Back home --- Westlife --- 2007 (Sony BMG)
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It starts off with another ballad, and indeed another cover, Michael Buble's “Home”, and is notable for this time having no writing credits for the remaining band members. This indeed seems to have been the case since McFadden's departure, and you would perhaps be forgiven for thinking this was because he was the main songwriter in the band, but Egan and Filan also wrote, as we have seen, on “World of our own”, so perhaps the change in label, with Sony taking over Cowell's BMG label, had something to do with it? Or perhaps not. Whatever, seems it would stay that way until their last album, with only Mark Feehily contributing to the one track on the penultimate album apart from that.

Another ballad follows, the second single, “Us against the world” sold well for them but did not go to number one, then the third single (what imagination, eh?) is a bit more uptempo and dancy, but “Something right” hasn't a lot about it, and it's not that surprising that it did badly for them. Pretty cringe-inducing is the next ballad, “I'm already there”, not released as a single but due to excessive downloads somehow made it into the singles charts... Nice orchestral arrangements, but it's tearjerking at its worst really. Still, it's better than “When I'm with you”, with its annoying handclap beat and yowling keyboards...

The almost acapella opening to “Have you ever” is interesting, but it quickly settles down into yet another piano ballad, with a certain feel of those old motown love songs from the seventies, and piano follows piano for “It's you”, which again sounds quite familiar. Where have I heard that tune before? Robbie Williams? “She's the one”? Yeah, that's it: almost ripped the piano melody off verbatim, guys. Nice bit of guitar for a change opening “Catch my breath”, and it actually gets a little harder as the song nears its end: this isn't too bad, at least it's different. Which is not something I can say about the throwaway dancer “The easy way”, whose title really says all you need to know about the song. Decent uppy brass all right. Some nice acoustic guitar in “I do” (yeah, another ballad) but mostly I amuse myself listening to how the two interchanging male vocals, talking essentially about marrying, almost seem to be talking to each other. Gay, or what? :D Sorry guys, it's just so funny how that ends up sounding.

And I'm bored.

Oh well, two tracks left to go. I have to say, ballads apart --- and really they seem to form about eighty percent of Westlife's material, at least from what I've reviewed --- I'm finding very little to like about this boyband, whereas before I almost warmed to the likes of Take That and even Boyzone, but these guys just seem so plastic. Haven't heard such an obvious case of “staying in it for the money” since Nsync. Anyway, “Pictures in my head” is a little better than I had expected, a sort of uptempo ballad with a slight rocky edge, then the album closes on “You must have had a broken heart”, another basic ballad. Yeah, nothing's leaping out at me as a sudden change or improvement, on the same lines as Take That's “Beautiful world” or Boyzone's “Brother”. Still don't like these guys.

TRACKLISTING

1. Home
2. Us against the world
3. Something right
4. I'm already there
5. When I'm with you
6. Have you ever
7. It's you
8. Catch my breath
9. The easy way
10. I do
11. Pictures in my head
12. You must have had a broken heart

Another album followed in 2009, which would prove to be their penultimate one. Now I had originally intended to pass over this and finish this section with a review of their final album, which you would think would make sense. However, after having read what Shane Filan said about it prior to its release, I'm going to change my mind and give this one a chance. Could it be their “Beautiful world” or “Brother”? According to Filan, there was “more tempo, more rocky songs, some more American songs, some darker songs .... with darker lyrics.” Okay, well, I'll believe it when I hear it, but I think in fairness I should at least check the album out and see if their claims turned out to be well founded.

So, this is the final Westlife album I'll be reviewing (thank god!) and it's the one before their final release. It's notable due to having no input or involvement whatever by their two longtime songwriters and producers, Steve Mac and Wayne Hector, but it also contains no efforts by the band, other than one co-writing credit for Mark Feehily on the last-but-one track.

Where we are --- Westlife --- 2009 (Sony)
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(Note: I have tried several ways to get the image of the album cover to show up, but despite using several sources it refuses to, so I can't do anything about it here. I'm sure you're all devastated...)
After taking a year-long break following their eighth album, “Back home”, and following a sold-out event in Croke Park, Dublin, labelled “Ten years of Westlife”, the boys were back with their new and long-awaited album. Interesting to see the first track, and the first single, is Daughtry's “What about now”, itself written by two of the members of Evanescence. So is this the new, rockier, maybe darker tone that Filan was talking about prior to the album's release? Okay, it's a serious change from their soppy piano ballads and their classical-guitar lounge songs, but then again it's a cover, and I know this song, so what have Westlife got to show us that they can say, like the kid at the end of the “X-Files”, I made this?

Well, “How to break a heart” is a quick step back to familiar territory, almost as if their brief foray into the world of rock has shaken them, and they need to reacclimitise themselves, tugging the security blanket back around their shoulders, then “Leaving” has a lovely strings arrangement, so much so that I almost expect Josh Groban to start singing, but it's a big swaying powerful ballad with a lot of emotion, while “Shadows” is more of the old piano ballad material but with a big dramatic production, some nice strings but let's be honest: Westlife ain't reinventing the wheel here, and much of this can be found on any of their other albums. I don't see any huge change in direction, any major shift in format and the opener apart --- which as I say is a cover anyway --- I see no “rocky” material.

Another nice ballad in “Talk me down” and a somewhat harder one with some nice AOR style keys for the title track, nice production and “The difference” is the closest they come to the likes of “Pictures in my head” from the previous album, which was the first non-ballad to catch my interest. There's a general sense of a harder sort of pop here, but I think it would be stretching it to call it rock, even soft rock. It rattles along nicely though and it's catchy, but then, what else would you expect from a Westlife song?

More ballads with “As love is my witness” and “Another world”, which perhaps should be named either “The same world” or “Another ballad”: I am rather amazed, given what Shane Filan promised before the album's release, at how similar this sounds to any of the other three Westlife albums I've reviewed --- okay, suffered through. I was expecting at least some change, some shift, some attempt to pull away from the polished, by-the-numbers formulaic pop they had by now peddled for over ten years, but no, it seems this is just another year, another Westlife album, and the boys no doubt watched the euros pile up with little interest in stretching themselves or exploring new musical avenues. Hey, I suppose it's what the fans wanted, but if that's all it was, why go on about how “different” the album was supposed to be?

I would love to tell you that the next track is a cover of the Strangler's punk hit, but the tinkling piano and deep, emotional vocal as “No more heroes” begins dashes any such hopes, if they were ever really recognised or expected. Yep, another powerful ballad, and Westlife continue to stick to what they know, what they're good at (and it has to be admitted, they are good at it) and what sells. Yawn. Someone wake me up when this is over, yeah?

Okay, “Sound of a broken heart”, while still essentially a ballad, does up the tempo a little, and there are some nice keyboards in it, decent strings but it's sort of like a ballad trying to be something else, and it falls between two stools, one of which I'm nodding off on. All right, that's unfair: it's probably one of the better tracks on the album. Happy? Moving on... The album is trying to finish strongly, with “Reach out” a decent half-rocker with some good keys and guitar, but we end on yet another ballad, which to be fair is quite nice, but then there's little to distinguish “I'll see you again” from a dozen other Westlife ballads.

As an album that was supposed to surprise and change people's minds about Westlife, and appeal to other than just their fans, this album fails miserably on every count. That's not to say it's a bad album: it's well written (though not by them), well played and well sung, and you can't fault the production, but it comes across as just another stepping-stone on the path, another brick in the wall of bland, faceless pop music that Westlife not only purveyed, but came to typify in the nineties and early part of the twenty-first century. A decent album, but nothing new. If you are a Westlife fan, you bought this album and loved it. If you were not, you were unlikely to shell out on it. If you did, then you were, in all likelihood, disappointed.

TRACKLISTING

1. What about now
2. How to break a heart
3. Leaving
4. Shadows
5. Talk me down
6. Where we are
7. The difference
8. As love is my witness
9. Another world
10. No more heroes
11. Sound of a broken heart
12. Reach out
13. I'll see you again

Westlife's final proper album was released a year later, but the relationship between the band and Simon Cowell was beginning to reach breaking point. Originally their mentor and supporter (not surprising as he was getting very rich off the backs of these young guys --- oh where have I heard that before?), Cowell began devoting more time to his involvement in the reality search-for-a-star TV shows “American Idol” and “The X Factor”, and Westlife felt they ended up just being fit in around the edges, when he had time, being treated like some sort of side project: interesting, but not important, or at least, not as important as his other work.

This led to their eventual split with his label in 2011, after which things were more or less over for the band. They recorded one final album, with RCA, a greatest hits package and then in October announced they were calling it a day. Cue screaming, tearstained teenagers all over Ireland (and the world) as hysteria over the band's breakup reached insane levels, some fans even calling the date they split “The day the music died”, which I have to admit makes me grin ruefully; as if Westlife ever contributed anything specific or unique to music, and as if music would not continue without them. Oh dear.

At any rate, their farewell concert earlier this year sold out in five minutes, and although the split was initially described by the band as amicable, it emerged afterwards that there had been a lot of in-fighting and bad blood in the final years, which really is probably only natural: you spend ten years together with four or five other guys, you'll be lucky not to come to blows. Or harsh words at the very least. They declared they will never reform, but then, we've heard that before, so I wouldn't be too surprised were it to happen down the line. Suppose it depends on how well, or not, the solo career of each turns out to be.

Of all the boybands I've looked into so far in this series, I have to say that most of them ended up impressing me in one way or another, except Nsync, who I thought were just totally a corporate music/money machine. But Westlife just leave me totally cold. They seem to have made no attempt, over their fourteen years together, to develop or change their musical style, they seem to have been happy to sing cover version after cover version, and in the end the only real legacy they leave is a fistful of sugary, one-dimensional ballads that could really have been sung by any boyband. Far from being one of the most influential boybands in history, I found them to be dull, flat, lifeless and lacking in any spark whatever.

It's not like I expected anything else, but as already related some of the boybands have managed to surprise me over the course of this journey. As I walk up the gangplank and consider my, ahem, final destination, I look back at West Landing and wonder just how many impressionable teenage girls helped pay for the purchase of this island? Ah well, that's boybands for you. And what of the future of this crass music form? What of the new young guns, the successors to the throne of bland, formation dancing and close-harmony singing generic pop? Who are the girls screaming for now, with Westlife already forgotten and just a page in their scrapbook they probably don't even look at now?

We're off to find out.

It's not a long journey to my last port of call here in Boybandland, and by the time the sun is setting over the ocean we're pulling into the harbour, and I note, looking at the country from the rail of the ship, that much of it is made up of forbidding mountainous territory. More so than any of the other countries in BBL I have visited, this region seems to be almost split in half by the mighty mountain ranges. Referring to my information booklet, I note there are only two real cities of note in this rather smaller country, in one of which resides the new boyband called The Wanted, while south of their city, the imaginatively-named “Wantopolis”, their bitter rivals, One Direction, reside in the similarly originally named “The One City”. Tensions are rife between both I'm told, with attacks and sorties being carried out from one city to the other; casualties are common.

So this, then, is the so-called future of Boybands? Two pretenders to the throne, warring against each other and striking from their urban strongholds. Doesn't sound too promising to me, but it's too late for me to try to figure it out now, and I head for my hotel. Everything here is very futuristic, very state of the art: even the hotel concierge is a cyborg, and I don't take kindly to his tone. Her tone. Its tone. Whatever. This is not what I've come to expect, and it's going to take some getting used to. The room is sterile, functional, almost the sort of place you would expect a robot to go to for a break; certainly lacking warmth, but it has all the “mod cons” I would expect, or could ask for.

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There are, of course, more boybands on the planet now than you could shake a stick at. The overpopularity of shows like the X Factor has given rise to more and more groups of guys who think they can sing --- some of whom actually can --- and therefore get together to form a boyband. JLS, Blue, Jonas Brothers... and it's spreading beyond the traditionally accepted territories of the UK, US and Europe. Boybands are big now in South Korea and Japan, with even Indonesia throwing their hat into the ring. The place, to coin a phrase, is lousy with them.

But I have no intention of researching, much less reviewing every boyband that has popped up in the last three or four years. Add to that the ones that have reformed, like Take That, Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block (the last two of which merged to form one big boyband going under the acronym NKOTBSB), and you could spend your life looking into these bands. I've no intention of doing that. And whereas at least the previous bands I have reviewed I had some little knowledge of, having grown up avoiding their music on the radio and TV, I know precisely nothing about the new crop, particularly the two I've selected. So it will be new territory for me.

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One thing about being on a “futuristic world of tomorrowland” is that at least the transport is top-notch. Hover-taxis and zero-gravity buses flit through the leaden skies while sparkling monorails which seem to run on the power of self-satisfaction slip like metal slugs across the imposing city skyline as I arrive in the first of my destinations, I guess you would say my penultimate stop really, the city known as Wantopolis, the lack of originality in its name surely foreshadowing a similar mundanity about the music this band plays? Of course, I've never even heard one single song by The Wanted, know nothing at all about them, so it's to their city that I make my way in order to read up on them and listen to their music so that I can form a cohesive and informed opinion of them when I review their albums.
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My heart sinks when I read that the Wanted have Irish members, though they're seen mostly as a British band. Of course, I shouldn't worry: that ship has long sailed, with Boyzone and Westlife already having put Ireland well on the boyband map (sigh), but it's depressing to find that boybands are alive and well in the emerald isle even today. Oh well. Other than that it's a familiar story, with the band being created after auditions of over 1,000 guys took place in 2009, and with three of the later lineup being picked from that audition, with two more added later on. The final lineup became

Max George
Nathan Sykes
Tom Parker
Jay McGuinness
Siva Kaneswaran

The last two were not part of the auditions, and were drafted in later, don't ask me from where. Work began on their debut album, and again familiar faces were to be seen: Steve Mac and Wayne Hector, who had worked with Westlife for most of their career, began writing and producing, and Robbie Williams' songwriting partner Guy Chambers was also involved. It does seem, though, that the boys in the Wanted were contributing to the songwriting from the start, helping out on about half of the songs on the album. Their first single went straight to number one, and after that a second single hit the number two slot. A few days later the debut, self-titled album was released. It went to number four.

The Wanted --- The Wanted --- 2010 (Geffen)
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In a display both of raw, naked greed and of over-the-top promotion, the album was released in several different configurations, including one which you could buy with liner notes dedicated to each separate member: so if you wanted all the members' albums you could have shelled out for five albums. Never heard such utter rubbish in my life!

Oh.... kayyyy... There seems to be a SNAFU in progress here. Never one to spend even a cent on a boyband record if I could avoid it, I had a lot of trouble (mostly, I think, due to the sad demise of Demonoid) downloading a working torrent for these guys. In the end, after about seventeen attempts and mounting frustration, and a rising temptation to just write “Look, they're crap, ok?” I found one that would download. But when I look at the tracklisting it seems wrong. Now, after some digging, I see that just to confuse matters, the Wanted released their first album in 2010, self-titled, then their second the next year, and then this year they released an EP called --- wait for it --- “The Wanted”! This was for US/Canadian release and features material from both their first albums, in a move somewhat reminscent of Backstreet Boys' first, or second album, depending on where you live, “Backstreet's Back”.

And guess what I downloaded? The EP. Right, well as they only have the two albums to date, I'm going to be unable to review the first album --- what do you mean, shell out the dollar and buy it, you cheap...? I wouldn't waste the money. Really. I'd rather give it to charity. That's right, I said give it to charity!

So I'll review this EP, and advise you which tracks come from the original debut. How's that? Yeah? Well, tough.

The opening track, in fact one of the singles from their second album, “Glad you came”, does not, surprisingly start out as a boyband-sounding song at all; in fact, if anything it reminds me of Coldplay, at least at the start with the lone piano and the Chris Martin soundalike, but then it breaks into a boppy dancer with squealing synths and drum machines, brassy keys which sort of hit a kind of semi-celtic feel, then it returns to the Coldplayism for the outro. Weird. One of only two new tracks on the EP which don't appear on either album, “Chasing the sun” is a house/trance style dancer, with vocoders, thumping drumbeats, stabbing synth and plenty of “Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!” in the lyric.

Nice cello to open what was in fact their first single, a number one for them, “All time low” which in fact opens their debut album, it's not bad till the drum machines kick in and then it becomes another dancer with more annoying altered voices and vocoders --- why can't people just sing in their own voices? It's beyond me. Well, at least this is more uptempo than all the four Westlife albums I've just reviewed! It's perhaps telling too that of the seven tracks on this EP, not one of them has a writing credit for the band, although they contributed to over half of the music on the debut.

The other new song is “Satellite”, and starts out with low synth so that you think it might be a ballad, but interestingly for a boyband, no, it's another uptempo bopper, one you can dance to. I don't like it, don't get me wrong, but it is strangely refreshing to hear an album that doesn't have ballad after ballad with the odd faster song thrown in almost as an afterthought. Next one up is again from the second album, another fast one, with new-wave/electronica dance synth and a very catchy beat; “Lightning” continues the almost disdain for the “old way” of doing things by cramming as many ballads as possible on an album: up to now, there hasn't even been one.

But no boyband can resist the lure of the ballad forever, and true to eventual form we get “Heart vacancy”, but at least it's not piano-led, with a nice acoustic guitar taking the melody before the drums and piano come in, and even then once the song gets going it's a reasonably uptempo ballad, not a tearjerker, not a cry-into-your-alcopops song, but with a lot of heart and a decent amount of energy, to be fair. And we finish on one more track from the second album, indeed the lead single from that album, “Gold forever”, another boppy dancer.

TRACKLISTING

1. Glad you came
2. Chasing the sun
3. All time low
4. Satellite
5. Lightning
6. Heart vacancy
7. Gold forever

As an introduction to the band, if not their actual debut, I'm impressed that at least the Wanted didn't cram their album with ballads, and that their music is a lot more high energy than the likes of Boyzone, Westlife et al. But that much apart, I don't see anything revolutionary or new about them. Not that I expected to, but you would wonder how much different they see themselves from the boybands of the nineties, or if they would even wish to be associated with them. Still, like it or not, they probably owe a large part of their appeal and popularity to these bands, who, like it or not, laid the groundwork for the blueprint of what is today's boyband.

The Wanted released their second album last year, however having had no success in the USA at this time they then went ahead and “sampled” the two albums in one, as explained above, in what became “The Wanted EP”, which we have just reviewed. There's not a whole lot else to tell really. They supported Justin Bieber and Britney Spears on their respective tours, and then headed into the studio to record their second album.

Battleground --- The Wanted --- 2011 (Island)
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Already with a new label, The Wanted were a hot property, at least on this side of the Atlantic. A few tracks on this album, as already explained, were later included in their 2012 EP, and those that were we'll just refer to as we've already reviewed them. It opens with “Glad you came”, which as we mentioned was a big hit single for them, then goes on to “Lightning”, which again we've reviewed, before the first ballad makes its presence known in the shape of the unexpectedly titled “Warzone”. But is it indeed a ballad? As it goes on it gets more powerful and dramatic, and you get the feeling it's going to break out any minute into a drum-punching, keys-screaming dancer, though it sort of never does really.

“Invincible” is another high-energy bopper, with techno style synth and trancey drumloops, not much in it lyrically but it does move the feet, and it's worth mentioning that both it and the previous track have songwriting credits for some of the boys, whereas the following track, “The last to know” is devoid of their input, though really not that much lacking for, or gaining from, that absence. It's a sort of mid-tempo semi-ballad, and works quite well, with an almost U2 sound to the guitar. Sounding like the first proper ballad, “I'll be your strength” hovers on the edge of becoming an uptempo song courtesy of the rapid, but muted, drumbeat that keeps pace with the verses, breaking out a little in concert with some hard loud synth during the chorus, but yet failing to take over the song. It's another partially written by some of the bandmembers, but the next one is a Diane Warren special.

“Rocket” opens on an almost carnival keyboard sound and then breaks into a romping, pumping beat with attendant sparkly piano .... hell, Warren can't ever do wrong, can she? Whoever she writes for ends up getting a hit, and this has top ten written all over it. The fact that the label chose not to release it really shows a sense of shortsightedness, as this would definitely have been a hit. A nice acoustic guitar and low organ introduce “I want it all”, which is a song written by Siva Kaneswaran and who I can only assume is his brother, Daniel, and Guy Chambers, the involvement of the latter giving rise to the obvious Robbie comparisons, and yeah, it does sound like a Williams song, and in fact for my money this gentle half-ballad comes in as the standout on the album by a long way.

We're back then to the dance/techno boppers for “The weekend”, on which two of the guys collaborate, but really it's nothing special, and the last song they help write is “Lie to me”, which surprisingly again sounds like Robbie Williams, but this time there's no involvement for Chambers. Nice smooth semi-ballad with a very decent chorus, and then we close on the already-reviewed “Gold forever”.

As a second album this is not too bad. There's a lot more heart and power in it than most of the boyband albums I've listened to up to this point, and based on the quality of the songwriting here I wouldn't be surprised to find that the Wanted remain, er, wanted for a good few years yet. Will they have the longevity of Westlife, Take That or New Kids on the Block? Time will tell...

TRACKLISTING

1. Glad you came
2. Lightning
3. Warzone
4. Invincible
5. Last to know
6. I'll be your strength
7. Rocket
8. I want it all
9. The weekend
10. Lie to me
11. Gold forever

That leaves me with just one last trip to make, and in the morning I'll be heading “dahn sath”, to where One Direction hold court, and to try to figure out what, if anything, differentiates these new lights of the boyband wave from their peers, both contemporary and past. Are they as good, or bad, as The Wanted, or have they something different going on? We've seen here that these guys have taken a slightly different approach to the usual and accepted boyband idea, tweaking it slightly to involve much fewer ballads and much more uptempo, danceable songs, but how far can that change go? Is there any room for originality and new ideas in the world of the boyband, or do they all slavishly follow a preset formula, like dodgem cars that can't deviate from their programmed paths? Are all boybands doomed to repeat the same cycle, never breaking free and asserting their musical individuality, if they have any?

Hold that thought.

An...interesting genre you are pursuing there partner, I'll give you that, lol!

I've never been a fan of boy band pop despite it being a major hallmark of the years I grew up in. In retrospect, I'll give N'Sync a nod of appreciation for blending what their contemporaries were doing with 80's New Jack Swing influences (props to New Edition ;)), but on the whole I'm fairly meh about the "genre" (if you want to call it that).

What's next up in the pipe good sir?

Thanks Ant!
Can't stand boybands myself, but I decided to do an in-depth expose of them so that I could at least argue coherently and with proper points if anyone challenged me. Also, I like to try to keep an open mind, and realise that for most of my life, musically, this has not been what I've been doing. I think to be honest listening to Westlife, Nsync, BSB et al was actually harder than surviving through a seven-track album by thrash metal band Sauron (see further back a little: the Meat Grinder) --- but I'm glad I did it. Feels like I've achieved something, and now when I say I hate boybands I can list a lot of references and talk knowledgeably about albums like "Celebrity" and "World of our own," god help me!

What's next? Well, it'll be a while: something like that takes a lot out of me and also takes a long time to put together --- I started that section back last year! But I'm thinking maybe of looking at reggae. That or black metal. Or jazz. Haven't decided. Might be none of those three, but I'm leaning towards reggae, which I've never liked but know virtually nothing about.

After all that close-harmony singing and sugary ballads though, I'm ready for another shot at the Meat Grinder! :)

Another legend leaves us...
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Andy Williams (1927-2012)
Maybe it's just me getting older, but every month there seems to be another music star passing on. This month we bid a fond farewell to Andy Williams, best known for his signature tune "Moon river". Like him or hate him, the guy worked right up into his eighties, not one to sit back and live off his millions.

A true star, a gentleman and one of the old guard, he'll certainly be missed.

Andy died Tuesday from bladder cancer, which he had battled for a year.
May he rest in peace.

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In recent years, say the last ten, there's been one thing that's been almost always inextricably linked with the rise of any new boyband, and it's that damn show. If the X Factor has taught us one thing, it's that everyone wants to be a star and many think they are stars, while if Cowell and Co.
think you are a star, they'll make you one, whether you're that good or not. Okay, that's strictly three things, but you know what I mean. Without the X Factor it's safe to say that many of today's boybands might not exist, or at least be as popular and successful as they are.

And as I look out the window of the magna-train that glides over the carbon-fibre rails like a slim steel ghost, the state-of-the-art descendant of the humble hovercraft and the monorail, watching The One City slide closer in my view, I read that the final boyband on my list, well, weren't even supposed to be a boyband! Auditioning for the X, each was rejected for the solo section in the “boys” category, and ready to go home until one of the judges suggested they enter as a band and try again. With no knowledge even of each other, and no experience singing together, the lads formed as One Direction and though they didn't win, they came third, which is pretty remarkable considering the short amount of time they had to get to know each other and try to gell together.

Their failure to win the contest didn't bother the big S, and he signed them to his label, thus creating yet another cash cow. One Direction promptly became the biggest boyband in the country, their debut album selling over three million units and being certified platinum in most territories. They are currently preparing for the release of their second album.

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So what is different about this band? Well, as related above, it's not the usual story where thousands of hopefuls try out for an audition and are picked --- well, it is, but with a twist. Nor is it the other familiar tale of schoolchums or longtime friends getting together to form a group: none of the guys in One Direction seem to have known any of the others before arriving at the X Factor studios for their individual solo auditions. It's also interesting to see that the bandmembers from the start have participated in the writing of some of the songs, like fellow “new” boyband The Wanted. The main bulk, however, are written by established composers like Steve Mac and Wayne Hector, whom we've met helming other boyband albums, and the odd guest like Kelly Clarkson. Many of the other boybands we've looked at have had to wait their turn before being allowed to write, but the new breed seem determined to have a measure of control over their music that the older, more established boybands never did.

Their lineup is as follows:
Niall Horan
Zayn Malik
Liam Payne
Harry Styles
Louis Tomlinson

What else is different? Well, rather surprised to read that some of the guys actually appreciate rock music: Horan is into Bon Jovi and The Eagles, while Tomlinson cites Robbie Williams and Ed Sheeran as influences. Styles namechecks Coldplay and Kings of Leon. All right, so they're not exactly affirming their interest in thrash metal, but it's a start! They even pay their dues, with Niall Horan being a big fan of swing music and citing the Rat Pack as favourites of his. So you know, maybe they're not that bad?

Up all night --- One Direction --- 2011 (Columbia)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...albumcover.jpg

Well, the album opens with “Summer nights” from “Grease” --- oh, hold on, no. It's their first and number one single, “What makes you beautiful”. But the main riff is totally ripped from the John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John song --- still, the fact that I can actually use the word “riff” in a review of a boyband album is at least encouraging, and this at least is partially guitar-based, though there are of course the usual banks of synths and the handclap drumbeats. It's fun I guess, but I wouldn't have seen it as a number one. Still, I'm a crusty old rocker, what do I know about what the kids want these days?

Again showing a stunning lack of originality, it's the first four tracks that were released as singles (perhaps the running order of the album was arranged that way), and the second one then is “Gotta be you”, and it has a nice strings backing, becoming a slow/mid-paced half-ballad with a nice backbeat and not half as annoying as it could be I guess. “One thing”, the third single, has a nice opening guitar riff too, almost indie-rock in its way with a very catchy chorus. It seems that Niall Horan becomes the first boyband member that I know anyway who can play an instrument, as he's a keen guitarist, but whether or not he plays on the album I don't know. Still, nice to see at least one member who has more than the one string to his bow.

The final single, “More than this”, opens on a lovely little acoustic guitar line, and I do have to admit that although the synths are bound to punch in at any time now, it's still nice to hear so much guitar on a boyband album. There's a certain sense of George Michael about this, though whoever is taking the main vocal sounds very female! It's a decent song though, with a lack of the bravado often associated with boyband songs, even the ballads. There's something fragile, almost empathic about it. The tempo goes right back up then for the title track, as you might expect, as it's a total party song, revelling in the joys of youth and freedom, and no doubt became an anthem for teenagers.

Nice bubbly keyboards carry the song, with the guitar pushed firmly into the background this time, and a very infectious and quite likeable chorus. Harmless really, and the sort of song you could see yourself awkwardly dancing around to even at my age, never mind the fact that I have no chance whatsoever of staying up all night, at least not without sleeping all through the next day! Ah, to be young again. And also a robot. What? Oh, nothing, nothing. Where was I? Oh yes. “I wish” has again a nice little guitar line, deep drums and a pleasant melody. Where One Direction (hah! OD!) seem to score though is with their hooky choruses, which really are extremely catchy, and this is no exception.

Kelly Clarkson contributes to “Tell me a lie”, which is okay but generally throwaway pop, then “Taken”, the first song on which the guys write, is not bad, bit of “****-you” in the lyric, and some nice solid synthwork, while there's a bright piano opening to “I want”, the only song on the album written by just the one person, this person being McFly's Tom Fletcher, injecting a little rockish sound into One Direction's music. Hey you know it's not too bad. Nice bit of guitar too, not quite a solo but hey, in a boyband album I'll take what I can get! The boys are then back to help writing the next two tracks, the first being “Everything about you”, a boppy dancer which is probably my least favourite on the album, pretty generic and could be any boyband really.

Much better is “Same mistakes”, with a sort of quiet marching beat that somehow puts me in mind of ABBA's “Super trouper” (don't ask me why) but has a really catchy melody and comes over as a sort of half-ballad, with some nice guitar and keys. “Save you tonight” is boppy, catchy, okay but nothing special stands out about it, and the album then closes on “Stole my heart”, which I have to admit I expected to be a slow ballad but it's more in trance territory than anything else, and yes, I hate it. Terrible way to end the album, in my opinion.

TRACKLISTING

1. What makes you beautiful
2. Gotta be you
3. One thing
4. More than this
5. Up all night
6. I wish
7. Tell me a lie
8. Taken
9. I want
10. Everything about you
11. Same mistakes
12. Save you tonight
13. Stole my heart

And that's One Direction. I'll admit, their music has a little more heart than most of the boybands I've listened to over the course of this series, and they bring the guitar a little more into the music, but you're never going to make me a fan. If that's how the new boybands are going then good luck to them I guess, but it really is generally a case of more of the same. Which seems to be what the record-buying public, at least the younger ones, want, something Cowell, Walsh and their ilk know all too well, and have grown fat on the proceeds of that knowledge.

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With a grateful sigh, I push the OFF switch on my laptop and as the smiling faces of One Direction disappear on the screen, the sounds of close-harmony singing and chirping voices, stabby keyboards and handclaps are ringing in my ears. It's been a long journey, I reflect as I pack up my gear and head back to the hotel, where I'll check out tomorrow and begin the voyage home. It was almost a year ago now that I first set off on my journey into the shadowy and sugary world of boybands, not knowing what to expect. Well, untrue: I had a pretty good idea what to expect, but up to then I couldn't lay claim (or admit) to having listened to one boyband album all the way through, and the only songs I knew were either from the charts or via the X Factor, American Idol or such shows as I may have been forced to endure.

Now, I realise I have a better understanding of what it is that makes a boyband, what drives them, what keeps them alive and how rigidly controlled, in the main, they are. A boyband is not like a “real” band, where they might decide to go in a totally different direction, try something new. In a real band, there's not really anyone other than the bandmembers that can gainsay that idea, even if it doesn't work out and the albums don't sell. But in a boyband they're pretty much told what to sing, what to write, what to promote, and are rarely if ever allowed to deviate from that pattern. This makes of course for a very sterile, samey and safe music form. Which is just how the parents, the producers and I guess the fans like it.

Do the bands like it? Who knows? Would Kian Egan have preferred to do a cover of “All along the watchtower”? Would Justin Timberlake have been tempted to try his hand at reggae, or Ronan Keating stick his toe in the murky waters of heavy metal? Perhaps, but the chances their “mentor” would allow such a thing are virtually nil. Nothing must derail the boyband machine, and nothing must come between the profit margins. It's all about money, and image, and style, with music a pretty distant fourth or fifth, as I can attest to from having listened to the music of Nysync, Backstreet Boys, Westlife and Boyzone, among others.

But all that aside, have I actually learned anything in my travels through Boybandland? Well, there was a time when I would hear a song I liked, but realising it was a boyband singing I would pretend --- even to myself --- I didn't like it. The genre or the band was dictating what I liked or didn't like, instead of the music itself. Such stupid prejudices are now a thing of the past for me, and if I like a song now, whatever the genre, I'll listen to it. Indeed, as a result of this journey there will be a few Westlife or Take That songs that will be making their way onto one or more of my playlists. I won't be joining their fanclub any time soon, but I have gained a slighly better appreciation for some of the music purveyed by these bands, and maybe I won't be so quick to jeer and criticise. Maybe.

The music, in general though, is not to my taste, nor will it ever be. I prefer my music to say something, to have a message I can understand, other than “Hey girl”, or “Dance with me”. I like serious music that speaks to me, and yes I can like pop music too, but it's not something I tend to listen to of choice. There is of course room for all opinions, as there should be, and for all types of music, no matter whether you like it or not. There are so many genres I don't enjoy, or just don't have the time for, but I would never call them terrible just because I don't like them. That's what starting this section was all about: meeting the music I don't like head on, diving into it and learning about it, and seeing if I could after all get something from it, something I never understood or realised about it before. Above all, the idea was to gain enough information on and experience with the genre that I would either realise I liked it or could tolerate it at least, or would have enough “verbal ammunition” to hold my own in a debate on the genre. I would, in short, know what I was talking about.

And I think that's worked here. I now know a lot more about boyband music than I ever did, or perhaps ever wanted to, but I have a new appreciation for it even if I don't like it. I've given it a fair chance, have explored and listened to some of the bigger names in its field, and formed an opinion that is no longer just based on ignorance and prejudice, and rejecting a whole genre out of hand, but is now founded on solid information and experience.

So, what have I learned? Well, these, to me, appear to be the important “Dos” and “Don'ts” if you want to be in a successful boyband:

DO be attractive, pretty, handsome, boyish. It doesn't matter how talented you may be, if you're ugly you will be OUT at the first opportunity.

DO be single. To quote the manager of the B Sharps, “Girls are going to want to sleep with you, and we want them to think they can!”

DON'T worry if you can't play an instrument: this will NOT be required, may even be frowned upon.

DO endorse everything you can. Your time in the spotlight is likely to be short, even less so than a professional footballer's, so amass as much of a fortune as you can, and try to have a cartoon TV series made about you, so you can keep earning even after you stop singing and touring.

DON'T expect to write your own material. A slew of songwriters will be drafted in to write the hits you will sing.

DON'T worry if you can't sing, but are at least good to look at. You may be able to hide at the back and just mime.

DON'T make the mistake of thinking you're a serious musician. You're not: you're a singer in a boyband, a corporate tool of the label and/or your producer.

Tomorrow, my ship leaves here to begin the long voyage back to civilisation, and I won't be sorry to be leaving. It's been a gruelling year, but I think a necessary and in ways rewarding one. I've learned a lot, had my eyes opened in many ways, and can now count myself something of a minor authority on boybands. Also, it should not ever be necessary for me to have to do this again!

With that thought in mind, I bid you farewell from the shores of Boybandland. Where will my travels take me next? Even I don't know that yet, but it can't be anywhere as scary as the trip I have just completed.

Now, who's for some death metal? :D

Here endeth the lesson. Go forth, ye who can sing (and ye who cannot) and Audition, for Great Things can happen, and Fame can be yours. All you must do is Impress the Judges...

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Yes, after all that boyband nonsense I'm just about in the mood for some skullcrushing, heartpounding, headshaking metal! So let's see what the old randomiser brings up for us on our old friend Encyclopaedia Mettalum, your one-stop source for the best in heavy metal, shall we? Er, guys? Sorry to bring it up at this time, but that last cheque, y'know, bounced? What? Well there are plenty more metal sites out there ... good enough, in the post Monday, yeah? That's what I like to hear.

Oh, sorry about that: little business misunderstanding to clear up. Now where was I? Oh yeah, the next random band for the Meat Grinder. Well, it hasn't gone that swimmingly, I must report. See, attempting something like this has its own attendant problems. If the band isn't that well known, I'm unlikely to have or be able to get any of their music. Now, some bands I could probably buy albums of, yes, but assuming it's a band I have a fairly good idea I'm not going to like, that's just not going to happen. I'm not going to spend money just to hear a band I will probably listen to once, and never again. So in general what I look for is downloads, torrents, YouTubes and the like. Often this can be a fruitless search, and if I can't find anything, or enough, on the band to review them, then I sadly have to move on. Case in point below. Well, two cases in point, as it happens.

First I got a band called Obskurum, from Chicago, who, true to their name, are damn obscure! So much so in fact that I could find nothing about them online to play: no downloads, no torrents, no albums to purchase, not even a bloody YouTube! Well, okay, one video, but it's only just over two minutes long, and you can't base a whole review around one track, now can you? They are also apparently broken up, but reformed as Bloodoath. Yeah. Nothing on them either. So reluctantly I “spun the wheel” again, this time coming up with Fighing Warriors, a power metal band from Italy. Ah, I thought! Much more like it!

Sadly, same thing. The genericity of their bandname led me to many fighting videos, not to mention one about Hammerfall, but nothing of theirs could be found online. So once again I was forced to spin. Third time lucky, eh?

Look, just what the hell is it with these black metal bands? First we had Sauron (what an ordeal that was!) then I could have been listening to Obskurum, who are/were another band in that vein, now I'm looking at a band whose name surely puts them in the category of symphonic power metal? Luciferi Excelsi. Sure. Sounds tuneful. Another black metal band (Venom, you have much to answer for!) and even described as “anti-Christian”! This'll be fun IF I can find anything about them. Yeah, they're also split up, and they come from Austria.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ustria.svg.png
Okay, well, not much but enough to do some sort of a review. I've got about half an album on YouTube, so let's dive in --- oh wait, where's me goat's mask and that cup of virgin's blood I poured before “Ice Road Truckers”? Whaddya mean, she wasn't a virgin? You did? Oh. So I went to all that trouble for nothing... ah, who will know? Keep shtum, yeah?

Okay, I'm ready. Hail Santa! I mean, well, you know what I mean...
http://www.metal-archives.com/images..._logo.jpg?5117
There's no getting away from the fact that these guys are, or were, black metal purveyors. I mean, with a name like that, what else could they be? You know of course what it means: even with my very limited knowledge of latin, that has to be “Praise Satan”, or Lucifer to be exact. Or maybe “glory to Lucifer”? Either way, it's a safe bet they're not going to mass, unless it's a black one! Whether they were truly into Satanism or not I don't know: they could be tongue-in-cheek like Venom, or just using it as a prop like Sabbath, and as it would appear they sang (if sang is the proper word, we'll see) in their native langauge and it's likely to sound gutteral, I don't expect to learn anything from the lyrics of their songs. I am intrigued though to note one of the Yts mentions a “piano instrumental” of one of their songs, which is something I'd equate about as much with black metal as harps or accordions, but we shall see, we shall see. Oh wait, that's from their other band. Oh well, no pianos for me, it would seem.

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Band name: Luciferi Excelsi
Nationality: Austrian (Upper Austria)
Subgenre: Black metal (again!)
Born: 1999
Died: 2010
Status: Broken up but reformed mostly in another band as Integritlie
Albums: Heiliger krieg (2002)
Live albums: None
Collections/Anthologies/Boxsets: None
Lineup: Bertie (Real/full name unknown) (Guitar)
Tom ( Real/full name unknown) (Vocals, bass)F
Fuxi ( Real/full name unknown) Drums
Bernie W (Real/full name Bernhard Wiedlroither) (Guitars) F
Bernie M (Real/full name Bernhard Maurer) (Guitars)

(Note: Bernie M only played with the band from 2009 until their breakup in 2010, and although Bernie W was a founder member, it seems he left in 2001, returning in 2003, inexplicably therefore missing their one and only album, on which he was replaced by Bertie. He (Bernie M) then stayed on until 2010, sharing for one year, it would seem (2009-2010) the guitar duties with Bernie W. Clear?)

Well, they look a fine bunch of fellows, don't they? Any of them someone you'd be proud to see your daughter bring home. Perhaps with that in mind, it would seem obvious that the members of Luciferi Excelsi were never particularly big on sharing personal information, for the most part going by their first names.

Now, as we've noted above, it would seem that the last Bernie, he who appends “W” to his name, was only with them for the last two years of their existence, 2009-2010, so prior to that they had other members, and just to make things even more confusing, there was also a Berti, who played guitar on what seems to have been the most of their recordings, from 2001-2009 (presumably replaced by Bernie W). They seem to only have had the one album released prior to breaking up, that being 2002's “Heiliger krieg”, which is the one we'll be concentrating on, even though I could only find about half of it on the You of Tubes.

Most if not all of them appear to have gone on to form another band called Integritlie, which at the moment seems to be still going. I must say though, although I have little hard information about them, for a supposedly tough black metal satantic band, the pictures of each individual member don't give you that impression: in every shot they're smiling, and look, well, normal! Weird or what? So perhaps the black metal tag is undertaken without too much seriousness, though again as I say since their music is sung in Austrian (or German maybe) it seems unlikely we will ever know. Speaking of the music though, let's give it a listen.

Heiliger Krieg --- Luciferi Excelsi --- 2002 (Black Empire)
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Right, well I'm going to take a stab at this (no pun intended!) --- most of us know “heil” is hail in German, so assume the same in Austrian (I'm guessing this is sung in Austrian, though I could be wrong: I know little enough of each language to recognise the nuances between them, if indeed there are any) and “krieg” is war, so “heiliger”? Hailing? Hailing war? Glorifying war? Something about praising war anyway.

This album is their only one, as it happens. There was another one due to be released but it never saw the light of day, then Luciferi Excelsi (gonna call them LE for handiness' sake) broke up, so this is the only recorded output from them, other than a demo. Like the previous Sauron album, this is only a short one, with eight tracks in total. I've been able to find five of these on YouTube, so although I won't be able to review the whole album, we'll be able to make a decent go of it.

It starts off with “Antropophagie”, and I have to admit I don't know if that's an English or German (or Austrian) word, but it's a slow skullcruncher, with yet again those horrible death vocals, though this time they're more a nasty scream, like someone with a sore throat cursing at you. Can't make out the lyric, so I'm not sure if it's in English, but I don't think so. Guitar-driven, and the guitar seems pretty good, thundering drums as Tom, the singer, goes a bit mad in the meantime. Sort of very heavy Sabbath or Venom sound to the music, such as it is. I actually think this could be relatively enjoyable without the screeching --- sorry, singing --- of Tom, but there it is. This goes on for over five minutes, so excuse me if I do other things while LE amuse themselves.

Oh well, here's a quite decent guitar solo in almost an Iron Maiden vein, and yeah, when Tom shuts his yap you can enjoy the music and appreciate it a bit more. It's neither Bernie though who plays the guitar here, but another person with no real name, simply known as Bertie. He can certainly play, and there's no Venom-like attempts at being able to hit notes and play chords that are beyond them. Heavy, but not overly so, and without the singing it's not too bad. Okay, next up is “Insanity of death”. Being an English title I have to assume the lyric is sung in English, but again Tom's vocals make this really hard to confirm. Starts off with a great hard guitar, some pretty frenetic drumming and then it takes off at lightspeed, slowing back down again to allow poor old Tom to come back in with a few screams, picking up speed again on the back of Bertie's powerful guitar and then falling back into a slow cruncher rhythm.

Finishes abruptly and leads into the title track, on which it's vaguely unsettling to hear the words “Heil! Heil! Heil!” being shouted, then a steamhammer drumbeat takes over, with doomy guitar and Tom's growling and screeching making it impossible to hear any lyrics, even if I could understand them, which I wouldn't be able to, as they're obviously in Austrian or German. Seems to have a lot of powerful energy though, I'll give it that, and there are certain Iommi influences in Bertie's guitar work, with a damn fine solo near the end. That takes us to “The last wolf”, which I assume is sung in English, though sorry to keep harping on it, but Tom's vocal makes it impossible to differentiate what language he's, er, singing in. Again, great guitar work though: it's a real pity these guys didn't hook up with someone who sung a little more, uh, coherently, as I think they could have been pretty good, but the death vocals make it almost impossible (for me anyway) to see anything in the band or enjoy the music much at all.

Sort of a boogie beat behind this one, you can actually sway and tap your feet to it to an extent! It's followed by “Gottes vergeltung”, but I couldn't find that anywhere so can't make any comment on it. The last track, in fact, that I have from them is “Gotterdammerung”, but I kind of doubt we're going to hear any Wagnerian opera here! I do shudder though, as it's the longest track on their album, clocking in just a few seconds short of eight minutes. Yeah, I said eight. Oh dear. Okay then, let's listen. It opens with a marching drumbeat and a rather interesting guitar line, but Tom is growling and spitting all over it so I've no idea what's going on.

About two minutes in, it goes into a sort of almost progressive melody against which Tom intones something, possibly telling a story, then it all fires back up again and takes off like a rocket. It goes along like that and then fades down to a single guitar line for the last minute, which is at least unexpected: oh wait, no it doesn't. Tom's not about to be left behind, and he and the drummer explode back into the song again for the last few seconds. Really, how he doesn't damage his throat is beyond me. Must keep a big pack of Strepsils in his pocket at all times.

There are two more tracks on the album, but I don't have any way of finding them, and to be honest, having heard what I have, I'm in no hurry to. I don't mean to insult those who enjoy this sort of metal --- nothing I say is likely to matter to you anyway --- but it's never going to be for me. The music I could get into, certainly, but those vocals just kill it for me, and not in an “X Factor” way either! I just hate vocals I can't understand, not due to language but delivery, and “death vocals” or “death grunts” or “unclean vocals”, or call them what you will, will never impress me and will always drive me away from any band who utilises them, no matter how great their music may be (Haggard come to mind).

TRACKLISTING

1. Antropophagie
2. Insanity of death
3. Heiliger krieg
4. The last wolf
5. Gottes vergeltung
6. Gotterdammerung
7. Pesthauch
8. Der erloser

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So that's Luciferi Excelsi, the second random pick from the Meat Grinder. And it certainly has been a grind, so far. Hopefully next time around I'll get something a bit more, shall we say, palatable? Death and black metal are huge of course, and I could end up getting something similar, but then, that's the fun of the Meat Grinder! Fun?? Yeah, well, you only have yourself to blame. Bloody hell! After listening to that I'm almost ready to listen to another boyband album! Almost...

Trollheart, as much as you hate the bands that you are reviewing on The Meat Grinder, these have by far been my favorite reviews from you. As much as it pains you, keep it up, they are absolutely hilarious.

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For a long time now I've been a fan of Nick Cave, and having watched the movie “The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford” --- good movie, by the way --- and listening to his haunting soundtrack to it, I naturally jumped on this the moment it was released. Now, reading a little more about the score to a movie I've not seen this time, I'm not quite regretting it, but what is coming across rather clearly from what I've read is that this is not likely to be the sort of bleak, droning, plaintive instrumental music I've come to expect from Australia's Duke of Darkness. In fact, it seems most if not all of it is other than instrumental, and Cave and Bad Seeds collaborator Warren Ellis have chosen a number of cover versions of songs which, though they don't necessarily come from the period in which the movie is set --- the thirties --- reflect for them a sense of that time.

And they've had a country bluegrass legend sing them. Or some of them. Or tried to get him to sing. Seems it wasn't such an easy thing, by all accounts. Nevertheless, as is kind of expected when you push play on a Cave recording, it's bound to be an adventure of discovery, shock, perhaps unease, but never boredom.

Lawless (Motion Picture Soundtrack) --- Nick Cave and Warren Ellis --- 2012 (Sony Masterworks)
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Is it, I wonder, a mistake to try to review a score to a movie I've never seen, and know little if anything about? Is this a case of lack of research, preparation? Ah but then, when can you ever truly prepare yourself for a new outing from Nick Cave? No matter what you think you may be about to hear, he almost always turns the tables on you, like some dark magician playing macabre sleight of hand, and twisting your head around before you even notice your neck is broken. So really, will it really matter that I know nothing about this movie beyond its strapline and a very vague and general description?

Well it certainly opens on a bluegrass song, with banjo and fiddle taking in “Fire and brimstone”, Link Wray's song featuring the Screaming Trees' Mark Lanegan on vocals. Cave, it appears, does not sing on some of the tracks here, as according to himself, “the last thing I wanted was to listen to my ****ing voice the whole time we were working on it!” It's an edgy, uptempo track to kick off, with a great sense of foreboding and doom, and not a million miles removed from the sort of thing you might expect Cave to record himself. Still well in Cave territory while gingerly stepping over to Waits country, “Burnin' hell” is a powerful jamboree with tons of energy, a little confused at times but great fun, with Cave at his most manic and clearly enjoying himself.

In a total change then, both of tempo and style, “Sure 'nuff yes I do” is given an acapella treatment by bluegrass star Ralph Stanley, though whether Captain Beefheart would have approved I can't say. It's a welcome respite from the mania of the first two tracks and slows things down nicely. The beautiful voice of Emmylou Harris is very welcome in the (not surprisingly) country flavoured “Fire in the blood”, but sadly it's only just over a minute long, then the next classic to get the Cave treatment is Velvet Underground's “White light/white heat”, with more fiddles and thumping drums, and Lanegan reprising his vocal role, then Emmylou is back for “Cosmonaut”, and this time we get the pleasure of her company for a much more reasonable time, as the song lasts almost four minutes. Driven on a banjo/mandolin melody, it's uptempo but kind of mid-paced too, and Emmylou certainly makes the song. I tell ya, for someone sixty-five years old this year, she's still got the pipes! Lovely mandolin solo too, would assume maybe from Warren Ellis, then we're into a kind of reprise of “Fire in the blood”, with this time Townes Van Zandt's “Snake Song” added in.

This features all four of the main singers, minus Lanegan, starting off in acapella style with Stanley, slow quiet organ coming up slowly behind him as he sings, then acoustic guitar as Emmylou comes in, later some lovely electric guitar from Nick and those powerful organ chords from Warren Ellis, and with some beautiful evocative piano typical of Cave songs, “So you'll aim towards the sky” is a gorgeous little ballad, a cover of the Grandaddy song, featuring more of Emmylou's undeniable prowess and charisma, with a real saloon feel to it, almost as if she were singing on stage in some disreputable drinkin' hole in the old west. There's a really bleak feel to it too, almost a feeling of being lost and in despair, and Emmylou's pained, forlorn vocal really underlines this.

In many ways, sadly, that's it. The album is then mostly filled up by unused takes, mainly versions of the songs on which Ralph Stanley refused to, or could not, sing, and they're covered by the other vocalists. It's interesting, a way of not wasting those takes, but given the fact that up to now there have only been eight tracks, (admittedly great ones), and the album contains fourteen ... well, I just feel a little shortchanged somehow. Which is not to say that Emmylou's almost acapella version of “Fire in the sky” is not brilliant and moving, but really, at only just over a minute, did we need a third version? It is interesting though to hear Stanley actually sing over music once, and his version of the opener, “Fire and brimstone”, is certainly a lot more laidback and laconic than the version that began the album. I think I prefer the first one though.

Mark Lanegan's version of “Sure 'nuff yes I do” is probably closer to Beefheart's original than the one attempted by Stanley, certainly has a lot more energy and enthusiasm and is, well, more fun, with Ellis's fiddle back on top form, then Mister Bluegrass is back to do an acoustic version of the Velvet song again, which I personally think adds nothing to it, but there's one more original song to go before we close, with keening violin from Warren Ellis and atmospheric keys, and “End crawl” is a gentle, somewhat ambient instrumental that would I think have closed this album quite well, but it's followed by a Willie Nelson song, “Midnight run”, with the man himself on vocals.

Having not seen the movie, I have to say that although this album is not bad, it would not convince me to go see “Lawless”. As a soundtrack it's certainly interesting, though generally speaking not really in the sort of arena I usually tend to frequent. As a Cave-driven project it's different and surprising, as I guess I should really expect, but quite removed from the sort of thing I'm used to hearing from him. It wouldn't be anywhere close to a favourite album of mine, and whether or not I'll even listen to it again is in doubt, but you have to give Cave and Ellis marks both for originality and for pinning down music that really does evoke the Prohibition era of America.

TRACKLISTING

1. Fire and brimstone
2. Burnin' Hell
3. Fire in the blood
4. White light/white heat
5. Sure 'nuff yes I do
6. Cosmonaut
7. Fire in the blood/Snake song
8. So you'll aim towards the sky
9. Fire in the blood
10. Fire and brimstone
11. Sure 'nuff yes I do
12. White light/white heat
13. End crawl
14. Midnight run

http://www.trollheart.com/wizards.jpg
Although a member of one of the most successful and influential progressive rock bands of the last century, Tony Banks is something of a quiet enigma, certainly compared to his bandmates. Phil Collins, we know, had a very high-profile solo career, and for a while Peter Gabriel was in the charts and doing well. Even now, he's highly regarded and respected as a musician. Mike Rutherford, too, made a name for himself outside of Genesis with his solo project, Mike and the Mechanics. But Tony? Despite being an accomplished keyboard maestro, an excellent songwriter and not a bad singer either, and having been in Genesis from the very beginning, he's the one about whom you tend to hear very little, whether inside of or outside of the band. Of course, Genesis are no longer together, but even when they were, Tony would always shy from the spotlight, preferring to noodle away in relative obscurity, unleashing amazing keyboard solos like the one in “One for the vine”, the heavy organ sound that underpins “The knife”, and even in more recent times, the thematic “Duke's travels”, but still little is generally known about his solo work.

Unlike some of his contemporaries in Genesis, including ex-bandmember Anthony Phillips, whose latest solo/collaborative album we featured recently, Tony has not put out a slew of albums. In fact, between 1979 and this year he's only had eight in total, and two of them were soundtracks to movies. Two were also released under projects, 1989's “Bankstatement” and 1995's “Strictly Inc.”, leaving him with basically five actual solo albums, two of which are suites for orchestra, the latest released this year.

A curious feeling --- Tony Banks --- 1979 (Charisma)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ousFeeling.jpg

But though I've not heard everything he's written or played solo, and though “Bankstatement” was, for me, very hit and miss, with some great tracks and some real letdowns, his debut album, “A curious feeling”, hit all the right spots. Released without fanfare, without a picture of him on the sleeve, and with little or no media attention, it nevertheless quietly climbed into the top twenty album charts and remained there for over a month. It's a concept album, apparently (though I never knew it) based on the novel “Flowers for Algernon”, which I've never read and so can't confirm or deny it follows the storyline. What it does have, however, is no bad tracks and some really stunning ones. At a time when Mike Rutherford had yet to release any solo material, nor indeed Phil Collins, and while Peter Gabriel was just getting to grips with his second solo album, with Genesis about to hit the big time again with “Duke” the following year, “A curious feeling” is a gem of an album, showing effortless, natural talent without any big hubbub or ego.

But then, that's Anthony George “Tony” Banks for you.

It opens with a piano instrumental, as perhaps you might expect, but if you think this is going to be largely an album of piano and keyboard instrumentals and themes, you're off centre there. Originally intended to be the intro to Genesis's “Undertow” from the “And then there were three” album, it's a powerful yet laidback tune with synths backing up the piano, really to be honest sounding more like something off “Duke” to me, especially “Heathaze”. It only lasts two and three quarter minutes, but serves as a delicious little entree to this feast of an album, followed by “Lucky me”, an uptempo pop-sounding song which really looks forward, if unintentionally, to Genesis's later material on “Invisible touch”, and the first vocal track with the late Kim Beacon taking the mike, as he does for the entire album, Tony content to hide behind the keyboard, where he's always been most comfortable.

“Lucky me” displays many Genesis moments, but this will not be typical of the album, as it strikes out on its own, heading it its own direction. The voice of String Driven Thing's Beacon fits the material like a glove, and his vocal is clear, strong and passionate without ever taking over from the music, which is the lynchpin around which the album turns. Toiling quietly in the background, Tony paints a lavish soundscape with his keyboards, also taking guitar and bass duties, and some percussion, though most of this is delegated to Genesis on-the-road drummer Chester Thompson. “The lie” is a very Duke-sounding piece, uptempo and boppy with a great piano melody racing it along, heavy synths keeping the background as the guitars chop it up and snarl away in quite a rocky tune. It falls into a sort of slow semi-reggae beat halfway in, with choral voices coming in to join the melody, and Kim sounding almost Colin Blunstone. Then Tony takes us back to 1974 with a keyboard line right out of “The Lamb”, before it all ramps back up again to head towards its boppy end. Not, I have to admit, one of my favourite tracks on the album, but then, that only shows how good the ones I rate are!

“After the lie” is a much slower, moodier piece, with Beacon's voice low and almost echoing, Banks' piano taking centre stage, then supplemented by Alan Parsons-style marching keyboards and drums, as the vocal gets stronger and more insistent. There are some lovely little Banks moments in this song: piano runs, keyboard arpeggios, little glissandos, lovely stuff. A deep, humming choral synth keeps pace as the song heads into its third minute, then some spacey synth and light piano as everything slows down even further in almost Vangelis style, Beacon's vocal coming back in as the tempo begins to increase with the song moving into its denouement with some superb trumpeting keys from Tony taking the tune home in an almost brassy way.

The title track comes in on a shout and a big, happy keyboard sound, and is an uptempo, poppy song which could have made quite a decent single, had it been released. Beacon is on fine form here, singing his heart out, with Tony trying out all sorts of little tricks on the synth and making it sound like a whole band. It's a very uplifting song, and it leads into only the second instrumental on the album, but one of my favourite tracks. “Forever morning” kind of revisits the theme of “From the undertow”, with a heavy piano opening, then sliding into soft synth and arpeggiated keys, with a nice midsection where it goes all pastoral for a minute or two, nice soft piano passage with attendant bright keyboards, then a big finish as it crescendoes up to the climax of the piece, first running off a sort of false ending before coming back with the triumphant finish.

Opening as a much slower, moodier song, “You” begins on jangly, expressive guitar with minimal synth backing and some nice vocal harmonies, percussion coming in almost unnoticed around the second minute before it kicks into life as it moves into the third, with a big crazy keyboard run again harking back to the best of “The Lamb”, flowing arpeggios and smooth synth runs everywhere as Banks takes over the melody, then it slows down in very Genesis fashion with a sonorous, deep booming choral synth, taking off again with trumpeting keyboard flourishes before it all fades down on light synth and piano to the end.

One of my very favorites, in fact I think I would put it as the standout, is up next, and “Somebody else's dream” comes in on a thumping, rolling drumbeat and squealy synth before a nice little piano line breaks in, and Beacon's vocal can be described as one of the very best on this album. It's a sombre, moody, tense piece with a lot of drama and urgency about it, with the intensity building as the song goes on, dropping back in the middle as the melody takes a little breather, a nice gentle piano line soon giving way to more urgent and heavy synthwork, and Beacon comes back for his final vocal lines in the song. The longest on the album at just under eight minutes, the last two minutes are totally instrumental as Banks really lets himself go on the keys in an almost operatic display of energy and drama.

A nice relaxing instrumental then, just the ticket after all that high-powered, intense playing, and a real respite in a lush little interlude; well, not really as it's over six minutes long, but it does bridge the gap between the energetic and dramatic “Somebody else's dream” and the final two tracks, and is the final instrumental on the album. Some rather nice soft guitar on it too, though it's soon supplanted by deep organ and warbly keys, with the piano coming back in to calm things down. Lovely little flutey sounds on the keys add to the sense of tranquility on the piece, but like a storm bubbling under, just held in check, the heavier keyboards and throaty synths are just waiting to be unleashed again, so that the track rises and falls like the tide, with crests and troughs, and is a thoroughly enjoyable ride, and a real testament to the undoubted and yet almost taken for granted prowess of Genesis's quiet keysman.

A mid-tempo ballad helps to close off and bookend the album, as “For a while” breezes along nicely with some bright guitar and some carefree keys, and another fine vocal performance from Kim Beacon, though by comparison it's a short song, just over three minutes, then the coda, or epilogue is a dark but moving little piano piece called “In the dark”, with some effective flute and whistle sounds on the keys, but otherwise just the piano and Beacon's vocal, with some soft synth joining in with a sort of half-reprise of the theme from “Forever morning”. A nice gentle and yet appropriate way to finish the album.

It's a pity this isn't better known; despite spending time in the top twenty I doubt many non-Genesis fans could point to it as a solo Genesis album, and yet although it was his debut it comes across to me as completely accomplished and professional, balanced and thoughtful, definitely more a project created by someone who loves music than a crass attempt to cash in on the Genesis name, or make a big splash in the charts. Not saying Gabriel or Collins had that in mind either --- well, probably Collins --- but it's nice to see that this album, rather like Mike Rutherford's later efforts before forming his band, concentrates more on making the sort of music the artist prefers than what will sell.

An undiscovered gem, without doubt. Go unearth it now.

TRACKLISTING

1. From the undertow
2. Lucky me
3. The lie
4. After the lie
5. A curious feeling
6. Forever morning
7. You
8. Somebody else's dream
9. The waters of Lethe
10. For a while
11. In the dark

Guess what Mr.Burns, now that I'm really digging this journal thingy and becoming really obsessed with it, it's now starting to reveal a creative side to me and I'm finding each entry of my own journal even easier and quicker to write. I've now decided to jump back into yours and pass comments like before. So I'm kicking off on page 81 as I'd got upto page 80 before and guess what! You didn't reply to my last post on the journal which was no.1270.

Anyway from page 81 to 81:

Asia- We've actually talked a lot about this band and I still think that their debut is one of the best AOR albums of its time. Sure the songs are epic highly spruced up with a commercial sheen to sell by the million and to be played in large arenas, their next two when they were still massive, I think were inferior copies of the debut. Recently, I've really started to get into the John Payne albums and despite being far less known, he took them into a more intersting phase that was far less one-dimensional than the John Wetton albums. I think Aria, Aura and Silent Nation to be good albums but its Arena that is the standout album and a real gem.

Dream Theater- I would've thought that DT would be right up your street, I'm a big fan of the band despite the fact that they are one of the most hated bands on the forum. I really like them, probably because I'm a big fan of their influences bands like Toto, Journey, Styx, Iron Maiden and Rush. They also have a Pink Floyd influence but the biggest influence that I find which often goes unnoticed is that of Kansas. Therefore, if you take Pink Floyd, Rush and Iron Maiden out of the equation you are left with some of the most hated bands around, who are four of my favourites;) The review you did was of a recent album, have you heard their older stuff yet?

Welcome US, nice to see you posting here again. And well done on your own journal; I really think it's becoming one of the favourite ones here. You're certainly putting a lot of work into it.

Sorry I didn't reply to your last post, but it has been busy here getting the extension built, and when I look back on it I dont see any question asked. I don't always reply to comments unless I'm asked something; that might seem ungrateful but I don't really feel it necessary to always respond. No offence intended.

We'll never agree on that. I still think the s/t is their weakest album (or was, till "XXX"!) but I do love "Aria" and "Arena". My favourite of the JP era would probably be "Aura" though, such a great album. They should never have parted company with him.
No, to be fair I've listened to very little, but I was not impressed with ADToE; I've only heard bits and pieces other than that: parts of "Falling into infinity" mostly, though I do think "Hollow years" is a great song. Perhaps they'll be another Spock's Beard (take me a long time to get into but finally get them) or IQ (never got into them; fell asleep while listening, almost always). We'll see. At some point I'll give some of their older albums a listen, but it's making the time (moan, moan)...

I am impressed with your knowledge Trollheart. I can see you tend to like rock or alternative rock music more. I probably need to check out your musical journal. I have many people who love your type of music.

Thanks Franco for posting, nice to see you. Hope you find something to interest you here.

Actually yes I am a rocker but I also like some country, most classical, some electronic (little) and the odd bit of pop. There are just some genres I stay away from, but generally if I like a song it doesn't really matter what genre or subgenre it comes from, I'll listen to it.

I've delved recently into "unknown" genres for me, first with the boyband special over the last year and now with "The Meat Grinder", so I'm slowly expanding my experience. I wouldn't say I have a lot of knowledge: to be fair, I know about the bands I have enjoyed and followed since my youth, but a lot of the information here has to be credited to Wiki, without which my reviews would certainly be less well-researched and interesting.

As I am --- Alicia Keys --- 2007 (J)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Keys-AsIAm.jpg

An artiste I've heard a lot about, but have only heard snippets of her songs in passing, certainly never listened to one of her albums all the way through. She seems to be (or have been) very popular, though of course that doesn't guarantee she'll be that good, though she does at least write her own songs and plays piano, organ, synth, even harpsichord as well as sings, so she's not just another pop or r&b diva surviving solely on her vocal chops, which is refreshing and encouraging. Mind you, I said something similar about Delta Goodrem, and though I wasn't underwhelmed by the album I reviewed some time back, “Innocent eyes”, neither was I completely impressed, so how will this turn out?

Jumping into the middle of her catalogue, we're sampling her third album, which as it turns out seems to be the only one on which she doesn't take a hand in the writing. That's disappointing: on her debut she wrote or co-wrote every track, and on her second she was heavily involved in the songwriting. Indeed, after this album she again took to penning tunes for her fourth, but to date this woudl appear to be the only Alicia Keys album on which she does not write, or take part in the writing of, a single track. Will that turn out to be a good or bad thing? Well, to be fair, I can't compare this to “Songs in A Minor” or “The Diary of Alicia Keys”, or even “The element of freedom”, the album following this, as I've heard none of them. But it seems to me a bad idea to hand over creative control of your music to others, especially as up to then you'd been writing the material yourself. In fact, the idea of her returning to writing after this album would perhaps make you think that she considered not doing so here a mistake.
Ah, okay: I misread. She co-wrote every track on the album, which is why she's not credited: it's taken as read that she wrote on each, then her collaborators are shown. Good then, that makes sense.

At any rate, the album is graced by the legendary presence of John Mayer, who also duets with her on one of the tracks, so it can't be all bad. It certainly starts well, with a beautifully classical solo piano piece (Keys trained classically, so definitely knows her way around not only a piano keyboard but the great composers' work as well), an interpretation and update of Chopin's “Nocture No. 20 in C Sharp Minor", then the familiar r&b beat kicks in and the piece takes on new life that is, it has to be said, not half bad. Certainly jazzes the piano melody up, then “Go ahead” starts the album proper, with a certain feel of the Beatles in the melody mixed in with a slower Janet Jackson, and it's clear Keys has a strong voice, however it sounds to my untrained diva-less ear like many of the others I have heard, nothing terribly special.

The song itself smoulders, with restrained anger and frustration, and a sense of slow hip-hop about it, kind of like Puff Daddy's “Come with me”, though not as dramatic, while “Superwoman” is pure gospel infused with power soul and a Fugees-style (and very annoying) spoken rap/vocal in the background. One of the slower tracks on the album, it's quite infectious, though apparently barely made it into the top 100 when released as the final single from the album. Bah. By contrast, the lead single “No one” is more uptempo, with a sort of marching/clapping drumbeat, and it made it to number one, in addition gaining her two Grammys. Good song, but I prefer “Superwoman”. Next up is another single, “Like you'll never see me again”, and it's a slower one with a lovely sprinkly, rolling keyboard sound underpinning the melody, a very passionate vocal from Keys, nice slow sort of “popping” drumbeat that puts me very much in mind of Prince at his height; Alicia even sings a little like him! Nice bit of violin on the outro too.

A good choice for a single, I have to admit, but I'm annoyed that the duet with Mayer was not chosen. Guess the dancing kids don't want to know about some old fart from the world of blues rock, but Mayer is a legend and deserved better treatment than that. Not that I think it would have bothered him; he puts in the sterling performance you would expect from the old campaigner on “Lesson learned”, which he co-wrote with Keys, and of course plays the guitar on it. Naturally there's a lot of the blues in the song, another slow one with some very gentle piano carrying it along, and a nice soul sound to it. “Wreckless love” (her spelling, not mine) is another sort of swingish, mid-paced track with some staccato drums and a nice strings arrangement. Some pretty cool brass in there also, which leads me to an observation I feel I have to make.

I know it's not him, but it's odd that there's a trombone player on this album named Harry Kim, as anyone who has watched --- or should I say, suffered through? --- “Star Trek Voyager” will know was the name of the character played by Garret Wang, and who, in the series played a clarinet. Okay it's not exact, but it's still interesting. Well, I think it is. Humph. Anyway, “The thing about love” is, well, the next track, and a really nice one it is too. Much of this album, I'm finding, is low-key (no pun intended!) and laidback, with only a few uptempo numbers, and though it wouldn't necessarily be my sort of music, I certainly don't hate it and I don't even dislike it as much as I had thought I would. There's a strong sense of gospel in Keys' music, and this comes through again quite powerfully in this song, with her everpresent piano keeping the main melody line. Quite a stirring song, strong even though her vocal is a little restrained in the main.

Less interesting is “Teenage love affair”, which really to me has very little going for it, apart from a rather heavy guitar in places. Pretty much by-the-numbers pop/r&b really, and “I need you”, which follows it, doesn't really raise the bar much either. I wonder if this album is slipping into the “let's just get it finished and get down the pub/club” idea, as it did start well but now the last few tracks have been quite generic, to be kind. Okay, there's a really nice piano run at the end as the song fades out, but it's the only thing I'm likely to remember about the track. Much more interesting is the clarinet and organ opening to “Where do we go from here”, quite Waitsish, then the swagger is back and Keys' voice is again in the ascendancy with some more soul/gospel with a healthy dose of funk thrown in for good measure.

Almost evoking the heyday of the Carpenters, “Prelude to a kiss” is a lovely little piano-led ballad, with a totally understated vocal, certain sense of David Gates in there too, but unfortunately it seems only to be getting going when it's over, the whole thing barely clocking in at just over the two minute mark. Pity; I would have liked to have heard more of that. Still, “Tell you something (Nana's reprise)” is a nice follow-on, with slow heavy percussion and a nice acoustic guitar joined by violin and sung in the typical r&b style though somehow not as annoying as many of the stars of that genre can make their songs appear.

The album manages to finish strongly, on “Sure looks good to me”, another simple piano line carrying the melody, a taut, impassioned almost desperate vocal from Keys which gets more powerful and intense as the song goes on, the tempo increasing to match the change in her vocal, as the drums and guitars cut in, then it all fades out on the original piano line and a nice vocal chorus.

There's no way this album would suddenly make me a fan of Alicia Keys, but at the same time I wouldn't dismiss her work out of hand, having heard this. I've certainly heard worse. But Grammy-worthy? I don't really see it, although again I have to qualify that by saying this is the first and to date only Keys album I have listened to, so I expect I'm not really in a position to judge. But for an album I just decided to dip into and see what the artiste was like, it wasn't half bad, and given a few more listens --- should I decide to do that --- I could quite possibly grow to like this.

TRACKLISTING

1. As I am (intro)
2. Go ahead
3. Superwoman
4. No one
5. Like you'll never see me again
6. Lesson learned
7. Wreckless love
8. The thing about love
9. Teenage love affair
10. I need you
11. Where do we go from here
12. Prelude to a kiss
13. Tell you something (Nana's reprise)
14. Sure looks good to me

Metallic spheres --- The Orb featuring David Gilmour --- 2010 (Columbia)
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/i...i67naa61sg3bug
Now this is a strange one! Electronic/dance band The Orb are not an artiste I would have on any playlist, and I couldn't tell you the names of any of their albums nor their singles, but when I came across this odd collaboration I just had to hear what it was like. With vocals and (of course) guitar taken by the Pink Floyd legend, and with Gilmour co-writing all of the tracks, this looks like it could be very interesting. Or just weird. The album only contains two actual tracks, but each is broken into five separate pieces, and the whole thing still manages to clock in at a quite respectable forty-eight minutes. The two tracks are called “sides” --- probably harking back to the times of vinyl Lps --- and are called “Metallic side” and “Sphere side”, in that order.

And so “Metallic side” opens on a breathy, humming synth with some spacey sounds, quite Floydesque really, then that familiar crying guitar sound is heard, almost in the background, then getting stronger as what is basically the title track gets proceedings underway, but the unfortunate thing is that no matter where I look I can't get a breakdown of the tracks: every site has this as just having two tracks, and yet there are names for each of the ten “broken-down” tracks within both the, as they are referred to, sides. So I'll be guessing a little at where each stops and the next picks up. But “Metallic spheres” at least appears to be completely instrumental, kind of Jean-Michel Jarre-like in its rhythm with busy synths and drum machines backing the keening guitar. As it runs on the synth and guitar kind of meld together, the drumbeat getting more pronounced and heavier, then really taking over as they come to the foreground.

Vocals begin to filter in as we hit the tenth minute, and this could be “Hymns to the sun”, the second track of the “first side”, though to be sure I can't, er, be sure. What I do know is that “filter” is the correct word to use, as Gilmour's voice doesn't suddenly start singing, but kind of fades in, almost echoey as the music continues, his guitar dropping largely out of the music as the synths and drums take over, and then coming back in around the twelfth minute, accompanied by some quite jazzy piano, then some stuttery whistle sounds as the drums and synth lines die away and I would hazard we're into “Black Graham”, everything slowing down now, some muted whispers, little clangy strums of the guitar and some soft whizzing synthesisers, then Gilmour gets going on the acoustic guitar joined by choral synth vocals.

The tempo picks up a little now, sort of tapping along, quite blues/folky really, sort of growing organically into “Hiding in plain view”, as the electric guitar comes back with moans and wails, low synth humming and swelling in the background, developing into a very ambient piece which probably might not be out of place on a Floyd record itself, and then things get funky with the closing track on the “Metallic side”, around three minutes of “Classified”, with a sort of Spanish/Mexican feel to the guitar and whooshing synthwork, the drum machines keeping a steady beat as the track goes along, taking us to the end of the first track, side, or whatever you wish to call it.

“Spheres side” starts with more spacey keyboards, a jangly guitar low in the background and some bass thumping slowly in, as “Es vedra” opens side two, and wind sounds and thunder accompany the synth melody as the guitar gets louder, drops away, gets louder, and those JMJ-style keys again fade up through the mix. Cheeky little snippet from “Comfortably numb” thrown in there, then the drums get all powerful and marchy again and the synths ramp up, as indeed does Gilmour's guitar, still a little subsumed in the mix but definitely more audible than when the track began. Think I heard a snatch of the guitar melody from “Another brick in the wall part II” there as well.

Handclap drumbeats then come in as I think the track may be in the process of changing to the next one along, which is entitled “Hymns to the sun (reprise)”. I'm not even sure if I correctly identified the original “Hymns to the sun” on the first side, so I can't say whether or not this revisits its theme, but the guitar slips away and marimba-style keys slide in, the percussion again carrying the tune, and on a weird little chanting sound made I think on Gilmour's fretboard it looks like we cross over to “Olympic”, the same basic tune but with some hard-to-discern vocals now coming in too, faint and faraway. More funky guitar and African-style rhythms on the drums, Gilmour's vocal now easier to hear.

Tempo picks right up then as we head into “Chicago dub”, with what sounds like a jew's harp boing!ing all over the place, then sweeping synth coming in before heavy Gabrielesque drumming takes the whole thing up a further notch, adding a sense of drama and gravity to the piece, Gilmour's guitar fading in and screaming through the thing, fading back down to be supplanted by solid synths and then coming back in again as we head off into “Bold knife trophy”, the closing track, both of this “side” and of the album. On another heavy marching drumbeat and pulsing bass, it finishes on a rolling, almost strings-like synth with cinematic power, then fading down on spacey keys to the end.

TRACKLISTING

Metallic side
1. Metallic spheres
2. Hymns to the sun
3. Black Graham
4. Hiding in plain view
5. Classified

Spheres side

1. Es vedra
2. Hymns to the sun (reprise
3. Olympic
4. Chicago dub
5. Bold knife trophy

A strange project indeed. Nice and ambient, I must say, and there's the possibility I might want to look further into the work of The Orb. But Gilmour's guitar, though often quite prominent here, is not as dominant as I had expected it to be. Plus there are hardly any real vocal tracks, so crediting him with vocals is perhaps stretching it a little. But certainly enjoyable, if a little frustrating that I couldn't properly delineate the tracks. I guess that doesn't matter really though in the end.

Good music, excellent guitar as you'd always expect from David Gilmour, but ultimately I think I'd probably just have to file under “interesting”, and leave it at that.

http://www.trollheart.com/meanwhile.jpg
Okay, time to get down to business! There have been several albums released this past month which I personally have been waiting for, and which I've been intending to review but didn't want to rush. Over the next few weeks I'll be putting the reviews up here, but this is the first, and it's been five years in the making, and let me tell you it's been a long five-year wait for the new album from Threshold, but it's been worth it!

March of progress --- Threshold --- 2012 (Nuclear Blast)
http://www.progarchives.com/progress...3062012_r.jpeg

Ah, it's great to hear the boys back again! Those rolling whirly keyboards, that hard, grinding guitar and best of all Damian Wilson, last heard on vocals on 1997's “Extinct instinct” is back, and Theshold sound so much better for it. Which is not to denigrate the last few albums, but there's something about Wilson's voice that just has become the sound of this band, and it really is like stepping back ten years as “Ashes” opens the album in powerful style. Great guitar solos as ever from the reliable Karl Groom, and there are no short tracks on this album, with the shortest clocking in at over four minutes, while the longest is a ten-minute epic that closes the whole thing.

The power and energy that has always characterised Threshold is evident from the beginning, and the songs are both complicated and simple, if that's possible: definitely progressive metal at its very finest. It seems like the half-a-decade they spent away from recording has been to their benefit as they really sound rejuvenated here. I wasn't the biggest fan of their last album, “Dead reckoning”; though it was certainly a great album, I didn't feel it stood up to the likes of “Clone”, “Extinct instinct” and the superlative “Subsurface”, but this can stand shoulder to shoulder with anything the guys have done.

“Return of the thought police” is a slow, heavy, doomy cruncher with an ominous sound to it something in the vein of Shadow Gallery's “New world order”, with some very effective relaxed guitar and some booming organ chords courtesy of longtime keysman Richard West. Threshold are known among their fans for being able to go off on noodling keyboard solos or big, riffing fretfests but there's always a link back to the song; they don't solo just for the sake of it, and nothing they do ever seems superfluous or unnecessary In fact, there's no Threshold song I can think of that would be the same without, well, each and every part of it: talk about the whole being more than the sum of the parts.

Everything ramps back up then for “Staring at the sun”, with a big fast and hard guitar intro, some fine piano licks and Wilson sounding more than happy to be back in the fold. Another thing this band specialises in is memorable hooks and great choruses, and this song has both, changing tempo and flow as it goes, the more impressive as it's that shortest song I mentioned, coming it at just under four and a half minutes. It's definitely in the minority though, as this year's “The art of reason”, the almost eight-minute “Liberty, complacency, dependency” hits, with a Steve Rotheryesque guitar and some lovely bass patterns, and Threshold unleash some of their best politically-motivated lyrics in years: ”“Once there was a city left to ruin/ Alone and broken down. /The walls that once gave shelter/ Are levelled to the ground. /Powerless to cope for there was /No-one left to trust, /Nothing there to hope for/ When your dreams have turned to dust”. Threshold's songs often come across as angry at the state of the world, and this is no exception. Powerful, screaming guitar solo from Groom just makes the song, and then we're into “Colophon”. Yeah, they like using big and lesser-known words, too. I'm going to guess, from the few meanings cited here, and the lyric, that they're referring to the ancient Greek city, as they do like their history. It's a punchy song, with some great piano, but a little lacking when compared to the tracks that have preceded it.

Much better is “The hours”, with those unmistakable vocal harmonies and a real rocking beat, very commercial in many ways and could make a good single, if they were that bothered about such things, which I don't think they are really. A mixture of heavy guitar from Groom and almost radio-friendly keys from West makes this one of the standouts on the album so far. The mark of a good long song I feel is always that it doesn't seem long, and this is over far too soon, despite being a little over eight minutes in length. It leads into the second-shortest track, but though “That's why we came” only misses out on the six-minute mark by twenty seconds, it's phenomenal. Another thing Threshold excel at, in my view, is that as well as being able to write complicated, involved, multi-faceted songs, they can just as easily pen the simplest and yet most beautiful ballads. Check “Sunrise on Mars” from “Clone” or “Mansion” from “Extinct instinct”, or even “Hypothetical”'s beautiful “Keep my head”. Well this is another to add to that illustrious catalogue.

Wilson outdoes himself and you can almost touch the emotion in his voice as he sings, this mirrored in Karl Groom's exquisite riffs and solo. Just perfect. A real example of breaking a song down to its simplest format, and just to underline this, it ends with a basic acoustic guitar line. Like I say, perfect. Then we're hurled headlong into “Don't look down”, as everything kicks off again with speed and power but always with melody, and a wonderful little keyboard run to get the song underway, a real hard rocker that shows the two sides of Threshold. Something of a showcase for Karl Groom, the song features an amazing solo from the man about halfway through that then changes the direction and theme of the piece as it mellows under Wilson's controlled, effortless vocal.

I'll tell you one thing: you would not believe Damian Wilson has been away from Threshold for so long! He sounds like he just finished recording the previous album a year or so ago. Admittedly, he was back for the 2007 tour to promote “Dead reckoning”, but prior to that he hadn't been singing with the band since 1997, and here he just fits right back in like the missing jigsaw piece. “Coda” has the barest of nods to Thin Lizzy's “Cold sweat”, but soon slips into its own inimitable groove and leaves such similarities behind, developing and evolving as it goes, which is sort of par for the course for any Threshold song: they really do epitomise the term “progressive rock”. Or metal, if you prefer. But they're certainly not a band to stand still, even after five years of inactivity.

After a real rollercoaster ride, we come to the final track, and as mentioned it's the longest, at just over ten minutes. “Rubicon” starts off slowly but quickly powers up and becomes a real prog-metal epic, with great guitar and a fine vocal delivery from Wilson, pin-sharp vocal harmonies and swirling keyboards and a certain eastern flavour in a Rainbow/Dio style about it. It's the perfect way to end what is, almost, a perfect album and certainly a massive comeback from a band who, having been away so long could have been thought of as having broken up. Far from it: Threshold are alive and kicking, and if this is the march of progress, I can't wait to see where it ends up!

I have high hopes that Marillion's new album will turn out to be my pick of 2012, but even if it does, I can easily see this as being a close runner-up. Hell, it might even beat Steve and the boys out for first place!

TRACKLISTING

1. Ashes
2. Return of the thought police
3. Staring at the sun
4. Liberty, complacency, dependency
5. Colophon
6. The hours
7. That's why we came
8. Don't look down
9. Coda
10. Rubicon

Amid all this gushing praise for Wilson and Threshold, I should stop for a moment and acknowledge the inestimable contribution of Andrew “Mac” MacDermott, who led the guys through five amazing albums --- including my alltime favourite “Subsurface” --- over almost a decade, and very sadly died last year. “Mac” will always have his deserved place in the history of Threshold, and the gratitude and respect of their fans.

The final word I leave to a plethora of reviews from various metal mags and sites, whose unanimously positive comments you can read below.

"A total triumph. In equal parts classy, thoughtful, emotive and intelligent."
Fireworks (UK)

"Every single note is pure magic. (10/10)"
Rock Hard (DE)

"A wonderful record."
Rock It! (DE)

"One of the hottest contenders for album of the year. (6/6)"
Metal Impressions (DE)

"An adventure of unparalleled musical landscapes."
Nu Rocks (ES)

"Must buy! (5/5)"
Stormbringer (AT)

"This is one excellent sounding release."
Sea Of Tranquility (US)

"An album of rare beauty."
Metal Integral (FR)

"Prog highlight of the year."
Metal Hammer (DE)

"Immaculate. (10/10)"
Powermetal (DE)

"The best progressive metal album in a long time."
Musik An Sich (DE)

"Likely the album of the year."
Metal Observer (US)

"Analogous to the Olympic Games in their home country, I hereby solemnly decorate the band with the gold medal for artful progging, for they're able to present ambitious music in a catchy cloak like no one else!"
My Revelations (DE)

"A must have for every rock and progressive music lover. (10/10)"
Metal Fields (DE)

Yes, well, as long as I amuse the staff... :rolleyes:
Yeah, I'm enjoying them too. Not the music, but the whole random element of it, the way I have to research and then talk about bands I don't like while still trying to do a balanced review (albeit with the amp way down!) --- it is actually fun.

Don't worry: I'm sure there's something even worse waiting for me next time round... :eek:
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/i...Fw4wohOrARhAJw

I robot --- The Alan Parsons Project --- 1977 (Arista)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._-_I_Robot.jpg

This is, to be fair, anot one of my favourite albums from the Alan Parsons Project, but I came across this review in a forgotten folder of documents recently, and it seems to have been written for my original journal, way back in 2008. That's a long time ago, and hey, I wrote it, so it may as well see the light of day, even if it is four years later.

On the whole, their albums have been pretty much consistently good over the years, but if I had to pick one of theirs I consider to be slightly sub-par, which would be the Alan Parsons Project record I listen to least, and perhaps like least, this would be it. I certainly don't hate it --- don't hate any APP album, although it shares second place with “The time machine” as the one of theirs I'm most disappointed with --- but it would be one of the last albums I would suggest to someone who was thinking of checking out their music.

The second album released by the band, “I robot” is not a bad album at all, I just think later releases were a lot better. But there’s a lot to be excited about on this album. Three really good ballads, as well as what became the trademark of the APP, the instrumental. The album starts and ends with one, though the closer, entitled “Genesis Ch 1 v 32” reveals something of a mystery, thirteen years later. For more, read on.

The Alan Parsons Project has always been famous for utilising as many vocalists almost as tracks on their albums, and people who have sung on their albums include the likes of Lenny Zakatek, Colin Blunstone, Eric Woolfson, Chris Rainbow, David Paton and Gary Brooker, to mention just a few. It helped keep them fresh, so that each new song sounded different, and it was a formula that worked for the APP for over thirty years.

The album opens on one of those instrumentals, which is in fact the title track. It's a slowburner, starting very quietly and coming in on rising synth and keys then choral vocals, which sound female but could of course be created on a synth float across the melody, pulling in that sound that was to become so familiar on APP albums, the sort of fast bassy run on the keys (or maybe it is a bass, I'm no expert) and the guitar riffs that became so identified with Parsons' work. It becomes quite boppy as many of the Alan Parsons Project's instrumentals do, or did, and the female choral voices are joined by male ones as the piece runs on. To Parsons' credit, it doesn't sound overly robotic, which is how you would probably have expected him to approach such a composition.

That takes us to the first vocal track, and a singer not too often used by APP, with a much rougher, more rock-and-roll voice than the likes of Blunstone and Woolfson, Lenny Zakatek. He usually tends to feature, if at all, on only one track per album, and here he puts in a good performance on “I wouldn't want to be like you”, with an ominous piano opening which soon kicks into a real rocker (for the APP, that is: they were not exactly ever known for totally rockin' out!), and his voice really suits the track. In fact, you can see seeds sown here that would bear fruit in later albums. This song is echoed two years later in “You lie down with dogs” and also “I’d rather be a man”, both from the excellent “Eve” album.

The first of three ballads is next up, with the rather wistful and wonderful “Some other time” which, though it starts off all folky and pastoral and with Peter Straker on lead vocals gets a little rockier as it goes on. Straker would not feature on any other Parsons albums, and indeed many of the vocalists here --- some of them legendary icons --- would only sing on this album, before Alan established his stable of vocalists, among them Colin Blunstone, David Paton, Chris Rainbow and John Miles. “Breakdown” just doesn't do it for me. It's a mid-paced rocker but I feel it adds nothing to the album, and even with Hollies legend Allan Clarke on vocals I can't get into the song.

One of the standouts comes in the form of the second ballad, the gentle “Don't let it show”, on vocals a man who would reprise his role on the next album but after that there would be very little heard about Dave Townsend. It's a sterling turn from him here though, and his voice is very heartfelt and emotional. The song itself rides on soft organ from Parsons, with the slow but sudden percussion really filling out the track. Future echoes, as it were, from APP's big hit single “Old and wise”, in the lyric, when he sings ”If you smile when they mention my name/ They'll never own you/ And if you laugh when they say I'm to blame/ They'll never know you”. It also features what I'd term the “Parsons march”, which became so much a part of the APP sound, and indeed it's this that takes the track out to fade.

Riding on a thick, funky bass and some seriously new-wave keyboards, “The voice” is another song I could live without on this album, though to be fair they are in the minority. Another rock legend takes the mike to help Parsons out on this, and it's Cockney Rebel's Steve Harley. He does a great job, but can only work with what he's got, and I would put this in the realm of a bonus track or an unreleased one; I don't think it's good enough to be on the album.

It says something that out of the ten tracks on this album, four of them are instrumentals, and each different. Not too many bands could get away with that, but the Alan Parsons Project always did, primarily because their instrumentals were just so damn good! Take a listen to “Pipeline” from “Ammonia Avenue”, or “Hyper-gamma spaces” from “Pyramid” to see what I mean. And who could forget the jaunty yet haunting “Sirius”, the lead-in to perhaps one of their most famous and successful tracks, the title from the “Eye in the sky” album?

The second of these is next, with “Nucleus” a short, three-and-a-half minute piece that comes in on what sounds like NASA chatter and then floats on a big spacey atmospheric synth with no percussion; quite ELO in a way. Very celestial sounding, with some soft drumming making its way in on a faster rhythm than the main melody, a few little piano notes sprinkled along the way like breadcrumbs, the spacey synth segueing perfectly into the standout, and the third and final ballad, the beautiful and moving “Day after day (The show must go on)”, with some fine pedal steel from B.J. Cole and exquisite rippling and chiming keys. A song of looking back, realising some opportunities have gone but moving forward anyway, it's one of my favourite APP songs, full stop. Vocals are taken by Jack Harris, his only contribution to the album though he would resurface for next year's “Pyramid”.

Parsons then pulls the very unusual trick of finishing the album with not one, but two instrumentals. “Total eclipse”, the only track on the album not written by he or Woolfson, is an eerie, minimalistic piece which indeed would be somewhat revisited on 1978's “Pyramid” in the track “In the lap of the gods”. It relies mostly on male and female vocal chorus, with what sounds like some sharp violin attack, and comes across almost as the incidental music to some low-budget horror movie. It is, to be blunt, weird. I don't particularly like it.

Ah, but then we close on “Genesis Ch1 v.32", which flows directly from “Total eclipse” and ends the album triumphantly. There is a mystery here though (a “tale of mystery and imagination”, perhaps?) as an incredibly similar melody later shows up on Vangelis’s 1990 album “The City”, slightly (though not much) reworked and retitled “Procession”. This in itself is very odd, and something I remarked upon when reviewing “The City” a while back; Vangelis is certainly not known for covering other people's work --- I don't think he ever has had a composition that wasn't original --- and yet, the two songs are so similar it's virtually impossible to discount as coincidence. Perhaps the melody is based on some classical or other, older tune, yet this is referred to on neither artiste's album. A mystery, indeed, and one I've been trying to sort since I heard “The City”...

Despite this odd coincidence, if it is one, it's a great way to close the album and in general though “I robot” doesn't consistently hit the highs I came to expect, and mostly got, from the Alan Parsons Project, it stands up quite well as their second album, and first of their own material, the debut being built around the stories of Edgar Allan Poe. A reasonable effort, and you could probably forgive them the few lower points on the album.

In conclusion then, a good album. Not a great album. But not a terrible one either. The good news was, there was much, much better to come.

TRACKLISTING

1. I robot
2. I wouldn't want to be like you
3. Some other time
4. Breakdown
5. Don't let it show
6. The voice
7. Day after day (The show must go on)
8. Nucleus
9. Total eclipse
10. Genesis Ch. 1 v.32

There is a lot of Ambient music around like this and I have been a fan of The Orb for 20 years and they have always cited Pink Floyd as a big influence.

Let me know if you want to delve into this genre a little more and I can recommend some albums or do a comp for you.

As for the album itself, it's decent enough but not the pant wetter I was hoping for but it's great background music.

Yeah that was my impression too. For something billed as "David Gilmour with the Orb", or whatever way they put it, I didn't see him establishing himself as a force within the music, stamping his own identity on it. I'm not saying it could have been any guitarist --- Gilmour has of course his own unique and inimitable style --- but as you say, not the creamfest you would expect, and usually get, with anything that has his name attached. Quite tame, in the end.

I'm not sure about delving into the Orb, at the moment thanks, though their music is interesting; I've just so much else to get through, I wouldn't want you to go making a comp that would then sit on my hard drive for months/years without getting listened to: would seem ungrateful. And yet at the same time I wouldn't want to feel under an obligation to listen to it either, as that might dull the music experience I could have otherwise.

Thanks for the offer though, and always good to see you posting in here! :thumb:

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It is of course no secret that I'm a huge fan of Iron Maiden, but apart from their excellent music and the fact that they bore the standard for metal throughout the eighties and further, they have had some pretty incredible album covers. This is natually down to the artistry of Derek Riggs, who was with them for their first eight albums and created some iconic artwork, including of course the sleeve for “The number of the Beast”, “Killers” and “Powerslave”, but what's perhaps interesting about the cover we're going to feature here is that it was not the work of Mr. Riggs. In fact, it was the first (but not the last) Iron Maiden album to feature a design by Melvyn Grant, whom the guys had turned to in their efforts to “upgrade Eddie for the 90s ... take him from the sort of comic-book horror creature and turn him into something a bit more straightforward so that he became even more threatening .” (from Wikipedia)

And by golly it worked! I mean, Eddie is scary on the covers of all the previous albums, not least of which is “Killers”, where he stands with a bloody axe in his hand and a maniacal grin on his skeletal face, but even so, he does look like a cartoon, a caricature. It's hard to be scared of him (though I was, when I was younger and before I was introduced to Maiden's music), but the creature Grant came up with for the sleeve of this album looks all the more menacing because in many ways he looks more real. And if it's real, or could be real, it's always more terrifying.

No. 7: “Fear of the dark” by Iron Maiden
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Unlike many other album covers I've looked at in this section, there is, to be fair, not a whole lot going on here, but that's okay because your eye is drawn right away to Eddie, and it's hard to look away, as there really isn't anything else to see. So you end up staring at him, even if it does make you shiver a little. Well, let's be honest: nobody is really afraid of an album cover, are they? It's just a picture on cardboard. But as a depiction of something from our darkest nightmares, it certainly works.

Taking a closer look, it's not just Eddie perched in a tree, waiting for some unsuspecting passerby to, well, pass by. No, he's actually part of the tree. He's growing out of it. Or is he? You could also postulate that he's being taken into the tree, that it's sucking him into itself and making him part of it. Or even that he is the tree, an extension of it. Whichever way you look at it though, it's a scary picture. How many times have you passed through, or contemplated passing through a dark wood, forest, park, and despite thinking yourself hard there's always been a tiny little quivering voice inside your head that whispers that THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE TREES! Okay, that's not a whisper, but you know what I mean.

We are, genetically, predisposed to feel uneasy in the dark. Some people fear it, some have a phobia about it. It's natural: back in our caveman days, night was when the wild animals prowled with impunity, or our warlike neighbours might use the cover of darkness to attack us. In the dark, we can't see as well as we can in the light, so we're at a disadvantage; things that we could clearly make out in the light don't seem the same. A tree could be an attacker, a rock could be a small animal, the moonlight glinting on grass could be blood. Sounds, too, take on a much more sinister tone at night, or in the dark. Creaks, groans, the wind sighing, animals calling across the fields, voices ... all seem somehow heightened and given new meaning, and our imagination begins to work overtime. Unable to see what things are, our brain can't unequiviocally tell us that they're not what we think or fear them to be, and so we begin to see things that aren't there.

The figure of Eddie perched in, growing out of or whatever, lying in wait in the tree while behind him the full moon casts its pale light upon his ghastly form, is something that speaks to an image buried deep in all our subconciousnesses: the thing hiding under the bed, or in the bushes, or just beyond the range of our vision. The cry in the night, the creaking step, the sound that could be breathing. The horrible, unimaginable and inexplicable terrors that wait in the shadows, outside the strong, high walls of reason and rationality, waiting for a chance, a crack, a fissure in the brick through which they can pour screaming through. All of these things conjure up vistas of fear and panic, and when we go into an area that is dark and seems to harbour danger, our imagination pencils in that danger for us, even if we bravely try to ignore the image.

But Eddie is here, real and ready to drop down and rend whoever walks by. He's some sort of horrible corruption of a dryad, the tree-spirits and nymphs of Greek legend who lived in the forests and made their home in the trees. They were benevolent; Eddie is not. His long, nasty claws are like extensions of the sharper branches of the tree he's hiding in or part of, his wild, unruly hair is like its leaves, his razor teeth are ready to rip and tear, and his eyes are afire with the very light of Hell itself.

Looking at the album cover, there's a very real reason to be afraid of the dark!

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Back in ye olden days --- I'm talking really far back, like, before even I was born! Yeah, that far, smartass! --- there were few sights as terror-laden at sea than the plague ship. An outbreak of disease rampant on board and most of the crew likely dead from it, the ship would be avoided like, well, the plague. It could be cholera, typhoid, yellow fever or any of the hundreds of diseases around at the time, many of which (but not all) we can now easily treat, but which back then, around the early nineteeth century we're talking, were lethal and like most diseases of that nature highly contagious, and with usually a quite high mortality rate.

Ships carrying a plague had to stay at sea, flying a special flag that identified them as such so that no-one would come to their rescue and unwittingly contract the disease, thereafter departing and spreading it wherever they went. Not so much quarantine as a death sentence, but back then there was little they could do.

But one thing remained constant about a plague ship: it was to be avoided. If you had to run your ship aground to get away from it, you'd do it. If you had to dive overboard rather than make contact, abandon ship and take your chances in the sea, it was infinitely preferable to joining the crew of what would basically be the walking dead.

And so we come to the idea for this section. There are, occasionally, albums that cross my desk (who does he think he is? “Cross my desk” indeed! Think he's some sort of high-powered executive in a record label? Quiet, you!) that have no merit at all. I try to see the good, if possible, in anything I review, but once in a while I get an album in which I can see nothing interesting, say nothing positive, that just basically sucks. And when those albums --- rare, thankfully, as they are --- come into my possession I will be sticking them here, so as to warn people off listening to them.

Of course, everything is subjective, and what I hate others may love, or at least see some good in. That's taken as read. But within the sphere of my musical experience I usually know if something is going to be worth a second listen, at some point, and if someone may enjoy it where I have not. Certainly though, I can't account for everybody's taste, so as ever if anyone takes offence to any album reviewed in here, believing it shouldn't be, then I'm sorry but I'm going only on my own tastes. I will always try to dig out the positive in any album I review, but occasionally I find this a fruitless quest, and when that happens, the flag is raised and the Plague Ship will set sail.

Dead river --- 19 ADD --- 2009 (Self-released)
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Here's how 19 ADD describe themselves on their website: ”19ADD is a Instrumental Progressive Metal Trio that is endlessly, sometimes miraculously clever in blending their influences into a cohesive state of schizophrenia. Effortlessly blending the genres of Technical Metal, Jazz, & Ambient, the Colorado-based group has produced one of the most energetic and unpredictable debuts of 2010, Dead River .” Uh, no.

First off, their album was released in August 2009, so how it can be one the best debuts of 2010 is beyond me. But well apart from that, I found the album to be boring, overblown, super-pretentious and extremely annoying. Now of course, some of you will probably leap to their defence with phrases like “WTF? You just don't get it man!” and so forth, and sure, you're entitled to your opinion, but so am I. Always one to give a band --- particularly a band that describes itself as “progressive”--- a chance, I listened to it but became increasingly frustrated by their attempts to be avant-garde, which really came across to me as just being smug and overconfident in their ability, trying to be oh-so-clever and, in my opinion, failing miserably.

Even looking at the track titles you can see pretention: you'd think they were French or Italian or something, with the titles all seemingly in a foreign language --- “Umari”. “Carnivalium”. “Siddhapur”. --- but they're American. Now that doesn't of course preclude them from using foreign-language tracks on their album, but virtually every track here has some weird title, and added to the overblown description above and the (frankly baseless and unsupported) claim about their debut, it leads me to believe that 19 ADD should possibly be called 19 ASS, as they clearly have their heads up there.

So let's go through it track by track, shall we, and see if I'm over, or understating my impression here. Opener “Siddhapur” is what becomes typical of 19 ADD: just under one minute of, well, nothing really. Electronic sounds, effects and what sounds like a cat, then we're into the first “musical” track, “Diadem”, which to be fair isn't too bad. Guitar mostly with some decent drumming, but generally going nowhere for nearly four minutes, then “Spoim” (where do they get these words from?) is, well, pretty much a continuation of the previous track, with hard guitar, cracking drums and no real idea of where the tune is going, as far as I can see.

Thankfully, “Patan” is only forty seconds long (wish the others were too!) and is just a pile of sound samples put together alongside a piano melody of the simplest kind, then “First world paine” breaks out the guitars again, and while I can't fault the playing it seems to be so confused, too expressionist, too experimental and with no direction or point at all. Also, as I mentioned 19 ADD seem to shy away from normal English words to title their tracks; although “Diadem” is a real word, and there are one or two others, here they can't say “First world pain”: they have to add an extra “e”, presumably to make it look mysterious or intellectual, both points on which they fail. They do the same on the next one. I just don't see the point, unless they really are that pretentious that they think it matters.

Maybe I'm just not cut out for “experimental post-metal”, as Progarchives.com describes their music, but I've heard bands do this much, much better. And So I Watch You From Afar have it down pat, and Ki's mates, Pg. Lost also do it well, but here it just seems to be all over the place, almost like listening to a very extended jam session, and any moment you expect them to kick into the real music. It almost happens on “Sailing blinde”, when they rack off a decent jazz style metal melody with some nice introspective guitar, but then it changes halfway through and I just get confused. More sound samples that just seem to bear no relationship to the music, and then we're into a confused mess of sound and well, just noise really as the song tumbles towards its conclusion.

The only thing I can say about “Slomosexual” is that at least it's a funny title! The longest track on the album (gods preserve us!), it runs for a staggering eight and a half minutes, and is pure torture to me. Guitars whine, growl, pound and savage all through the track, but nothing comes together, as I've begun to realise is the major problem with this band. Lots of ideas, some good, but shockingly badly executed, almost as if they think people will listen to anything. Perhaps they're the ultimate poseur band: if they get famous (stranger things have happened, though not many: that horse becoming pope, for one) then everyone will listen to them and pretend they like them, when in fact all that's here is, to be brutally honest, pretentious bull**** masquerading as proper music.

I mean, a whole minute of this is just one held chord and a noise that sounds like a machine, a helicopter, a fan, something just running. Then it stops completely, and an admittedly better guitar melody take over, which is in fact probably the most musical thing on the album, but by now there's only about a minute and a half to go to the end. At least “Umari” is only fifty-six seconds long, and it's more stupid sounds and effects, then “Tendre Crotch Playe” is another hard guitar piece, sounds a least a little rocky and with something of an idea in there somewhere, “Danta” is just over a minute of sound samples, mostly one half of a telephone conversation underneath a synth babble; extremely annoying, and “Carnivalium” is mostly a jazz/funk piece with again ideas all over the place but no real cohesion. I'd have to say something this band are sorely lacking is discipline. If they could put their ideas together better perhaps they might come up with something decent, but as it is it's just fire off riffs, pound the drums and mash it all together with no concern about how it will all sound.

It sounds, generally, terrible.

More industrial noises in “Jamhuri”, another short little less-than-a-minute track, then the second-longest track, just a few seconds over five minutes, is “Saudade”, but it's a retreading of everything that's gone before, bar the samples and noises: I really would find it hard to separate one of these tracks from the others and identify one. More pointless noises, effects and ambient samples in “Khapan” and we finally (and in my case, gratefully) end on “Bikharni”, with what sounds like sitar, more samples, voices, effects, and the last minute is basically just a roaring synth effect and some notes thrown in.

Man, am I glad that's over! Sure, some of you will think this is “ground-breaking”, or maybe “innovative” or perhaps just “****ing cool!” but I don't. It's not my kind of music but even then, I'm prepared to accept when it isn't, but is still recognisably good. I can't see any good in this album at all. It just angers and frustrates me when I play it, and once I've completed this review I'll be hitting the “delete” key on its folder and getting rid of it forever, just in case I accidentally include it in any future playlist. I don't want to hear it. Not ever again. The, to me, lack of not musicianship, but thought and structure in this album is made even worse by the grandiose claims the band make on their website, and since that quote is not attributed to anyone I have to assume these are their own words. And self-praise is, after all, no praise.

19 ADD have a new album released last year. I'm thinking carefully as to whether I give them another chance and see if they can get any more cohesive and actually write something I can listen to, or not. I do find myself wondering if the ADD in their name is to be taken literally, as they really don't seem to be able to concentrate on one idea for long. On their website, should you want it, you can download their albums for “whatever price you want to pay”. Personally, even free would be too much a price for me: they'd have to pay me to download this.

No, if this particular plague ship is spotted anywhere near my home port, I'll be replying with a salvo of cannon: let them take their diseased excuse for music somewhere else!

TRACKLISTING

1. Siddhapur
2. Diadem
3. Spoim
4. Patan
5. First world paine
6. Sailing blinde
7. Slomosexual
8. Umari
9. Tendre crotch playe
10. Danta
11. Carnivalium
12. Jamhuri
13. Saudade
14. Khapan
15. Bikari

http://www.trollheart.com/meanwhile.jpg
They're back! Who, I hear you ask excitedly? Guns N Roses? Sigur Ros? Joe Schmoe and His Amazing Telegraphic Counter Symphony? Er, no.

Men Without Hats.
Who?
Men Without Hats. You know...
Oh yes, that “Safety dance” thing.

Yeah. Mention this band and that's the first, indeed only thing that leaps to everyone's mind, mine included. Not that anyone can be blamed: “The safety dance” was their biggest, and in fact only hit way back in 1983, which hit the spot all over the world and became one of those odd one-hit-wonders that everyone loves, then totally loses interest in any followup. In fact, they had another small hit single in 1987, but “Pop goes the world”, though it hit the top twenty in the USA, did nothing over this side of the water, so they're still remembered here, if at all, for “The safety dance”.

But who are they, these gentlemen who dare to venture out into the weather without adequate headgear? I don't know, but I know someone who does, and this is what I've found out about them. They're from Canada (betcha didn't know that! I didn't...) and whether you can believe it or not they've had six albums prior to this, and, wait for this, FIVE compilation albums! For a band who have only been around since the early 80s and only had the one real hit single, that's not bad: many bands who've been household names for twice that have only half as many greatest hits packages. Of course, most of these are very similar and two of them, the first two, released a year apart, are exactly the same, track for track! See my “Pet Hates” feature for a rant on this.

Men Without Hats are basically the brainchild of singer Ivan Doroschuk, who remains today the only original member of the band. After their initial success with their debut “Rhythm of youth”, which spawned the hit single, MWH's fortunes took a dive and it seemed a clear case of becoming too popular too soon. Though they released another four albums none did well, and in 1991 Ivan disbanded the group. They reformed in 2010, though really it was and is just Ivan with session men. This then is the band that recorded and released what has become their seventh album.

Love in the age of war --- Men Without Hats --- 2012 (Cobraside)
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...7rR4JITv7kp0mQ

So who cares about this album? Probably, to be fair, no-one. I doubt you could stop anyone on the street who would know any MWH song other than the obvious, and fewer yet who would have, or admit to having, any of their albums. But for the novelty factor alone, the fact that they're back, and the fact that “The safety dance” has a small special little place in my heart, I felt I had to buy this and review it, just to see if it's any good. After all, expectations are low, and as an Aston Villa fan, I know all about that! What have we to lose? Let's dive in. Oh, and leave your hat at the door please. It won't be required.

It's like stepping back in time to the eighties as “Devil come round” gets the album started, with thumpy drum machines and sprightly synthesisers, a real bopper and it seems Doroschuk's voice hasn't suffered in the interim. I'd say it's still recognisable, but there's really only that one song to compare it to, and to be honest, it sounds a little lighter to me than it was on the single. Good opener though, quite rocky in its way though definitely synth-driven. Even moreso is the very new romantic “Head above water”, which kicks up the tempo considerably, and “Everybody knows” keeps the basic speed up with another synth-heavy tune with some nice brassy effects.

Nice female backing vocals, but my only gripe would be that so far it all sounds pretty much the same: fast, uptempo dancy synthpop, and “This war”, which for some reason I had expected to be different, well, isn't and just keeps the basic idea running. It's hard to pick out a real standout; there are good tracks but nothing that really shakes me by the throat and says “Look at me!” It's not wallpaper music, but it's an album I doubt I'd be going out of my way to listen to again, and I don't see it smashing the charts any time soon. There's a sense of almost seventies disco to “Your beautiful heart”, which does take the tempo down slightly, but it's kicked right back up again with more squealing synths with “Live and learn”, with a definite feel of OMD, Flock of Seagulls and many other eighties new wave/synthpop bands.

Finally things slow down and there's an almost blues ballad in “Close to the sun”, though it's still synths that rule here, with some nice echoey handclap-style drums and a fifties-style melody, quite simple and pure. “Love's epiphany”, however, fires everything back up to ten again before the title track sort of straddles the divide and provides a decent closer to an album which, while it's not exactly going to start a revolution or shift many of the older albums, may make one or two people look a little more closely into the music of this interesting synthpop band.

Personally, it's not my kind of music and I feel this will be the only time I'll listen to the album. I liked “The safety dance”, but then, didn't everyone? Getting those who are not already fans to listen to this album may prove difficult in today's musical environment, but for those who take the plunge and like this sort of music, they're likely to be pleasantly surprised. Personally, I think I'll keep my hat on thanks.

TRACKLISTING

1. Devil come round
2. Head above water
3. Everybody knows
4. The girl with the silicon eyes
5. This war (intro)
6. This war
7. Your beautiful heart
8. Live and learn
9. Close to the sun
10. Love's epiphany
11. Love in the age of war

Well-written reviews on forums stand out like water coolers on Mars and I noticed yours when I first signed here. Here are some observations, for what they are worth, after reading the first six pages or so. If you want a moderator to wipe these, I won't be offended.

1. Night Owl - Anyone who takes the time to review a Gerry Rafferty album, especially the follow-up to City to City instead of the famous record itself, must be worth their salt.
2. Shadow Gallery - A strong alternative to Dream Theater (or should I say stronger when considering Vanden Plas?).
3. A-ha - Another interesting choice. In the mid to late eighties, they were the band that young girls were obsessing over. I heard members of XTC enthusing about the band, when they were reviewing the Living Daylights single, on a radio show, and I nver saw A-ha in the same way again. I bought a secondhand version of the Stay On These Roads album, produced by Alan Tarney, and loved Out of Blue Comes Green. I think Shapes That Go Together (1994) is a great single too.
4. Gary Hughes - I first heard Hughes and Ten on the title track from Spellbound, which included on a free compilation CD attached to a magazine. I would never have heard them otherwise, but was immediately impressed even if they sounded a bit like 1987-era Coverdale.
5. Rainbow Rising. Great album - enough said.
6. Oceanic - I bought this secondhand recently. Used CDs can represent good buys, as this one probably hadn't been played. I'll have to give it another listen.
7. Savatage - I saw them on the Raw Power/ Noisy Mothers TV show in the early nineties and was impressed. I obtained their most highly rated album, Streets - A Rock Opera (1991), but was underwhelmed. Somewhere, I am going wrong with this band.
8. Fish - I can recommend the Internal Exile album, for Credo.
9. The Penny's beginning to drop: shops in Dublin, The Adventures, Divine Comedy and Thin Lizzy. You're Irish aren't you? You can't keep it from me. I always thought Broken Land was a great record. Hoslips, who are from the republic, are one of my favourite groups and among the first I saw live.
10. Fugazi - The analysis of the album cover art is a GREAT idea. I hope you don't mind me copying that idea at some future stage. Re Billboard magazine, Fish was a rock music fan and admitted to recording Alan Freeman's Saturday Rock Show on BBC Radio One (which is why he did not object to Marillion boots). There may be no more to this than he read Billboard magazine as a fan.
11. The early frustration at your lack of comments I can empathise with, but a lot of people read without contributing. I know a person that reliably claims never to comment on reviews, although they read them all the time.
12. Interesting that you analysed the lyrics to Fact and Fiction, when I did not try for the record club post. Maybe familiarity brings knowledge of lyrics.

Hi there BE and welcome to my journal! Thanks so much for posting: it really means a lot. Here are my, er, comments on your comments, as it were... don't know why you thought I might want them wiped, nothing wrong with a single one, and all very well thought out.

I've always been a big Gerry fan, though I'd be lying if I said my interest predated "Baker Street". I heard that and just had to have more. Think I got "Night owl" second hand, but I love that album. It's not perfect, but for a Gerry record it comes pretty damn close. Another great one from him is "North and south", and although I don't totally rate it, "Sleepwalking" has some decent tracks on it, especially the opener and closer. You'll find a review of "Snakes and ladders" a LONG way into my journal, if you get that far, and a tribute to him, too, on the anniversary of his death. What a sad loss to music.
The first time I heard SG I was just completely wiped off the face of the Earth. It was "Room V" and I loved it. Got all their albums and, aside from their somewhat shaky debut, love them all. One of my favourite bands in that subgenre, along with Threshold.
I used to take great pleasure laughing at my sister's infatuation with Morton Harkett, till I started REALLY listening to their albums. I think I got "Scoundrel days" second hand and cheap and was just amazed by how brilliant it was. I got their next one, "Stay on these roads", but didn't think it was as good. I more or less stopped then, but had a recent resurgence in interest in a-ha and got all their albums. They're not all perfect, but many of them are so much better than generally people give them credit for. I do an in-depth profile on them later in the journal too.
(Have to say, I've never heard of that single: it's not from an album, is it? I don't recognise the title..)
Like many of the bands I got into, Ten came about from a recommendation from a then-grey-area-illegal album download website who would provide "if you liked that you may also be interested in these" service, and Ten's album "Far beyond this world" was there. I downloaded, listened, loved it and Ten became another of my favourite bands that, sadly, few people even know of. I wasn't that impressed with their latest though, as you'll see later on...
As for Gary, I loved "Once and future king" (as you surely read) but other albums of his have been VERY hit-and-miss. I wouldn't mind hearing some new material though. The guy can certainly write one hell of a ballad.
Indeed. Total classic.
You definitely should listen to this; it's perfect to relax to.
Yeah, the jury's kind of still out on them. Other than the one reviewed I haven't heard much else by them, though I'm impressed by TSO, who have a new album due out soon.
This is one I'm not familiar with. I thought I had all Fish's stuff?
Yes, I am indeed Irish. Born in, and lived in Dublin all my life.
Sure. We'll work out some sort of partnership deal... ;)
This I came to understand. It was annoying at first, thinking I'm doing all this work but is anyone reading? Comment, damn you all! Then one day I happened to glance at the "views" count and saw that people obviously WERE reading, just not commenting. Now I don't worry; I know people read what I write. If I get comments that's a bonus now, but I at least know I'm not wasting my time. Plus my journal has been praised in other sections of the forum, so I'm definitely not preaching to an empty church! :)
Yeah I often do that. I like to know what a song means, the ideas behind it, and especially if it's a prog rock one. They're the most interesting of all. I started a section called "More than words" which looks at the meanings of certain songs, and another favourite of mine, Tom Waits, has his own section of something similar, called "The Word according to Waits."

Again, thanks for taking the time to comment, and it's great to see your own journal doing so well. It'll certainly be mentioned in this week's update thread!

TH

No sleep till Hammersmith --- Motorhead --- 1981 (Bronze)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ammersmith.jpg

Ah, Motorhead! The darlings of the club circuit, the people in whose company to be seen, the ones you want to be seen on the golf course with... er, yeah. Motorhead have always had a certain endearing charm, but they do polarise opinion. To those who don't know their music, they're simply loud and nasty, uncouth and rough. To those who have experienced their output though, they're loud and nasty, uncouth and ... um.

Look, Motorhead are never ever going to be fashionable, nor would they want to be. In many ways, they're the epitome of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, even though they precede it by a few years. They also have pedigree, and impressive pedigree at that. Lemmy was previously with space rockers Hawkwind, and, er, that's it. Well, okay, so they don't have that much pedigree. Still, nobody cares. They do what they do and eff any who tries to stop them, or put them down. I recall a cartoon years and years ago in Kerrang! when Brian Robertson joined them, briefly replacing “Fast” Eddie Clarke. It showed Brian reeling off a tuneful solo (depicted by a flow of notes from his guitar) with Taylor remarking with a disdainful grin to Lemmy, “'ere, 'e a bit melodic, inn'e?” Sort of sums up Motorhead really.

No-one would ever use the words restrained, gentle, ballad or my favourite, introspective, in hearing distance of these guys. They play loud and they play fast. When they're not playing loud and fast, they play loud and fast. But to be fair, occasionally they will play loud and fast. They make most metal bands seem tame by comparison. Now I'm no huge fan of them --- I like, as I've mentioned in the episodes of “The Meat Grinder” (TM) that I've run so far, to be able to make out what's being sung and played. In Taylor's words, someone who's a bit melodic --- but I do think they're enormous fun and a real British, and indeed Heavy Metal, institution. And there's no grey areas with them. Let's face it: no-one's going to pretend they're a blues band, or a heavy rock band. Metal is in their blood, and they embrace it, always.

Most people like me, who have heard only the odd Motorhead album, would naturally gravitate towards reviewing their most famous, which yielded the only hit they ever had commercially and which is the only song anyone not familiar with them, or even metal, will know or will at least have heard of. But I personally found “Ace of spades” uninspiring. I didn't really know why until this one came along, and then it clicked: for me, and possibly for a lot of people, Motorhead are not a studio band. Somewhat like someone mentioned about Kiss, you pay to hear them live. It's on stage that they deliver, and listening to their studio albums generally tends to leave me cold.

But out there when Lemmy's treadin' the boards and the Bomber is droning overhead, tens of thousands of metalheads screaming and punching the air and headbanging: that's when Motorhead are a force to be reckoned with, and in many ways they're almost unapproachable when they turn it on. Almost literally. I recall when Ireland has its one and only metal festival, back in the mid-eighties, and Motorhead were on the bill. I had to move away from the stage, up a hill to where the band could barely be seen, and my ears were still bleeding! Not only that, I still couldn't discern anything but noise. But that didn't matter. It was loud, it was dirty and it was fun.

Which is, I think, why their first live album shot to number one when released, and why it's still held in such high regard. Yes, the popularity of “Ace of spades” and the burgeoning NWOBHM helped, but at its heart, this is an album that shows a band who go on stage and give it their all, and to hell with anyone who has a problem with it. You don't so much listen to Motorhead as experience them, and this is one hell of an experience.

It starts, rather predictably, with the big hit, the one everyone knows, and to be fair “Ace of spades” sounds great live, thrashing along as you would expect, Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor bashing away at the drumkit like his muppet alter-ego on speed, Lemmy's voice loud and proud over the crowd (how's that for a triple rhyme?), while Eddie Clarke shows us in no uncertain terms why he appends “Fast” to his name. Next up is “Stay clean”, which has a lot of Steppenwolf's “Born to be wild” about it, with a fine solo from Mister Clarke. It is in fact just a smidge slower than “Ace of spades”, though not too much: Motorhead have never really done slow. It's also short; Motorhead don't do long either. No epics for them!

“Metropolis” has an almost (almost!) progressive guitar intro, then pounds away into another, again somewhat slower cruncher, Motorhead's view of the future facing us and Eddie making that guitar do things it was surely never intended to do! Lemmy announces that “The Hammer” is dedicated to “little Philbert” (!) and we're back rocking at full speed. Lemmy has always managed to straddle that fine line between a gravelly but distinct voice, and death growls, but of what I've heard from him, I've always been able to understand (mostly) what he sings, and would put him in a separate class of his own really. There's menace and yet humour in his voice, almost as if he's just up there to have a ****ing good time, and if youze guys want to come along for the ride that's fine, if not then **** off!

“Iron horse/Born to lose” is then dedicated to “all the angels in here”, presumably the bikers, and is of course a heavy, powerful ode to those who stride the steel stallion, as the boys show the other metal bands how it's done. A bluesy little solo from Clarke just adds the final touch, even if it does get a tiny bit confused and wanders off near the end! A real blues boogie then for “No class” then Phil takes centre stage for the breakneck (snapneck?) “Overkill”, which I've always thought has an awful lot of “Ace of spades” in it, very similar in melody. Yeah, I said melody: what of it? As Lemmy says in the lyric here: shut up! It's pretty long: in fact, it's only one single second short of being the longest track, with a great jam in the middle that takes up pretty much the last minute and a half of the song, and showcases Motorhead at their best.

I'm not sure, but Motorhead may be the only band ever to acknowledge their roadies in song --- I am wrong, of course: didn't Jackson Browne do that in “The load out”? --- and here their tribute to their hardworking grunts who set them up and make sure everything's working, and then break it all down after the show for it to be moved to the next gig roars out like a prayer and a battlecry: “(We are) The Road Crew” has since become a staple of their show and a favourite with fans the world over. Opening with a Led Zep style riff it quickly takes off on Clarke's frenzied guitar and Taylor's pounding drumming with Lemmy bellowing his throat out.

Let's be perfectly honest here: reviewing the individual songs on “No sleep till Hammersmith” doesn't really work, because Motorhead are not really about diversity or originality, which is not to say their music is poor, but it does suffer from something of a sameness, at least for someone who isn't familiar with much of their recorded output. But that's not really important, as tracks like “Capricorn” --- which Lemmy inexplicably introduces as “a slow one”, when it's nothing of the sort! --- and the crowd-pleaser “Bomber” fly by in a blur of riffs, thuds and feedback accompanied by a gruff growl and roar of approval from the audience. The important thing is the atmosphere created by the band and the fans together, so that a big arena (it's Newcastle, not Hammersmith, despite the title) seems almost like someone's front room, or at least a big back garden, and an unaccountable sense of intimacy pervades the concert.

Although my own only live experience with Motorhead was, as already mentioned, something of an endurance test, I think that can probably be put down mostly to crappy sound equipment onstage, as most of the other bands sounded pretty poor too. From the sounds of what's going on here though, I would have loved to have seen them perform live in a proper venue, because at its heart it sounds fun. The songs are all eaten up by the audience, many of whom probably only knew “Ace of spades”, but again it didn't matter. Everyone was there to have a good time, and by the sounds of it a good time was had by all, band included.

The album closes on Motorhead's title song, and everyone surely goes home happy. There are no pretensions on this album, and none in the band. They know they're loud, dirty, uncouth and completely unfashionable, and hell but they like it that way. Unapologetically heavy metal, unreservedly louder than most wars, and rockers to the core, you'd go a long way to find a band who are more fun live than Motorhead. You should have this album in your collection: it's even listed in the book “1001 albums you must hear before you die.” Now that's a recommendation!

TRACKLISTING

1. Ace of spades
2. Stay clean
3. Metropolis
4. The Hammer
5. Iron horse/Born to lose
6. No class
7. Overkill
8. (We are) The Road Crew
9. Capricorn
10. Bomber
11. Motorhead

More ramblings after reading up to page 12 or so:

13. Alan Parsons - I wasn't aware of Alan Parsons' work without the Project, although I know Eric Woolfson made his own albums. You are right to focus on Ian Bairnson, who, like Nicky Hopkins, is a musician who does not always get the credit he deserves. On the subject of friendly fire, I know a person who was a soldier in the middle-east and he said they feared FF more than the Taliban!
14. Fleetwood Mac - I liked Fleetwood Mac with Rick Vito and Billy Burnette. They were very good live and included well-known Peter Green material in their set. They are nothing if not adaptable, because even the album without Christine Perfect is pretty good, although Stevie Nicks said she would not make another Fleetwood Mac album without her. Christine Perfect's work with Chicken Shack is worth a listen (a good example is I'd Rather Go Blind).
15. Mostly Autumn - I played Passengers a lot when it was released. Again, I got a free copy with a magazine. I almost suggested the new album for the record club.
16. Pink Floyd - I am a Pink Floyd fan and a fan of the band without Roger Waters. There are those of us who do not think they missed him at all. On the other hand, Rick Wright was essential to the sound of Pink Floyd and probaby Dave Gilmour's solo work. I love The Division Bell and if you do too, listen to Gimour's Live in Gdansk with Rick Wright. Rick's Wet Dream album is surprisingly good, even though it hit the bargain bins almost immediately after release. I'll stop now, because I could go on and on about Rick's treatment at the hands of Roger Waters.
17. Billy Joel - Agree that the Stranger is him at his best.
18. ELO - Journalists claimed that Discovery was disco-very or very disco, but it's not as bad as they implied. I have got Out of the Blue, but I am a really a fan of the late Move and early ELO. California Man and 10538 Overture were among my first ever records.
19. Boston - Third Stage was the last proper Boston album. Their first was close to perfect, so it was difficult to follow, but Don't Look Back rewards persistence. Brad Delp has a glorious voice and, in my opinion, is the best American rock singer.
20. Trollheart's Handy Guide to Twentieth Century Music Technology - Another great idea and epic in its ambition!
21. Judy Tzuke - I like the Secret Agent album (1998), which contains Bully, but I have not been able to track it down.
22. Molly Hatchet - Great album. The current version of the band is disappointing.
23. Fairyland - The name reminds me of Pink Fairies and Pretty Maids. They were good too.
24. Phil Lynott - His last band, Grand Slam, were underrated for some reason. There were no limits to what he could have acheived had he lived.
25. Y&T - The Black Tiger title-track has one of the all time great intros.
26. Millenium - You said you were a spelling Nazi. Me too, unless I'm making the error of course - and then it's down to mis-typing!

Previously, I got muddled with the track Credo from the album Internal Exile. Shapes That Go Together by A-ha was not on an album, but appeared on a couple of later compilations. It was released around the same time as Pink Floyd's Keep Talking from The Division Bell.

I can't get over your tribute section to Gary Moore.........it's unbelievable! It goes on for pages. So after being exhausted trolling through it (excuse the pun) I should be recommencing your journal again around page 100 where the tribute has ended.

Thanks man, these are the sort of comments I love to hear! Even if they're neagative, they give me an idea whether I'm doing something right or wrong. Okay, these sections are a year old, but it's still great to hear them, and if you continue as US began doing this too, then I should have a pretty decent view of how my journal is seen by two eminently respected posters. It's appreciated, and I think it's only fair I comment, again, on your comments below.

Alan Parsons' first two solo albums are legendary: "Try anything once" is just amazing and I think you're looking at the review for "On air" there, so you'll see I love that too. Unfortunately, I found "The time machine" to be a big disappointment, with the exception of one track maybe, and his new one, "A valid path", I have not yet listened to although I have it. The APP album released by Woolfson under the title "The Alan Parsons Project that never was", containing unreleased and rejected material, is, to use an Americanism I hate, awesome. I miss that guy. :( He was as instrumental to the success and quality of the APP as was Alan himself.
Yes! Finally, someone who doesn't lambast Mac without Buckingham. I thought "Behind the mask" was a solid album, but everyone else I've spoken to seems to hate it, for some reason. I also have heard the Legendary Christine Perfect album (had it on vinyl at one stage, may still do: must look) and I've heard her version of "I'd rather go blind". It is great.
Maybe for the next one around. I love MA, have all their stuff and just couldn't get enough of them once I discovered their music. In fact, for about six months, maybe longer, they were ALL I listened to. At all. I had to literally force myself to stop listening to their music exclusively. I have the new one but have not yet listened to it. Come to think of it, I have yet to give "Go well diamond heart" a spin. Check list. Move up list. Done.
I never get that. Why do people divide themselves into camps of "before and after so-and-so left"? It's the same thing with Marillion. I was no fan of Floyd with Syd, but I loved everything from about "Animals" on, and when Roger left, not only did I continue to listen to Floyd, I bought his solo CDs, which were all great --- except "Ca ira". That blows. Talk about self-indulgent tripe.
My favourite of his albums by a long way.
I think it was Richard Tandy who actually said that, and when you listen to it in that context, yeah it is quite disco. But I still love it. One of my first ever albums. I also love the older stuff, back to about "On the third day", though if I had to pick a favourite it would probably be "El Dorado" or "Out of the blue", hard to choose between those two.
Boston would never, and will never, equal the debut, but "Third stage" was certainly better than "Don't look back". I wasn't too impressed with their albums after that though: there's a mini-review of "Corporate America" in my "Bitesize" journal, if you're interested. Oh, and sadly that should of course be Brad Delp WAS the best American rock singer, which I would certainly agree with.
Ha ha! Thanks! Just thought, I'm nearing 50 and some of this tech I talk about in my journal might be confusing the younger readers --- a tape? What's a tape? So I thought why not?
I'm PM it to ya! Glad to meet another Judie fan!
This is kind of the only MH album I know, so can't comment there. Love that southern rock though!
Yeah, can you believe a metal band took that name? ;)
Sadly missed, both with Lizzy and solo.
I prefer "Forever", of course, but then that title track opener you're referring to is "From the moon", isn't it? Which is basically the intro to "Forever". So we're all happy! :)
I try not to misspell, even looking up words if I'm unsure. But I certainly would not use a spell checker! ;)
Ah, "Internal exile"! Excellent album, I of course have it. Must be nearly time for a new one, no?

Again, thanks for the comments. Keep reading, and keep em coming. It's great to hear your views.
TH
:thumb:

Hey thanks! It's so good to get some recognition for that. It took ages, really wore me out, but I wanted to make sure I did a proper tribute. The guy was just legendary, and I felt he deserved all the blood sweat and tears I could muster to make sure I created the very best and most detailed tribute to him that I possibly could.

I made sure to even go back into his past bands, other associations, everything I could think of that was in any way connected with him. One thing's for sure: I've covered everything now, so I don't think I'll be doing one for next year! :D

Glad to have you back! :bowdown:

Mac without Buckingham just isn't Mac.

I'm a fan of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac as much as the Buckingham-Nicks Fleetwood Mac; Black Magic Woman, Man of the World, Oh Well and Green Manalishi are fantastic.

Interloper --- Carbon Based Lifeforms --- 2010 (Ultimae)
http://megaboon.com/images/release/4...90748542280059

In the wake of my review of Jean-Michel Jarre's “Magnetic fields” a few weeks ago, I developed a fresh interest in electonic “ambient” music, and went looking for something similar. The first real example I came across was thanks to Freebase Dali, who suggested --- not to me, but I took up the suggestion anyway --- these guys, and once I heard this track I thought, yeah, this is what I'm looking for. Carbon Based Lifeforms is a duo based in Sweden, who have released five albums up to now, all instrumental and all ambient, so far as I can see. The interesting thing about them is that their recordings all seem to flow together as one piece of music, so that although certain tracks are named as such, it's often quite difficult to determine where one ends and the other begins, and you really have to listen to the albums as a total experience: cutting bits out of them doesn't really do them justice.

And so we end up with over an hour of pure electronic ambient music, which is in the main very relaxing and I guess what the kids today call “chillout” music; certainly chilled me out when I listened to it, anyway. But because of the continuous nature of the music, it is a little more difficult to review the album even as a whole, since you can't just say “nice keyboard and synth work throughout” --- some overview of an album that would give! This leaves me to try to describe each track as it flows from one to the next, and keep up a sort of musical narrative as the album progresses. Tall order perhaps, but I'd like to be able to convey the overall feel I get from this music, so I'll give it a try.

And the album opens on the title track, which runs for six minutes. It opens with busy keyboard with spacey atmospheric synth backing, then a basic melody coming through on foot of some deep basswork, pulling in the percussion (drum machine, I assume) as the tune begins to take on some more cohesive shape. This appears to be the third in a trilogy of albums, with “Hydroponic garden” from 2003 starting the trio off, then continuing in 2006 with “World of sleepers”, each of these albums picking up from the last in terms of track numbers. For instance, “Hydroponic garden” starts at track 1 and runs to track 12, with the next album starting at track 13 and on to 22, while this one starts at .... track 24? What happened to 23? I don't know, but this seems to be the way Carbon Based Lifeforms work.

The same basic melody runs through the six minutes of “Interloper”, then it drops away to a single synth before coming up with some spacey runs and a sort of more bouncier keyboard, much more uptempo drumming and a vocoder getting in on the act as “Right where it ends”, er, begins. Much more dancy, more upbeat with some half-whispered vocals coming in, the rhythm almost a boogie blues one now, thumping along nicely as some pretty happy synthwork fills out the melody. Some breathy synth then comes in to add to the mix, a deep pulsing bassline accompanying the vocal which, though not really that discernible, is not necessary to be, as it's almost like just another instrument in the music. It all fades down then to whooshing synth and a fast keyboard run takes us into “Central plain”.

For almost a minute there's nothing else than that fast-fingered synth then it's joined by another, a bassy one but as yet no percussion. The music grows louder and more insistent, with little marimba touches poking their heads up every now and then, making a sound almost like rain falling, then the drums cut in and the heavier keys take over, with what could be a guitar sliding in too. It sets up something of a wail as the synths continue, getting faster and then it falls back to allow the banks of synthesisers centre stage, as more almost-unheard vocals slip by. There's a definite sense of Vangelis about this track, particularly reminds me of some of the music on “The city”.

Moving then into “Supersede” with a thick organ sound and some whistling synth, wind noises and tinking bells, everything slowing down to a much more stately pace, the sound of the wind like the inhalation and exhalation of breath. Other sounds like bird cries or whale song come in, with trilling sprinkles of ribbony keyboards, then the heavy percussion thumps in and the tempo goes up a little, handclap-style beats joining the rhythm, quite echoey. Warbly keyboard and a heavy bass accompany this piece to its conclusion, then “Init” opens with sound effects and a female spoken vocal, possibly a poem being quoted as church-style organ and digital piano take the melody in a return to the slower pace of the previous track, but even more so, very laidback and chillout.

As percussion hits in, the tempo rises but only very subtly, and bright keyboard is overlaid on the piano lines, a sort of brassy keys sound fading in and out too. A long atmospheric synth sound takes over, as everything else bar the bass fades away, then the drums slip back in and the lighter keys return also, and we're now almost halfway through this interesting album, or piece of continuous music, if you prefer. “Euphotic” keeps the tempo slow, with chiming synth and bells, no percussion at first, swirly eerie synth and a slow and simple bassline, and in fact the whole track continues that way, almost fading away until percussion hits in sharply near the end and the tempo slips up very slightly, but the melody remains intrinsically the same.

On a rippling keys movement which seems to evoke the sound of a brook or stream, “Frog” introduces some solo guitar and piano, in quite a siimple, almost pastoral piece, then the shortest track on the album, and certainly the shortest title comes in on low, drony synth with a higher-register synth riding above it like a monorail, and sharp stabs of percussion fire off like fireworks through the music before a pan-pipes-like fluty keyboard sets up an eerie melody through the piece, and “M” concludes with some strident, insistent synth and a final flurry of drums and keys with some deeply-buried vocals as it heads into “20 minutes”, on the back of some slow ambient synth and celestial keys.

Some nice guitar and basswork, as the synth swirls and eddies, very slow and calm and laidback, as with a few last piano notes we move into the final track, the oddly-titled “Polyrytmi” with some echoey solo keyboard, very sparse, slowly joined by some pizzicato strings keys then some more robust synth, a walking rhythm beginning to assert itself on the developing melody, reminding me a little of Vangelis's “Alpha”; sort of like a ticking clock in ways. Some low bass joins in now, but still no percussion of any sort, then most everything drops away to leave just the “ticking” synth and the higher register key one going, the ticking eventually fading away in the distance, leaving for a moment only the single synth before suddenly the ticking one returns on the back of some more bass and finally some solid percussion, the rhythm picking up a little, until with a final blast of percussion and the rest of the synths coming back in everything once again stops and the ticking synth is left to finish proceedings.

TRACKLISTING

1. Interloper
2. Right where it ends
3. Central plain
4. Supersede
5. Init
6. Euphotic
7. Frog
8. M
9. 20 minutes
10. Polyrytmi

This isn't really an album that lends itself well to review: it is, as I already mentioned, essentially one big track that, though it changes subtly throughout the course of the over an hour the album runs for, stays basically the same. I've done my best to give you a flavour of it here, but to really appreciate this album I think you have to just immerse yourself in it, let it run through you and wash over you. It's an album to chill out to, to relax to, perhaps even to fall asleep to. Want something to dance to? This ain't it. But if you want something that will take you away for an hour and a change from the worries of the day-to-day world, this could very well be it.

This sort of music I've been finding hard to track down, mostly because when you mention "ambient" it's often faster, more dancy stuff that comes up --- your trance, your electronica and so on --- which is something that generally I don't have any interest in. This sort of music suits me exactly, so much so that I made sure to download all Carbon Based Lifeforms' albums, and will in all likelihood end up reviewing another one at some point.

Again, my thanks to Freebase for pointing me, if indirectly, in this direction, and if anyone knows of music similar to CBL do please post here, PM, email or throw down a suggestion in the "electronic music recommendation" thread.

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Let's take a look at the more, ah, sensitive side of metal again, shall we? Here are some songs you might not expect from these bands...

Kicking us off this time round is a great little acoustic number from White Lion, this is called “When the children cry”.
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Sounding more than a little like Whitesnake if I'm honest, this is Quiet Riot, from their album entitled either “QR” or “Quiet Riot IV”, depending on how you look at things. This is called “Don't wanna be your fool”.
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One of the many power metal bands coming out of Sweden, this is Nostradameus, from their debut album, “Words of Nostradameus”, and “Without your love”.
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A ballad from Sabbath is as rare as it is important, and this is from the album “Headless cross”. I could have sworn it was Dio on vocals, but of course it's not, it's Tony Martin. This is “Nightwing”.
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And just to round things off with another classic iconic band, here's Maiden from their debut, with a great ballad called “Strange world”.
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This is amazing! Nice work, brother.

Thanks man: always happy to welcome another commenter (is that a word? It is now!) to my journals. Hope you're enjoying what we're putting out; let us know if there's anything you'd like to see. :thumb:

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The often demented ramblings and musings of a music journal author
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Look to the mote in your own eye, and keep your hands off my heartstrings!

Oh no, not here you don't! I've been watching the news for the last, I don't know how long, months certainly if not longer, waiting for some news of intervention or proper action on Syria, and what have I seen? Completely ineffective attempts at “peace plans” that are basically laughed at, but which their architects refuse to accept or admit are nothing more than a poorly-disguised PR exercise, a desperate attempt to “be seen to be doing something”, when we all know nothing is being done. Delegate after delegate sit across from that smiling bastard murderer as he goes on slaughtering his own people. “Unverified footage” of civilians being massacred; meanwhile ineffectual United Nations representatives meet and shout and squabble like children while thousands of miles away real, actual children, and their parents, are lying dead or dying in the rubble of a crumbling dictatorship which has to fall one day soon.

But when? The UN allow big countries like China and Russia to hold them to ransom, instead of showing them up, shaming them for being either the obstacles they are or the active participants in and facilitators of the genocide going on in Damascus, Aleppo and other cities. When arms were supposedly intercepted recently which had been allegedly supplied to the Syrian government forces by Putin's regime, why were these not displayed publicly, on television, so that all could see, across the world, what hypocrites and accessories to mass murder the Russians are?

But the final straw was last night, when the news advised us we would see “one of two special reports on Syrian refugees”. Oh no: don't you even dare go there, world or national media! I have the utmost sympathy for these people, who are fleeing a war they did not start nor participate in, who have left their homes --- often destroyed --- behind them and fled to the borders of their war-torn country in hopes of escape and survival, for them and their children. But don't you dare try to make me feel that “there's something I could do” about this. You've done ****-all, and now you have the unmitigated audacity to try to make ME feel bad about this? What could I have done, and how DARE you presume to try to play on my sympathies, my basic human compassion, try to tug on my heartstrings by pointing out the plight of these people? In TWO reports? Let's not lose sight of the fact that YOU, as a body, may as well have put them there. What has the media, the international community (should probably be renamed to the international cowards) done to step in, to alleviate the human suffering, to try to negotiate and end this war, topple this despot from power?

Yeah, I'm no politican, and I know, as does everyone, that Assad's days are numbered. But while those days count down they take another few hundred people to their deaths, and the toll mounts up till we have to wonder, when he finally does go, how many people will be left alive in Syria? But I didn't create this situation. I wasn't and am not in any sort of a position to fix it. YOU all are: the media, the UN, NATO, politicians on every side. I don't care if it seems simplistic: as Bob Geldof once said to Margaret Thatcher, when pleading for assistance for the famine-struck African nations, and she saying “It's not that simple”, no, nothing is as simple as people dying.

So get the hell off your fat arses and sort it out. Stop playing politics. Make the big decisions. People are dying over there, and you can stop it if you work together and use the vaunted might of the UN to bring pressure to bear upon those who decide, for whatever reason, not to support initiatives that can bring about peace. In the words of Star Trek's Captain Jellico, Get It Done.

But until you do, until you start taking some responsibility and standing up for the ordinary people of Syria, until you stop wringing your hands and shaking your heads about what can't be done, keep your ****ing “special reports” on refugees off my screen! You can't make me feel any worse than I do anyway, and if it's meant to somehow assuage your guilt, then shame on you. Don't blame me by proxy for your shortcomings and failings: DO something about it.

And another thing...

Six dead in road crashes in 24-hour period - RT News
What the hell is it with everyone these days that they have to get everywhere so quickly? What's so important? Four major accidents on Irish roads this weekend, and we haven't even reached the bank holiday one yet! God knows how many people will die this weekend! It's all down to inexperience on the road, alcohol but mostly people driving too fast.
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The worst, and most heartbreaking story, for those of you not in Ireland and aware of it, (see link above) is of a father who took his two baby daughters for a Sunday stroll in their pram, on a well-known and used stretch of road where people walk all the time, and was hit, out of the blue, by a car, both his daughters being killed and he injured. Why? The details are not released yet, but from the state of the car in the report I'm willing to bet the driver was speeding. Possibly drunk, though that's by no means certain. But in a way, that doesn't matter, because even if you're fully sober, excessive speed can be a killer. Judge Judy often points out that a car can be a weapon, and she's right. In the wrong hands it can kill. And here it did, and two completely innocent little girls who had not even the chance of beginning their lives are now dead, another road safety statistic, their parents no doubt shells of their former selves, facing a future without their babies.

And again, I ask, why?

Because some careless bastard was in a hurry? Couldn't be bothered to keep his eyes on the road and his mind on his driving? It's nowhere near excuse enough, nor will it ever be. There's no room for this sort of selfish arrogance and carelessness in our society, though sadly it's become all too prevalent, and shows few signs of abating any time soon. People's lives are being destroyed by reckless driving, and it has to stop. It's one thing to kill yourself : you want to plough into a wall at speed, that's your decision. But don't take innocent lives with you.

SLOW THE **** DOWN!

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Okay, well in fairness I wouldn't claim this to have been one of the albums that changed my life, but it certainly changed my mind about, shall we say, independent music? Up to this, I had mostly been buying and listening to albums by either progressive rock artistes or heavy metal acts, these being the two genres I was most interested in. I would occasionally see something interesting in the world of pop, but mostly I treated the charts with contempt. If anything, that attitude has grown in later years, and I think with good reason. But up until I heard this album, I had always considered anything outside the spectrum of what I enjoyed listening to to be either inaccessible to me or just “not my thing”. Of course, with the hindsight of age and experience this attitude seems, and is, extremely naive, but then we weren't all born like Jackhammer, with an insatiable need for music, any music!

Infected --- The The --- 1986 (Epic)
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It was only after hearing the single “Heartland” that I took notice of The The. I think I can remember seeing them mentioned in passing in mags like “Sounds” and perhaps “Kerrang!”, but I never afforded them much notice. A band that couldn't even be bothered to come up with a decent name, I thought? Hardly worth taking the time to check out. Not only that, but my young (well, I say young: I would have been what, 23, at the time, but young in terms of experience let's say) mind had already drawn its own conclusions about this band, and had decided it was “weird” and “scary”, and the music was probably just noise. I know, I know!

The one thing The The album covers projected to me was anger: raw, unbridled rage, and I was probably reluctant to face that flood. Rich, I suppose, coming from a guy who at this point owned all the Iron Maiden albums, but then, Maiden had always come across as more theatrical to me: sure, they had the devil dancing on their album covers, but they never seemed like they meant it, like it was meant to be taken seriously. All part of the act. The The, on the other hand, seemed deadly serious. They weren't making jokes or comments, they weren't laughing at themselves, and laugh at them and you were more than likely going to find yourself with a bloody nose. If you were lucky!

Well, one thing was actually true. My impression of anger from the album was correct. If there's one thing that defines, delineates and informs an album by The The, it's anger. Raw, bubbling, almost psychopathic anger, just waiting to come to the surface through the medium of music. Of course, strictly speaking, this is one man's anger we're talking about. The The is not really a group. Not really. It's a loose affiliation of musicians who join Matt Johnson on his albums and help him out. More session men than band members, they often work on one album and then never again. Some have worked on two or three, but the lineup does change over each album, with of course one exception.

The The is the brainchild of Johnson. He's its voice, its heart, its dark, screaming soul. He writes the lyrics and music, sings and plays many of the instruments. It's his vision, his nightmare, his deformed and scowling little baby, and he guards it jealously. The subjects the songs follow are all close to his heart, from politics to social alienation and from love to death (the two being closely intertwined in his worldview, as seen in songs like “Kingdom of rain” and “Slow train to dawn”), with some nightmarish dreamscapes painted along the way. In many ways, I imagine listening to Johnson's music must be similar to taking a trip, though I've never taken any drugs personally.

The album opens on the title track, with a quick acapella intro which is very shortly joined by bass and electronic drum patterns, guitar sqealing its way in until Johnson's angry, contempt-ridden voice sneers its way in. This is how he sings mostly, as if he's permanently angry, or frustrated with the world around him, and the way things are; and more, that people seem to be happy to put up with it. He's like a prophet crying in the wilderness, but foretelling the coming of the devil rather than Jesus. A warning, not a joyous prophecy. His voice drops into lower registers that make you think he's gritting his teeth, which he may be, and the backing vocals only throw his style into sharper relief. Some sax in the title track doesn't somehow seem out of place, and though an angry song, like most if not all of this album, it's uptempo and upbeat in terms of music. The dangers presented by love, or by getting caught by it, are spat out by him when he snarls ”Infect me with your love/ Nurse me into sickness/ Nurse me back to health” and it's a great powerful starter for the album, with a sharp echoey guitar ending.

It's followed by a slower, laidback song which opens on lone guitar with a little sax backing, then Johnson's vocal comes in as he tells his tale of woe in “Out of the blue, into the fire”, saying “I thought if I acted like someone else/ I'd feel more comfortable in myself.” And so he enters into a one-night stand, but there's no love or romance involved: this is pure sex and when it's over he feels totally disgusted with himself, and with his paramour. He's less than gallant as he sneers ”She was lying on her back/ With her lips parted/ Squealing like a stuck pig” At this point the music gets heavier, particularly the percussion which hammers perhaps like Johnson's conscience as he realises he's made a mistake, but it's too late to turn back now. Great bit of strings at the end as the song fades out on female vocals, not sure who though.

The single is next, the one I heard that turned me on to The The's music. Sharp upbeat piano runs “Heartland” in, another deceptively upbeat song in which Johnson accuses the government of taking their orders from the USA, as he snaps ”All the bankers getting sweaty/ Beneath their white collars/ As the pound in our pockets/ Turns into a dollar/ This is the 51st state of the USA.” Great piano work on this, which really helps make the song, but it's the lyrics that paint such a stark, bleak picture of England: ”The stains on the heartland/ Will never be removed/ From this country that's sick/ Sad and confused.” There are female backing vocals again, but again I can't find out who they are. It's not too hard to see why this was a single, as it is very catchy, but I'm sure a huge percentage of the people who bought the single completely missed the political motivation behind the lyric.

Matt's accusation of the USA as the mother of all evils continues in “Angels of deception”, another dark, slower song somewhat in the vein of “Out of the blue...” where he decrys wars and conflicts and the reasons and excuses used for them. Much of this he puts down to the good ol' US of A, singing ”Come on down/ The Devil's in town/ He's brought you sticks and stones/ To crush your neighbour's bones/ He's put missiles in your garden/ And rammed his theories down your throat...” It gets heavier for the chorus, with crashing guitar and thumping drums, and Johnson exclaiming ”Jesus wept! Jesus Christ!/ I can't see for the teargas/ And the dollar signs in my eyes!/ What's a man got left to fight for/ When he's bought his freedom?” It then goes into something of an almost gospel-tinged chant, the music beginning on single guitar, which becomes a full chorus then punctuated by punching drums, the chorus getting stronger and more angry, with this time the backing vocals credited to the Croquets, a big finish to take us into another American-themed song.

Whether it's meant as such or not I'm not sure, but I find that “Infected” can be taken as a concept album, one man's desperate journey to find himself, find something worth living for, find answers, find salvation, find redemption. Matt would probably sneer at me that I'm reading too much into his words, but you can see nevertheless from the beginning that the protagonist is looking for some sort of release, first through sex, via the first two tracks, then his journey takes him through the shattered and rundown streets of Britain, as he watches society crumble before him and try to maintain the glamourous face it presents to the world, while beneath the makeup the skin is cracking and splitting, revealing a much less pleasant visage.

Then he tries to find redemption and meaning through war, with both “Angels of deception” and “Sweet bird of truth”, through to big business and cut-throat competition in “Twlight of a champion”, till he finally ends his journey facing off against the Devil, no doubt a facet of his own personality he must face before the end. The result is left open, so that we never know if he defeated his adversary or was swallowed by him. Of course, he reeks confidence bordering on arrogance as he makes his exit from the album: ”All the vultures and crows/ Are fixin' up the tombstones/ They won't be picking the meat/ Off MY bones!” and indeed ”I'm gonna have Lucifer running back to Purgatory/ With his tail between his legs/ I'm gonna teach him a lesson/ He ain't never gonna forget!” But then, there is room for doubt as he admits ”I'm stuck between the Devil/ And the deep blue sea/ And I know that water's sucked down/ Better men than me.”

Great brass accompaniment on “Sweet bird of truth”, another of the singles released, which is a bit weird as I wouldn't class it as commercial or airplayworthy really, with Matt growling in the guise of an American GI as they head to the sands of Arabia, ending up getting shot down on the way: ”This is your captain calling/ With an urgent warning/ We're above the Gulf of Arabia/ Our altitude is falling/ And I can't hold her up!” The chorus, with Johnson singing as the captain of the aircraft, is filtered through some mechanical doodad to make it sound like it's on a radio, which adds to the tension and feel of the song. Next up is the other big hit single, the one all the hipsters of the day latched onto. “Slow train to dawn” is a fast, uptempo song again concerned with love, or at least sex, on which Johnson duets again, this time with Neneh Cherry. Great guitar sound to the song, and again the brass is in full flight, giving the track a much more faux upbeat tone than it possesses, when Cherry sings ”Are you lying when you say you love me?” and Johnson responds “Lying when I say I don't...

If there's no actual concept behind the album, then the last two tracks are definitely linked. Yeah, that's right: there are a total of eight tracks on the album, but each one is gold. “Twilight of a champion” opens with dark, heavy brass and then runs into a sort of twenties bass line with tinkly piano, Johnson's vocal grating and angry, with machinegun drumming on the Linn, and some touches I recognised later on the album prior to this, The The's official debut, “Soul mining”. Guitars moan like wounded beasts or loom like guardians or sentinels, trying to block the path as Johnson makes his way down to his confrontation with the Devil. It's a heavy track and the last slow-paced one on the album, as the closer takes off at some speed.

It's driven by jangly guitar and peppy horns that really should work against the lyrical content, but somehow fit right in. Certainly, the uptempo rhythm of the song fits into the frustration and desperation in the music as the protagonist decides to finally face his fears head-on, win or lose. Johnson anthropomorphises this as a meeting with the Devil, a facedown, a final battle with evil. How it turns out we're not told, but it's a powerful ending and Johnson's almost calm anger and determination are evident in every line. It could of course be one last mad suicide bid, as he does mention going ”Down to the dock of the bay/ To feel the power of the waves” and that he's going to ”Wrestle with the thoughts/ Solitude always brings.” Perhaps he's just going to pick a fight; maybe he's had enough and wants rid of this life. There's a definite sense of heady euphoria though, as if this is the moment he has been born for, as if his whole life has been leading to this, and he can finally see some sense in an existence which up to now has confused, angered and bewildered him. Perhaps here, at the very end, the almost certainty of death --- his “meeting with the Devil” --- provides him a diamond-sharp clarity he has never before experienced, and he can at last see the purpose behind his life.

Or perhaps he's just insane. But it's a dramatic, energetic, adrendaline-fuelled ending. As the horns fade out in the distance, we're left with the looping sound of a slide guitar, providing perhaps a strange otherworldly effect as Johnson (possibly) dies, making his transition from life to, well, whatever lies beyond the veil.

At its heart, musically at least, “Infected” can be described as a synthpop album. The music is certainly dancebeat-oriented, and no doubt people danced to the likes of “Slow train to dawn” and “Heartland”, but the lyrics inside the music are not meant to be danced to. Almost like a wolf hiding in sheep's clothing, they lie in wait to jump out and kick the living crap out of you, slashing you with concealed knives and gutting you for not taking it seriously enough. This album can, and should, make you think, make you question, make you angry and make you afraid, things Matt Johnson has always excelled at. To dismiss this album as “just a dance or pop record” would be to do it a great disservice indeed, and to completely fail to grasp the true value and worth of “Infected”, and what it stands for.

As the man says himself in the closer, ”I never said I was the man I appeared to be/ Not the flesh wrapped around the bones of necessity...” If the “bones of necessity” can be applied to being the most surface level of the music, then it is wrapped in some very dark flesh indeed.
TRACKLISTING
1. Infected
2. Out of the blue (Into the fire)
3. Heartland
4. Angels of deception
5. Sweet bird of truth
6. Slow train to dawn
7. Twilight of a champion
8. The mercy beat

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Okay, here we are back again. Now, you don't like me, extreme metal, and I don't like you, but let's just try to get through this with as few damaged brain cells and perforated eardrums as possible, okay? Look, you don't explode my brain with airport-level loudness and I'll do my best to give you a fair and unbiased review. Is it a deal? I said, is it a deal? Hmm, right. I'll take that grunt as a yes...

Hey ho, and away we go. Again. Maybe I'll be lucky. There are thousands of metal bands in the world, and not all of them are classed as extreme. Maybe I'll come across one I know, or one I don't, that's more in my preferred “mainstream” metal line. Yeah, was that a pig I just saw coming out of the clouds there? No, no, obviously it wasn't, as my luck continues to be all of one kind: bad. Although the band that came up, though indeed black metal, we will not be sampling the delights of, as it seems they're unsigned and only have a demo tape. Oh, shame. Just for the record, they're called Lysbryter, and hide out in Norway, but as we're less than unlikely to be able to find anything from them, we'll just tip our hat and wave goodbye, and move on.

Okay then, next up is a band called CDO (don't ask me what it stands for) from lovely Bogota, in Colombia. They're a thrash metal outfit, but again are unsigned, have only an EP which I can't find and only one YouTube available. It doesn't help that CDO also seems to refer to a venue in Bogota (maybe that's where they got their name) and that any YT referencing CDO, either the band or the venue, is in, well, Spanish I guess, so it's hard to know which they're talking about. My head hurts, and I haven't listened to a note yet! Pass on this one too. Next!

MY HEAD IS EXPLODING! Holy sweet Jesus Christ on a unicycle going backwards down the Mersey Tunnel with two blown tyres and no lights! It's another unsigned band, this time from Chile, though at least they're not black metal. In fact, the very opposite: they're Christian metal. But again, they only have a demo and I can't find anything on Arje, so for the first time in this section I'm passing up a third band, and hoping it's fourth time lucky. Come onnnnn Iron Maiden!

ARRRGGGHH! No, that's not the name of the next band, though it may as well be! Another unsigned shower with a bloody demo, this time a thrash metal outfit from Hungary called Effrontery! Nothing on .. hang on. This could be something. I'm seeing a few videos... could this be enough to base a review on? They've only got the two demos, one with two tracks and one with three (if you include the one-minute inspirationally-titled “Intro”), so maybe I've enough here. What the hell, let's give it a go: I'd probably only end up with yet another unsigned, unlocatable band if I go on. Quit while ye're ahead, Troll, that's what I say!
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Must admit, this is the first band, metal or otherwise, I've encountered from this country. My musical experience is not exactly what you'd call cosmopolitan, despite my intention earlier this year to seek out music from other countries and feature it. Just haven't got around to it. Hopefully I will. Yeah, I know, so is Christmas... Wonder if these guys will slant my opinion in either direction on the value or otherwise of checking out Hungarian music. I'm assuming, in this case at least, there'll be no violins or bouzokis?

http://www.metal-archives.com/images...45740_logo.jpg
(Cool logo, if nothing else!)
Right, so it's obviously to be my eternal punishment to have to listen to death or black metal for the rest of this section, however long I decide to let it run. I guess I must have done something really horrible in a past life. What can I tell you about these guys? Well, very little unfortunately, because although they do in fact have a working MySpace page, and a profile there, it's all in Hungarian! Surprisingly, I never learned that language, and I couldn't even take a decent stab at working out what they're blathering about on the page, so all I can do is tell you that they are a four-piece who have been together since 2001, released their first demo --- insightfully titled “Demo 1” --- the following year. It has two tracks on it, while the second has three. At time of writing they're getting ready for something called “Deadshine's Halloween Hell Party”. Sounds a hoot. I shall be RSVPing my regrets.
http://www.metal-archives.com/images...5740_photo.jpg
Band name: Effrontery
Nationality: Hungarian (Budapest)
Subgenre: Death Metal (Oh GOODY!)
Born: 2001
Status: Active
Albums: None
Live albums: None
Collections/Anthologies/Boxsets: Er, none.
Lineup: Zsolt Ledeczi (Vocals)
Peter Lipak (Guitar, Vocals)
Gabor Czene (Guitar)
Zsolt Filak (Drums)

As I say, there's no album to talk of, nothing really to choose from and ordinarily that would be reason enough to move on and look for a band that has more musical (possibly using the word advisedly) output, but I could be here all night if I do that, so this is, essentially, the best of a bad bunch and my closest shot at actually writing about a band here, rather than just endless rejections and retries.

So it will more than likely be short, possibly not very informative (probably not entirely complimentary, either: we are talking about Death Metal here, after all), but hey, that's the Meat Grinder for you! We do our best with what we have, and so it's damn the torpedoes and full ahead! Or something.

Demo 1 --- Effrontery --- 2002 (Self-released)
(No picture available)

Okay, so it kicks off with “Evil's curse”, which I've been able to track down (and wish I hadn't). Hands up all those of you who thought the vocalist would be a “death growler”? Well hah! Shows how much YOU know, cos he ... is. Yep, another one whose vocals --- should they be in English, which I'm not at all sure they are, though the title is, so maybe --- can't be made out because he just hawks and scrapes all over the mike, resulting in an unintelligible noisy babble that Excuse me Sir, but as your legal representatives we feel it is incumbent upon us to submit this disclaimer on your behalf:

Trollheart (herein after referred to as “Trollheart”) is aware that many people enjoy “death vocals” (for some reason) and would like to make it clear that his disdain for them --- the vocals, not the people --- transmitted through the medium of this electronic weblog, is predicated purely upon his own intrinsic dislike for this type of, quote, singing, unquote. The vocalist here, and others similarly lambasted by him on other editions of “The Meat Grinder” (TM), may indeed be considered fine singers within the genre, but within the admittedly limited and strictly defined parameters of what he considers singing, this is, and shall remain, his view.

We would like to point out, again on his behalf, that the opinions expressed within the confines of “The Meat Grinder” (TM) are those of Trollheart and his subsidiaries and holding companies alone, and are protected under national and international copyright law, in perpetuity, in all territories and on all future planets yet to be discovered, explored, colonised, settled, strip-mined and abandoned by humanity. None of the above contradict or affect in any way the statutory rights of the reader. Terms and conditions apply, please see website for full text of same. That is the end of the disclaimer. Thank you.

Reproduction of this disclaimer, or any part of it, is expressly forbidden without full written permission and any infringements of same will incur the full force of local, international, planetary and/or galactic law, whichever applies at the given time or times.

Damn lawyers! Just let me write, will you? Pencil-pushing, bean-counting .... WHAT? YOU'RE sueing ME for defamation? Well, we'll just see about that, won't we? Just wait till I get my lawyers... ah. Yes. Good point. Settle out of court, you say? I'll set up a meeting. I SAID, I'll get your people to talk to my peop --- oh. Yeah. Right then, bank account and password okay? No, it's not an Irish bank! How stupid do you think I am? Oh you do, do you? Well, here's a word for you: counterclaim! Yeah, you'd better run...

Sorry about that. Where was I? Oh yeah. Well, to be honest, there's not a lot to tell really. The video for “Evil's curse” ran for just over one minute, I heard some screaming, twiddly guitar, it was live and so the sound quality was, ah, questionable, and I couldn't tell you anything about the song, such as it was. All I know is it was loud and dirty. The other track on the demo is called “Nothing”, and about it I know, well, nothing. I also have nothing on it, and to be honest there's not even a running time or any lyrics on it, so it could very well not even exist, be literally nothing. But we'll never know, so we're going to have to move on to the second demo, and see if that's any better.

Flaming mud --- Effrontery --- 2005
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/1/0/0/7/100724.jpg
Well, so far the most interesting thing about this band is their logo, but perhaps it gets better with a few years under the belt. This is three years later, and even at that, to date, their last recording, so you have to wonder what the boys from Budapest have been doing with themselves for seven years? Anyway, it kicks off with “Intro”, as I may have mentioned, another short little one-minuter, and again I haven't been able to find it online, but I think I can probably take a decent guess that it's not got banks of keyboards and cellos, nor a nice little acoustic guitar. You know, maybe it does, but with such a dearth of material from these guys, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's probably a hard-riffin', headbangin' guitar solo. At any rate, the second track is called “Stormcloud chant”. It's five minutes long, so would be the longest Effrontery song we have heard up to now. I say would be, because again their music is harder to find than a size zero model at a Weightwatchers meeting. Maybe it's for the best; I'm not sure I could take three hundred seconds of this band.

And so we have to settle for the second-longest track, the closer as it were on the demo, “Raise doubts in me”, though in fairness all it does is raise my heartrate and my blood pressure when the singer screams and then goes into another unintelligible (see above for disclaimer) rant. The guitars hammer on behind him, and the drummer seems in a world of his own. There doesn't seem to be too much connection or cohesion between the guys, and in ways they remind me of a far more tuneful and together Smeg and the Heads (for those who watch “Red Dwarf”); in fact, they make those guys sound like Emerson, Lake and Palmer! Add to the total dissonance and, well, random noise going on the fact that the video is shot with the worst possible lighting so that it looks like the place is on fire (maybe it is: maybe old Zsolt is screaming at people to get to the exits!) and you have, hands down, the absolute winner of the worst band I have yet reviewed on The Meat Grinder (TM). Yeah, they even make Sauron seem melodic!

There's nothing good I can say about this band, to use the word loosely. Even the first two got some points for at least being able to play their instruments: these guys can't even play as a unit! I have no idea what the future holds for them, but I wouldn't be clearing out any shelf space for the Grammys just yet! If you're going to the Deadshine's Halloween Horror Party, all I can say is, rather you than me.

Seriously, these guys are so bad they don't even deserve one cleaver.
So they're not getting one.
Not even half, if I did such things. Which I don't.
Somebody fetch me some double-strength painkillers!