then for “Strap me in”, another slowburner, which was actually the highest charting single from the album. I don't personally feel it's better than, say, “Leave or stay”, “Double trouble” or even “Everything you say”, none of which were released as singles, but it's a good track, with quite a heavy vibe, good heavy guitar from Easton, and it leads into a much ligher and boppier “Coming up you” before things slow down completely for “Wound up on you”, another ballad in the vein of “Fine line”. The boys then revisit “You are the girl” for “Go away”, a pleasant track that hops along at a nice mid-pace, almost on cruise control, and could perhaps have been the closer. But it isn't.

Probably poking gentle fun at the punk rock scene, the Cars go wild with the final, and title, track, Easton hammering his guitar like a lunatic, Robinson pounding his kit like Keith Moon at his most frenetic, and Ocasek singing like a cultured Rotten. It's a hilarious end to the album, and as it was to be their last as a band together, a great one to bring down the curtain. As the track crashes to a close, there's even the sound of a slamming door to denote the end. Brilliant.

Although the Cars broke up after this album, they did reform in 2010 and have in fact a new album out this year. However, in the interim Benjamin Orr was taken ill, diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and died in 2000, so for the new album the guys are down to a four-piece, Greg Hawkes taking on bass duty as well as keys. The album was dedicated to Orr's memory, which is only as it should be.

Whether this will be a one-off or a new revival of the Cars remains to be seen, but what is not in doubt is that the original Cars left us a great legacy and a fine final album.

TRACKLISTING

1. Leave or stay
2. You are the girl
3. Double trouble
4. Fine line
5. Everything you say
6. Ta ta wayo wayo
7. Strap me in
8. Coming up you
9. Wound up on you
10. Go away
11. Door to door


Suggested further listening: “Heartbeat city”, “The definitive Cars”, also Ric Ocasek's “This side of Paradise” and Benjamin Orr's “The lace”

Brigade --- Heart --- 1990 (Capitol)
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Yay! I made it to the 90s!! The much-mooted follow-up album to 1987's chart-smashing “Bad animals”, I actually believe “Brigade” to be a far superior album. Although I love “Bad animals”, and that album was in fact my first introduction to Heart, I love this album more. I find it rockier than its predecessor which, on the back of the success of singles like “Alone” and “Who will you run to”, seemed more pop-oriented. There are some fine tracks on this outing, and hardly a bad one, which is not often the case on Heart albums.

The only thing this album suffers from, in my opinion, is the songwriting contribution of mega-producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who penned the truly awful “All I wanna do is make love to you”, the second track on the album. It was a big hit, but the lazy rhyming couplets in it (”So we found this hotel/ It was a place I knew well” and ”Then it happened one day/ We came round the same way/ You can imagine his surprise/ When he saw his own eyes.” What???) really annoyed me. While I would never disparage the man's work --- I know he has won several awards, written some great songs and is one of the most successful and respected producers in the music business ---- everyone can have an off-day and write a turkey, and this one should be on someone's plate with some ham and potatoes at Christmas!

That aside, I have few complaints about this album. It starts off well, rockin' hard with “Wild child”, and things get off to a great start before the aforementioned “All I wanna do...” spoils things briefly, but that's quickly forgotten as “Secret” gets going. It's a powerful ballad in the mould of “Alone”, with Ann Wilson in fine voice as Nancy accompanies her on acoustic guitar, swapping it for her electric during the chorus, then back to acoustic for the verses. Really nice. Kicking back into top gear then for “Tall dark handsome stranger”, a good rocker, great stabbing keyboards here from Howard Leese, managing to make it sound like a whole horn section !

The acoustic intro to “Fallen from grace” is very effective, and sets up a powerful mid-paced rocker, with keyboards recalling Van Halen's 1984 hit “Jump”, and is in fact penned by ex-Halen man Sammy Hagar, with Heart drummer Denny Carmassi. ”I'm left with all these feelings/ But nothing fills the space/ Of the love that once was/ That's fallen from grace.” This starts off a trio of very commercial songs, any of which would have made a good single. “Under the sky”, up next, is another acoustic opening, with a great boppy beat and a terrific line in drums, while “Cruel nights” completes the trio. Written by Dianne Warren, it's a real slice of commercial pop/rock, and leads into “Stranded”, another ballad with a hard edge. There's just time for one more rocker before things wrap up with two slower tracks, and “Call of the wild” fits the bill.

As I say, the album comes to a close on two slow tracks, two ballads, one being “I want your world to turn”, which is the faster of the two, and the final track simply entitled “I love you” is an acoustic-sounding --- though I'm pretty sure it's played on electric guitar --- ballad which gives the finishing touch to a really great album.

I personally consider this to be one of Heart's best efforts, though I haven't yet heard their latest. The two girls are on top of their game all through “Brigade”, and ably supported by the other members of Heart. It would be another three years before they would release the flawed gem that is “Desire walks on”, eleven before the one after that, “Jupiter's darling”, and a further three years before their most recent in 2010, so no-one can say they rush albums! If the result of that length of time between albums is releases the quality of “Brigade”, it's well worth the wait.

TRACKLISTING

1. Wild child
2. All I wanna do is make love to you
3. Secret
4. Tall, dark, handsome stranger
5. I didn't want to need you
6. The night
7. Fallen from grace
8. Under the sky
9. Cruel nights
10. Stranded
11. Call of the wild
12. I want your world to turn
13. I love you



Suggested further listening: “Heart”, “Bad animals”, “Desire walks on”

Late night grande hotel ---- Nanci Griffith --- 1991 (MCA)
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One of my all-time favourite country artistes, Nanci Griffith has to date recorded seventeen studio albums, of which this is her eighth. The production is a little more polished than her previous outings, and there are some quite commercial/pop songs on it, but unlike some artistes who started out as country and branched out to other genres, Nanci has never made the crossover to mainstream music of any kind, nor seemed to want to. She has her dedicated following, and is more interested in writing her own music as well as paying homage to the greats of her genre than having a hit single. This of course means that outside of those who listen to country music, few will know her name, except perhaps for the hit “From a distance”, but she is an accomplished artiste in her own right, and while few rockers may number her albums among their collection, I'm sure there are one or two who have a copy of “Lone star state of mind” or “Last of the true believers” squirreled away.

Personally, I have most of her collection up to 1997's “Blue roses from the moons”, but this remains one of my favourites of hers. Less out-and-out country than, say, “Lone star” or even its follow-up, “Little love affairs”, it's nevertheless a great album, with well-crafted and played songs, most of which are her own compositions.

The album starts off with a bouncy number; “It's just another morning here” finds Nanci as ever in fine voice, and can possibly be seen as autobiographical, a portrait of the artist as a young lady, as it were. It gets things going nicely, before the title track slows everything back down with a stately ballad sung with Nanci's characteristic passion and often pathos. The lines ”It's not the way you hold me/ When the sun goes down/ It's not the way you called my name/ And left me stranded on the ground/ It's not the way you say you hear my heart/ When the music ends/ I am just learning how to fly away again” bring to mind a bad love affair, further backed up by the advice ”Maybe you were thinking that you thought/ You knew me well/ But no-one ever knows the heart/ Of anyone else/ I feel like Garbo in this/ Late night grande hotel/ Cos living alone is all I've ever done well.” It's a great song, backed by a full orchestra and has the drama and flair that has perhaps been missing from earlier albums.

“It's too late” is a short, sharp ode to making do, with backing vocals from Tanita Tikaram, while “Fields of summer” tries to recapture those heady days when we were first in love. Nanci asks ”When the night has come/ And I would race the moon across the sky/ Would you chase me through /Those open fields of summer?” There is some great drumwork here, very restrained when you would expect flourishes and flurries, and it works really well. “Heaven” is the first cover version on the album, and it's by Julie Gold, whose song “From a distance” Nanci included on her “Lone star state of mind” album, and which proved her only crossover hit. Sung against a simple piano melody, it's a powerful little ballad, with a very simple message: ”I think I'll go to Heaven/ Cos Heaven is in your eyes.”

“Down 'n' outer” is a terribly touching tale of someone who has fallen on bad times due to circumstances beyond their control. It tries to humanise the beggars we all see, and pass, on our streets every day, to remind us that these are men, and women, who were once as we are, and that “there but for the grace of God go I.” It has some excellent lines: ”Can you spare a dime/ Can you spare the time/ Can you look me in the eye?/ I'm down and out and I am lonely/ Do you ever think of me on Sunday?” and tellingly ”No I don't live across the water/ I live right here on this corner/ I'm just a bank account away/ From America.” Powerful stuff, and sung with real soul.

Nanci has fun with the privileged in “One blade shy of a sharp edge”, in a similar vein to Judie Tzuke on “Sportscar” (huh?), laughing at a guy who thinks his big car and money will attract her, but he had better look elsewhere, as she explains ”I'm a full-grown woman/ And you're lookin' for girls”, while “The sun, moon and stars” is a bittersweet little ballad, a lovely little song, and the album closes on a Tom Waits cover, from his second album, “The heart of Saturday night”; she picked a good one in “San Diego serenade”, and she makes a very good go of it, though of course no-one sings Waits songs like Waits.

Nanci seldom if ever produces a less than excellent album, and “Late night grande hotel” keeps up the tradition set by such albums as “Lone star state of mind” and “Storms”. Somewhat disliked by a section of her fans due to its more commercial/pop sound, it's nevertheless a great effort and a good example of an artiste who is not afraid to spread her wings and fly, if only a little way.

TRACKLISTIING

1. It's just another morning here
2. Late night grande hotel
3. It's too late
4. Fields of summer
5. Heaven
6. The power lines
7. Hometown streets
8. Down 'n' outer
9. One blade shy of a sharp edge
10. The sun, moon and stars
11. San Diego serenade



Suggested further listening: “Storms”, “Lone star state of mind”, “Little love affairs”, “Flyer”, “Other voices, other rooms”, “Once in a very blue moon”, “Last of the true believers”

I'm intrigued. Not crazy about some of these songs, but very interested to see how they flow together. Will report back!

Thx NSW! Appreciate the comment. Do let me know your thoughts once you've listened to the mix.

Troll

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I've been talking for some time now about starting a new section which would focus on one particular artiste I admire, giving an introduction to them and their music, and telling you as much as I know or can find out about them. This is the first in that series, and features one of my all-time favourites, Steve Earle. Hope you enjoy it.
(Note: As usual, due to entry restrictions I have to split this into two parts. )
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Just a Regular Guy, doin' it the Hard Way --- an introduction to Steve Earle
PART I: “I WONDER WHAT'S OVER THAT RAINBOW?”
There have of course been crossover acts for almost as long as music has been popular, from early jazz fusing with emerging rock'n'roll, blues tipping over into motown, even classical music has made the leap, at times, into a new and perhaps unexpected genre (remember those sexy lady violinists, Bond?). But one of the major crossovers in the past twenty years or so has been the slow and sometimes unnoticed proliferation of country and western as it sticks a cowboy boot gingerly over the fence into rock country, and pop country. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but in general country has become more accepted in the pop/rock sector these days than perhaps it would have been in earlier decades.

The likes of Leanne Rimes, Faith Hill, and (shudder!) Garth Brooks have all flown the flag for country in the pop arena, and of course the most successful and highest-profile crossover has been the Eagles, who made country music cool with their “Hotel California” album, bringing country to a whole new audience. Granted, there are those who would say that album is about as far removed from country as Dave Grohl is from chamber music, but the fact remains that, whatever they morphed into along the way, the Eagles began their careers as a full-out country band --- just listen to their earlier albums if you doubt me.

Of course, as Gloria Estefan once wrote, it cuts both ways, and more than one established rock or pop star has tried their hand at penning or singing country songs, again with mixed results. There are many reasons why a singer or band specialising in one area of music will try to break into another, or often more than one, the first and usually most important being cash: it's obvious that if you start out as, say, a blues guitarist and then break into the pop circuit, or indeed the country realm, you make more converts to your music and this translates into more sales, both of albums and concert tickets, to say nothing of the ever-lucrative merchandising deals. All of which equals more Dollars, Euro, Sterling or the currency of your choice in your bank account, or more likely, your manager and/or record label's account!

But there can be other reasons. Sometimes, it's a genuine interest in another music form, an experiment if you will, that causes your music to reach new ears. Sometimes it's boredom and frustration at perhaps the restrictions your particular area of music places upon you (not too many wild guitar solos in the world of electronica, nor songs about cowsheds or truck drivers in the punk pantheon!), and sometimes it may of course be your label pushing you to explore new territory, ie give them more opportunities to make money out of you! Then of course there is the chance meeting/jam with someone from another music spectrum who, after having played with them, opens your eyes as an artist to new possibilities you had perhaps not before considered.

And then of course, there's chance, or more correctly word-of-mouth, the fact that your music just sort of organically grows outside its own limits, when people come to see you play, or people hear you on the radio or see you on the TV (or these days, stumble across you via Youtube et al!), or even are recommended your music, either through a friend or an article in a magazine, and suddenly you find that you have a lot of new fans, and though your music is not exactly what they would usually listen to, it's making the transition and you're becoming more than the sum of your parts.

Where these crossovers have been less successful though, in general, is from country to rock. Country to pop, certainly, but actual rock? Not too many have made that transition, and whereas some rock and metal acts have flirted with the inclusion of country tracks on their albums (we all remember Poison's “Every rose has its thorn”, of course, and to some extent Bon Jovi's “Wanted dead or alive” could be considered at least partially country in its themes if not its actual execution, as could “Dry county”), typically the avenue has been more or less one-way and quite limited.

All of which leads us, via a very meandering road, to a young man who at age 14 decided what he wanted to do more than anything else in the world was play music. Stephen Fain Earle began a music career under the patronage of legendary country rocker Townes Van Zandt, and although his first actual album was more a rockabilly affair than a country one, what is generally accepted to be his first “real” album, “Guitar town”, is pure country. Released in 1986, its themes explore mostly the feeling of being at a loose end, or a crossroads in your life, the idea of being left behind, feeling the world is passing you by, and somehow knowing that there is something better out there. Most of the songs on the album reflect this, including the title track, “Hillbilly highway” and “Someday”, while others tackle other issues, issues that were to crop up and become more important in Earle's later life, and recordings.

“Think it over” and “Goodbye's all we got left” are standard songs about love, however they're not as might be expected ballads. The former tips a nod back to Earle's early (ahem!) days with rockabilly, whereas “Goodbye...” is a straight-ahead country-rocker. “Good ol' boy (getting' tough)” is a rant against the way the “little guy” is getting stepped on in Modern America, and how hard it is to get by, a theme that would re-occur through his later albums. He sings of his truck which ”Belongs to me and the bank/ And some funny-talkin' guy from Iran.”

Though there were some inklings of the rock power that would come to the fore on his later recordings here, “Guitar town”, despite its rock'n'roll title, is primarily a country album, and it would take his next release, “Exit 0” before the true rock roots would begin to break through. Nevertheless, his debut did get him nominated for two Grammys and noticed by mostly rock critics, whereas the country boys didn't seem to get it, at first. This would change with time, and in 2006 it was recognised by CMT (Country Music TV, the country equivalent of MTV) as one of the forty greatest country albums of all time. Not only that, but country legend Emmylou Harris covered the title track, no doubt a great honour to Earle.

The next year saw the release of his second album, the altogether more rocky “Exit 0”. With songs like “Angry young man”, “The rain came down” and “San Antonio girl”, the country was still there but was now beefed up by music that could comfortably sit alongside any rocker's music collection. It was rock, Jim, but not as we know it. There were still the country songs (and probably always will be on Earle's albums, as he's never denied or disparaged his connection to country music), like “Nowhere Road”, “No. 29” and the hugely enjoyable “Week of living dangerously”, plus some classy ballads. Credited to “Steve Earle and the Dukes”, the Dukes being his backing band, this was one of only two albums that bore that legend, and led to another two Grammy nominations for Steve.

It wasn't however until the following year that Earle broke completely over into the rock spectrum, with the release of 1988's “Copperhead Road”. The album is reviewed in its entireity on page one of my journal, so I won't go into too much detail about it here, but it did earn praise from both Rolling Stone and The New York Times, and established Earle as a bona-fide rock artist, albeit with country blood (or, one suspects, oil!) in his veins. He took two years to craft his next album, also released as “Steve Earle and the Dukes”, and in 1990 “The hard way” was released. Far more a rock record with echoes of country, this was how much of Steve's output (with some notable exceptions) would turn out from now on. It's a powerful album, with not one bad track, dealing with themes as diverse as the death penalty (“Billy Austin”), political responsibility (“When the people find out”) and murder (“Justice in Ontario”). Much of the mood of the album is centred on individuality or maverickism (is that a word?), like opener “The other kind”, and more powerfully “This highway's mine (Roadmaster)”.

Steve Earle's gritty voice is a sort of a cross between Tom Waits, Kenny Rogers's tougher brother and Springsteen, and he possesses a natural flair for tapping into the mind and heart of the common man. He writes songs about people primarily, making points --- political, religious or philosophical --- through the medium of his lyrics. He does not shy away from the more difficult, controversial topics, as evidenced on his 2002 outing “Jerusalem”, where he wrote “John Walker's Blues”, a song about John Walker Lindh, an American who joined the Taliban. His use of the phrase “There is no god but God” in the lyric, and the Islamic chant in the chorus, got a lot of people's backs up, but did not stop him from including it on the album. Renegade, maverick, lone wolf... call him what you will, Earle is not afraid to stand up for, and more importantly, write and sing about, what he believes in, and what he believes is right. A staunch opponent of the death penalty, he has written many songs on the subject, spoken at rallies and written about it, and campaigned heavily against the taking of a man's life for his crimes. He has been in trouble with the law himself, in his earlier days running guns and being involved with drugs, activities which eventually landed him in jail. On his release in 1994 he had kicked the heroin habit and began turning his life around, recording and releasing two albums in the same year. Almost.

Personally, “Train a-comin'” wasn't for me. Returning to his country roots, Earle recorded the album acoustically, and played with some other famous country stars on the album, including Emmylou herself. I need to listen to it more, perhaps, but my first impressions of it were such that, personally, I never felt the urge to revisit it. Perhaps that's something long overdue. At any rate, the album was again nominated for a Grammy (his first nomination since “Exit 0”, tellingly), and was joined fifteen months later by “I feel alright”, again with a country feel but more of the rock idea we had got used to on albums like “Copperhead Road” and “The hard way”. I like this album, and although as mentioned I probably didn't give “Train a-comin'” the attention it may deserve, this felt like an album of release, that is to say, it sounded like someone coming out of the darkness and into the light.

The opening tracks, the title track and follow-up “Hard core troubadour” set the mood for the album, and it's almost impossible not to hear the cries of “Hallelujah! I have been saved!” in the joyful lyrics, which is not to in any way slight Earle's time in jail, and the changes it forced upon him, or to suggest that he “found God” in jail: I have no idea whether or not he's a believer. He certainly believes in something. But there is a definite sense of redemption about this album. Perhaps a weaker man would have given up after two years of incarceration, and addiction to Sweet Lady H, but Steve Earle seems to prove the old quote “That which does not kill me only makes me stronger.” Interestingly, there's a track on it called “South Nashville Blues”, whereas on “The hard way” you can find “West Nashville Boogie.”

(Part two follows, stay tuned...)

PART II: THE REVOLUTION STARTS....
Obviously energised by his release back into society, Steve kept up the pressure and the next year saw the release of what I personally believe to be one of his finest albums, 1997's “El corazon”. Spanish for heart, the title said it all, and the songs are certainly written from the heart. A lighter tone characterises the album, though you wouldn't guess it from opener “Christmas in Washington”, a politically-heavy fugue, or second track, “Taneytown”, addressing racial segration, but the bulk of the songs are stories of love and life, like “I still carry you around”, “If you fall”, “Somewhere out there” and “Here I am”, with some positively fun ones like “You know the rest” and “NYC”. This is an album of songs by a man who has testified, repented and made amends, and now just wants to get back to having a good time making music. Steve also employed the talents of the Del McCoury Band on one of the tracks here, an outfit with whom he would later collaborate on an entire album, “The Mountain”. I can't comment on that album, as I haven't heard it, but I believe it was basically bluegrass in nature, and well received.

Halfway through the first year of the new millennium and I had a definite favourite Steve Earle album. “Transcendental Blues” is a real return to form for Steve, featuring two “Irish” songs, the exuberant “Steve's last ramble”, on which he's accompanied by accordion star Sharon Shannon, and she also contributes to “The Galway girl”, another fine piece of songwriting, and damn good fun! The album has its darker side though, particularly the closer, “Over yonder (Jonathan's song)”, which again tackles the subject of the death penalty. This song was in fact based on a real person, whom Earle wrote to in prison and whose execution, at the prisoner's request, he attended. It's a powerful, emotional song, carrying as it does the last wishes and testament of the condemned man: ”Send my bible home to momma/ Call her every now and then” and where he apologises to his victim(s) and those left behind to mourn them: ”The world'll turn around without me/ Sun'll come up in the east/ Shinin' down on those who hate me/ I hope my going gives 'em peace.” You can't help but be moved. The only low point on the album, for me, is “The boy who never cried”. It's a doomy, plodding, quite boring and frankly monotonous song, which does not belong on this, or indeed any Steve Earle album. I've listened to it quite a few times, trying to like it, trying to see if there is something there I'm missing, but it now induces me to press the SKIP button whenever I spin this album. On balance though, definitely in the top three Steve Earle albums in my opinion.

It was two years before Steve's next album, and to be perfectly honest, I was disappointed. After the unshackled brilliance of “Transcendental blues”, I found “Jerusalem” very much lacking. There are good songs on it, but few great ones. It's based on a concept of America post-9/11, and this is reflected in the second track, “Amerika v 6.0”. Subtitled (“the best that we can do”) it's fairly obvious that the spelling of America is meant to reflect a sort of shadowy neo-Nazi/far right political force which Earle believes (probably quite rightly) is threatening the American way of life, and capitalising on the tragedy of the September 11th attacks. It's a harsh, unforgiving song, with little time for the “America the brave” jingoism that characterised much of the output from the US in the years 2001-2002. The lyric speaks for itself: ”There's doctors down on Wall Street/ Sharpenin' their scalpels and tryin' to cut a deal/ Meanwhile, back at the hospital/ We got accountants playin' God and countin' out the pills/ Yeah, I know, that sucks – that your HMO/ Ain't doin' what you thought it would do...”

The tone of the album doesn't really lighten, except for one or two tracks like “I remember you” with backing vocals by the great Emmylou Harris, “Go Amanda” (with help from Sheryl Crow) and the closer and title track. It's an album for realists, and there's little hope, false or otherwise, there. Steve plays a virtual plethora of instruments on the album, from guitar and mandolin to bass, organ and harmonica, and yet still assembles a full band, including one Patrick Earle on drums. Whether he's a relation to Steve or not I don't know, though his sister Stacey does sing on “Transcendental blues”.

This ain't an album you put on if you're a) a flag-waving patriot or b) depressed and want to cheer up, but it's a very gritty, powerful, outspoken and indeed brave recording, in particular the inclusion of “John Walker's blues”, which as already mentioned was about an American, John Walker Lindh, who “defected” to join the Taliban, and was therefore considered a traitor by most Americans. Steve takes a very straightforward and non-partisan look at what makes someone do such a thing, but of course even though he was careful not to be seen to be supporting terrorism, he got accused of it anyway, leading him to remark that he was simply empathizing with Lindh and attempting to understand his motivation through song rather than glorifying or forgiving terrorism. He said that, as a parent, he was moved by pictures of Lindh bound to a stretcher. "For some reason when I saw him on TV, I related it to my son. That skinny and that age, exactly. I thought, he's got parents somewhere, and they must be sick.” (Courtesy Wikipedia, from David McGee's “Steve Earle: Fearless heart, outlaw poet”)

Steve's next release would be two years later again, when in 2004 he unleashed “The revolution starts now”, timed as it happened to coincide with the eventually failed (ie doomed) presidential bid by Democratic candidate John Kerry. The album is bracketed by tracks entitled “The revolution starts...” as an opener and the full title track for the closer, and features a lot of (as expected) songs directed against the war against terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and US foreign policy in general. Songs like “The gringo's tale”, “Rich man's war”, “Warrior” and the hilariously tongue-in-cheek-insult of “Condi, Condi” all form part of Steve's mission statement for this album. But it has its lighter side too. “Home to Houston” is the tale of a trucker working in Iraq who just wants to get back home, while “I thought you should know” is a beautiful little piece of bittersweet country waltz, which would be at home in the hands of Willie Nelson, Randy Travis or even the late great Man in Black himself. Superb.

But the best track on the album I believe is the side-splittingly titled “F the CC”, which contains the glorious lyric ”F**k the FCC/ F**k the FBI/ F**k the CIA/ Livin' in the motherf**kin' USA!” Oh Steve, you devil! I'm sure many artists would agree with you. Again we see Patrick Earle in the credits, drumming away, and I'm beginning to feel like this may be Steve's own son?

Three years later, and having scooped a Grammy for “The revolution”, Steve returned with “Washington Square serenade”, itself also winning a Grammy, and the first of his albums to feature his current (and seventh!) wife, Alison Moorer, on one of the tracks, “Days aren't long enough”. It's a powerful album, continuing many of the themes explored on the previous outing, with probably one of the best tracks on it being the almost nuclear-angry “Red is the colour”, on which you can just sense the veins throbbing on Earle's powerful neck as he spits out ”Bad news everybody talkin’ ‘bout/ A short fuse a half an inch from burnin’ out/ All used up beyond a reasonable doubt/ Make way for his majesty the prodigal king/ Still taste the poison when you’re kissin’ the ring/ Don’t say he never gave you anything !”

That aside though, the highlight for me is that he includes a really good cover of one of Tom Waits' songs, “Way down in the hole”, from “Frank's wild years”. Apparently his version of the song replaced the one used on seasons 1-4 of the TV show “The Wire” for the final season 5, and Steve himself played a recurring character in the show. Oh yeah, and checking down the personnel list, there he is again: Patrick Earle on drums!

It's been four years since Steve released another album, putting aside the tribute to his friend and mentor Townes Van Zandt, released in 2009, but this year he's back with a new one. I haven't yet heard a chance to hear “I'll never get out of this world alive”, but I'm hoping it's a continuation of the excellence shown on his last few records. Once I get to listen to it a few times you can bet it'll be here on my journal to be reviewed.

So that's our first “Centre Stage” entry written and posted. Definitely one of my favourite singers and songwriters; musician, writer, poet, activist, actor and all-round good guy. If you haven't checked Steve Earle out up to now, hopefully the writeup and the Youtube extracts here have convinced you to give him a try. You won't be sorry. So, if you “Feel alright” and are in need of some “Transcendental blues”, mosey on down to “Copperhead Road”, cos there's a “Train a-comin'” and it's headed non-stop right into the heart of “Guitar Town”. The revolution starts now!

On air --- Alan Parsons --- 1996 (Digital Sound)
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The second of Alan Parsons' solo efforts, “On air” was conceived with ex-Alan Parsons Project guitarist Ian Bairnson, and is a concept album, based on the theme of flight. It kicks off with a short little snippet of a song which will later be heard in its entireity, called “Blue blue sky”. The track begins with the sound of birdsong, then acoustic guitar as the vocal is sung in leisurely fashion by Eric Stewart, who sings one other track and will also reprise this in full later. This leads into “Too close to the sun”, as Parsons goes right back into antiquity and legend to relate the tale of Icarus. It's a basically keyboard-led song, with you-know-who at the keys, some nice sax and a taped part halfway where some children talk about the Icarus legend in the innocent way of the very young. Neil Lockwood takes vocal duties on this, while Stewart is back for “Blown by the wind”, a ballad but much more guitar-led, based on the sport of hot-air ballooning, which ties in nicely with the album sleeve. There's a great sense of freedom in the lyric, as the wind takes the balloon away, up into the blue: ”Now everything that we possess/ That fills our empty lives/ Is only good for leaving far behind.” Often felt like that!

Although this is credited as an Alan Parsons album, it's Ian Bairnson who writes or co-writes every song but one, with Parsons collaborating on four of the eleven tracks. One of those four is the next track, “Cloudbreak”, which is an instrumental, starting off with the sound of a propellor engine starting up. It's an uptempo track, lots of good keyboard but again mostly guitar, played by Bairnson himself. Definitely gives the idea of flight: you could imagine it as the backing track on one of those National Geographic shows or something like “Classic Aircraft”.

The fear of flying, a phobia many live with in their daily lives, is dealt with next in “I can't look down”, with Neil Lockwood again taking the mike. The track begins in very Alan Parsons Project style, with recordings of air traffic control over the opening, a sharp guitar as Lockwood sings ”Another passenger/ Your baggage, thank you sir/ I don't want to go!/ What am I doing here? / I feel so sick with fear/ Lord, please don't let it show!” As reluctant passenger settling into his seat, he worries ”What if the engine dies?/ These are no friendly skies.” It's a good rocky track, something in the mould of “Let's talk about me” from APP's “Vulture culture” album, and written entirely by Bainson.

Things get slow, and indeed spiritual next, for “Brother up in Heaven”, a song written by Bainson in honour and remembrance of his cousin, who was shot down over Iraq in a friendly-fire incident. It's a haunting piece, and you can feel the genuine pain in the lyric. It's a piano-led ballad, Parsons expertly restrained at the keyboard. Lockwood again takes vocals for this extremely personal song, and it's quite a highlight of the album as he sings ”It's strange here without you/ And it's so hard to see/ So brother up in Heaven/ Please wait up for me.” Some truly heartfelt guitar work from Bainson really nails this down as his song.

Another dedication, the next track, “Fall free”, while not a ballad, is a homage to skysurfing champion Rob Harris, who died in 1995 while filming a commercial. For this song the guys draft in the vocal talents of FM's Steve Overland, and he does a great job on it. Starting off low-key, with just bass and then electric guitar, the song mushrooms into a powerful ode to the fallen skysurfer. It's followed then by a very curious instrumental, bass-led with good synth lines, which uses audio clips of former president John F. Kennedy talking about the importance of going to the moon to make its point.
“Apollo” is about as close as Alan Parons has come to house music, and in some ways is quite reminscent of “Urbania” from “Stereotomy”, but with a much bouncier beat. You could dance to this!

“So far away” remembers the Space Shuttle program, is another ballad and has a very downbeat ending: ”Now they cry for justice/ As if justice will be done/ But the eye up in the sky/ Is flying too close to the sun/ Challenger is falling/ And the race has now been run.” Despite its doom-laden message, that's a very clever piece of writing, as it mentions Alan Parons Project album “Eye in the sky” and also one of the previous tracks, “Too close to the sun”. Another guest star on vocals here, this time the inimitable Christopher Cross.

In many ways, the centrepiece of the album is the penultimate track, “One day to fly”, which starts off as something of a ballad but changes halfway into an uptempo rocker, cataloguing the first efforts of Leonardo da Vinci to create flying machines, how he was ridiculed at the time, and how his vision came true, albeit hundreds of years after his death. ”Just a charcoal sketch on canvas/ Made them laugh, but now they see/ That the artist had a vision / That the wind would set us free.” It becomes a powerful little track and ends very dramatically, with a very typical Alan Parsons Project hook, leading into the closer, the full version of “Blue blue sky”, with Eric Stewart again on vocals, bringing the album full circle.

If you like the Alan Parsons Project the chances are you will like this album. If you're a fan of well-crafted and produced songs, you're probably going to like it. And if you're an aircraft enthusiast or have any interest in flight, it may have something to say to you. There's hardly a bad track on it, and I would certainly recommend it.

TRACKLISTING

1. Blue blue sky
2. Too close to the sun
3. Blown by the wind
4. Cloudbreak
5. I can't look down
6. Brother up in Heaven
7. Fall free
8. Apollo
9. So far away
10. One day to fly
11. Blue blue sky



Suggested further listening: “Try anything once”; also, by the Alan Parsons Project the following: “Eye in the sky”, “Pyramid”, “Ammonia Avenue”, “Stereotomy”, “Gaudi”, “Eve”, “Vulture culture”, “The turn of a friendly card”

Behind the mask --- Fleetwood Mac --- 1990 (Reprise)
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Often somewhat forgotten among the likes of “Rumours”, “Mirage” and the multi-platinum “Tango in the night”, 1990's “Behind the mask” is a very capable little album. Fleetwood Mac could have turned out a simple replica of the mega-successful “Tango”, but instead they created a solid, mature album that, although it had nothing like the success of its predecessor, still featured the band at their best, even without Lindsey Buckingham, and which contains some truly excellent tracks. It's an album that should not be forgotten, so here I am to remind you how good it is.

As mentioned, the previous album had completely put a somewhat ailing band firmly back on the map, and in the charts. Prior to 1987's “Tango in the night”, Fleetwood Mac were remembered mostly for hit singles like “Rhiannon”, “Dreams” and “Go your own way”, mostly from the records-shattering “Rumours”, so when this album came on the scene no-one really expected that much. It had in fact been five years since their last moderately successful release, 1982's “Mirage”, but “Tango” blew that out of the water. And the problem with mega-success like that is that is it generally very hard to trump it, even equal it. In many ways, you could say that “Tango” was too successful, taking everyone, including the band, by surprise and leaving them with the ever-worrying problem of following up such a huge smash hit.

In the event, it wasn't possible. Something like 1977's “Rumours”, “Tango” was a one-off, a phenomenon that perhaps just came at the right time. It's a great album, but had it been released a few years later maybe it might not have been so well received. The right music, at the right time, perhaps, a set of happy circumstances? Whatever, it left their next project under the oppressive cloud of having to live up to that album, and to be fair, “Behind the mask” never came close.

Perhaps people expected the same sort of poppy, radio-friendly hits that spewed from “Tango” like a candy machine, but this album is different. I would say it's more mature, and in terms of “Tango” being close to a pop record, this is more correctly rock. It starts off with “Skies the limit” (sic) a pretty little pop jingle, with Christine McVie in fine form, but it's essentially forgettable, and any possibility that this was going to be “Tango part 2” is dispelled when the second track gets going. “Love is dangerous” is a rocky, bluesy little number, and if they no longer have Lindsey Buckingham on guitar, he's ably made up for by both Rick Vito AND Billy Burnette. Stevie Nicks sings this one, and is at her raunchy best, similar to songs like “Stand back” and “Enchanted” from her own solo albums.

This then leads into a much heavier and slower track, the introspective “In the back of my mind”, which starts off with what sounds like backwards-masking on the vocals, a sort of slow jungle drumbeat, swirling synths with a long intro --- about two minutes of the seven-plus the track runs for --- before the guitars chime in and the song proper gets going. It's mostly a male vocal, though whether it's Burnette or Vito I don't know, as each are credited with vocals on the album. Stevie Nicks provides the backing vocals and the song is a slow churner, smouldering along for the remainder. Definitely NOT written with radio airplay in mind.

There are a few ballads on the album, as you would expect, best of them probably being
“Do you know”, a typical Fleetwood Mac song, a semi-ballad that should really have made it as a single. But it's “Save me”, faster and more commercial that made it as one of the three singles, and had the most success in the charts. It's an enjoyable song, with some good harmonies and great guitar. There are quite a few hard rockers on the album, notably “Stand on the rock”, “Freedom” and the delightfully rockabilly “When the sun goes down”, but it's tracks like “In the back of my mind” and the title track that really make this album stand out as a more aggressive and mature offering from a band who had by now almost become synonymous with the likes of “Seven wonders” and “Little lies”.

One of the standout tracks on the album, although written by neither, could very well refer to the troubled personal history between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, the acid “Hard feelings”, one of the most honest love/anti-love songs I've heard in quite a long time. ”I've got hard feelings/ When it come to you and me/ And these hard feelings/ Just won't let me be/ These hard feelings run deep.” Indeed.

As I say, a much more mature and rockier album than its predecessor, and anyone who was expecting a continuation of “Tango in the night” would certainly have been disappointed. It was a bold step for the band, avoiding the easy path of churning out more hits and further diluting their unique sound, and it hurt them commercially, the album yielding only one major single. Indeed, it was five years before they released their next album, and really, that wasn't what I'd call Fleedwood Mac, as neither of the ladies were involved, so the next proper Mac record was not till 2003, when they came back triumphantly with “Say you will”, proving that they still had it.

If all you know of Fleetwood Mac is “Tango” (or the singles from it), do yourself a favour and listen to this to hear a true rock band breaking out of the mould the record labels and popular trends tried to force them into.
And listen to “Rumours”, too, before you're much older....

TRACKLISTING

1. Skies the limit
2. Love is dangerous
3. In the back of my mind
4. Do you know
5. Save me
6. Affairs of the heart
7. When the sun goes down
8. Behind the mask
9. Stand on the rock
10. Hard feelings
11. Freedom
12. When it comes to love
13. The second time

Lady in red? I'll give ya Lady in Red!
 

Crusader --- Chris de Burgh --- 1979 (A&M)
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(First of all let me preface this review by advising/warning you that I have a real bone to pick with Chris de Burgh --- two, in fact; one general one and one to do with this album --- and will be verbally slinging a lot of mud in his direction. I've waited a long time to be able to air my views on him, and here seems the perfect place. Given that, though, do be advised that I am/was a fan, loved his early music and although I take serious issue with the title track on this album (see the review for more on that) I do love the album and will not in any way be slating it. I mention this because it may get a little wearing for some people. If you prefer to read just the review and ignore my rantings on the man himself, you are of course free to skip directly to that point. Hey! Where are you going? Did you think I was serious???)

God-damn Chris de Burgh, anyway! I loved his music up until the point he released that cringeworthy single, and it became a hit. After (I can hardly bring myself to utter its name!) “Lady in red”, de Burgh ceased to become a serious artist for me and became just another mainstream pop performer. The validity of classic albums like “The getaway”, “Spanish train” and of course this one remains, but after “LiR” I never again listened to a CdB track, never mind an album.

What really annoyed me about that record was that a) he could write so much better! LiR was a single more suited to the likes of Boyzone or Backstreet Boys, or a hundred other vacuous pop bands. It was unworthy of him, and yet now he is best remembered, commercially, for that odious single. And b) the ridiculous, pompous, condescending “story” he told about its writing. I remember seeing him talking to one of our national TV chat show hosts, and the explanation he gave was thus: “Have you ever gone to a party, and seen this gorgeous woman dancing, walking around, charming everyone? You fall in love with her instantly, and want to know who she is, wish you could know her. And then you realise she's your wife?”

Well? Anyone? Eh, no Chris, because we all live in the real world, and most of us who are married either go to parties to escape our not-so-beautiful wives, or drag them along hoping to slip away and check out the talent later. That's not really fair, is it? I'm sure many of us go to parties and have a great time with our wives, but has ANYONE EVER had the experience Chris cites above? I'd be willing to bet a month's wages no-one has. If I still worked. Which I don't. But I still bet the percentage would be close to zero percent.

That's what annoys me about him: the disconnect from the common man. NO-ONE could ever give that story any sort of credence, no-one could identify with it, so why did he tell it? To rub in our faces how beautiful his wife is? Sadly, but perhaps inevitably, the curse of the “song-for-the-wife” duly hit, and they split up. I bet that song haunts him now, and cackles in his head late at night. I sure hope it does. It's always a bad idea to write a song for/about your wife or girlfriend, almost as bad an idea as getting their name tattooed on your body. Nothing lasts forever, and unless you're very lucky, you'll regret doing such a thing. I guess in some ways having a song written for or about her is seen as the end for the wife or SO: what can you do to top that? Surely this is as good as it's ever going to get? It usually is, and the only way from there is down.

So, like most sane people, I hated hated HATED “The lady in red”, and still do, and will to my dying day. But that doesn't stop me from appreciating de Burgh's earlier work, and although as I say I have an issue --- a major issue --- with the title track, I think “Crusader” stands as one of his best albums.

------- Rant over, for now. Review begins ------ Rant over, for now. Review begins ------ Rant over, for

His fourth album, and following on from the somewhat low-key and not entirely successful “At the end of a perfect day”, “Crusader” hits all the right spots. It's peppered (typically) with love songs, has some quite rocky tunes, some quiet, introspective ones, and of course has the powerhouse title track, all almost nine minutes of it. If I had to pick a favourite CdB track and album, I think the answer to both would be “Spanish train”, with perhaps “Borderline” from “The getaway” coming an honourable second, but the trouble with “Spanish train” is that it does suffer from a few duff tracks, whereas “Crusader”, for the most part, is a tour-de-force of songwriting and musical talent. Helped out by most of the Alan Parsons Project here, Chris de Burgh produced an album that, at the very tail-end of the seventies, was years ahead of its time.

It starts off with “Carry on”, which starts gently, like a ballad, but then kicks into high gear and gets the album going in fine style before things slow down for the first of the many ballads. “I had the love in my eyes” is a warning to appreciate your lover, as they may end up being taken away by another man if you don't pay them enough attention. ”Show me a man secure in his love”, offers de Burgh, ”And I'll show you a lucky man.” Wise words. It's very Leo Sayer-like in its melody, almost a waltz of sadness. It's followed immediately by another ballad, the far superior “Something else again”, in which de Burgh places his woman on a pedestal. ”If a man should say to you/ Love just brings you pain/ Tell him no/ My woman's something else again.” It's a very loving ballad, and somehow, despite the starry-eyed optimism of it, fails to drown you in sugar. It actually sounds quite sincere.

It leads into one of the absolute masterpieces on the album. When I was much younger, and had no money for records, nor even anything to play them on, should I somehow cobble the necessary five or six pounds together, I got my music --- like most people --- from the radio, mostly late at night when I couldn't sleep. It was there that I first heard the legendary “Spanish train”, as well as the somewhat overused “A spaceman came travelling”, and this song too. “The girl with April in her eyes” is just a perfect fairytale set to music, as a girl comes to a palace, seeking shelter for the night, but is turned away. She finds succour with a common man, and dies in his cottage. He buries her, and is amazed the next morning, when, in the heart of winter, he sees her grave covered in flowers. ”The morning was bright/ All the world snow-white/ But when he came to the place where she lay/ His field was ablaze/ With flowers on the grave/ Of the girl with April in her eyes.” It still makes me tear up.

It's made even more poignant by the fact that we are introduced to the bad king in the opening lines, and told he wishes for winter to go away: ”There once was a king/ Who called for the spring/ For his world was all covered in snow.” Here, he has his chance but misses it through his wickedness and lack of humanity. As in many of de Burgh's songs, the nobility are seen as generally bad (see “The Tower” on “Spanish train”) and the commoner good (again on “Spanish train”, “Just another poor boy”), as the poor man helps the girl and is rewarded by the flowering of his fields. The song is played against a simple acoustic guitar and de Burgh's wracked, agonised voice as he cries ”On and on she flies/ Someone help the girl with April in her eyes!”

This for me typifies what Chris de Burgh was about, back in the seventies and eighties, before he got seduced by the easy money and the empty pop song. Even when he turns up the juice he could still rock out a great song back in those days, as “The Devil's eye” demonstrates (sorry), with the voice of Satan coming through the TV, using it to enslave all of humanity without them even being aware of it. The band really get going on this, with a great guitar solo halfway through. There's also a cheeky reference to previous album “Spanish train” on it, excellent, as the title track of that album also features the Devil.

It is of course though the title track that is the centrepiece of this album, and whereas it's completely revisionist history, and has virtually no basis in fact at all, it's a great song, split into four sections and running for 8:48. Just to be pedantic, and to get this out of my system, I now intend to use the rest of this review to historically adjust the lyric, so you'll have to bear with me if you will. If you can ignore the historical inaccuracies and the huge, almost criminal liberties taken with the truth for the purposes of making this an exciting story to tell with music, you will find “Crusader” a fantastic piece of music, a great song and a real opus that (almost) closes the album. Just don't use it as the basis for any report on the Crusades, ok?

Part I; The Fall of Jerusalem:- Begins with the “bishop” (read, the Pope) lamenting the fall of the Holy City and asking what can be done to regain it? His priest tells him he must sanction a crusade, and that the knights of Europe will take the city back for him, and for God. The whole piece is backed by nothing more than an acoustic guitar, sounding like a medieval lute, and de Burgh's voice.

”'What do I do next?' said the bishop to the priest/ I have spent my whole life waiting/ Preparing for the feast/ And now you tell me Jerusalem has fallen and is lost/ The king of heathen Saracen/ Has seized the holy Cross'” ---- The Muslims had not “seized” the Holy Land. They were there first, and it was the Christians who, during the First Crusade, took it from them in the “name of God”.

Then the priest said 'Oh my Bishop/ You must put them to the sword/ For God in all His mercy/ Will find a just reward/ For the noble men and sinners/ And knights of ready hand/ Who will be the Lord's Crusaders/ Send word throughout the land/ Jerusalem is lost.” --- This was nothing more than a chance to gather together men who were at a loose end, fighters and killers who at the moment had no war to fight in, and who would kill at the drop of a hat. It was also the Pope's chance and intention to deal a crippling blow to Islam, and take “back” the Holy Land, proving once and for all that Christianity was the most powerful religion in the world. As ever, East versus West.

'Tell me what do do'/ Said the king upon his throne/ 'But speak to me in whispers/ For we are not alone/ They tell me that Jerusalem has fallen to the hand/ Of some bedevilled eastern heathen/ Who has seized the Holy Land.'” And the reply comes ”Lord, we must call upon our foes/ In Spain and France and Germany/ End our bitter wars/ All Christian men must be as one/ And gather for the fight/ You will be their leader/ Begin the battle cry.'”

The muslims were not bedevilled, nor really heathens, as they also believed in God, but called Him Allah, and His prophet, Mohammed. There WERE no wars to stop at the time of the Crusades, nor would they have been halted to allow the participants to go and fight in the East. Such a suggestion is ludicrous. As mentioned above, the knights and soldiers were all hanging around, itching for a war, and what they got was one not only sanctioned by the Church, but encouraged by the Pope himself, who promised full forgiveness of any sin for those who were ready to kill for Christ. In fact, there were many rivalries between the different factions, notably the French and English knights, and it was far from a comfortable truce between old enemies.

Part II: In the court of Saladin --- In this short piece we meet Saladin, greatest of the Saracens, who is painted by de Burgh as a heathen villain ”Whoring and drinking/ Snoring and sinking/ Around him his army lay/ Secure in the knowledge that he had won the day.” He refuses to believe that the Christians are coming when a messenger comes with the news, news he surely must have expected. The music gets more dramatic here, leading to the climactic battle. (Of course, muslims do not drink at all, as it's against their religion, but hey, let's not let the facts get in the way, eh?)

Part III: The battlefield --- ”Closer they came, the army of Richard the Lionheart/ Marching by day and night/ With soldiers from every part/ And when the Crusaders came over the mountain/ And saw Jerusalem/ They fell to their knees and begged for her release/ They started the battle at dawn/ Taking the city by storm/ With horsemen and bowmen and engines of war/ They broke through the city walls/ The heathen were flying/ Screaming and dying/ And the Christians' swords were strong/ And Saladin ran when he heard their victory song.”

Total and utter poppycock! Far from taking Jerusalem, Richard never even got in sight of the Holy City, trying three times to assault it but failing every time. Saladin never ran, though there is a small grain of truth in the lines referring to that. However it was at Acre, as Richard retreated to the sea, then returned to help his garrison who were trapped in the port city. There, apparently, Richard's singular (some would say insane) courage in facing the entire Saracen army on his own, awed Saladin's men so that they slunk away, and the day was won. But Jerusalem was never taken, and the muslims held on to it.

I suppose in fairness the facts would have got in the way of a good story, and not made so entertaining a song, but really, I'm shocked at how de Burgh twisted history to make it fit his vision. The music is excellent though, powerful and exciting, evoking the march to Jerusalem, the battle that never took place, and the victory that also never happened.

Part III: Finale
At the end, the music drops right back to the sparsity of the opener, with the lone acoustic guitar being plucked as the wise man speaks to his fool, asking if such a “coaltion of the willing” (hah!) could ever be put together again, and the fool tells him that times have changed: ”There is only greed and evil in the men who fight today/ The song of the Crusader has long since gone away.” For the actual finale the band comes back in full-strength, and a choir and orchestra takes the song to its “triumphant” close.

The fact is, though, that far from being the paragons of virtue that many movies and some history books, and de Burgh here, paint them as, the Crusaders were vicious, savage, brutal men who were happy to kill for any cause --- killing for Christ? That'll do me, and with the added bonus of a clean soul after the battle! Nice! --- and who slaughtered indiscriminately, killing as many of their own brother Christians as they did the Saracens. They also looted, burned, raped and destroyed as they went, and Richard, despite his somewhat built-up reputation, was a failure, a bad commander who had serious issues with particularly the French nobles commanding the foreign troops, lost control of his army and seemed never to really have any strategy for winning the war. Negotiating a truce with Saladin he was able to retain some of his dignity, and as the truce allowed Christian access to and presence in the Holy City, he was not seen as having been utterly defeated, but it was far from the glorious, triumphant return to England he had planned, and envisaged.

Okay then, history lesson over.! Just had to get that off my chest: it's been smouldering for about thirty years inside me now. Ignore the lyric, or take it as it can only be taken, as a very embellished record of the Crusades, and you can enjoy the track. I still do. The album ends with a very low-key track, a simple little “goodbye and thank you for listening” from Chris de Burgh, entitled “You and me”, a great way to unwind after the epic title track, and a nice calm closure to the album.

As a cohesive unit, the album really works well. Tracks complement each other, and even the massive title track does not completely overshadow some of the better compositions on the record. Its strength is, I believe, that it does not rely on the “main event” to carry the whole thing: you don't just fast-forward to “Crusader”. There are a lot of really great tracks on the album, and in many ways, “Crusader” itself is a bonus when you get to it, but by the time you do, you feel as if you have already had your money's worth.

Ah, the old days indeed. How the mighty have fallen! Listen to this for a true representation of how Chris de Burgh made his name, how good he could be when he was at his best, and try to forget that awful hit single!

TRACKLISTING

1. Carry on
2. I had the love in my eyes
3. Something else again
4. The girl with April in her eyes
5. Just in time
6. Carry on (reprise)
7. The Devil's eye
8. It's such a long way home
9. Old-fashioned people
10. Quiet moments
11. Crusader
I) The fall of Jerusalem
ii) In the court of Saladin
iii) The battlefield
iv) Finale
12. You and me



Suggested further listening: “Spanish train”, “The getaway”, “Man on the line”, “Eastern wind”, “At the end of a perfect day”

Storms over still water --- Mostly Autumn --- 2005 (Mostly Autumn Records)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...till_Water.jpg

I would say one of the best albums released by Mostly Autumn, but then there has yet to be a bad record by this band, at least to these ears. Like previous albums by the band, it's a heady mix of rock, prog-rock and folk, which blends together cleverly and effectively to become a sound which is trademark Mostly Autumn.

I'm reliably informed that Mostly Autumn have a tradition of opening their albums with the ending of the last track on the previous one, and here they duly fade in the end of “Pass the clock, part 3”, which ended 2003's “Passengers”, before the opener to this album powers its way in, great keyboards, squealing guitars and the double-vocal of Bryan Josh and Heather Findlay carrying “Out of the green sky” to the ears, and marking the return of the band after a two-year absence. It's a powerful opener, and sets the scene for a great album. Next up is “Broken glass”, punching up the tempo with an almost Wham!-type beat (sorry, but that's what it reminds me of!), the vocal primarily taken by Josh on this one. Great keyboard work from Iain Jennings, who would depart after this album.

Like the previous track, this ends abruptly and we're into “Ghost in Dreamland”, with an urgent piano intro and great vocals from Heather, Mostly Autumn keeping up the pressure with another fast-paced song, the melody of which could be used for any number of car-chase scenes in a hundred movies. The first really special track though doesn't come until “Heart life”, slower but no less heavy than the three that have gone before, with Heather again on vocal duty. It's Angela Gordon's flute and recorders that really mark this track out though, and allow the first of the gentle folk influences that have characterised many earlier MA songs to come through.

It's a powerful ballad, sung from the heart, with some nice acoustic guitar from Bryan Josh, and effective backing vocals, and also some serious electric guitar. “The end of the world” is a weird little song, introduced on a harpsichord-sounding keyboard, very reminscent of early Genesis circa “Nursery Cryme”, as Heather sings the story of an old married couple, going about their normal day, until Bryan ups the ante with the dark announcement of impending disaster as the world comes to an end, while the old couple continue about their business, unaware they have but minutes to live. The juxtapositioning of the two vocals, one relating a simple tale of old lovers, the other harbinger of approaching doom, works extremely well, as Bryan sings, not without some black humour ”Molten drops fell everywhere/ Flashed Birmingham to flames/ Screaming into Yorkshire/ Kind of helped us on our way/ All at once she levelled all the stores/ Nothing to pay!” I'm not clear on what the actual disaster is --- I think it may be the moon going out of orbit possibly, but it's a little hard to make out. Nonetheless, MA paint a disturbing picture of Armageddon at Teatime!

“Black rain” is another fast song, this one warning of the dangers of ignoring climate change, Heather again taking vocals, with Bryan providing backup: ”Did no-one tell you there'd be thunder?/ Oh we're heading for black rain/ If we don't change!” It's a real rocker, great guitar and powerful drums with a really nice hook too. Three of the last four songs on the album are long ones, and they're preceded by “Coming to...”, a nice little instrumental, sounding a little mechanical or industrial before it bursts into a seriously powerful guitar riff which takes it to its short conclusion.

“Candle to the sky” is one of those MA songs that although it's over eight minutes long, has a relatively short singing section, picked guitar backing Bryan as he sings the lyric. The song picks up speed and power, guitar battling with flute as it progresses, then with about three minutes yet to go, it slows right down and settles into a Pink Floyd-esque guitar groove, on which the track fades out.

Of the three tracks remaining, “Carpe diem” is without doubt the standout. A haunting, unsettling remembrance of the Asian Tsuanami of 2002, it's introduced by uileann pipes, melancholy and lonely, then carried on a very simple but effective repetitive piano melody that begins right under the pipes at the opening and keeps going to the end, with Heather's anguished voice rising above it like a lost soul, or a banshee, or indeed, the personification of the loss and sadness of those who lost loved ones in the disaster. Again, for a track lasting over eight minutes there is certainly an economy of lyric, but it works very well, leaving the lasting impression that of the powerful musical closing section. This in fact carries on for a full five minutes, the piano joined by bass, then guitar and drums to form a truly majestic and haunting ending to the song. Quite likely some of Bryan Josh's best work to date on guitar. I would not be afraid to say that this song is in my top ten favourite Mostly Autumn tracks, and certainly in my top 100 of all-time songs.

That leaves the title track, another long one, but it's going to be hard to top “Carpe diem”, which should perhaps have closed the album. But “Storms over still water” is a worthy successor to that standout track, even if it never stands a hope of eclipsing it. Beginning with some nice acoustic guitar backed with electric, and some flute, it's again a folky tune, sung by Heather. It starts slow and balladic, but picks up pace as it goes, the electric guitar coming into its own, as again Bryan Josh shows why he is noted as one of the most underrated rock guitarists in the business. Halfway through, he takes over on vocals, Heather switching to backing, and the tempo of the song increases as the drums get going properly. After the brilliance, but melancholy, of “Carpe diem”, this reignites the optimism and you just can't stop your feet from tapping, and all seems again right with the world, for now.

Again, this could have been the closer, and perhaps it would have been, but they chose to write one more little track, simply entitled “Tomorrow”, to fulfil that role. It's an instrumental, with a drum and guitar melody that puts me in mind of Peter Gabriel's “Biko”. Perhaps they wrote it just so that they would have something to fade in from for the next album? Can't deny it's a great little coda to the album, though.

Once I had heard Mostly Autumn for the first time, I found that despite myself, I could listen to nothing else for months. I had albums backed up that I wanted to listen to, but every time I tried I just kept sticking on my MA playlist. It was a happy time, which eventually I had to force myself to break out of , but for a while there was for me no other band than Mostly Autumn. I don't know if you will feel the same way, if this is the first time you've heard the band and they have the same effect on you, but if so, take heart: there is help available for your soon-to-be addiction.

Yeah, but …. you don't want help, do you...? ;)

TRACKLISTING

1. Out of the green sky
2. Broken glass
3. Ghost in dreamland
4. Heart life
5. The end of the world
6. Black rain
7. Coming to...
8. Candle to the sky
9. Carpe diem
10. Storms over still water
11. Tomorrow


Suggested further listening: “Passengers”, “The last bright light”, “Heart full of sky”, “Glass shadows”, “For all we shared”, “Go well diamond heart”

Hourglass --- Millenium --- 2000 (Frontiers)
http://www.metal-observer.com/covers/cov339.jpg

Those of you who know me may know that I am considered something of a “spelling Nazi” --- there's nothing I hate more than bad spelling (well, there is, but you know what I mean!), and I'm forever sighing at and correcting others' spelling and grammatical mistakes. So it is with no small sense of irony that I review an album by a band who seem unable to spell their name, though perhaps it's a clever method of differentiating themselves from other bands who might have the same name, or getting their name first in Google results? It doesn't work, as Google ignores what it perceives to be a spelling error and presents results for the word “millennium”. Ah well...

I just mention this to point out beforehand that I KNOW the word is misspelt, but that's how this band spell their name, as you can see from the sleeve: one 'n', not two. They're from Tampa, Florida, and will probably be unknown to 98% of you. They're not exactly superstars. Which makes the tremendous quality of this album all the more surprising, and gratifying.

I do believe it was another of those heady in-the-record-shop-with-spare-cash moments, and I just liked the sleeve --- sort of reminded me of Hawkwind --- and checking the track titles they seemed a rock band, so I thought why not? In the end, I was glad I did. Information is scarce on Millenium, but I think this is their third release, and it's a corker.

It blasts right off with “Power to love”, which opens with an acapella choral vocal before smashing into a mad, reckless, pop-metal AOR slice of Heaven, drummer Oliver Hanson thundering the song along while guitars from Ralph Santolla and Shane French elevate the track to AOR supremacy, and the clear, strong vocals of Jorn Lande present a man who had surely missed out on being a true star, somehow. It's a great start, and things go from good to better with “Wheels are turning”, recalling Journey at their heaviest, and yet somehow better, perhaps because this sort of quality is unexpected in a band almost unknown, and on whom I took a chance and hoped not to be wasting my money. Seriously, you would not believe some of the axe work here! How these guys aren't more successful and recognised I honestly do not know.

The title track is also the longest, just over six minutes, and brings things down a gear with a crunching, slow rocker in the best mould of Dio's “The last in line” or “Holy Diver”. Jorn Lande manages to come across as a mixture of the best of Ronnie James and David Coverdale here, and he really stretches his vocal range, completely equal to the task. ”We all answer to the hourglass/ No escape from the world of the lonely/ Feel the fire burning deep inside/ The soul of the lost soldier… “ It's a powerful track, a real stomper, and while the twin guitars are a little more restrained here, they're still very much present, particularly for the solos near the end.

There are only two ballads on the album, but they're so equally great I really can't decide which, if either, is the better. The first up is “No more miracles”, a tender, piano-led melody with a heartfelt lyric sung with conviction and passion by Lande. ”Remember when we heard the bell/ It rang for us, we knew it well/ And now we know our dream of love is dying...” It's just further proof of how criminal it is that this band has been largely ignored, as this should be played in a stadium to thousands of cigarette lighters held aloft. You think REO and Toto write good ballads? This blows them all away, I kid you not. There's real drama and pathos in it, and it most certainly does not sound like just a slow song put on the album so there'd be a single for airplay. However, if this HAD received time on the radio, I'm sure it would not only have been a hit, but would be forever cropping up in those “Best Power Ballads” programs shown on the likes of MTV.

Things settle back into a faster groove then for “Superstar”, more AOR than the previous tracks, and slightly inferior, somewhat by-the-numbers, with noticeable Queen overtones in places, while “Rocket ride” fails to bring the bar back up to the high level set by the likes of “Power to love” and “Wheels are turning”. It's not till the second ballad makes its appearance that the huge untapped potential of this band is on show again. “I will follow” --- NOT a cover of the U2 song! --- is another passionate and powerful song, though where “No more miracles” was gentle, this is raunchier, with a bluesy beat and some great guitar from Santolla. To be honest, just to get two ballads of this quality on the one album would have represented value for money to me. But there's so much more.

“I still believe” momentarily fools you into thinking it's a third ballad, but that idea is quickly dispelled as Santolla ramps up the riffs and the song takes off, becoming a mid-paced rocker with an almost jazz/funk backbeat which actually works, and the song changes yet again, becoming quite anthemic as it goes on. Great vocal harmonies help to lift this track out of the realms of the ordinary, and the tempo keeps rockin' for “Masquerade”, where a great combination of keyboards and guitar carry Lande's vocals along and create a song reminiscent of Canadian AOR merchants Glass Tiger. The album ends on the powerful “Chasing time”, its opening recalling ELO with its somewhat skewed harmonies, but soon gets going and takes “Hourglass” to a satisfying conclusion.

As I say, for an album I picked up “on spec”, and did not expect too much from, this turned out to be something of a diamond in the rough, the musical equivalent of a rare antique bought for ten quid at a car boot sale. It truly beggars belief that Millenium never hit the big time, but at least they did craft an album that can comfortably and proudly sit up there with the best AOR has to offer.

TRACKLISTING

1. Power to love
2. Wheels are turning
3. Hourglass
4. No more miracles
5. Superstar
6. Rocket ride
7. I will follow
8. I still believe
9. Masquerade
10. Chasing time



Suggested further listening: “Millenium”, “Angelfire”

Us --- Peter Gabriel --- 1992 (Real World)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...er_Gabriel.jpg

In my humble opinion the best Peter Gabriel album (and I loved “So”, but this is better!), this is one on which he really stretched his wings, bringing in no less than thirty-seven additional musicians, including the likes of producer Daniel Lanois, ex-Van der Graaf Generator frontman Peter Hamill, Brian Eno and Led Zep's John Paul Jones, and Sinead O'Connor, who duets with him on one of the tracks. Written in somewhat the same frame of mind that Phil Collins was in when he penned his debut solo, “Face value”, the album explores the breakup of Gabriel's first marriage, and his relationship with his daughter, and continues his interest in experimenting with non-standard instrumentation on his songs, with the likes of sabar drums, doudouks and tabla and surdu, giving the album a quasi-African feel. Gabriel's Real World label has long pushed to introduce, represent and give chances to unknown or unsigned African bands, and here he certainly includes a lot of new names who help out.

“Come talk to me” is a slow-paced opener, a simple plea in the lyric, with the odd instruments making their presence felt in the jungle-type beat, and a choir singing native chants in the background. “Love to love you” is a ballad, very understated and sung almost sotto voce by Gabriel, but it's his duet with Sinead O'Connor on “Blood of Eden” that really stands out. As she does on “Kingdom of rain” on The The's “Mind bomb”, reviewed here earlier, O'Connor shows that she is at her best when working with a compatible male vocal, and whereas Kate Bush paired up with Gabriel on “Don't give up”, the interaction between he and O'Connor here seems much more personal, and raises the song to the level of a true classic.

It's carried on a low, intense, almost muted melody as Gabriel sings ”I saw the signs of my undoing/ They had been there from the start.” O'Connor only gets to sing in harmony with him on the chorus, which is a pity, as there are verses she could really have done justice to. Nevertheless, it's a powerful yet understated ballad, with some very dark lyrics: ”Is that a dagger or a crucifix I see/ Held so tightly in your hand?” It's generally a low-key approach so far, but things spring to life with “Steam”, released as a single from the album, and quite successful too. It's a bouncy number that gives Gabriel the chance to really cut loose, as he does, having great fun with the track.

It's back to the sombre mood then for “Only us”, which I guess is as close to a title track as this album has. A little repetitive, it's carried on the one melody through, and again Gabriel almost mutters the lyric, but it's a good song for all that. Far better though is another single, the infectious “Digging in the dirt”, where we get to hear the close-to-unhinged Peter Gabriel we know and love from the likes of “DIY”, “White shadow”, or indeed “No self control”. It's this sometimes manic persona that often characterises Gabriel's best work, both in Genesis and solo, and to some degree it's largely missing here, but he reinvents himself and presents another, more restrained side to his music that totally works.

There's time for fun too, though, A lot of dark songs need a little light to break them up, and “Kiss that frog” is great, silly fun, recalling the old fairytale of the princess and the frog, with lines like ”Let me sit beside you/ Eat right off your plate/ Don't have to be afraid/ There's nothing here to hate/ Princess, you might like it/ If you lower your defence/ Kiss that frog/ And you may meet your prince!” David Rhodes is clearly enjoying himself on guitar, and somone's playing a harmonica, and doing a great job too, but they're not credited: maybe it's a synth?

The album closes almost as it began, with a slow, majestic melody which starts almost imperceptibly then comes to life, as Gabriel recalls his life and loves from his youth. ”In this house of make believe/ Divided in two, like Adam and Eve/ You put out and I receive.” It's very much a retrospective piece, and ends the album really well, fading out like the dying echo of a memory. And it's a good memory too. ”Down by the railway siding/ In a secret world we were colliding/ In all the places we were hiding love...” Ah, to be young again!

TRACKLISTING

1. Come talk to me
2. Love to be loved
3. Blood of Eden
4. Steam
5. Only us
6. Washing of the water
7. Digging in the dirt
8. Fourteen black paintings
9. Kiss that frog
10. Secret world



Suggested further listening: The first four Peter Gabriel albums, all called “Peter Gabriel”, “So”, “Ovo”, also Genesis albums “Nursery cryme”, “Trespass”, “Foxtrot”, “The Lamb lies down on Broadway” and “Selling England by the pound”

I am going through your posts one at a time as they deserve a little time to digest and I have never heard of Threshold and unfortunately the link I found was password protected :(

Judging by those tracks you posted I find them a real conundrum. There is talent on board and there are some great sections of play but I also found some of those forced a little as if they haven't an identity of their own. As if they had to include keyboard lines for the sake of it and sometime they don't fit the music BUT there is a lot to admire too. Nothing hugely original but certainly enough for me to want to investigate the album.

It does have a real 80's heavy prog feel to me which is no bad thing. Although the word prog here is not the convoluted late 70's equivalent but rather the 80's melodic approach by bands like Marillion, Magnum and Twelfth Night (I will get onto them later - I did read the review!).

I just hope I can get hold of this album as I would love to give it a more thorough listen.

Yo Jack!
Weird: can't imagine why the link would be password-protected. It shouldn't be, and it isn't for me. I'll look into it.
Meanwhile, if you want me to reupload the album somewhere else (or your mail system can take it direct) let me know. Looking forward to your further thoughts, and thanks for the comments..

TH

Once around the world --- It Bites --- 1988 (Virgin)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ound_World.jpg
It's indeed a rare thing, but it does happen: a band's debut album is not great, their third also not great, but the one in the middle is brilliant. Certainly the case, as I found it, with this band, and even more unusual, when you consider that their biggest hit single, the chart-topping “Calling all the heroes”, came from their debut album. Nevertheless, this was my first introduction to their album work (although they had come to my attention via the aforementioned single, which I had tipped, in my radio days, as being a big hit long before it was) and having thoroughly enjoyed it I went back to their first album, “The big lad in the windmill” (what?) and was very much underwhelmed. Years later, when I had a chance to hear their follow-up to this, 1989's “Eat me in St. Louis”, I was similarly disappointed.

But between those two nestles this, the second album by It Bites, and though they never matched or even came close to its brilliance, “Once around the world” is a great piece of progressive rock, following in the footsteps of some of the masters of the genre. It even features an epic composition, the title track, to which we will get later. But it's a solid rock album, and it kicks off with a power-rocker, “Midnight” features the stabbing guitar AND distinctive vocals of Francis Dunnery, melding with the somewhat sparse keyboards of John Beck, and the song is carried on a cool little funky bassline courtesy of Dick Nolan, while Bob Dalton thumps out the drumbeats. It's a catchy little tune, and starts the album in decent fashion, but it's “Kiss like Judas” that really ramps up the action and gets the proper prog-rock vibe going, with a really solid keyboard melody redolent of their big hit, and this time the roles are reversed, as the keys come to the fore and the guitar takes something of a backseat, still managing to rip off some fine riffs nevertheless.

Things just get better with “Yellow Christian”, with its singalong chorus, guitar hook somehow putting me in mind of eighties popsters Cutting Crew, and its waltzy rhythm, together with its somewhat obscure lyrical content and its extended keyboard runs. I would have considered this a good choice for a single, but it wasn't chosen. Very mid-seventies Genesis touches here I feel, circa “Firth of Fifth” or “Afterglow”. Dunnery's voice is certainly different, and adds great character to the songs. My only gripe with this song is that it suddenly changes tack right at the end, and finishes abruptly, in a style very akin to “The musical box” off Genesis's “Nursery Cryme” album. I normally don't go for songs fading out, but here I think it would have been a better way to end this track.

“Rose Marie” is a heads-down rocker, unremarkable after the sublime “Yellow Christian”
--- no ambiguity about the content here! --- and “Black December” is something in the same vein: good songs, but a little formulaic. Great guitar work in both though, almost verging into Heavy Metal territory at times, particularly on the former. I'm surprised to see that “Old man and the angel” is over nine minutes long, as it certainly doesn't seem that long. (Note: listening to the CD version for the first time, I see now it's a very much extended version. I preferred the original vinyl one) Not a bad song, though I prefer the much shorter “Plastic dreamer”, with its interesting theme of toys coming to life in the toyshop after hours: ”At the stroke of twelve it all came to life/ And He-Man chased the man with his wife/ Darth Vader shows he's all dressed in drag/ Reveals what's inside I thought he was bad “ The nursery-rhyme-like melody really fits the song, shot through with stabs of pure guitar mayhem, a real wish for lost childhood. Great little song, and some excellent lines: ”Enterprising heroes in full flight/ And Batman swings by the candlelight/ And Superman's laughing at the wonderland zoo/ I think I'd rather be this way...” Wouldn't we all?

And so we come to the closer, the title track, and very much the centrepiece of the album; almost fifteen minutes of pure prog mastery, It Bites' “Supper's ready”or “Tarkus”. Rather like the former, it starts off slow and on keyboard and bass, with a short introductory passage before the guitars get going and the second part kicks in, with Genesisesque keyboards taking us back twenty-five years, suitably “prog” lyrics like ”In every town there'a a man in a wheelchair/ In every frown there's an optical illusion” setting out the band's stall.

There's no doubt that this band, and this song, have been heavily influenced by Genesis, as the tune now goes into a 1920s vibe, quite eerily familiar to the “Willow Farm” section from “Supper's ready”. It's quite short though and then goes into a sort of dramatic bridge, before returning to the twenties melody, with perhaps a hint of 1930s Big Band in there too. As might be expected the track then speeds up and gets into high gear for the denoument and conclusion --- even the line ”6 to 4 is on the run” sounds like ”666 is no longer alone...”, but that's not a bad thing. There's some stylish guitar work then leading into some lovely keyboard moves as the song winds into its twelfth minute and slows right down for the ending, delivered with panache and passion as the whole thing comes to a rather glorious conclusion, ending a fine album in excellent style.

It's a pity they never equalled the quality of this album, but it's often said every band has one opus in them. For It Bites, this was it, and it's more than worth listening to. Just don't expect more of the same, unfortunately.

TRACKLISTING

1. Midnight
2. Kiss like Judas
3. Yellow Christian
4. Rose Marie
5. Black December
6. Old man and the angel
7. Plastic dreamer
8. Once around the world



Suggested further listening: Hard to say, but of the other albums, “Eat me in St. Louis” is not bad. Also check “Calling all the heroes” from the debut, “The big lad in the windmill”

Cry --- Faith Hill --- 2002 (Warner Bros)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Hill_-_Cry.jpg

Another album that stands out as the jewel in an artiste's crown, and which like It Bites above, she never equalled, or even came close to. Although Faith is renowned as a country music singer, “Cry”, her fifth album, comes across as much more a commercial pop album than a country one. Although I couldn't write a song to save my life, I do prefer artistes to write at least some of their own material, and so was more than a little disappointed to find that not one of the sometimes excellent tracks on this release were penned, or even co-written, by the artist herself. That notwithstanding, this is a fantastic album that could conceivably be enjoyed by both country fans and mainstream music fans --- rock and pop alike.

Starting off with a nice little uptempo popper, “Free” gets things going in decent style, with it has to be said, not a hint of country there at all. It's not till the opening ballad, also the title track, that you hear the familiar steel pedal guitar whine in, but this is not what would be thought of as a typical country ballad, as Faith asks ”Could you cry a little? / Lie just a little? / Pretend that you're feelin' / A little more pain?” Very much the song of a spurned woman who wants her lover to share her pain, it's a beautiful bittersweet song, really showcasing Faith's vocal range.

Going one better than Peter Gabriel on his “Us” album, two reviews back, Faith has assembled a supporting cast of almost one hundred musicians for this recording, and they certainly make their presence felt, giving the album a full, rich sound. However, it's the solitary piano that carries the delicate “When the lights go down”, similar in theme to Bob Seger's “Hollywood nights”, as she reflects on the loneliness of being left standing when all the money and fame evaporates: ”They were there for the fame / The flash and the thrills/ The drop of a name/ The parties, the pills/ Another star falls from the Hollywood hills/ Without a sound.” “Beautiful” is another tender ballad, opening with a spoken vocal over acoustic guitar, but some of the real standout tracks are more towards the end of the album, like “Stronger”, a real contender for best track on the album.

The tale of a couple breaking up, it's a power ballad with a powerful line in guitar work and a vocal sung with such emotion that it would almost seem to be personal, except as mentioned Faith did not write it. It opens with a spoken vocal and acustic guitar, like “Beautiful” before it, and in fact is one of the tracks featured on my first mix, “Ten from Trollheart”, available a few pages back. We should not however concentrate solely on the ballads, as there are some very good faster tracks, like “This is me”, with its easily-relatable lyric: ”Yeah, my heart bleeds for the homeless/ I worry about my parents/ And all my bills are late.” and the almost gospel-like “If you're gonna fly away”, not to mention “Unsaveable” (IS that a word?) with its unashamed rip-off of the riff from Berlin's “Take my breath away”, and its honky-tonk guitar. However there's no denying that it is the ballads that really stand out on this album, and if “Stronger” is a contender for track-of-the-album, it's just barely beaten out by the superior “If this is the end”, a tearjerker in the most epic fashion, with great orchestration.

As already mentioned, there's very little on this album which stands out as a country track in the normal sense of the word, and even moreso than Shania, I would say Faith Hill has to some extent left her country roots behind and stepped out onto the commercial stage of popular music. If she could maintain the quality of this release, she could have a very strong future, and we could certainly expect to see her in the charts. Unfortunately I was very let down by her follow up, 2005's “Fireflies”, and have not yet heard her latest, 2008's “Joy to the world”, but I get the feeling that this is as good as Faith gets.

But it's damn good!

TRACKLISTING

1. Free
2. Cry
3. One
4. When the lights go down
5. Beautiful
6. Unsaveable
7. Baby you belong
8. If you're gonna fly away
9. Stronger
10. If this is the end
11. This is me
12. Back to you
13. I think I will
14. You're still here



Suggested further listening: “Breathe”, “Fireflies”

The division bell --- Pink Floyd --- 1994 (EMI)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ision_Bell.jpg

The second Pink Floyd album released without founder member Roger Waters, and the last ever released by the band, “The division bell” was highly criticised on its release, both on the grounds that it was recorded just to make money, and that the band no longer cared about their music. Although 1987's “A momentary lapse of reason” was a little hit-and-miss in places, with perhaps too many standalone instrumentals and not enough full compositions, I found this album to be far superior, and one look at the writing talent and creative process on it is, to me, enough to give the lie to at least the second part of that accusation.

Helmed mostly by, as would be expected, successor to the Floyd throne David Gilmour, the album is not overly guitar heavy, relying a lot on the expressive keyboard work of the late Richard Wright, but is chock-full of meaning and emotion, in a way that the previous album did not seem to be. To my mind, “Division bell” is much more “Final cut” than “Momentary lapse”. It opens, like its predecessor seven years ago, with an instrumental, and indeed similar to that album it's an instrumental that starts very low, with the sound of what could be oars cutting through water, joined by the swiriling, almost hypnotic keyboards of Wright, then the sharp, clear piano notes joined by Gilmour's mournful guitar as the tune takes on a slight resemblance to the opening parts to “Shine on your crazy diamond”, introducing the first real track, “What do you want from me”, where we can hear Gilmour's voice is in fine fettle, and despite criticism aimed at him I think his guitar work has never sounded better.

The album's main concept is agreed as being one of communication, or the failure to talk, and many of the songs reflect this, including this, as Gilmour snaps ”Should I stand out in the rain?/ Do want me to make a daisy chain for you?/ You're so hard to read!” Great backing vocals on this track, in proper Floyd fashion, help add real atmosphere to the song, and its themes continue in “Poles apart”, a jangly, almost upbeat track with dark overtones, as Gilmour asks ”Did you know it was all going to go/ So wrong for you?” Much more than “Momentary lapse” I feel each track here is a strong composition, even the two instrumentals, of which “Marooned”, essentially a vehicle for Gilmour's spellbinding guitar playing, is the next, but it's “A great day for Freedom” where the ghost of Waters really walks the grooves of this record, as Floyd chart the fall of the Berlin Wall and its aftermath, noting with acid derision how happy everyone was on that night, and how the dream turned, for many, to nightmare very quickly.

”On the day the Wall came down/ They threw the locks onto the ground/ And with glasses high we raised a cry/ For freedom had arrived..../ Promises lit up the night/ Like paper doves in flight.” The initial euphoria of the collapse of Communism and the Eastern Bloc is contrasted sharply with the subsequent wars for independence, racial tensions, ethnic cleansings and social unrest that followed. The song is mostly carried on Wright's lonely piano, tinkling like the fading echoes of the bells of freedom as they recede into memory and the mists of history. ”Now frontiers drift like desert sands/ As nations wash their bloodied hands/ Of loyalty and history/ In shades of grey.” Possibly one of the most honest and factual accounts of the events post-collapse of the Wall, with another sterling solo from Gilmour to end the track, and definitely place this as one of the best on the album.

We get to hear Rick Wright sing for the first time since “Dark side of the moon” and sadly also the last ever time, as not only was this Floyd's last album together, but Wright died in 2008 of cancer. The melody almost seems cognisant of this (though of course that's not the case), with sad saxophone, dour drums and muted guitar taking “Wearing the inside out” along, with again some powerful backing vocals. Even the lyric seems, in hindsight, prophetic: ”My skin is cold to the human touch/ This beating heart/ Not beating much.” Some of Wright's best keyboard work characterises this track too, fittingly, recalling the glory days of “Dark side” and “The Wall”. Things speed up then for “Take it back”, as close to a straight-ahead rocker as there is on the album, while “Coming back to life” wins my award for best track on the album, with its slow, sad, agonised guitar opening and its anguished demand ”Where were you when I was/ Burned and broken?/ While the days slipped by/ From my window, watching?” before it picks up and becomes a mid-paced rocker.

“Keep talking”, emphasising and confirming the central theme of the album, features the sampled voice of Professor Stephen Hawking, adding great weight and gravitas to the track, and putting forward the welcome belief that everything will be all right as long as we continue to talk to each other. ”It doesn't have to be like this/ All we have to do is make sure/ We keep talking.” Words to live by. Rather giving the lie to that however is the sound of a slamming door opening the penultimate track, “Lost for words”, and mournful keyboards joined by acoustic guitar in a reflective look at life: ”I was spending my time in the doldrums/ I was caught in a cauldron of hate/ I felt persecuted and paralysed/ Thought that everything else could just wait/ While you are wasting your time on your enemies/ Engulfed in a fever of spite/ Beyond your tunnel vision reality fades/ Like shadows into the night.” Samples overlay the track, transmissions and conversations, including the recording of a boxing match, and the reality of the world intrudes to show that though YOU may have seen the light, that doesn't necessarily mean everyone else has, as noted in the end lyric: ”So I open my doors to my enemies/ And I ask could we wipe the slate clean?/ But they tell me to please go and **** myself/ You know, you just can't win!”

Sobering words, and the closer comes in, and indeed fades out, on the distant peals of church bells, evoking both the title and also the line from “Dark side”'s track “Home again” --- ”Far away, across the fields/ The tolling of the iron bell/ Calls the faithful to their knees/ To hear the softly spoken magic spells.” In the same way that “Sorrow” closed “A momentary lapse of reason” on a sour, morose note, “High hopes” fades the album out on a less than optimistic thought, leaving us with what is a far superior album to the previous, but as a swansong for Pink Floyd, perhaps a better last track might have been in order? Doesn't detract from the fact that this is a fine ending for a band who had been together through four decades, and produced some of the classic albums of both the seventies and eighties, and who shaped and changed the musical perception of more than one generation.

TRACKLISTING

1. Cluster one
2. What do you want from me?
3. Poles apart
4. Marooned
5. A great day for freedom
6. Wearing the inside out
7. Take it back
8. Coming back to life
9. Keep talking
10. Lost for words
11. High hopes



Suggested further listening: Where do I start? “Dark side of the moon” and “The Wall”, of course, then try “Wish you were here”, “Meddle”, “Animals”, “A momentary lapse of reason”, “The final cut”, and don't forget Roger Waters' solos “The pros and cons of hitch-hiking”, “Radio KAOS” and “Amused to death”, and then throw on his double-live “In the flesh.” That'll do to be going on with ….