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Maybe it's an overstatement, a simplification or a claim that can't really be supported, but I really do believe that there have been albums down through my life which have, if not actually changed that life, certainly provided important cornerstones and turning points along the path of development for me, both musically and personally. It's that point where, as a youth, you realised that there was more to music than what came out of “Top of the Pops”, or what they played on the radio. You began to see that the fact that certain music may not have been widely popular was not necessarily an indication that it was not worth listening to; in fact, as your awareness of the huge diversity of often unrecognised music out there grew, you began to understand that sometimes it's the music that isn't generally accepted, that wasn't played on the radio, that didn't get on the telly, that was more worth listening to than the lastest chart-topper. For me, as I would say maybe a lot of people, though this is a personal account so I can only speak for myself, this realisation and diversification into certain genres or sub-genres of music around my late teens informed my later choices in music, and set me on a road towards appreciating, and for a long time, concentrating only on one genre. Well, two really: for several years I would listen to nothing else than heavy metal and progressive rock, even though before I encountered this album I was not even aware of what prog rock was. I was into Maiden, Saxon, Motorhead, Sabbath: anything loud and anything that was outside the accepted norms. I scoffed at my brother's interest in Madness, The Specials, Spandau Ballet, and my sister's often slavish devotion to the charts. I could not understand how my best friend, may he rest in peace, could be into artistes like ABBA and Barry Manilow! Ah, with age comes wisdom, eh? But among the first albums I owned were most of the Genesis catalogue; the very first introduction I had to what I would later realise was characterised as progressive rock was their “Seconds out” live album, and though it certainly blew my mind and had me quickly collecting the rest of their albums, I have reviewed this before, in fact it was the very first album ever reviewed in this journal by me, and I think I said all I need to say about it there. But up until this album came along, and I began to read a little publication called “Kerrang!”, I thought the music Genesis made was in the past, great as it was. I believed I was listening to music that would in all likelihood never again be made --- Genesis had by now already shattered my illusions of them by releasing the dreadfully pop “Abacab” --- and had no idea that there was a whole new revival of British progressive rock about to be born. Script for a jester's tear --- Marillion --- 1983 (EMI) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...r%27s_Tear.jpg Preface: I have to be extremely careful reviewing this album. It may seem silly to some people, but this is quite literally the album that changed my life, musically. I never, ever heard a better debut. It was hyped to the hilt and by god it lived up to that hype! It set me on a road to appreciation of progressive rock and more structured, epic and intricate songs, gave me an appreciation for melody and instrumentation that I had been lacking, and showed me how even the vocal chords could be an impressive and effective instrument in their own right. This was more than just someone singing the equivalent of “baby I love you” against guitars and keys or whatever: this was serious, deep music that meant something! These lyrics were to be read, listened to, discussed and if possible understood, and they were the delicate brushstrokes that completed the canvas masterpiece the music painted on my mind, heart and soul. So it will be a gushing review, but that's not entirely because I don't want to recognise or admit any shortcomings on the album: it's because I truly believe it has none. Though it's short in terms of tracks, every single one is a gem; nothing is out of place, nothing is too long or too short, every song tells a story and every story paints a picture, mostly bitter and regretful as per the title of the album. I can't praise this album highly enough. It started a lifelong love affair with the work and music of Marillion, and pushed me towards other great prog rock bands like Pendragon, Jadis, Arena, Rush, Pink Floyd, Mostly Autumn, Twelfth Night and many others, and opened up whole new vistas of musical appreciation for me. I therefore want to do the very best job I can, and so the review will also be probably longer than usual. As there are only six tracks to get through that should not really be the case, but I want to spend the proper amount of time on each that they deserve, give them the respect they have earned, and pay back a little to this wonderful album which quite literally, changed my life, almost thirty years ago. This groundbreaking album starts off so innocuously, so low-key it's incredible: a hushed voice declares ”So here I am once more/ In the playground of the broken hearts” while one note is sounded on the piano, a few more following it and then a short run, almost a fugue, before it stops and flute (on the synth, presumably) takes over, then bass makes its entrance before drums and guitar pound into the song, setting it finally on its way. We're now one and a half minutes into a song that runs for eight and a half, and will go through many changes before it comes to its end. The voice, that of lead singer and frontman Derek Dick, otherwise known as Fish, gets more animated and angry now, as Mick Pointer's drums pound out the rhythm and Steve Rothery lets loose on the guitar, the whole thing charging along in a great solo until Fish comes back in and another solo, with the keyboards of Mark Kelley, who was the first musician to be heard on the album, bar Fish's almost sotto voce tones, adding to the melody and keeping everything together. At the four minute mark, half way through, everything drops away to gentle acoustic guitar, flute and Fish's agonised vocal, bass coming in with just the barest hints of percussion and some whispering as Fish declares ”I never did write that love song/ The words just never seemed to flow”, drums thundering in as he shouts ”Promised wedding/ Now a wake!” The song then goes into what would be seen as the third part, with keys taking over the main melody, Rothery's guitar taking a little of a backseat, the faster tempo now slowing down to a dirge-like march, the guitar crying along with Fish as he sighs ”I'll hold my peace forever/ As you wear your bridal gown”, and the song drifts along sadly to its end as he asks, without any hope, ”Can you still say you love me?” After this magnum opus, the phenomenon of Marillion well and truly launched onto my consciousness, and that of thousands of other record-buyers at the time, things get sharper and harder with “He knows you know”, opening on jangly guitar from Rothery, swirling keys from Kelley then punchy drums from Pointer as Fish lets go, giving his voice its full rein as he sings about drug addiction: ”You've got venom in your stomach/ You've got poison in your head!” Very much driven on Rothery's guitar, this song is both the antithesis of the opener and title, and could indeed be seen as a direct result or follow-on from it, as the heartbroken man turns to drugs to dull the pain. “He knows you know” contains one of Steve Rothery's most powerful solos, as well as amazing work from Mark Kelley, and absolutely showcases in no uncertain style the often vicious, cutting, angry vocal work of Fish, as well as giving full pride of place to his incredible lyrical talent, he being the writer of all the songs, lyrics at least. It was chosen as a single, probably because it's the shortest track on the album --- just under five and a half minutes --- but though it made a decent showing in the charts it was never going to be a big hit, with its lyrical theme and its harsh vocal style. Couldn't see the sheep buying this! But then, Marillion were never about chart success, but about creating the very best music they could, for themselves and for their fans, and remaining true to their musical vision. Nowhere is this shown better than in “The Web”, which runs for almost nine minutes, and starts powerfully, with blasting guitar chords, then settles into a sort of introspective passage, as the protagonist hides in her apartment, trying to figure out what has gone wrong with her life, afraid to move on. ”Faded photos exposing pain/ Celluloid leeches bleeding my mind” --- such lyrical genius was something I had seldom encountered before, and even then, in bands who had been doing this for years, maybe decades. Here was a band only starting out, and already showing such tremendous promise. With a clear and almost unique understanding of the human condition in one so young, Fish painted nightmare dreamscapes and lurid pictures of addiction, isolation, fear, panic and despair that just cut right to the heart, his bitter claim ”I only laughed away your tears/ But even jesters cry!” a nod back to the title track, and indeed the figure of the jester was one that would characterise Marillion for years, appearing on the cover of their first three albums. Another powerful section where keys and guitar join to great effect, then Rothery is off on another solo, and as the song reaches its six minute mark, the character realises things must change, and after a brief laidback guitar piece as Fish declares ”Now I leave you/ The past has had its say” there's a huge upsurge and a big instrumental piece as the tempo jumps, and for the next nearly two minutes we get a keyboard solo from Mark Kelley that is a delight to the ears. Then, just when you think it's going to fade out on the keys, Fish blasts back in with a final coda and the song ends powerfully on hard guitar and swooping keys. There's little joyful about this album, in terms of lyrical content --- though it's a true joy to listen to it --- with themes from broken love affairs, loneliness and addiction to war and suicide, but if there's a light-hearted song on it, it's “Garden party”, where Fish pokes not-so-gentle fun at the glitterati, the high society, those who live for rubbing shoulders with the rich, the famous, and the royal. Starting with a hard guitar and swirling keys intro, Fish gleefully describes the scene as ”Champagne corks are firing at the sun again/ Swooping swallows chased by violin again” and those who believe themselves the cream of society “have a really jolly time”. “Garden party” rocks along on a really upbeat, happy melody, which mirrors the insincerity of these people who declare ”Punting on the “cam” is jolly fun!” and live their lives in a constant state of vying for position and prestige among their fellows, always trying to prove themselves better than everyone else. Great keyboard solo from Mark Kelley, and a hilarious change of lyric from Fish, where he originally grins ”I'm wining, reclining/ I'm rucking, I'm ****ing” but the word had to be changed when this too was released as a single. Great fun, and Fish's savage satire comes across really well. Bringing everything back to earth then with a jolt is the dour, bitter “Chelsea Monday”, which tells the tale of a young girl desperate to be an actress but who is afraid to take the steps she needs to make her dream come true. Carried on a beautiful bassline from Peter Trewavas, the song conjures up images of dark, grey streets, rain-lashed bus-stops and yellowed windows, smoke from factories curling up into the ash-choked sky. Rothery's guitar whines in the background as Fish relates the tale of the ”Catalogue princess, apprentice seductress/ Hiding in her cellophane world in glittertown” who waits for fame to find her. The first part of the song is carried on Trewavas' silky bass rhythm, with splashes of colour thrown in by Kelley on the keys, and Fish's keening voice presiding over all like a dark storyteller who knows how this will end. This is also a long song (as most of the six tracks on the album are), over eight minutes, and at the two minute mark Steve Rothery pulls off a beautiful and agonising solo which takes us really into what would again be categorised as part two of the song. This is carried on a more restrained guitar part, sparkling keys and Fish tells of how the girl would ”Perform to scattered shadows/ On the shattered cobbled aisles”, Pointer's drums pealing out like the march of Fate. Another powerful solo by Rothery takes the song to its climax, as the parent promises ”Patience my tinsel angel/ Patience my perfumed child/ One day they'll really love you/ You'll charm them with your smile/ But for now/ It's just another Chelsea Monday.” As the song comes to its end, Fish speaks as if to a mate, not singing, talking about the tragedy of the young girl's death at such a young age. ”What a waste!” he sighs. And Rothery's guitar takes the song to its sad conclusion, cutting off suddenly as we hit the closer, and indeed standout of the album. Fast, powerful, savagely satirical, angry, brilliant, “Forgotten sons” must surely go down as one of the best anti-war songs to have come out in the last few decades. Expressly addressing the conflict in Northern Ireland (”He'll maim you, he'll wound you/ He'll kill you for a long-forgotten cause/ On not-so-foreign shores”) it became one of Marillion's best-known and loved songs, with its acid rejection of war and hatred, its graphic depiction of life on the streets of Belfast and other Northern Irish cities, and humanising the conflict through the eyes of those who suffered through it. Mostly carried on Kelley's deceptively upbeat keyboard melody, it's peppered throughout with stabs of sharp and angry guitar from Rothery, and a great solo about a third of the way through, where his guitar seems to be crying with the massed voices of all those who have lost loved ones over the thirty-odd years of "The Troubles". Then, everything drops away to leave only Trewavas' lonely, insistent bass, standing like a sentry on duty, for a few seconds as the tension builds. Then Rothery and Pointer hammer the point home as Fish spits out his modified Lord's Prayer, which really needs to be reproduced in full. And here it is: ”Minister, minister, care for your children!/ Order them not into damnation/ To eliminate those who / Would trespass against you/ For whose is the kingdom, the power, the glory/ For ever and ever amen!” Just to underline the point, all instrumentation stops then, and we hear a voice cry shakily ”Halt! Who goes there?” to which the creepy, hissing reply comes, ”Death!” and the soldier then breathes ”Approach, friend.” Hard-hitting is not the word. But that's nothing compared to the litany Fish unleashes as Rothery and Pointer smash back in, the song reaching its powerful climax with Kelly's organ blasting out like the accusing voices of the dead, and Fish sings ”From the dole queue to the regiment/ A profession in a flash/ But remember Monday signings/ When from door to door you dash!” Having been so impressed with the lead single (which isn't on this album) “Market square heroes”, I was eager to see if the album could live up to its promise. I remember having listened to it the first time, and I was so gobsmacked, my breath was literally robbed from me and I lay on my bed, just completely dumbfounded, unable to speak or breathe, just static in time. I was frozen like an insect in amber, and it actually took me several long minutes before I could move or do anything. What I ended up doing was flipping the record over, putting the needle down and playing the whole album through again, the entire thing. And then a third time. I have never done that with any album, before or since. It might seem facetious to be saying this now, in a world where such opuses are perhaps a little commonplace, where people can record their own music in their bedrooms today and be on YouTube tomorrow, perhaps seeing a successful music career in a very short time. But back then, and even now, I think such genius --- and yes, it was genius, and nothing less --- was and is in short supply. There are of course great prog rock bands now, new and old, but I still believe no one album has ever truly affected me the way “Script for a jester's tear” did, that day in March 1983, when I realised for the first time that there was the pop chart stuff I had been listening to mostly up to then, and then there was real music. There's no way I could ever deny that this album changed my life, in ways I could never even have begun to imagine. If it wasn't for Marillion and the discovery through them of progressive rock and other genres outside that, I might never have developed the true love for music that I have to this day, and I truly believe I would be a very different person in many ways. I owe those five guys a huge debt of gratitude, one which I will never be properly ever able to repay. I hope that in some way, this review will go a little of the way towards giving them back what they gave to me, the priceless gift of appreciation of true music. TRACKLISTING 1. Script for a jester's tear 2. He knows you know 3. The Web 4. Garden party 5. Chelsea Monday 6. Forgotten sons |
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Yeah, the worm's partial to a little Elkie Brooks now and then. This is “No more the fool”. |
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Usually in this section I've broken down an album cover into various parts, examining aspects of its makeup and commenting on how they reflect on the recording, or how they contribute to the overall picture created by the sleeve. These writeups have on occasion been quite extensive. But not every great album cover can be so dissected, nor need it be. Sometimes the greatest effect can be achieved with the simplest of images. Consider the cover of Pink Floyd's “Dark side of the moon”. Iconic as it is, it's at its heart a simple graphic, and yet is instantly recognisable for what it is, and what it represents. Or take as another example the Beatles' “Abbey Road”. Or Springsteen's “Born in the USA”. Nirvana's “Nevermind”. There are a whole host of albums that make use of the simplest ideas to convey their message, and manage to stick in our minds as forever identifiable. No. 6: “Famous last words” by Supertramp http://www.recordsale.org/cdpix/s/su...ords...(2).jpg https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/im...jj5I1sJS-uW3xg The cover I want to look at here is not only one of my favourite Supertramp albums, but it tells a tale, through the medium of the artwork, that is both simple and informative, telling us a lot more about the album than we would otherwise know. Of course, for that to work properly, we do have to realise the changing dynamic of the band, the upheaval about to take placeat the time. This was the last album to feature founder member Roger Hodgson. He and Rick Davies had been the principle songwriters in the band, and each had taken a turn at singing, Hodgson usually on the more upbeat, happy-style songs like “It's raining again”, “Breakfast in America” and “The logical song”: typically, the ones that became hits and therefore would be most recognisable to anyone outside of their fanbase. Essentially, Hodgson was the voice of Supertramp on the radio, and in the charts. Davies tackled the more “serious” songs, the likes of “Bloody well right”, “Crime of the century”, “Ain't nobody but me”, “From now on”; songs like those, that would probably be unknown to a non-Supertramp fan. There's no question that the sound and indeed appeal of the band changed once Hodgson jumped ship, and Supertramp's next few albums were, to be honest, not the best. There was something missing from the overall makeup of the band, and it was obvious what it was. But despite what might be thought, there was no acrimony, either between himself and Davies or any of the rest of the band. Hodgson just reached a point where he wanted to stay where he was, the band were somewhere else and he did not wish to uproot his family to go back working with Supertramp. And so he left, to pursue a solo career. The album sleeve then can be interpreted thus: the man on the tightrope can be Hodgson, striking out on his own and “working without a net”, aware of the yawning abyss should he fall, with the spotlight representing the pressures of fame, recording, touring and perhaps the entire band. The scissors about to cut the rope would then be his own decision taking charge, or the events overtaking him and forcing him into this decision. He could be seen as trying to perform a delicate and difficult balancing act, trying to keep his family and his career both uppermost in his priorities, but acutely aware that he must choose one over the other. Or you can see the man on the highwire as being Davies, trying to carry out the same balancing act as Hodgson, with the scissors in this case representing his departing bandmate, who is quite literally about to cut his lifeline, and Davies worrying about how he will continue to entertain and please the crowd below him, who demand new output and more and better music, and perhaps even --- erroneously --- hold him responsible for the departure of the co-founder of the band. Either way you look at it, the album cover presents a snapshot in time, with one man balanced precariously above a chasm that waits to swallow him. The scissors, whether they represent Davies or Hodgson, or a more, abstract force acting on one or both of them, are the focal point of the crisis (what crisis? Sorry... :)) unfolding, and the soon-to-be-completed act of cutting the rope is unavoidable and inevitable. Indeed, the back cover, simplicity itself, puts time back in motion and the man, whichever of the Supertramp members you choose to see him as, or even just a representation or metaphor, falls, the falling hat showing this clearly and unequivocally. It's a perfect cover, a perfect moment in time captured, a snapshot of a critical moment that, although it could not be changed or avoided, irrevocably altered Supertramp and led to the end of an era, if not the end of the actual band. Supertramp were never the same after this, nor I suspect will they ever be. |
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Great track from a great artiste, here's Tom Petty with “Jammin' me”. |
Three hearts in the happy ending machine --- Daryl Hall --- 1986 (RCA)
https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/im...3bqBodeoD0n4uA I always admire a solo artiste who takes charge of their project, though of course conversely that can work against them, if they take on too much and aren't equal to the task. This is by no means a brilliant album, and I don't say that simply because I'm not a huge fan of Hall and Oates: this has its moments, but overall it is a little too much filler for my tastes. It was an album I took a chance on, and in fairness, there are enough decent tracks there that I never felt my money was wasted, but on the basis of this, Daryl Hall's second solo album, I never felt compelled to search any further, either forward or backward through his catalogue. But there's no denying that on this album he gave his all, not only writing or co-writing every track and singing on the album (obviously), but also playing guitar, keyboards, mandolin (!) and even programming drum patterns, not to mention producing the album, with assistance from some other luminaries like Dave Stewart. I always found Hall to be the “face” of the Hall and Oates duo; not surprising really, as he sang lead vocals and was essentially the frontman of the band, if a duo can have a frontman. John Oates always seemed more the workhorse, toiling away industriously at his guitar and adding those indispensible backing vocals. Definitely integral to the band, but you couldn't really see him without his “white soul boy”. So perhaps Daryl Hall had less to prove than his bandmate, as he would not be “stepping out from the shadow” of anyone, being as it were the dominant force in Hall and Oates. However, this was not his first solo album; his debut, released six years previously, had been dogged by the label's refusal to release it as it was not seen as commercial enough, leading to a three-year delay, after which the album sold okay but did not hit any real chart positions and largely passed unnoticed. There was greater fanfare for the release of this, which RCA no doubt would prefer people to think was his first effort. As many people, including me at first, certainly did. Right away there's a shock, a total change from the smooth soul/pop of “I can't go for that” or “Maneater”, with a heavy rock AOR song surely more suited to John Parr than Daryl Hall? “Dreamtime” is a great little track, and indeed gave Daryl his first, and only, hit single, getting to number five. Of course, great an achievement as that is, it has to be accepted that much of those sales would have been thanks to Hall and Oates fans; whether they liked what they heard after purchasing the single is debatable, but once the record was paid for it wasn't going back, and the sales pushed it up the charts. There's a great utilisation of a string section in the song, which seems something of an anachronism, as it should not fit an upbeat, rocking tune like this, but somehow it works. Hall's voice is instantly recognisable of course, and there's nothing wrong with his pipes, even if you do sort of expect the lush tones of Oates to come chiming in on the chorus. Great guitar work from Dave Stewart helps give this opener a harder edge than we would have expected from this master of soul and smooth, and sets the album up nicely. Unfortunately, that quality is not maintained throughout, and takes something of a dive with the more soul/disco-infused “Only a vision”. Much more in the way of drum machines, no searing guitar from Stewart, a much more restrained track, and not anywhere near as enjoyable. This continues into “I wasn't born yesterday” which, despite an interesting sax intro, quickly runs out of ideas and ends up being too repetitive for me. Nice digital piano, decent synth sounds, but definitely lacking something. The first ballad comes in the very Cars-like “Someone like you”, complete with chirping keyboards and Hall even sounding a little like Ocasek, but it's a nice little song, and certainly re-establishes the high bar set by the opening track. Some really nice blues style guitar from ex-Pretender Robbie McIntosh, and this is a song into which Daryl can really get his soul teeth, if you'll excuse the somewhat mixed metaphor; quite similar to his work with John Oates, and you could in fact see the two of them singing this later onstage together. Great guitar outro, very impressive, but again sadly it doesn't last. This album is almost like panning for gold: occasionally you'll come across real nuggets in the dirty water, but most of the time it's just hard work for little reward. “Next step” is another example of the latter, a more upbeat bopper but ultimately empty. Sort of not really sure what it's trying to be, as it veers between rock soul and disco, gets confused and ends in a bit of a muddle. Perhaps it's the influence of hip-hop DJ supremo Arthur Baker that makes this sound more like something New Order or Afrika Bambaata would be comfortable singing, but it just jars too much, at least for me. Then we hit gold! “For you” is a powerful, insightful love song that isn't a ballad. Driven on fine strong guitar, almost Johnny Marr-like in places, and lush keyboards with reverb and echo effects, then an almost Genesis bridge, circa “Invisible touch” into a hooky chorus that just grabs at you and stays in your head. I'm probably being harsher on this album than I should be: it's only really the first few tracks (bar the opener) that fall flat in a row, after that you're basically looking at every second track being good, which is okay but still frustrating: you love track four, for instance, then track five is not great, you like track six, track seven's a yawn, and so on. So you sort of feel like you're constantly building up your hopes only to have them dashed, then realised, then dashed, all of which is more than a little unsettling. This pattern continues unabated. “Foolish pride” is another “meh” track, and I would be happy, or at least prepared, to say that it's on the ones penned by Hall alone that the album falls down, but whereas this is often the case, the last two good tracks on the album are his own solo efforts, and they're quite excellent. You can't even say that it's when he reverts back to more “Hall-and-Oatesish” songs that the formula breaks down, because although that's essentially what happens with this track, he manages quite successfully to meld the two styles on “Someone like you”. This, however, sounds way too close to “I can't go for that”, just sped up a little, and I feel it's a very weak track. It's followed though, by another nugget, in fact one of the standouts, the beautiful ballad “Right as rain”, with the legendary Joni Mitchell providing backing vocals. It's soft, slow, relaxed, almost a lullaby with sparkling, tinkling keys and a beautiful little miramba-like percussion line, Daryl exercising those soul pipes as only he can. Some chiming guitar, very Police-like, adds to rather than destroys the gentle balance created here, and even when the proper drums crash in it's at exactly the right moment, and sounds expected rather than sudden or invasive. The peaceful, almost hushed atmosphere is then blown apart by “Let it out”, which I could definitely have done without. Elements of the Clash in here, maybe more Big Audio Dynamite really, and a healthy dose of John Cougar Mellencamp, but even with that pedigree it manages to be a very average track, and we go panning again. Luckily though, we do find some more gold, before we have to pack up and go home. The closer is another ballad, and vies with “Right as rain” as the standout, though I still plump for “For you” personally. “What's gonna happen to us” is another solo Hall number, and the weak tracks on this album notwithstanding, if there was any doubt about his songwriting ability, this removes them for all time. With gentle percussion reminscent of Peter Gabriel, some soft guitar and an echoey double-tracked vocal from Hall, it's a plea for sanity as the world hurtles towards its destruction. Sure, the subject has been tackled before --- and better --- but there's something very personal and passionate about Daryl Hall's take on the theme. The instrumentation is kept very low-key and minimalist right through the song, Hall's yearning vocal carrying the sort of emotion few singers can adequately convey, a sort of African chant coming in on about the third minute and keeping pace with the music, the guitar adding a few licks, a few keyboard runs, but essentially maintaining the same melody throughout the song. It's an interesting end to the album, both downbeat and powerful, emotional and relevant even today. Like I said, this is not a great album. But it's not a terrible album. Neither does it qualify for the “Meh” section, as it definitely is not meh. It's got enough good tracks to keep you listening, just a shame that it's let down so consistently by songs that really don't deserve to be on it. If Hall had perhaps written some other songs of the calibre of “For you” or “Right as rain”, or perhaps included some that didn't make the cut and left some of the weaker ones here off the album, I could be hailing this as a great effort from an already established vocal and lyrical talent, stepping out on his own. As it is, it's not quite the happy ending I had hoped for, but it's not a horror story either. TRACKLISTING 1. Dreamtime 2. Only a vision 3. Wasn't born yesterday 4. Someone like you 5. Next step 6. For you 7. Foolish pride 8. Right as rain 9. Let it out 10. What's gonna happen to us |
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Balance of Power: I liked the concept of your "Get to Know the Band Idea" I still think their best album is Book of Secrets but I've still yet to hear their later stuff. Styx: I saw you featured a song of theirs, which was followed by the comment that you don't know the band that well, I'm shocked! Not only are they one of my very fav bands, but are without doubt one of the finest bands of their era. They took aspects of the Queen sound without the excesses and fused them with prog rock better than Queen ever did. What made Styx great, is that they had 3 strong vocalists who all sounded very different and all three brought something different to the table. The main two Dennis De Young and Tommy Shaw were usually at loggerheads over the direction of the band and its this tension which gave their albums that special feel. Their mix of prog/pomp rock is something special. The albums The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight are essential, I'm sure you'd love em based on your music tastes. Bad English: One of the late great AOR albums of the 1980s, it came out in 1989 when AOR had died but this was one of the best. It was a Journey meets The Baby's reunion, not sure if you know the Baby's but they were a really great hard rock act of the 1970s that featured John Waite as lead singer and bassist, Jonathan Cain was with them for a while as well. I absolutely love the below song of the Baby's and the video as well. The Babys - Dying Man - YouTube Trevor Rabin: I've never decided what I really think about him, he often gets a lot of credit for putting Yes back on the map with the 90125 album, I've not heard the solo album you've put up, so will give it a listen. |
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A great band who seldom get the appreciation they deserve, this is Lindisfarne, with “Run for home”. |
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Closer to you --- The Coronas --- 2011 (3u) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...loserToYou.jpg Although virtually unknown outside their native Ireland, the Coronas are big news here and just waiting to make the giant leap to international stardom. They've twice been nominated for the Meteor Awards, winning one for their last album. They've supported the likes of Paul McCartney and fellow Irish rockers The Script, and have twice appeared at one of Ireland's biggest outdoor music festivals, Oxegen. This is their third, and most recent album. “What you think you know” opens the album well, with jangly guitar and squealing electric, and the song bops along nicely with a sense of Aslan mixed with INXS. Things continue to rock along for “Mark my words”, where The Coronas really start to come into their own, with a very commercial song that would I think have had great potential as a single. Great hook here, and the song really hangs together well, some fine guitar from Danny O'Reilly, who also handles the lead vocals, and is helped out on the guitar by Dave McPhilips. Lovely little, somewhat unexpected, restrained piano ending, and then we're into the title track. A lowdown funky stride, this smoulders along on Graham Cox's exquisite bassline before Conor Egan's staccato drums ramp everything up, then drop back and allow the bass to take over again, keyboards from O'Reilly peppering the song with little flashes of colour, some harder guitar coming in from McPhilips, the song taking on quite a Big Country feel, especially in the vocal lines of Danny O'Reilly. It ends quite abruptly though, and then “Dreaming again” is a big, expansive half-ballad, with more than a touch of Irish traditional music in it, with a chorus that just demands a sea of waving arms, people swaying side to side in ecstasy. Definitely an infectious song. Nothing here is particularly long, with the average song length being in the three to four minute mark, with only one or two going over that, and even then only by a few seconds. “Blind will lead the blind” is one of the longer songs, just a second shy of the four minutes, and has an interesting percussion line, almost tribal in its way, the song itself relatively restrained but with Danny on song, as it were, guitars carrying the main melody, while the lead single from the album opens on a piano line quickly joined by boppy keyboards as “Addicted to progress” gets going. You can see how this was selected as the first single, as it's very catchy and very airplay-friendly. Big, friendly guitars vie with the funky piano melody for supremacy, and above it all rises without any effort the voice of Danny, the heartbeat of The Coronas. That heartbeat is thumping proudly as the acoustic-led “My god” slips in, Danny's voice taking command of the song while the twin guitars jangle along, electric joining acoustic as the song progresses. Lovely little bit of mandolin weaves through the melody, though I'm unsure as to who's playing it as they don't seem to be credited. More acoustic guitar on “Dreaming again part 2 (Wait for you)”, but it's soon pushed out by electric in a mid-paced slow rocker with anthemic ambitions. It's essentially the same basic melody as “Dreaming again”, but sufficiently changed as to sound like a completely separate song. “Write to me” is probably the closest we get to a ballad, but it's a swinging, swaying one with a big acoustic chorus and some dour keyboards setting the tone; nice little song indeed. Danny manages to inject a real note of desperation into the vocal, and things stay relatively slow for “Different ending”, with some really deep, introspective keyboard and piano work from Danny O'Reilly, slick little guitar brushstrokes added by Dave McPhilips, and steady, measured drumming from Conor Egan, Graham Cox adding the bassline to the rhythm section. The song gets a little more mid-paced as it goes along, and becomes a little different to your average ballad, great vocals also from Danny, the tension in the song increasing until it fades out on light piano, then we're into the closer, “Make it happen”. With a really smooth bluesy guitar opening, the song suddenly comes to life as the electric guitar is wound up and blasts out, then everything falls back as Danny comes in with the vocal, and then the music comes back in strength in a sort of striding boogie rhythm. That doesn't last though, and it's back to the arrangement that opened the song, with some really effective and emotive guitar and keys, the song fading out on an instrumental ending, there having been very little really in the way of vocals on the track at all. It's easy to see why The Coronas are so popular here, because apart from their obvious musical ability and the great vocals of Danny O'Reilly, the thing that shines through about this band is their workmanlike approach to their music, as well as their honesty. You really get the feeling this is not an album written to get hit singles. If that happens then fine, but it's not the point of the thing, and nothing has been contrived or manufactured to be a hit. It's music for those who love and appreciate music, and taken in that vein, this is one hell of an album. TRACKLISTING 1. What you think you know 2. Mark my words 3. Closer to you 4. Dreaming again 5. Blind will lead the blind 6. My god 7. Addicted to progress 8. Dreaming again part 2 (Wait for you) 9. Write to me 10. Different ending 11. Make it happen |
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Despite not having any legs, the worm feels like boogieing! Here's Snap! |
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Yeee-hawww! Oh, very original, Trollheart! No-one saw that one coming! Nevertheless, time to pull on ma cowboy boots an' mosey on down to the --- will you just bloody stop it? No-one thinks you're funny, you know! Yes, well, funny or not, it's time to check out some more of those country songs that I like. Not a huge country fan in truth, but I'm open-minded enough to realise that every genre has its good music, and just because you don't like or subscribe to that sort of music doesn't mean you can't find something good in it. Besides, country music has been around for a lot longer than I have. Course, so has jazz, but then... Anyway, here is my next selection of country tunes I enjoy. There's just something I love about this old crooning ballad from the legendary “Gentleman” Jim Reeves, especially when he sings “Turn the jukebox way down low”. Great track, it's called, of course, “He'll have to go”. And this is the great Marty Robbins, with “El Paso” My love for the music of Nanci Griffith is well known. This is the title track from the first of her albums I ever heard, this is “Lone star state of mind”. Bit commercial yes, but I still love this classic from the Bellamy Brothers, “Let your love flow”. And you just have to love Johnny Paycheck's everyman two-fingers to the boss! Most of us have felt like saying this at some point in our working life... |
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Who feels all seventies glam rock? Well, you'd better beware, you'd better take care, and you definitely want to watch out if you've got long black hair! This is The Sweet, with “Blockbuster”. |
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Let's have a look at some more advertisements, some old, some not so old, all of which are worth sitting through those damned ad breaks for. Ads like this are the only reason I sort of regret in a way that we can all skim through the breaks these days; when you had to WAIT for the ads to finish before you could get back to your show, you often experienced ads that you would never otherwise have seen, and that in many ways turned out to become classics. Of course, then there's always the likes of “Injury Lawyers 4U”, which is always a good reason to hit that “fast forward” button... There was a whole series of these ads back in the seventies, or maybe eighties. Basically, the fox was annoyed that there was a polar bear on the mint: he was a fox, after all, and the mints were made by Fox's, so why should there be a bear on there instead of him? Why indeed? In classic “Roadrunner” style, he was forever trying to get the bear off the mint, and like Wile E. Coyote, always failing. Tetley's did a great series of adverts too. This one is to the great music of Bill Withers. Everyone in Ireland loved this ad! One of the great, great Carlsberg “what if?” ads, which envisages Ireland winning the World Cup. As if.. Of course, it went out at the time we were in the tournament. This was a really clever ad for Sony, with some great animation. I don't think this was ever broadcast (think it was banned) but hey, it's Kylie in sexy lingerie. What more do you need to know? And I absolutely love this “Postman Pat” ad for Specsavers! Who can forget this incredibly clever and artistic ad for British Airways? The Alliance and Leicester ads with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie were great, too! The Fairy Liquid ads were sickening, yes, but the one I wanted was the one where the kid is waiting for the Fairy Liquid bottle to be empty, so he can make a rocket, but every time he comes in and asks the mother says not yet. Damn spoilsports on YouTube hadn't got it, so here's one with a very cute and not really annoying little girl, and a pretty sexy yummy mummy, as the kids apparently say these days... And finally, proof that sometimes, even having a mega-celebrity with tons of cool like Steve McQueen advertise your product doesn't necessarily guarantee sales. Who has ever since heard of the Ford Puma? Anyone own one? |
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Out of nothing --- Embrace --- 2004 (Independente)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...hing_Cover.jpg I bought this album on the strength of the one song I had heard from them, which is in fact the opener to this, Embrace's fourth album: I was that impressed by the song! Apparently, a lot of other people were too, as the album shot right to number one in the UK, so chances were there was going to be some damn fine music here. If anything even approached the quality of the one song I had heard up to then, this would not be money wasted. But before we get into that, who the hell are these guys? Embrace are an English rock band who have been around since 1990, though they only achieved success --- and huge success: a number one album with their debut! --- eight years later. They were literally formed at the bottom of a garden by two brothers, Danny and Richard McNamara. Adding a bass player and a drummer, they decided to use the name Embrace for their band, despite there already being a band of that name, based in the USA. Securing permission from that band to also use the name, Embrace released their first album, “The good will out” in 1998 and it went directly to number one, a massive feat for an as-yet-unknown band at that time. As is often the case though, they were initially unable to repeat this feat, and though their next two albums both hit the top ten, neither made it to the very top and they were dropped by their label. Signed to a new label they released their fourth album, “Out of nothing”, which raced right up to the top spot, emulating the success of “The good will out”, almost six years later. As I mentioned, “Ashes” is the opener, and made such an impression on me when I heard it on the TV that I rushed out to buy the album. It's a perfect combination of pop and rock, with busy guitars, sparkling keys and a great vocal line from Danny McNamara, with a wonderful hook and great melody. It's got just the right mix of pathos and determination in the lyric, and I always regard it as a real “cheer up” song. Guitarist Richard McNamara certainly knows his way around a fretboard, and you can see why this album was so well-received. My only concern with the song is its sudden piano lead-out, which I think jars just a little. “Gravity” is co-written by Chris Martin, with whom the guys had become friendly when supporting Coldplay, and as a result it is very Coldplay in its sound. A ballad, it's a lovely song with a nice line in piano from Mickey Dale and an impassioned vocal, some great guitar work from Richard, and it was in fact their comeback single after two successful but not chart-busting albums and a lack of interest from Hut, their previous label. “Someday” has an almost acoustic opening, with some squealing guitar, a laconic vocal and a bare piano line, then it gets going with heavy drumming from Mike Heaton and some fairly Big Country-style sharp guitar from Richard. The song has a real anthemic quality in its chorus, with some great backing vocals. There's a quite unexpected burst of guitar right at the end, which certainly shows that Richard can rock out with the best of them. More restrained then is “Looking as you are”, which kind of reminds me of a more animated Travis, some very passionate guitar and some solid piano , and “Wish 'em all away” is a hard ballad, with a lot of power and honesty in its execution, while “Keeping” is also quite balladic in its structure, given added power by the inclusion of the London Session Orchestra, and there seems not to have been a fast uptempo song since “Ashes”, which is not a criticism, just an observation. No bad tracks so far. Atmospheric opening thanks to Dale's keyboards to “Spell it out”, then Richard's guitar chimes out and Mike's drums take the song up a notch, and it becomes a mid-paced rocker, with some very distinctive guitar riffs throughout, more lovely orchestral arrangements lifting it to new heights, then a beautiful piano intro from Mickey Dale takes us into “A glorious day”, a love anthem if ever there was one, powerful backing vocals with bright piano mostly leading the melody. Some guitar histrionics over a piano intro opens “Near life”, with a dour, almost Chris Martinesque vocal from Danny, his brother's wild guitar making this the closest thing to hard rock on the album, but I'm not a fan of this style of singing, almost what I'd call slurred, in a way, or what comes across as uninterested, even though I know Danny is certainly full of passion for all his music. The album then ends on the title track, more lovely piano from Mickey Dale in a closing ballad that's certainly worthy of the quality on this album. Halfway through though it really jumps into life, and the guitar, not so much solo, as passage, that ends it has to really be heard for it to be appreciated how good a guitarist Richard McNamara is. It's easy to see why Coldplay wanted them as support on their tour, as Embrace's sound is very similar to Chris Martin's band. So if you hate Coldplay are you going to hate these guys? I don't know; it's not a problem I have as I like Coldplay, but until reading about Embrace on Wiki I was unaware of the connection between the two, and maybe that knowledge has coloured my perception of their sound. All I know is this is a band who definitely deserve to be given a chance. Listen to the album and make up your own mind. I personally don't love it, but I do like it a lot, and it gets regular airplay on my media player of choice. TRACKLISTING 1. Ashes 2. Gravity 3. Someday 4. Looking as you are 5. Wish 'em all away 6. Keeping 7. Spell it out 8. A glorious day 9. Near life 10. Out of nothing |
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What ever happened to the Fine Young Cannibals, eh? Not so young anymore, probably nowhere near as fine... This is one of their big hits from back in 1985, it's “Johnny come home”. |
I know: if I start one more review with “I'm not really into [insert artiste name] but I bought this album” I'll probably be attacked on the street! Yet it's true: I'm not, and never have been, much of a fan of Tina Turner, and I couldn't tell you what possessed me to buy this album, but I was very glad I did in the end, as it's truly excellent. Given that it's her sixth album it's perhaps not that surprising, since Tina had had at this point over ten years to have perfected her sound. However, she only really came back into the limelight and to prominence as a solo artist in 1984, having left Ike in the mid-seventies and struck out on her own with very little success. “Private dancer” was the album that thrust her firmly back into the spotlight, and into the charts, and during the latter half of the eighties she was one of the hottest properties in music, and could do no wrong.
Break every rule --- Tina Turner --- 1986 (Capitol) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Every_Rule.jpg After the phenomenal success of the previous album, and the virtual rebirth of Tina Turner as a saleable commodity, this album was really seen as the “second album syndrome”, the one which would prove once and for all whether “Private dancer” was a fluke, an aberration, a fad, or whether Tina was really back to stay. Like expensive wine discovered in an old cellar and consumed with gusto, was this album going to be the hangover that would have everyone wondering what the hell they had been drinking, and with the clear light of day and the cold reality of sobriety, consign “Break every rule” to the trash-heap of music history? The album proved more than a match for its millions-selling predecessor, and also showed that Tina could call in some big guns when required, with people like Bowie, Adams and Knopfler all contributing, whether playing on, writing or producing the album. It's a storming statement that the Queen was back. But it very definitely is, to borrow an old footballing cliché, a game of two halves. It opens, it has to be said, rather disappointingly with the stolid, flat “Typical male”, a sub-disco/dance number that was, unaccountably, the first single from the album, which makes me wonder even more why I bought the album, as I certainly don't rate this. There's nothing special about it; anyone could have written it and anyone could sing it, and yet her name was so big at this point that it went to number two. Well, I would say it is number two, but there you go... :) Luckily enough it soon settles down, and “What you get is what you see” is far rockier fare, rather odd in a way, as it, and the next three, are all written by the same team that penned the godawful opener, Terry Britten and one half of Gallagher and Lyle, Graham Lyle. The guitar sound on this is classic Mark Knopfler, and though the album notes don't say so, he has to be playing geetar on this! It's just his sound, through and through, and he is on the album somewhere. It's a good boppy rocker, and soon banishes the memories of “Typical male”, with a sort of “Twisting by the pool”/”Walk of life” melody and rhythm, then we're into “Two people”, a ballad with more than a touch of “What's love got to do with it” from the previous album about it. Decent song though, with some very nice keyboards from either Billy Livsey or Nick Glennie-Smith, not sure which. The song also retains influences of Champaign's “How 'bout us”, and is light and breezy, not quite throwaway, but a bit of a letdown after the powerful track that preceded it. Not much in the way of guitar here, very synthy. Things stay more or less light with the disco-like “Till the right man comes along”, and really up to this point I'm sure I was shaking my head and wondering what the hell I had been thinking, buying this pile of cr--- but wait. Once we get beyond the Britten/Lyle machine things start to get a whole lot better, I definitely remember that. The whole timbre, style and most importantly quality of the album changes. Which is not to say the guys can't write a good tune --- they did, after all, pen “What you get is what you see” --- but the majority of what they contribute here to what would have been basically the first side of the album is very weak and generic, and had it not been for Tina pulling in the writing power of people like Bryan Adams and Mark Knopfler, this album could have been a real turkey. Their last contribution, thank god, is “Afterglow”, another dancy, bass-ridden throwaway, with a nice bit of funky guitar it has to be said, and a certain sense of Judie Tzuke circa “Ritmo” (whaddya mean, who? Philistine!) and then we're into the real songs. It's almost like two different albums in one. The powerful, dramatic, almost ominous “Girls”, penned by the Thin White Duke himself, shows what Tina can do when given proper material to work with. Haunting keyboard strains keep up a counterpoint behind her as the song picks up a little speed, and the intensity builds as she sings of basically how hard it is to be a woman, but without any cliché (would you expect less of Bowie?). The song powers up to a strong, passionate climax (sorry; well, it does!), with Phil Collins firmly ensconced on the drumseat, and all of a sudden you're in a totally different land, almost having to check the album cover to make sure you're still listening to the same one! And it just gets better from there on. With the mark of Bowie's class firmly imprinted on it, what could have been a second-rate failure becomes a true winner, a donkey suddenly becomes a thoroughbred, an ugly duckling turns into... well, you get what I'm trying to say. The album improves, is basically the thing, so much so that it really is amazing. Bryan Adams' “Back where you started” delivers another well-needed kick up this album's backside and also sets fire to it for good measure. With opening organ chords then crashing guitar you know this album has finally arrived. Okay, so in fairness, it sounds like a Bryan Adams song: you can hear him singing it in your head, and she almost imitates his scratchy croak, but man is it a powerful song! The sense of relief I remember washing over me, starting with “Girls” and continuing to the end of the album almost without pause, is again a fantastic feeling. To think I believed I had wasted my money! Just proves you need to stick in there right to the end, just to make sure. The man is on piano, guitar and backing vox, and his old mate Jim Vallance (who of course wrote the song with him) is on percussion, with Tommy Mandel going crazy on the keys, and it's a revitalisation of the album: we're well on our way! The title track just keeps the new quality of this album going, with a great uptempo rocker featuring some superb keyboard work from Rupert Hine, who also helps out on producing and co-writes this song. It's just infectiously catchy, if that's not an oxymoron: this sort of hook could land a Great White shark, I kid you not! You try sitting still when you listen to it, and the production is totally faultless. Perfect backing vocals just add to the layers of quality on this track, and it's Mark Knopfler who steps in next to add his writing expertise to the album, and though in fairness “Overnight sensation” is something of the weakest of the “side 2” tracks --- basically a Dire Straits song --- it's still miles better than the bulk of side one. But the album ends powerfully and strongly, on two perfect ballads. The first, penned by Irish star Paul Brady, “Paradise is here”, is a lovely mid-paced, almost uptempo ballad with some gorgeous sax from the great Branford Marsalis, and then the album finishes strongly and dramatically, on “I'll be thunder”, a real power ballad co-written again by Rupert Hine, with almost Steinmanesque phrasing, allowing Tina to really show off her powerful vocal chords, with strong, insightful piano, lovely guitar which is at once laidback and then fierce, and an emotive string section fleshing the song out to give it its full potential, and finishing the album with a dramatic flair and a real touch of class. It's totally amazing, as I say, how different the two sides of this album are, and if I listened to it again, for purposes other than review, I'd elect more than likely to only listen to the second side, as the first is mostly just better forgotten. I got “Foreign affair” after this, and recall it not being a patch on “Break every rule”, so maybe I came in at just the right place, for me, within Tina Turner's discography. I doubt I'll listen to another of her albums again, but this was a hell of a surprise, and a very pleasant one, though I had to persevere to get to the good stuff. Just shows you though: persistence pays off. TRACKLISTING 1. Typical male 2. What you get is what you see 3. Two people 4. Till the right man comes along 5. Afterglow 6. Girls 7. Back where you started 8. Break every rule 9. Overnight sensation 10. Paradise is here 11. I'll be thunder |
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The worm has always had something of a liking for this track from the Stranglers. It's “Always the sun”. |
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Terra incognita: a line in the sand --- Roswell Six --- 2010 (ProgRock)
http://www.progarchives.com/progress...9613032010.JPG A good while ago I reviewed Roswell Six's first album in this series --- well, their first album really, of which this is both second and, to date, last --- “Terra incognita: beyond the horizon”, explaining how the two make up a unique project which seeks to fuse the novels of Kevin J. Anderson with the music of progressive rock and metal. I promised we'd review the second album, and now, admittedly five months later, here we are, and how things have changed for volume two! First off, there's no Erik Norlander, who so superbly helmed the first album. Due to other musical commitments Norlander was unable to participate, nor was his wife, so no Lana Lane sadly. Other people who performed on the first album are similarly conspicuous by their absence, in particular John Payne, James LaBrie and Gary Wehrkamp, but they're ably replaced by the likes of Sass Jordan, Michael Froese and Steve Walsh, with original vocalist Michael Sadler happily still with us. The album is this time around devoid of any keyboards (possibly due to Norlander's non-involvement: he is the king of keys, after all, and drove the signature sound of the first album), with rich orchestration taking the place of synthesisers. It opens with dramatic orchestral bassoon, maybe, then a full section as the title of the album is sung and “Barricade” blasts out with power and energy, and though I'm not sure who takes the vocal line as information is relatively sketchy, and there are so many vocalists on the album, I don't think it's Sadler, whom I've heard before. This voice is rougher, not entirely to my liking but anyway. The orchestra rattles along as the track continues, with a real cinematic sense of scope, quite a hard rocker to start off the album with some great guitar from Henning Pauly, ably taking on the duties performed by Shadow Gallery's Gary Wehrkamp last time out. I think it's Sadler then who takes the vocals for “Whirlwind”, with a very Rush-like sound circa “Caress of steel” --- I wish there was a way to get the liner notes to or more information on this album, as it really is quite scarce what's out there. Anyway, this is a mid-paced rocker with a lot of guitar, and I don't hear any involvement from the orchestra, very much a rock/metal song than a symphonic or even progressive one. The orchestra is back in full force though for “The crown”, with some more frenetic guitar from Pauly, and the introduction of vocals from Sass Jordan, channeling Janis Joplin at times, a rougher voice than Lane's, but perhaps better suited to this sort of song. As ever, with a concept album you really need the notes to get the idea, and in this case where we're actually conceptualising a novel, it seems obvious that to get the most out of this album you really need to have the book and have read it, neither of which I have. So I can't guide you through the storyline, though I can tell you this album is based on the second of Anderson's “Terra incognita” novels, “The map of all things”. Seems Pauly looks after all instrumentation on this album (apart from, obviously, the orchestra) in a similar vein to Daniele Liverani on his “Genius: a rock opera” trilogy, playing guitar, bass and drums, as well as adding backing vocals. Impressive. There's a break from the uptempo, racing rock for a ballad, and Sadler is back on vocals for “Loyalty”, his voice gentle and yet powerful, with some lovely guitar from Pauly, and perhaps the piano is his too, or maybe it's part of the orchestra, I don't know, but the song mostly rides along on its soft melody. There's a really intense little guitar solo from Henning Pauly, then the orchestra are back in force for “My father's son”, an ominous, urgent beat permeating the song and giving a sense of desperation and danger, hard guitar from Pauly adding to the panic. I have to say, I don't really like this track, but “When God smiled on us” is a lot better. A pretty heavy track, it's replete with screaming guitars and churning chords, with Sadler back on vocals, and a kind of blues rhythm, then Jordan is back for “Need”, the second ballad on the album. Not as restrained or quiet as “Loyalty”, but still a slow song with a nice line in guitar and some very nice bass too. Jordan sings a bit more gently here this time around, sounding a little like Tina Turner, of all people, with a jazzy twang to her voice. It's followed by another rocker, again with a single title, and I think it's Steve Walsh on vocals for “Spiral”, an intense, heavy, dramatic tale of the desire for revenge --- ”You killed our fathers/ So we killed your sons/ How can you claim/ You're the innocent ones?” --- and with backing vocals from Sass Jordan in almost Clare Torry mode, a fine emotional solo from Pauly on the guitar, then “Battleground” reintroduces the orchestra for the only instrumental on the album. A big, brooding, heavy monster of a track, it's helped along by frantic and intense guitar from Henning Pauly, tremendous work by the strings section of the orchestra, pounding drumming adding to the feel of a battle being fought, ending in “Victory”, the album's closing cut. With a real sense of the calm after the storm, it's guitar led, but in a laidback and upbeat way, celebratory, as you might expect with a title like that. Sadler takes the vocal for this final track, and Pauly can't it seem stay restrained for long, as he has to let out his joy and exultation with some blistering solos and runs. There is a note of doubt though as the song and the celebrations go on: ”Victory! Victory! Is this victory?” I think I was more impressed with the first album. Whether that's due to the absence here of some of the major players, or the fact that there was a lot more keyboard work on the album, or whether I'm just confused now as to the storyline, this one didn't hit me as square between the eyes as did the first. Nevertheless, it's a fine effort and a good follow-up, just a pity they couldn't have assembled the whole team again, but then, that's rock and roll, I guess. Whether there'll be a third album or not is uncertain, but if they manage it, I really hope they can get back together the team that produced “Beyond the horizon”, as I feel they are the best combination to really nail this whole concept down. TRACKLISTING 1. Barricade 2. Whirlwind 3. The crown 4. Loyalty 5. My father's son 6. When God smiled on us 7. Need 8. Spiral 9. Battleground 10. Victory Suggested further listening: uh, “Terra Incognita: beyond the horizon”...? |
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One of the only songs --- well, the only song --- the worm knows from Gabrielle is “Rise”. So here it is. |
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2014, should we reach it (in which case we can thumb our noses at those Mayans! Yah! Up yours, long dead civilisation! If you're so smart how come you're all dead?) will be the forty-fifth anniversary of Hawkwind. That's right: the band which gave us Lemmy and set up more trips than a whole fleet of trains and buses during festival season is fast approaching their half-century, an amazing milestone for any band, much more so for a band who are so, well, how can I put this? Weird. It's fair to say Hawkwind are not to everyone's tastes. I've never been high (unless you count my few trips in a jet airliner) in my life, though I'm reliably informed that to really appreciate this band you need to be stoned. I do remember going to see them in 1984 and being almost choked by the aroma of "freaky" cigarettes, so much so that I remember very little of the gig --- possibly high on second-hand smoke? Nevertheless, despite being what most Hawkwind fans would deem a square, or whatever epithet they choose to hang around the necks of those who “don't, sorry”, I have enjoyed Hawkwind albums. “Levitation” was a great record, as was “Masters of the universe” (okay, so it's a collection: what about it?) and even the eminently weird “Church of Hawkwind” had me nodding appreciatively, when I wasn't shaking my head in miscomprehension. This is their twenty-fourth studio album, taking purely into account those only: this says nothing of the many compilations, live albums, retrospectives etc that have hit the shelves over the last thirty-odd years. Lemmy, of course, is long gone, but founder member Dave Brock, the brains and heart of Hawkwind, is still here, going as strong as ever, and though he has a good twenty years on him, Richard Chadwick is the next most permanent member, having occupied the drumseat since 1988. Most of the rest of the band have only been with Hawkwind since the first decade of this century, although keyboardist Tim Blake has been with them on and off for short stints in the seventies and the first years of the second (or is it third? I always get confused...) millennium. Onward --- Hawkwind --- 2012 (Plastic Head) http://www.subba-cultcha.com/album-r...s/Hawkwind.jpg It doesn't matter if you've heard every Hawkwind album since their debut in 1970 (which I haven't, far from it), it's always going to be hard to predict what you're going to come across on a new outing from them, whether it's space rock, acid rock, prog-rock, psychedelic metal, proto-metal-space-fusion-jazz-ambient-futurist-rock, or insert-genre-plus-as-many-sub-genres-as-you-wish in this space. Hawkwind are a band that have continually defied categorisation over the decades, and while one album could be fairly close to what most of us would consider “normal” rock, another could go way out on some space-opera acid-fuelled tangent which bore no resemblance to the previous album. One thing you are always guaranteed though is that it will be different, and interesting. This album in fact comes on two discs (at least, the copy I have does), the first of which starts off with humming synth, doomy pealing bells before guitar blasts in and “Seasons” opens the album, Dave Brock's voice as powerful now as it was in 1970, the usual crazy space-rock effects Hawkwind aficionados have come to expect fizzing everywhere, but the guitar hard and heavy. The vocals and backing vocals are strongly reminiscent of Floyd, and of course the two bands were around at about the same time, though they went off on somewhat different tracks. There is a lot of similarlity between the two though. This is a little heavier than I would expect Hawkwind to be, but it's very welcome, and only the first of eighteen new tracks, so a treat in store? Well, things stay heavy for “The hills have ears”, with an almost punk-rock sound about both the hard guitar and the singing, though the fizzling, sweeping synth in the background keeps this track firmly grounded in prog/psych land, everything in fact quickly fading down after a punchy beginning to allow the synth to take centre stage as weird little space-rock runs, odd sounds and effects all too familiar to those who have followed this band down through the years take over, then the guitar kicks back in and the music is rocking again, then “Mind cut” is a slow, acoustic guitar extravaganza with electric in the background and Brock's almost sixties-style psychedelia vocal bringing us right back to the summer of love, almost like smashing out of a black hole into a totally new universe. Just over a minute long, “System check” is one of those intermezzos used so often by Hawkwind, with NASA-style reports and messages over spacey synth, then “Death trap” goes back to the rocky sort of song I've heard from them before, like the title track to “Levitation”, one of the few of their albums I've heard, a real cars-racing-down-the-highway song with some good vocal effects and some hammering guitar before we head into “Southern cross”, with some bongo-style drums and rising keyboards, like some sort of bastard son of Vangelis and Santana, entirely instrumental and really laidback in fact, another string to Hawkwind's mighty bow. Back to hard straightahead rocking with an almost eighties new romantic twist for “The prophecy”, banks of keyboards providing the soundscape while guitar lays down its own groove upon this, and Brock sings like some lost poet or visionary trying to find his place in the new world. There's another short interlude in “Electric tears”, which starts on xylophone-like chimes then pulls in strings and guitar, all in less than a minute. Impressive. Well, for any other band, that is: this is just standard for Hawkwind, though no less to be praised, just expected. The squealing guitar continues, taking us into “The drive by”, with some fine drum work from longtime member Richard Chadwick, bright, breezy synth from Blake in another instrumental to close the first disc. Certain elements of Harold Faltermeyer or the Art of Noise on the synthwork here, though of course Hawkwind were doing this before those guys were even in long pants! Disc two starts off on the heavy, gothic “Computer cowards”, with a vocal from Dave Brock that's hard to make out, almost subsumed within the music, as if he's drowning in it. Great bassline from the enigmatically-named Mr. Dibs drives the song, Brock evincing almost gutteral vocals, but sort of muttered: strange mix. Some great guitar work though, very little in the way of keyboards on this, ending on what sounds just like one of those old gas kettles boiling --- anyone remember them? If you're as old as me you will --- then it's synthery ho! as we head into “Howling moon”, another atmospheric instrumental, with Brock's guitar almost acting as a metronome, until with the odd sound of howling wolves we're taken into another straight rocker, “Right to decide” riding on the guitar line which is simple but effective, swirling keys and Brock's voice routed through some sort of vocoder or modulator to make it sound echoey, the song tripping (ahem!) along at a great pace with a really nice guitar solo adding to the many hooks in this song. “Aero space age” is surely a typical Hawkwind song title, and this track is almost a continuation of “Right to decide”, but based more along the piano and keyboard lines of Tim Blake this time. They even namecheck with a cheeky grin their biggest commercial hit, with the lyric ”The silver machine is worth/ More than you're worth”: possibly a dig at those who only know them for that single? Very spacey song, great synth work, and yes, in places it is reminscent of the song itself. The longest track on the album comes in slowly, something of a slowburner then again emulating the great Carlos as “The flowering of the rose” rides along on boppy organ, screaming skittering guitar and swirling synth (yeah, I know that's a lot of alliteration...) Is it going to be another instrumental? Well, we're about four minutes into its eight-minute-plus length now, and so far no vocals, just a real workout on the keys and guitar, steady rhythm section holding everything together in a fine uptempo progressive rock piece. Yeah, it's an eight-minute powerful, energetic instrumental all right, and it leads into another track whose title is just so Hawkwind. “Trans air trucking” starts off with a lot of mixed sounds --- phone message, growling, machinery --- then powers into a Vangelis-like fast synth run, running into a quick, thirty-second insert on heavy, ominous synth with spacey effects which then takes us into the penultimate track, a slow, heavy, Floyd-like piece called “Green finned demon”, some really inspired fretwork from Brock and a Watersesque vocal. In typical Hawkwind fashion, the closer is not titled. At all. In fact, in some reviews of this album they only show seventeen tracks, not eighteen, but the one that finishes this two disc set is like something out of “Sonic attack”, with a big busy guitar sound, whooshing synth and Brock's vocal not sung but spoken, like poetry, as he pilots his own personal starship across his own personal and unique galaxy, heading for who knows where? It's a real lookback to the Hawkwind of old; whereas much of this album is almost normal, as such, this is much more weird, spacey, out-there and probably will provide those among you who indulge with more than a few trips. There's no question Hawkwind are legend, and have already long ago stamped their mark on music history, but even so, you can sometimes expect legends to sit back and watch the money roll in, their work done. Not so this band, who are still putting out amazing albums like this at the tender age of almost forty-five, and on the strength of this offering, I would venture to say that not only is there life in the old dog yet, but there's bite and energy and vigour too, and it may be a very long time indeed before this particular dog has had its day! (Note: there's very little of this album available on YT, and let's just say the version I have doesn't lend itself easily to making my own videos, so I'm afraid you'll have to do with the meagre content I've managed to cobble together here. It's an album well worth getting though. Hey, have I ever steered you wrong before? Well now, that can be explained, but apart from that...) TRACKLISTING Disc One 1. Seasons 2. The hills have ears 3. Mind cut 4. System check 5. Death trap 6. Southern cross 7. The prophecy 8. Electric tears 9. Drive by Disc Two 1. Computer cowards 2. Howling moon 3. Right to decide 4. Aerospace age 5. The flowering of the rose 6. Trans air trucking 7. Deep vents 8. Green finned demon 9. (No title) |
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Alison Moyet was pretty huge back in the eighties. After leaving Yazoo to strike out on her own, she easily eclipsed their chart success and became a really hot property. For a few years. This is one of her big hits, it's called “Invisible”. |
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The worm ain't one for rap music (Yo!) but he does like this one, from Coolio, this is “Gangsta Paradise”. |
Grave dancers union --- Soul Asylum --- 1992 (Columbia)
I only found out about Soul Asylum a little while ago, as I may or may not have gone on at length about, when I learned the song “Runway train” was not sung by Tom Petty (they do sound similar) and so I made it my business to check out some more of their music. As per my usual priorities this led to me downloading their discography and listening to, well, nothing really, until right now. This is the album that single came from, so perhaps a good place to start? Well, you gotta start somewhere, don't you? It's their sixth album, and played host to a change in drummers, with original sticksman Grant Young playing on about half of the album and the man who was to replace him, Sterling Campbell, taking drum duties for the other half. Don't ask me who plays on what track, unless I can find out at discogs or somewhere: differentiating between drummers is for me an impossible task, no matter how well known they may be. “Somebody to shove” starts the album in rocking style, hopping along nicely with a heavy guitar sound and thumping drums, and yes I still think vocalist Dave Pirner has a very Petty-like quality to his voice, very gritty and rough. There's a certain sense of punk in the guitars of Pirner and lead guitarist Dan Murphy, and the song is pretty straightforward, but a good opener. More involved is “Black gold”, which opens on a Zeppelin-like guitar line, then explodes into a riot of electric guitar and runs along in a mid-pace tempo, some nice organ coming through courtesy of Booker T. Jones III, Pirner's vocal at times more reserved than on the opener, but at others loud and proud. This takes us into “Runway train”, which everyone probably knows by now, as it was their biggest hit single. It's a great track though, cataloguing the plight of America's runway children, then “Keep it up” is another hard rocker with a lot of guitar, upbeat yes but not that great. “Homesick” is a lot better, a slower, moodier song driven on guitar and slow percussion with a sort of campfire-style vocal. Presumably about homeless people, the song features the hook ”I'm so homesick, but it ain't that bad/ Cos I'm homesick for the home/ I never had.” We're back rocking then with “Get on out”, with a big heavy organ sound and busy guitars, but the song quickly seems to run out of ideas. Another nice laidback ballad on acoustic guitar in “New world”, very country-oriented with a gentle vocal, almost relaxed, with a full string section breaking in courtesy of the Meridian String Quartet and taking the song up a notch. Very nice and clever use of the strings indeed. “April fool” is a big heavy rocker that marches along brashly, confident in its own ability, with stop-start guitar and laboured vocal from Pirner, who is, I think, portraying someone who's been or is out on a binge, and “Without a trace” goes somewhat back to the melody and rhythm of “Runway train”, with some nice guitar work; it contains the title of the album in the lyric ”I tried to dance at a funeral/ New Orleans style/ I joined the Grave Dancers Union/ I had to file.” There's a return to the quasi-punk style of the opener for “Growing into you”, then the weird sound of what seems to be a gate opening at the beginning of “99%”, another stop-start rocker with Pirner's vocals routed through some sort of electronic modulator to make them sound kind of metallic or mono, sort of similar to the kind of sound Matt Johnson employed on The The's “Soul mining” album, particularly on the opening track, “I've been waiting for tomorrow (all of my life)”. We close then on “The sun maid”, a nice little acoustic ballad. I wouldn't go so far as to say that this album has made a fan of me, but it ain't bad. There are definitely some tracks on it that sound a little contrived, others that feel like they're not up to scratch, but against that there are also some really good songs, and overall I'm impressed enough to consider listening to more music from Soul Asylum, although I have to admit I won't be frantically searching through my hard drive to get the next album up and running. But I know what I hate, and I don't hate this. TRACKLISTING 1. Somebody to shove 2. Black gold 3. Runaway train 4. Keep it up 5. Homesick 6. Get on out 7. New world 8. April fool 9. Without a trace 10. Growing into you 11. 99% 12. The sun maid |
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What, you say? Another rap record? But we thought the worm didn't like rap! Well, he doesn't, but this is funny! Who says rappers have to sing about bi*ches and guns and gangs and drugs? Great stuff! |
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Let's choose three more albums and have a look at the track or tracks that let them down, the ones which, if they were the only examples from the albums you had heard, would discourage you from checking out the rest of the album and which, by their inclusion, threaten to knock the overall quality of the album down a notch. As ever, this is personal opinion --- mine --- so if I happen to choose tracks you think are in fact great, and you can't understand why I don't like them, well, it's just all part of the wonderful tapestry of life, and one man's poison, and all that. But these are really bad. Well, I think so, anyway. Comment as ever is invited, encouraged and sought, as is reasoned debate. Quest for fire (Iron Maiden) from “Piece of mind”, 1983 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ce_Of_Mind.jpg Although it's not in and of itself a terrible song, I really feel this is the one that lets the overall top quality of Maiden's fourth (and significantly, most important after the runaway success of “The number of the Beast”) album. The rest of the songs are well-crafted, well-played, all minor classics in their own right, and though this comes between two real standouts --- the eerie “Still life” and the stormer “Sun and steel” --- it really serves to bring the album to an almost crashing halt, a nosedive in quality that, though it's more towards the end of the album and so less likely to turn you off if you're listening to it in order, it's a real disappointment. It ruins an almost perfect ten, and what's worse is that you can't even blame some other writer, as it's penned by Steve Harris! How, I ask you, how did he come up with this substandard rubbish? Oh well, I guess even genius falters every now and then... Arrive alive (Pallas) from “Arrive alive”, 1981 https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/im...DdQrJj3Aqnr3aw This is an excellent album. And a weird one. Originally only released on tape, then on vinyl (which is how I bought it) but with only five tracks, and finally on CD with a much larger tracklist, it's nevertheless let down hugely in my opinion by the opening, and title track. There are a few things I'd like to say about it, though I did very briefly cover these points when I featured the album in my “200 word album review” slot a while back. The first is that, of all the tracks --- on my copy, at any rate --- it's the only one that's not live. Now, with a title like “Arrive alive”, I feel it's fair to say that this is meant to be a live album, and indeed Wiki supports that conclusion, yet here we are with the first track either quite obviously studio or played before a dead audience. There isn't one cheer or sound out of place, and if this wasn't recorded in a studio, I'm a dutchman. I'm not. I'm Irish. Just saying. But then there's the title. You would expect (well, I would, anyway) that when a band titles a song “Arrive alive” that there's some sort of message to be conveyed, like driving safely, not drinking while driving or somesuch. But there's no message of any kind in the song. It's the tale of the band heading home after a successful gig, which is fine, but there's no actual point to it. Okay, so it's decent alliteration and almost rhymes too, but still. And the way it's sung just comes across to me as flat, uninteresting and devoid of emotion. Since the rest of the album is excellent, it's sad that this is the one that opens and bestows the title on this album, as it could very easily move you to decide against listening to the rest. But don't. You'll be sorry. It's a great album. Just skip this one. Heat on the street (Phil Collins) from “... But Seriously”, 1989 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Seriously.jpg There's nothing quite as bad, in my opinion, as someone expressing, or trying to express a view on something about which they have no clue. It gets worse when they trivialise that subject, whether or not it's intentional. This is how I feel about this song, which tries to compress the conflict in Northern Ireland (thankfully, we can now mostly talk about that as history and not current events) to the status of something that can be solved with some singing, dancing and just good old-fashioned friendliness. That's not so bad in itself, but this song doesn't even offer that as a solution, more takes a stance of forgetting your troubles and dancing through the bombs, if that doesn't sound too trite. And of course it does, because it is, but that's essentially what Collins is singing about here. It's not even like we're talking Gary Moore or someone who has had experience of “The Troubles”! Collins is an Englishman who, to my knowledge, has only ever visited Northern Ireland as a performer, and I very much doubt he used the time there to talk to the polticians on either side, walk down the Falls Road or check out the Unionist side of Belfast, find out what the underlying points of contention are in this bitterly divided province. Okay, maybe he did, but I never heard him mentioned in any connection to Northern Ireland, and so I stand by my original assumption. That being the case, I think it's highly offensive to reduce the suffering of a people for almost thirty years to a simplistic, unrealistic and pie-in-the-sky solution. Okay, I know it's only a song, but compare it to his insightful take on apartheid, in “Colours”, or indeed his slant on homelessness in “Another day in Paradise”, both on the same album. Or what about the relationship between father and son, explored in the song of the same name? “...But seriously” makes it clear that Collins can treat a subject with respect and insight, so why does he not do the same with “Heat on the street”? And to hammer the final nail in its coffin, the song is a bland, dancy, jazz/disco number that has no right being on any album of this calibre. |
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Great, powerful song from Labi Siffre, this is “Something inside so strong”. |
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