Random Track of the Day
Friday, August 19 2011

And lo! The spell is broken! After four days of random tracks that corresponded to albums and/or artistes I had already touched on, today we have something totally different. I've never even featured a song from Dan Fogelberg to date, even though he is one of my favourite artistes. Look out for a “Taking centre stage” special on him soon. This is from his 1987 album “Exiles”, which is a great album, but rather unfortunately this is not what I would consider the best track from it. In fact, this is an extra track on the CD, and I originally bought the album on vinyl, so I'm not that familiar with it.

Beyond the edge --- Dan Fogelberg --- from “Exiles” on Full Moon
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...g_-_Exiles.jpg


Dan was always at his best penning a great love ballad or slow song. You all know, no doubt, the classics like “Longer”, “Same old lang syne” and “Leader of the band”. He also does some very good “rockier” numbers, and to be fair, this is not bad as one of those. It's not a Fogelberg classic though, and is a little formulaic for my tastes. Definitely not the introduction to his music I would have chosen, but c'est la traque randome, as they (probably) say in France.

Dan Fogelberg died in 2007, having released a string of albums, many of which went platinum or multi-platinum, and left behind him a musical legacy spanning over thirty-five years. You could do a lot worse than check out his music, especially “Phoenix”, “Souvenirs”, “Windows and walls” and of course the double “The innocent age”.

Brand new morning --- Magnum --- 2004 (SPV)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ew_Morning.jpg

This, ladies and gentlemen (and those undecided!), is one hell of a great album. I'm not intimately familiar with all Magnum's work, but on the basis of this I've acquired their catalogue and it's on my list to be listened to (tentatively pencilled in for around 2014, assuming the world doesn't end next year!). I don't know whether this album will turn out to be their best, but if there is better waiting then I can't wait to hear it.

In many ways, although 2002's “Breath of life” is considered their comeback album, released a full eight years after their last studio album, “Rock art”, it's this one that brings the band sharply back into focus following the heart attack suffered by guitarist Tony Clarkin, and indeed, the title of the album reflects that near-death experience. And you can hear it in the music. The whole thing is a glorious celebration, gratitude at being alive and a fierce determination to make sure the time left is spent productively. Even on “down” songs like the nuclear scare “We all run”, you can still hear the hope and the joy permeate not only the lyrics but the playing too. This is a band who, having been together since the late seventies, know that one of their members could have died, didn't, and are proclaiming loudly their joy and relief at that.

The title track gets proceedings underway, heavy keyboards and punchy guitars, with the drumbeat stomping along like a newly-transplanted heart, singer Bob Catley growling out his prayer of thanks for the survival of his friend, while Clarkin himself makes sure his guitar does the talking for him. The track is a real cruncher ™, driven by the rhythm section of Al Barrow on bass and Harry James behind the drumkit. The lyric is unmistakably thankful: ”It's a brand new morning/ So spread your wings/ And you'll take flight.” I'm sure it must have been terrifying to have gone through such an ordeal, but Clarkin certainly does not seem any the worse for it, cranking out the solos like they were going out of fashion, his fingers assured and determined on the frets.

Great piano on “It's time to come together”, where the tempo rises and Clarkin's guitar bows to the expertise of Mark Stanway on the keys (heh! Imagine if his name had been Steinway, eh? No?), although he does get in a solo. Mind you, Stanway kind of outdoes him with his own solo on the piano!

Then it's time for “We all run”, one of the standout tracks on the album. As mentioned, it's a warning against the dangers of nuclear war, and how we're being very blasé about them. The song has a great melody, very AOR. Great vocal harmonies too. But then you have “The blue and the grey”, another slow cruncher, and another candidate for best track on the album. Catley is on fine form vocally on this track, with great guitar from Clarkin. A great melody that you just can't get out of your head. Sorted.

And still the excellent tracks continue to pour into the ears! There are no ballads on this album, as such, but “I'd breathe for you” probably comes closest, being not only the slowest but also the one track which could be legitimately described as a love song. It's another cruncher, another great melody and powerful vocals from Catley. Strong piano from Stanway, the band on fire basically. “The last goodbye” starts off on lovely piano, leading you into the trap of thinking it's a ballad, but then the drums kick in and the guitar gets going, and you're left in no doubt that this is a rocker!

“Immigrant son” adds in a small touch of funk to the proceedings, though I could swear Catley is singing “American son”. Must just be me. The almost ten-minute closer, “The scarecrow”, is a great slice of blues/boogie/southern rock, and a great way to finish the album.

An album with not one bad track. A rare thing indeed. Hard even to choose the best track, as there are about five that could all take the title. An embarrassment of riches, to be sure. If this is Magnum's brand new morning, I look forward to seeing what the day brings!

TRACKLISTING

1. Brand new morning
2. It's time to come together
3. We all run
4. The blue and the grey
5. I'd breathe for you
6. The last goodbye
7. Immigrant son
8. The hard road
9. The scarecrow

Random Track of the Day
Saturday, August 20 2011

Way hey! Back to the beginning of the seventies we go, as the random-o-meter casts us back to the heyday of the prog rock movement, when bands like Uriah Heep were at the top of their game, and could release albums with only seven tracks on them, like this one. Only their third of eventually twenty-three (to date) albums, this featured the talents of world-famous Manfred Mann on keyboards, though not on this track.


Look at yourself --- Uriah Heep --- from “Look at yourself” on Bronze
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...AtYourself.jpg


The title track (obviously), it's seriously keyboard-heavy, with great guitars from Mick Box, powerful vocals from David Byron, a thundering rhythm, and near the end a totally mad all-out battle for supremacy between keyboardist Ken Hensley and drummer Ian Clarke. Has to be heard to be believed!

http://www.trollheart.com/thchest.jpg

Trawling across the internet, I've stumbled across some pretty good music which is, to my knowledge, largely unknown. In an effort to address this, I'm beginning this new section wherein I'll be highlighting artistes who I think are worth checking out. Some of them may only have one song available, some may have a few, and some a full album or more.

I'm currently perusing a website called “Soundclick” (SoundClick - Free MP3 music download and much, much more.) and going through it alphabetically, sorting the gems from the rubbish. Naturally, anyone who wants to is free to head over there and poke around themselves, and of course it's only my own personal tastes that are being used to select the music listed below, so there could be stuff there someone else would like that I would not consider worthy. But for those who have less time and/or patience, I'm hoping to save you the hassle of wading through a sea of dross to get to the good stuff.

I'll be featuring three bands or artistes per section, telling you a little about them and pointing you to their page wherein you can listen to their music. Who knows? You may discover buried treasure... :) To help you out further I'll be rating the songs (assuming there are more than one) as Gold, Silver or Copper. I assume that's self-explanatory, but just in case there's any confusion, Gold will be the songs you really have to listen to, the best the artiste has to offer (of the ones available), while Silver will denote tracks that are okay, but not as good as the Gold. I'd still recommend you listen to them. Copper will be the lowest quality, the ones that really didn't impress me at all. You can probably get by without listening to them.

Of course, this will all be based on my own personal impressions and tastes, so naturally you're free to listen to any track(s) you want, and form your own opinions. I simply offer these as a guide, in case you haven't the time, inclination or patience to listen to every track.

To listen to any artiste, click on the link which begins "SoundClick artist".

http://nyc3img.soundclick.com/23/ima...if?version=215
Abstract
First I recommend these guys, Abstract, a great little AOR band from Florida. They say they have supported the likes of Molly Hatchet, Georgia Satellites and Creed, and on the basis of the quality of their music here I would tend to believe them. Have a listen and see what you think. They've made what appears to be a whole album available: and that's full tracks, not just samples or snippets. Actually, it's probably more than an album, as I've just counted twenty-eight tracks.

Unfortunately, their page is not very up-to-date, as the last information they quote as “news” is that they are working on a videogame soundtrack, dated 2007!
SoundClick artist: Abstract - Melodic and meaningful - Abstract music is written for riff and lyric lovers! Our new CD Checkmate
Music genre AOR/soft rock
Nationality American (Florida)
Gold: Everafter, Thought I'd let you know, Finiteland, Prize fighter, Hey sister, You won't see me, Sad moments, Tree song, Maybe next time

Silver: Down, Valentine, Pick up the phone, Semper Fi, X, The Blame, Everything, Apologize, Brooklyn Bridge, Not today, Wastin'

Copper: 420, Plastic Jesus, One chance, Carousel, Faith, Pissed, The river's edge, Hey you

http://nyc2img.soundclick.com/05/ima....jpg?version=0
Accelerator
This is one guy from Canada, who goes by the name of Accelerator. What I've heard from him I really like. His music has a southern/country rock feel.
SoundClick artist: Accelerator - This is a one man musical effort with the exception of some finely crafted lyrics and phenomenal voc
Music genre Rock/country
Nationality Canadian
Gold: Kites against the wind, Temperature in Tucson, Broken glass, The fall of Eden

Silver: Rude people, Where do we go from here, Livin' on dreams, Only U

Copper: K.I.S.S, Broken hearted

http://nyc3img.soundclick.com/32/ima...jpg?version=58
Aedgemont

Seems to be just one guy on guitar and drum machine in the New York/Brooklyn area. Pretty damn good on his own though!
SoundClick artist: aedgemont - Guitarist of 15 years influenced by classic rock, prog rock/metal.
Music genre Rock
Nationality American (New York)
Gold: An excerpt of nothing, Driving rock tune

Silver: Fields of Govan, New heavy tracks

More next time, when I'll be sailing across the Sea of Mediocrity and navigating the Straits of Poor Quality to get to the Island of the Noteworthy, and bring you back some treasure for your ears.

"Pieces of eight, pieces of eight!"
Shut it, Polly! Stupid parrot....

Cry like a rainstorm, howl like the wind --- Linda Ronstadt --- 1989 (Elektra)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Rainstorm.jpg

Now, I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan of Linda Ronstadt. I don't hate her music, but she's one of those artists who I know exists, but whose music I have never felt compelled to listen to at any length. That changed when she released this album in 1989, and as a matter of history it turned out to be one of her biggest-selling and successful; in a career spanning over half a decade and almost twenty-five albums, that's quite an accolade. The presence of Neville Brothers' Aaron Neville does help, but to be totally fair to Linda, this is her album and has her stamp all over it.

In fact, Neville only helps out on four of the twelve tracks on the album. Tellingly though, it's two of those four which gave her successive number one hit singles, though in fainess there are much better tracks on the album, as we will discover. The album also features a huge, panoramic sound, helped by the inclusion of the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra, the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, and the Tower of Power horns.

Interestingly, and a little disappointingly for someone of her calibre as a songwriter, there is no input on any of the tracks from her in terms of writing. There are people like Jimmy Webb, Paul Carrack, Nick Lowe and Karla Bonof involved, and some cover versions included, but nothing written by Ronstadt herself. Minus one in hit points then for that (D&D in-joke: if you're not a nerd, you won't get it!)

The album opens with a really nice ballad, detailing the idea of someone holding on to the memories of a lover through the sound of their voice on the radio. “Still within the sound of my voice” would certainly sound autobiographical, if Linda had written it, but as noted above, this is not the case. In some ways, it's quite similar to “Superstar”, made famous by the Carpenters and Elkie Brooks, though told this time from the perspective of the one who has left, and not the one left behind. It's a gentle but powerful ballad, with great instrumentation and Linda as ever in full voice, but it's really when the title track gets going that we get a feel for the overpowering scope of the sound of the album.

Although shortened to “Cry like a rainstorm”, the song is introduced on a massive chorus which I assume must be the already-mentioned Oaklands Interfaith Gospel Choir, and becomes a big bluesy ballad which perfectly characterises the album's sound. Robbie Buchanan on the organ adds a lot to the song here, as does Andrew Gold on twelve-string, with the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra filling out the soundcape to massive proportions, and certainly giving the impression of travelling along wide, rolling prairies and across yawning deserts.

Aaron Neville makes his first appearance on “All my life”, which is okay, a good song and one of the singles to reach number one, but it's nothing special, nor in my opinion is the other hit single, “Don't know much”, again with Neville, and this time a cover version recorded by, among others, the Righteous Brothers' Bill Medley and Bette Midler. I personally don't feel Neville adds much to any of the songs here, and his somewhat nasally, whiny voice grates on my nerves, but hey, that's just me. You may love him.

It's tracks that largely went unnoticed like the formidable “Adios”, with its piano melody and its simple lyric that work best for me, Ronstadt's voice suited perfectly to lines like ”Ran away from home/ When I was seventeen/ To be with you/ On the California coast.” Backing vocals from the legendary Brian Wilson give this song the Beach Boys sound, but it's the heartbreaking tension in this song that really makes it work. This is something that I feel is very much missing from the aforementioned singles, but present in abundance in “I keep it hid” --- both, incidentally, written by Jimmy Webb. It's simple, human emotion that carries this track, with Linda at her most vulnerable when she sings ”Why can't I just walk up to/ That old love of mine and say/ Baby how you been doing?/ I still love you like I did.” The orchestration and the choir coming in on this track gives it a real epic feel, almost in contrast to “Adios”, but both work perfectly.

It's not only the ballads, now, that are good on this album, though I may be giving that impression. The pure fun of “Trouble again”, when Ronstadt holds a note about the longest I've heard in a while, proving that even at the age of forty-three (at the time this was recorded: she's sixty-five now, and probably still sounding great!) she still has it, has the band really rocking out, enjoying themselves. And one of my favourite tracks on the album, the old Sam and Dave song “When something is wrong with my baby”, gets my vote, even if it does have Neville on it! The bluesy beat helps to up the tempo on the album, and the choir really get into their groove on “So right, so wrong”, with Linda demonstrating why she has one of the strongest and most respected voices in music. But really, we do keep coming back to the ballads, and it's these that form the glue that holds this opus together.

“Shattered” is again Linda at her most forlorn, singing mostly against a piano backing for most of the track and baring her soul, before the orchestra comes in to lift the track to a new level before it ends, and the closer, “Goodbye my friend”, probably the most tender farewell song I have heard since James Blunt's “Goodbye my lover”, is just perfection, with lines like ”Goodbye my friend/ I know I'll never see you again/ But the times together through all the years/ Will take away these tears/ I'm okay now.” Very touching, simple song to finish the album on a low-key but almost flawless note.

It's probably unlikely I'll go exploring Linda Ronstadt's back catalogue, and I doubt I'll search out her albums since this, but though this was something of a pleasant surprise to me, it's one of those albums that gets a regular airing from time to time. After twenty years it's apparently been deleted, though I'm sure you can find it somewhere, comrade (!) if you know where to look. Definitely worth the time spent searching.

TRACKLISTING

1. Still within the sound of my voice
2. Cry like a rainstorm
3. All my life
4. I need you
5. Don't know much
6. Adios
7. Trouble again
8. I keep it hid
9. So right, so wrong
10. Shattered
11. When something is wrong with my baby
12. Goodbye my friend

Random Track of the Day
Sunday, August 21 2011

Last RTotD for this week, and it's something completely different to bring the week to a close. Swedish doom/death metal band Lake of Tears have evolved over the seventeen years they've been together, expanding into the arena of prog metal, and this track is taken from their third album, “A crimson cosmos”. It's more the latter, ie doom/black/death metal, but thanks be to the Great White Handkerchief there are no death vocals. Lead singer Daniel Brennare has a rough, gruff voice, well suited to his type of music, but you can understand him!

When my sun comes down --- Lake of Tears --- from “A crimson cosmos” on Black Mark
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...son_Cosmos.jpg

Certainly a heavy song, it's a slow rock cruncher with a great melody. Brennare puts me in mind of a much slower and restrained Lemmy, but then, I don't tend to listen to that much death metal, so perhaps he's more typical of the genre. Good voice though, and a good track, with real power and melody.

And so another week comes to a close. The tracks are beginning to get more random and more interesting as we go along, so who knows what the next week holds in store for us?

Electric youth --- Debbie Gibson --- 1989 (Atlantic)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...tric_youth.jpg

One look at Debbie Gibson instantly consigned her to the Madonna-wannabes and copycats, lumping her in with the likes of Tiffany, Billie, Sabrina and a whole slew of young ladies with only one name, all playing the same vacuous pop songs intended for the charts. But conventional wisdom was wrong, and Debbie Gibson was much more a serious artist than any of the abovenamed (excepting, perhaps, Madonna herself). She was not particularly looking for a quick hit (though she got one) and then content to live off the proceeds and fame of that. She was a dedicated musician who not only wrote and produced her own compositions (a feat unrivalled and unthought of at the time), but played piano and keyboards in addition to singing. A real rarity at the time.

Her first album, 1987's “Out of the blue”, had sold very well and yielded no less than five singles, some of which had become hits. The follow-up was eagerly anticipated, and indeed, it's a rare thing when a second album is better than the first, but this was certainly the case with “Electric youth.” Having already hit the charts with a broadside, Debbie was ready for more serious songs, and the tracks on this album bear that out, for the most part.

Truth be told, it doesn't start off in a very promising manner, with the throwaway pop ditty “Who loves ya baby?”, but any fears that this is going to be a continuation of “Out of the blue” are blown out of the water when “Lost in your eyes”, her biggest ever single, hits. It's a powerful yet restrained ballad, with an excellent piano line and Debbie on top form as she sings of her lover. I always think the opening lines make her sound like she's telling her man to go away, her American accent making “I” sound like “Ah”, so you get ”Ah get lost”! Jokes aside though, this is a tremendously tender ballad, and in many ways it's hard to believe that the previous bubblegum track has come from the same artist.

It's quite amazing to think that this girl (nineteen at the time!) could write --- and produce --- songs of this calibre. Her voice is sultry and yearning, and her piano playing flawless. Digital piano could have reduced this song to the level of sugary sweet, but it's used only sparingly, the result being really one of the classic love songs of the late nineteen-eighties.

It's followed by another bopper, but there is some substance to it this time. “Love in disguise” is no “Only in my dreams” or even “Out of the blue”, but it's not a bad little track. Debbie sounds a little like Susannah Hoffs from the Bangles on this one, I feel. Good use of jangly guitar helps this track along, then we're into “Helplessly in love”, a far superior song. There's just something more mature about this, and I feel it would have been a great single, but they passed it over. Pity. It has a real sense of “Only in my dreams” about it too. I really like the melody on this, and in fact the bass helps drive the song very well.

There are three ballads on the album, and they're all excellent. “Silence speaks (a thousand words)” shows how much, and how quickly, Debbie has grown up since her debut album. With its almost medieval keyboard intro and a flute solo --- no kidding! --- the song is well constructed and far from being a typical teen love ballad, it has real heart. It's almost not a ballad, in fact, as the tempo is a little faster than you would expect, but it's certainly an introspective and mature song.

The title track is out-and-out pop, with stabbing, sampler keyboard and drum machines, and a message that really gets a little lost in the frankly sub-standard track, but it's soon forgotten when the final ballad, “No more rhyme” gets going. Much in the same lyrical vein as “Silence speaks”, this is a sad ballad, unlike “Lost in your eyes”, which celebrated love: this song considers what happens when the love is gone, or as she sings herself, ”What happens when there's no more rhyme?” It's a close thing for me as to whether “Lost in your eyes” is better than this one, and to be honest I've never made my mind up, as they're both excellent ballads. This carries more of the acoustic guitar and keyboard, with a lot of digital piano, but it works very well. Lovely melody, and sung with heartbreaking honesty by Debbie. ”You can find your place/ But never fit in/ Only when you've left. Do you know where you've been/ I can see the light/ But only when it's dawn/ You can go on waiting/ But only for so long.” Deep lyric indeed, and carried off with a maturity and class that belies her nineteen years. Lovely sax solo from Jeff Smith, along with cello by Bob Osman give the song a real melancholy tone.

“Over the wall” is pure soul funk, good brass from the Cadillac Horns, but it's “We could be together” that gets my vote for best track on the album. A fast, poppy song, it has all the elements needed to make it a great single, and indeed it was released, though it did more poorly than anticipated. Great synthy keyboards, boppy drumming, brass and some great backing vocals melded to a melody that just plays over and over in your head as Debbie sings ”I'll push his love far away from me/ And then I'll be completely free/ I'll give up my security/ For just the possibility/ That we could be together/ For a while.” It's a desperate song of hope for an affair we all know will never work out, but Debbie's enthusiasm on the song is so infectious you tend to ignore the obvious outcome.

Would have been a great closer to the album, but there's one more track to go, and “Shades of the past” is not half bad, to be fair. It's a sort of soul half-ballad with a kind of ominous tone to it. I personally find the melody a little off, and in places it puts me in mind of the likes of Judie Tzuke, though much inferior to her. It's a pity that they close this song to close the album, as this is inevitably the one your mind is left singing as you put the album away, when “We could be together” leaves so much a better impression.

All in all though, this is one album that may very well surprise you. If you approach “Electric youth” expecting weak, pointless pop songs with the emotion produced out of them, you'll be interested to hear that while I would in no way suggest this to be rock in any form, it's very acceptable pop and really listenable music, and for a nineteen-year old who was making only her second album, that's something you really have to applaud.

TRACKLISTING

1. Who loves ya baby?
2. Lost in your eyes
3. Love in disguise
4. Helplessly in love
5. Silence speaks (a thousand words)
6. Should've been the one
7. Electric youth
8. No more rhyme
9. Over the wall
10. We could be together
11. Shades of the past

Suggested further listening: “Out of the blue” has its moments, though it's a lot poppier and less mature than this album.

Random Track of the Day
Monday, August 22 2011

And so begins another week. Believe me, you don't want to know how this week started for me! At least we have a pretty good RTotD to start us off, a nice slice of prog metal from Germany. This is a band called Ivanhoe, and this is from their second album, “Symbols of time”.

Vibrations ---Ivanhoe --- from “Symbols of time” on Navarre Corporation
http://www.progarchives.com/progress...1730102009.jpg


It's a good solid rocker, lots of heavy keyboard, great vocals and some cool guitar. Almost more AOR really. Must check out some more of these guys' work...

Christopher Cross --- Christopher Cross --- 1979 (Warner)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...pher_cross.jpg

Famous for songs like “Arthur's theme (the best that you can do)” and “Ride like the wind”, Christopher Cross's voice is unmistakable, his particular brand of soft rock unpalatable to many, but essential to others. This is his debut album, and whatever else you say about it, it's quite a feat to have your first album yield three hits singles, one of which went to number one, one to number two, and those two are well-established standards now. The cover of the album is extremely distinctive, with the stylised figure of the flamingo, which became inextricably linked with the artist.

For an album that birthed such classics, it starts off a little weakly, with the rather bland “Say you'll be mine”, which really fails to stamp its identity on the album at all. Things improve a little for “I really don't know anymore”, with backing vocals from the great Michael McDonald and great guitar from Cross, and its slightly Steely Dan sound. “Spinning”, with its jazzy guitar and sax, and digital piano conjures up the sound of the seventies in a hundred soundalike songs, with backing vocals from Valerie Carter, but it's still fairly low-key and more than a little pedestrian, and listening to this album for the first time you could have been forgiven for throwing in the towel at this point.

That would be a mistake though, as history has shown, seeing as the next track up is one of Cross's big hit singles, the upbeat “Never be the same”, with its breezy keyboards, chug-along drums and infectious melody. Quite how different this is to the tracks that precede it is amazing: it's almost like Cross finally hit on the magic formula, and indeed his career would never be the same after this hit the charts, kickstarting a musical journey that would see him earn Grammys, Golden Globes and even an Oscar for “Arthur's theme”. There's something about this song that just, well, clicks, and you can almost hear the SNAP! As everything falls into place. From stuttering start to confident realisation that this is it, this is his “Eureka!” moment.

“Poor Shirley” has more than an element of “Breakfast in America”-era Supertramp, but it's not really in the same league as “Never be the same”, allowing the quality to dip again momentarily before we're hit with the supreme broadside of “Ride like the wind” and “Sailing”. With backing vocals again from Michael McDonald, you surely know “Ride like the wind”, the fast, staccato beat and the urgent vocal, not to mention the “Da-da-da-da-dada DA-DA-DA-DA!” hook that was pouring out of every radio in America and Europe from 1979 onwards, and which is still played today, sounding as fresh now as it did then. Cross's vocal is tight, desperate, the synthesised wind behind him that opens the song before urgent keyboards lead the track along its path with an insistent beat that just can't be ignored.

Hitting number two when released as a single, it's easy to see why. This shows what Cross was capable of, how good he could be, and what a great ear for a snappy tune he had. A great guitar solo and powerful backing vocals help craft this song into a true, timeless classic. “The light is on” revisits “Never be the same” and also faintly presages later hit “All right”, and in so doing manages to maintain the quality of the tracks in the way the first three did not. It's evident Cross was still learning here, honing his talent, and inevitably there would be one or two songs which failed to impress, but the good here certainly outweighs the bad.

Save the best for last? Almost. Again, I'm sure we all know the classic ballad “Sailing”, with its lazy guitar and meandering keyboards, its lyrics conjuring up images of relaxing summer days spent travelling down some quiet river or across some lake, the sun beating down. The opening strings introduce the song on a gentle, almost caressing piano line, Cross's vocals luxuriant and laid-back, inviting you to close your eyes and slip away with him into his world of peace and serenity, where all cares disappear as the wind fills the sails, and the land recedes.

The closer is the longest track on the album, at six minutes, and “Minstrel Gigolo” is a nice mid-paced half-ballad, with the stop/start staccato beat that characterises “Ride like the wind”. I personally don't think that style suits this song, which needs to be more gentle: it keeps punching when it should be tipping perhaps. Nice guitar solo, proving Cross is no stranger to the fretboard, but I find the song itself a little overlong: it feels stretched, with the same basic idea running through the melody to the end with little variation. I think four minutes, four and a half at most, would have done this song, and as a result it sounds laboured. The guitar is nice though.

There can be no doubting the worth of this album --- it did after all win a Grammy for Album of the Year --- but I feel that it stands upon the merits of the three singles, and one or two other tracks. Were it not for the popularity and class of such songs as “Ride like the wind” and “Never be the same”, this album may have just gone down as another failed debut. I don't think it has enough, beyond the singles, to justify it as a great album in its own right.

However, whatever I think, this was the one that launched Christopher Cross on his way to stardom, and I'm sure he's not complaining about how it worked out for him!

TRACKLISTING

1. Say you'll be mine
2. I really don't know anymore
3. Spinning
4. Never be the same
5. Poor Shirley
6. Ride like the wind
7. The light is on
8. Sailing
9. Minstrel Gigolo

Random Track of the Day
Tuesday, August 23 2011
Okay, it's time to go all weird and classical again. And believe it or not, with all the great composers out there to choose from, and the many in my collection, it's once again Mendelssohn that the random-o-meter has chosen to pick out of the pile. This is from an album called “Songs without words”, which is pretty self-explanatory I guess.

Songs without words, Op 30 no. 5 ---Felix Mendelssohn --- from “Songs without words” on Decca

The “Songs without words” collection is in fact eight separate volumes, each containing six lyrical piano pieces, or songs. This is from volume 2 (Op 30), originally published 1833-1834 and is in fact the fifth movement, titled “Andante grazioso in D Major”. It's short, less than two minutes, but a nice little piece and apparently good for those learning to play the piano.

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No. 3 “Heartattack and Vine” by Tom Waits

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On the face of it, this album cover doesn't look that special, but when you take a closer look the genius behind it becomes evident. Made to look like the front page of a newspaper, it's a clever idea in itself. The title is Waits' name, done in that font they used for newspaper banner headers some years ago, then there's a picture of Waits looking suitably drunk and out of it, with a caption below reading “Shortly before dawn Sunday this South Central Los Angeles man was seen leaving the corner of Western and 110th Street in a burnt sienna Chrysler Imperial and heading in the direction of the San Bernardino Mts.” (There is no punctuation: I've reproduced it exactly as it's printed on the sleeve).
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Examine the cover in a bit more detail. The main headline is the name of the album, “Heartattack and Vine”. In fact, each of the smaller headlines corresponds to a track on the album, so you can see “Jersey girl”, “Mr. Siegal”, “Savin' all my love for you”, “Downtown” and “On the nickle”, while half-seen (and completed, mostly, on the reverse) can be seen “Stay with you baby till the money runs out” and “Ruby's arms”. The former of those is the only one that doesn't exactly conform to a song title: the track is actually called “Till the money runs out”, though the rest of it comes up in the lyric. Also, “On the nickle” is misspelt, as the song is actually spelt “On the nickel”. The only track actually not represented on the cover is the instrumental “In shades”.

But not only that: the actual articles under each headline are the lyrics --- in some cases, all, in others parts --- of the songs they refer to. So under, for instance, the headline “Jersey girl”, you can read ”Got no time for the corner boys/ Down in the street makin' all that noise”, and the same with each headline. And each headline is followed by a city the story is supposed to take place in, but more than that, it's a city that either the song is set in, or is about. Like “Mr Siegal” (written about the legendary gangster Buggsy Siegal, who essentially created the gambling mecca of Las Vegas), which is shown as taking place in, you guessed it, Las Vegas! “Jersey girl” of course is in New York, while “Downtown” is credited to Little Tokyo. And so on.
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Then there's the names of the contributors. While they generally have nothing to do with the songs, some of them are puns, like under “Savin' all my love for you” the author is Preston Glass, while “Heartattack and Vine” is credited to Tragic O'Hara, and just over the CD spine you can see that “Stay with you till the money runs out” has been written by Tulane Bowler. Very clever. There are other names there that don't mean too much to me, but they could be American in-jokes or something, like Charles Slater, or Clancy Church, though I'm unsure what he's trying to say with the correspondent for “Downtown” being Ah Fong? I reckon Belmont Rivera, who is credited for “Mr. Siegal”, is a hotel.
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The album cover is stained with marks that make it look like this is an old newspaper, or one that has seen some use at any rate. If you turn the CD upside down, up in the top right-hand corner (which, with the disc reversed, becomes the bottom left-hand corner) someone has scribbled a name --- David “Der” Fuehrer --- and a (probably fictitous) New York phone number on the edge, as people sometimes do if there's nothing else to hand to write on. In addition, the date of the paper is July 4 --- Independence Day, of course.
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This is an album cover I used to look at in the local record shop on the way home from school or work and think “Wow, that guy looks wasted! Bet the music is crap!” Little did I know that a scant ten years or so later this album would be in my collection, and I would be an avid fan of Tom Waits. On the inlay of the CD it credits the cover design to Ron Coro and Norm Ung --- odd names, and they could very well be either pseudonyms or some sort of in-joke, but whoever came up with and executed the concept, top marks on a job well done!

NOW that's what I call music!
(Volume II)

Time to spread ten more of my favourite videos across my journal. No order, no linkage, no reason. I just like 'em, is all!

Thought this should have been a huge hit. It wasn't. Bought the album on the strength of the previous single and this, and was severely disappointed with it. This is a great track though, Breathe, from the album “All that jazz”, with “Don't tell me lies.”


Classic from Asia, from their self-titled debut,a huge hit. This is “Heat of the moment”.


Love this one from Dire Straits, just the whole mood of it. Taken from the album “Love over gold”, it's Mark Knopfler at his best, on “Private investigations”.


Never heard anything more from them, but this was a great song from Midnight Oil, with “Beds are burning”.


And there was just something about this track that spoke to me. Again, never heard of them before or since, but Spear of Destiny hit it on the head with “Never take me alive”.


Damn You Tube ads! Anyway, this is my old mate Steve Earle with an excellent song which really speaks to me, being Irish. From the top-notch album “Transcendental blues”, this is “The Galway girl”, featuring Sharon Shannon on accordion. Get up there!


Pure southern rock from those Georgia Satellites! Yeehah! Keep them hands to yourself!


Classic ballad from INXS, the late Michael Hutchence in one of his finest performances, on “Never tear us apart”.


One of the very first songs I ever heard from Nick Cave, from the album “The good son”, the piano ballad known as “The Ship Song”.


And to wrap this volume up, it's the first band I was ever into, ELO, from the album “On the third day”, which I kind of hated, but this is a great track. A reworking of Edvard Grieg's “In the hall of the Mountain King”, which in a very real way got me interested in classical music.


Okay, putting the records away for now. More when I think of them.

Diary of a madman --- Ozzy Osbourne --- 1981 (Jet)
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Ah, Ozzy! Back in the days when he was just a rock singer and not a reality TV star! This was the only solo Ozzy album I ever bought, not because it was terrible --- it's actually really good --- but somehow I just never felt the urge to follow it up. I liked him in Sabbath, and solo he was okay too, but never one of my favourite performers. Truth to tell, I preferred Sabs under Dio, but then that's another story. This was his second solo album, and the last to feature guitar supremo Randy Rhoads, who was tragically killed the following year.

There are no huge surprises on this album. It's Sabbath, it's Ozzy, it's heavy metal. Opener “Over the mountain” sets the scene well enough, great guitar from Randy Rhoads chugging along at a decent lick, Ozzy's inimitable vocals well suited to the material for the most part. Much better though is “Flying high again”, where Rhoads gets to really express himself and give us a glimpse of the musical talent he was heading towards becoming.

The longest track on the album at just under seven minutes, “You can't kill rock and roll” starts off very similar to Iron Maiden's “Prodigal son” from “Killers”: a nice semi-acoustic guitar intro to a song which becomes something of an anthem as Ozzy sings ”Rock and roll is my religion/ And my law.” Indeed. The guitar throughout this song is something special, some of Randy Rhoads' best work, given that his career was so cruelly cut short.

There's not a lot you can say about Ozzy's singing. You may love or hate his style, but basically he's the same as he was in Black Sabbath, which is no surprise, so if you didn't like him in that band then don't come here expecting anything different. I've always found his singing to be a little on the whiny side, but that's just me, and it didn't stop me buying this album, nor “We sold our soul for rock and roll”, “Sabbath bloody sabbath” or “Paranoid”.

“Believer” is the first of the slower tracks, though not by any means a ballad. This is more in the vein of the likes of “The wizard” or “War pigs” --- what I like to term a “cruncher”, with a slower, more insistent and pounding beat and guitars more thumping and grinding than screeching or squealing. Ozzy's never going to win any accolades for original lyrics: ”I'm a believer/ I ain't no deceiver/... Destiny's planned out/ I don't need no handouts.” Ah, rock and roll!

There's only the one ballad on the album; “Tonight” is driven on a piano line with guitar backing, but to be honest it seems a little tacked on. Ozzy is at his best when freaking out on hard rockin' tracks, and I don't really think his voice is suited for the slower, more tender end of the spectrum. Still, he tries. A great guitar solo fades out the track, but it never really recovers. Then we're back to what Ozzy does best: headshakin' metal, with the enigmatically titled S.A.T.O, which in fact comes across as the best track on the album with its pounding beat, singalong melody and excellent solos with Ozzy back on the top of his game, then it's on to a big finish with the title track.

Introduced on an almost classical guitar passage, it soon kicks into high gear with Iron Maidenesque axework from Randy Rhoads and we get a peek into Ozzy's tortured soul as he reads us a page from his diary. This is a long song, at six minutes plus the second-longest on the album, and it really is a tour-de-force, going through a few changes as the song winds on, the classical theme retained throughout and giving it a very epic and dramatic feel. It's like Ozzy and the band pulled out all the stops for this last track, and it really works, especially the choir at the end. Very gothic.

As an album this is not bad. There are a few low points, and as I said it's never going to win any prizes for innovation or original thinking, but it's not a Black Sabbath album, that's for sure. And sometimes that's all a solo artist can hope for, when he or she spreads their wings and explores new avenues.

TRACKLISTING

1. Over the mountain
2. Flying high again
3. You can't kill rock and roll
4. Believer
5. Little dolls
6. Tonight
7. S.A.T.O
8. Diary of a madman

Random Track of the Day
Wednesday, August 24 2011

Oh yeah! A real classic for the Rtotd today! The one and only David Bowie, the Thin White Duke himself and a great, great rocker from the seminal “Ziggy Stardust” album, this is the incomparable “Suffragette City”!

Suffragette City --- David Bowie --- from “The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” on RCA
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Mick Ronson at his very best on the guitar, Bowie himself on piano and of course vocals, a rip-roaring party song that includes the infamous line “Wham bam, thank you ma'am!” --- although whether that's where it originated or not I'm not sure. You can't not like this song! Rock on, baby!

In the eye of the storm --- Roger Hodgson --- 1984 (A&M)
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One half of the creative duo behind Supertramp, Roger Hodgson penned such unforgettable classics as “Dreamer”, “Breakfast in America”, “Take the long way home”, “Give a little bit” … in fact, most if not all of the charting singles from Supertramp's commercial peak (1974-82) came from his pen and brain, and those he wrote he usually sang on too, so that if you heard a Supertramp hit you could be almost certain it was him singing it.

In 1982 Hodgson left the band to pursue a solo career --- the last album he cut with Supertramp, 1982's “Famous last words”, still stands as one of their best albums ever --- and this was his first effort. It's a pretty impressive outing, boasting only seven tracks, four of those over seven minutes and two over eight. It's of course tinged with the Supertramp hallmarks --- he was hardly going to go solo and release a jazz or trip-hop album! --- and should be enjoyed by anyone who listened to Supertramp in their heyday.

There's no messing around as right from the start the opening track is one of those eight-minuters, “Had a dream (sleeping with the enemy)” weighing in at an ear-pleasing 8:27, and it's introduced by low, growling keyboard with the sound of a baby crying (symbolic of a new beginning, one would expect), which then turns into the sounds of children playing a la “School” from “Crime of the century” as the music swells behind, growing to a crescendo against which Roger yells out and thunder booms, and the track is off and running with a bright and breezy piano, a boppy, catchy number which was in fact the first and most successful single from the album.

Hodgson's voice is instantly recognisable as the voice of Supertramp, and it's in fine shape. He plays most of the instruments on the album, with a little help here and there. The lyric reflects his “release” from Supertramp, and his new lease of life: ”I dont' care what the future brings/ Give a damn about anything/ I'd be fine if they'd only/ Leave me alone/ But it's time/ Gotta take a stance/ Cos I won't get a second chance/ And I know now/ I have to make it alone.” A nice little break in the middle for a lovely little introspective guitar solo then we're back hoppin' and boppin' to the end, where it pitch bends down, rather like the very end of the title track off “Crime of the century”.

A great start, and “In jeopardy” keeps the pace going, with a slight decrease in speed, Hodgson's falsetto vocals really suited to this track. Stride piano and warbling keyboards carry this track, with some chord changes that give the song a feeling of vague menace or unease. Roger is equally at home writing this sort of track as he is penning a supreme ballad, as we see in the next track, the shortest on the album at just 4:11, but a lovely, simple love song. “Lovers in the wind” allows Hodgson to stretch himself even more, as here, and on the following track also, in addition to playing guitar, bass, keyboards and of course singing, he takes a turn behind the drumkit. Is there anything this man can't do? He even produces the album!

“Lovers in the wind” is a quiet, almost ethereal song, unavoidably recalling the best Supertramp ballads, the likes of “Lord is it mine” and “Know who you are”. Led on a lovely little piano line, it's a simple song that really demonstrates that old axiom less is more. He could have overpopulated the song with strings, synth, flutes, whatever, or produced it too tightly and squeezed all the heart out of it. He avoids falling into this trap, and what we're left with is a gorgeous but very stripped-down ballad that shows us Hodgson at his restrained best.

“Hooked on a problem”, with its big, bold, almost carnival sound is another catchy track, with saxaphone input from Scott Page, and again Hodgson himself taking drum duties. It's a slower song, though punchy, and like many of the tracks on this album the lyric seems to betray his underlying fear perhaps, or trepidation at taking the big step of going solo. Lines like ”Hey, don't you ever get lonely?/ Hey, don't you wish it was easy/ Facing the world on your own?” and ”I'm hooked on a problem/ It won't let me go/ The way people look at me/ Feels like twenty below” demonstrate, it would seem, his misgivings about stepping out into the big bad world on his own.

There's a clever line in the song which recalls directly his departure from Supertramp, when he sings ”I'm walking a tightrope/ With stars in my eyes/ In danger of falling/ Won't you kiss me goodbye?”. The album sleeve for his last Supertramp outing, “Famous last words”, depicted a circus performer on a tightrope, while behind a large stylised scissors waits to cut the rope. A great album sleeve, which I'll tackle at some point in The secret life of the album cover, but for now it's good to hear it namechecked, as it were.

“Give me love, give me life” is one of three songs, each over seven minutes, that complete the album. This is a boppy rocker, with lots of happy keyboard, bright piano and a faux-live applause part built in. Like many of the songs on this album it's very Supertramp, and yet very specific to Roger Hodgson. “I'm not afraid” is perhaps his most personal expression of a life-affirmation, pushing the problems of the past firmly behind him and walking out onto the world stage alone. It's a slower track, something of a “cruncher” (Copyright @ Trollheart MMXI), and again over seven minutes in length. It goes through some changes, speeding up about halfway through as the track takes off, slowly increasing in speed and intensity till it's at the level of “Had a dream”. Great to hear those Supertramp-style harmonicas, courtesy of Ken Allardyce.

But the best has most certainly been saved for last. Clocking it at a pretty impressive 8:40, “Only because of you” is the longest piece on the album, beating out the opener by about ten seconds. It's an epic in every sense, starting off with a fade from the end of “I'm not afraid” into humming synth and slowly tinkling piano behind programmed wind and storm noises before the main piano line begins. It's actually a full two and a half minutes before any singing is heard, as Roger launches quietly into his masterpiece, without question the standout track on the album, as he sings ”In mighty castles lonely kings/ Hear the ragged children sing.” One minute later the singing ends and the track becomes an almost-instrumental, with powerful guitar and synth lines as the piano keeps its melody going, and the single voice of Clair Diament sings a la-la-la vocal over the music, which swells and gets more powerful and dramatic as the track winds on, pulling you in like the tide itself.

Hodgson excels himself on guitar here, making it sing and weep and cry and moan like I haven't heard since the last tortured chords of “Don't leave me now” from “Famous last words”. The emotion in this piece really is hard to resist, and you may feel a small tear tricking down your cheek as you listen (wimp! Not to worry, I always do...) The last vocal comes in on the seven-minute mark, and lasts less than a minute as the song fades down to its gentle and satsifying conclusion, the piano still tinking right to the very end.

If you like Supertramp --- or, more to the point, if you liked Supertramp: they're a different band entirely now without Hodgson --- you'll love this album. If you don't know any Supertramp songs you can still get a lot out of this album. This is one of those rather rare moments when an artiste of consummate talent puts his heart, soul and mind out there on disc. On the reverse of the album cover is a picture of Roger standing, as part of the lyric from “Had a dream” goes, ”Naked in the eye of the storm”. He couldn't be more vulnerable, and it's a brave thing to do, expose your innermost feelings, thoughts and emotions to others. But it pays off handsomely in an album that is more than a journey, more than an experience, and definitely more than forty-seven minutes eleven seconds of music.

Head into the eye of the storm and seek out Roger Hodgson. It's not calm in there, but it's one hell of an adventure!

TRACKLISTING

1. Had a dream (sleeping with the enemy)
2. In jeopardy
3. Lovers in the wind
4. Hooked on a problem
5. Give me love, give me life
6. I'm not afraid
7. Only because of you

Suggested further listening: “Hai hai”, “Open the door”

Random Track of the Day
Thursday, August 25 2011

Now this is weird! Today's Random Track of the Day comes from Trans-Siberian Orchestra, just as I prepare to, quite literally next, review one of their albums for publication later. And it's this one! Taken from the double album “Night castle”, this is TSO with “Moonlight and madness”.

Moonlight and madness --- Trans-Siberian Orchestra --- from “Night castle” on Lava
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This is in fact the first I've heard from this band, though I have been meaning to listen to and review one of their albums for the journal, and as I say in the introduction above, that is exactly what I'm doing once I've finished typing this. A great mix of classical and hard rock, this is an instrumental that really stands out, with great guitar and powerful piano, and a very classical intro. Looking forward to publishing my review of this album soon: watch for it. This will have to do to be going on with for now.

Shock! Horror! Trollheart reviews a CURRENT album!!!
 

Ghost --- Matt Stevens --- 2010 (Label unknown: there may not be one)
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A whole album of instrumental rock, led by guitar, and often acoustic guitar? Weird? Well maybe, but the talent on display here is enough to make you forget the fact that there are no vocals on this album. Released under the “pay-what-you-feel-is-fair” model championed by Radiohead a few years ago, and expanded on by Marillion, “Ghost” is another example of an artiste accepting the new restrictions of their art in terms of commerciality and finance, and working with rather than against that model.

More anxious that his music should be heard and enjoyed than how many bucks he can make, Matt Stevens has made the album (and his others) freely available from his website, where if you want to, and are particularly stingy, you can pay nothing for it. But common decency would lead you to believe that if the artist is meeting the fans halfway here, the least they should do is dig in their pockets and shell out a few pounds for the privilege of hearing this music.

Opener “Into the sea” is a really nice piece, relaxing and atmospheric, while “Big sky” is faster, rockier and puts me in mind of the best of that old campaigner, Mike Oldfield. That was an obvious association, given that Stevens is also a multi-instrumentalist, but the comparison does I believe hold true, and it's meant as praise rather than criticism. “Eleven” introduces what sounds like a xylophone into the mix with some lovely slide guitar and a bubbling rhythm, while “Draw” features a much harder approach, with the guitar much more up in the mix and essentially in your face, a strong bassline accompanying the melody., which then goes all sort of seventies prog-rock/psychedelic, the theme getting a little confused I feel, and then just ending suddenly.

From the little I have been able to find out about this guy, it would appear that this album is totally played on guitars, with the odd drum piece thrown in. So when what sounds like a piano gets going, apparently it's not: it's a guitar. Very clever, but does this limit him a little? Hard to say, with music of this quality. You could also believe you were listening to Jose Feliciano or John Williams when they decide to rock out, so technically proficient and excellent is the guitar playing on this album. It's quite beyond anything I've heard, and I include guitar greats like Gallagher, Hendix, Page and Vaughan in that. This guy is in a class of his own!

Inevitably, like just about any instrumental album you can name, the lack of actual songs --- as in, songs with words, a singing voice --- gets a little wearing, but against that the music is certainly powerful and interesting enough to hold the attention and unlike many such albums, my eyelids never threatened to droop, not once. “Lake man” is an atmospheric piece, carried on a really nice melody and a rhythm you sort of find yourself tapping your foot to, in probably the same way Stevens might be lightly slapping the side of his guitar as he plays. It's just that sort of beat. It's also the longest song, at just over six minutes, and yet it doesn't seem that long. A lot of what sounds like (but may not be) Spanish guitar on this really adds to the overall feel, and the drum machines --- for surely such they must be: no-one could make that electronic beat sound on a guitar, could they? --- help to move the track along and break up the pace slightly.

“Glide” has a sort of Simon and Garfunkel feel to it, and that xylophone --- or maybe a triangle? --- is back again, adding much-needed variety of a sort. Sorry Matt, but this tune also makes me think of “Trumpton” or “Camberwick Green”: just has that sort of sound that reminds me of my youth. Great little piece. It's followed by the enigmatically titled “8.19” --- no, it's not eight minutes and nineteen seconds long, that was my first thought too --- which gets the tempo moving again, with sounds like a steam engine in the background, and some real virtuoso playing and some lovely multi-layered guitars.

A great bassline leads the title track, certainly giving the impression of something haunting, with a harmonica-like sound also permeating the piece, adding to the ghostly feel and affording the track a somewhat country-tinged air. The album closer, “Moondial”, is simple for about half the track then turns into a little bit of a confusing mess, which is a pity. Stevens tries to fit too many ideas into the last two minutes or so of the track, resulting in something of a logjam, and the overall impression is of an idea that got too complicated and tripped itself up.

This minor quibble aside, “Ghost” is an album that really is quite unique, especially in these days of bands and artistes who try to have a hit single, and conform to market trends. Matt Stevens does neither, and also bucks the record company model with regard to sale of his music, and yet it all seems to work very well. This album is well worth listening to. Quite astutely, Matt has not penned any songs over six minutes, so none of them drag, or become boring, and he seems to have struck just the right balance between art and entertainment. A worthy effort, and something all guitar aficionados should check out.

Hey, if you just like good music, well played and written, this is for you too.

TRACKLISTING

1. Into the sea
2. Big sky
3. Eleven
4. Draw
5. Burnt out car
6. Lake man
7. Glide
8. 8.19
9. Ghost
10. Moondial

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Sometimes two artistes get together that you could never have imagined collaborating, and it just seems like such a bad idea! Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. In this section, I'm going to tackle a team-up and talk about whether or not I feel it worked, why the collaboration happened and how it affected one or both of the two artiste's future careers and record sales.

Jimmy Page and Puff Daddy --- Come with me
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This one had to be first! When I heard about it I was gobsmacked. Jimmy Page, lead guitarist with legendary seventies classic rock gods Led Zeppelin, teaming up with Puff Daddy/P. Diddy, a rapper known for songs with titles like “Real niggas”, “Gangster ****” and “Bad boy for life”, and who was both a record producer and a fashion designer. It just seemed unlikely.

On the one hand you were going to have Puff Daddy's legion of rap fans moaning that he was allying himself with a “honky” (maybe; I don't claim this was said but I'm sure it was considered and discussed, if not in public) old guy from a has-been band who were living on past glories, and on Page's side, the Zep fans could not have been happy to have had one of their classic songs mashed up and resampled for this rapper.

The song in question was “Kashmir”, from Zep's “Physical grafitti” album, and featured Puff Daddy singing (or rapping, I guess) the lyric across Jimmy's guitar rendition of the song. It also featured in the film “Godzilla”, earning it more interest and sales.

So why does it work? Hard to say. Maybe because Puff Daddy “sung” along the melody of “Kashmir”, understanding the original song, or maybe it was Page's excellent as ever guitar work. It's certainly a dramatic song, moreso even than the original. Maybe it needed an update. Maybe it was the charisma of the two collaborators. Perhaps it was the addition of the orchestra, that added that extra element to the song that it was missing.

The truth is, no-one ever knows why these team-ups work (or don't): it's probably due to a range of factors, but for an unlikely combination of talents and backgrounds, this song really worked, and in fact it's one of the few rap-flavoured records I listen to.

As for how it affected their careers? Well, I don't know about you, but I have yet to bump into either Jimmy Page or Puff Daddy down my local job centre!

Random Track of the Day
Friday, August 26 2011

Ah, the last Friday in August! Bank holiday weekend for those of you in the UK (though not for me, but since I don't work anyway, what the hey?) and next week all those noisy kids will be back where they belong, in school, leaving the streets safe for decent folk to walk! :) And my random-o-meter is trying to tell me something, as this is the second time it's picked out Dan Fogelberg from my collection, and again it's the album “Exiles” that's in question. Must feature something from him soon.

The way it must be --- Dan Fogelberg --- from “Exiles” on Full Moon
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This is more the Dan Fogelberg I know and love! A nice mid-paced ballad, with a certain country flavour, a bittersweet lyric and some really nice vibraphone and synth guitar. Dan was best known for his ballads, and this is one of the good ones, called “The way it must be”. A great little album too (makes note for future review).

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Those of you who read my journal regularly (yes, both of you!) will know that I have a reasonably varied taste in music, though there is a lot I do not like. There are genres in which I have no interest, and therefore no experience or expertise with. However, from time to time songs jump out at me from odd angles, attacking me and before I can even say “No, I don't like that kind of music!” they're IN MY HEAD AND THEY WON'T GET OUT!!

Which is another way of saying that there are songs I listen to or enjoy which are outside the normal sphere of the music I usually prefer, but that doesn't make them bad songs, nor does it mean I am suddenly into that particular genre, album or artiste. Here I want to highlight a few “weird” songs I tend to listen to,just to break things up and show that even I can occasionaly let down what little hair I still have left, and take a short trip outside the box. Most if not all of these are albums/tracks I would never feature in any of my usual sections, so this is a chance for me to show off my quirky side.

Hey, I can be as spontaneous as the next guy, but you know, it has its time and place. :)

First up is this classic so-bad-it's-good song from Jilted John, from 1978. Now my regular readers will know that punk rock is not an alley I enter normally, unless I have a good Genesis or Pendragon on the ipod, but this song is special! With lyrics like “I was so upset that I cried/ All the way to the chip shop!” and “John you know I love you/ But there's this guy I fancy/ I don't want to two-time you/ So it's the end for you and me!” you can't help but love it.


And at the total opposite end of the scale, Jesus and Andrew Lloyd-Webber! I'm not normally that into rock operas, but I must admit I love “Jesus Christ Superstar”, though it has to be the TV version from 1973, with Ted Neeley as Jesus. The very best track on it in my opinion is “Gethsemane (I only want to say)” where Jesus questions the need for him to die, and challenges his Father in Heaven. Whether you believe or not, it's a powerful, emotional song with fantastic lyrics and brilliant instrumentation, but the star of the song is no doubt Neeley as the frightened and confused Jesus. Just perfect.


And after that emotion-sapping performance, let's lighten the mood again with the Firm from 1987. I've always been a huge Star Trek fan (hey, no sh*t?), so maybe I should have been offended by the irreverent “Star Trekkin'”, but I loved it. Hey, if you can't laugh at yourself, right? Plus the claymation video is so cool!


Disco and dance is again not an area I venture into (you do NOT want to see me on the dance floor, believe me!) but this song captured my imagination back when I was a kid (well, okay, fifteen!) and I loved it. Ceronne with “Supernature”.


And finally, the enigmatic Laurie Anderson. I remember hearing this when I was staying over in my mate's apartment in London in the early eighties, and dog tired, wondering what the hell all that racket was? But when I woke up and listened to it properly, I really liked it. As it happened, “O Superman” went to number one, I believe, so I wasn't the only one who liked that weird sh*t! :)


Well, that's it for the first round! Man, you'd hate to be trapped in my brain, wouldn't you? ;)
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Radio KAOS --- Roger Waters --- 1987 (EMI)
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One of the finest solo albums released by Roger Waters, Radio KAOS is at once a concept album, a comment on the arms race and a tribute to his father. His second solo effort, it concentrates on two main characters, one of which is really peripheral: two brothers, Benny, an unemployed coalminer and Billy, who is mentally disabled. The brothers go on a booze-up one night, after which Benny drops a breeze-block onto the motorway and, it would seem, kills or injures a motorist in the process, for which he is sent to jail. Unable to cope with her disabled son alone, Billy's mother sends him to live with his uncle in LA.

The narrative of the album begins in LA, as Billy describes to a radio DJ his experiences, and being somehow able to channel and receive radio waves through his stolen cellphone (come on, this is Roger Waters, after all!), he becomes something of a celebrity. His voice on the album is routed through a vocoder, so that it sounds robotic and metallic (think Prof Stephen Hawking), and the album tracks are connected by snippets of his ongoing interview with the DJ at Radio KAOS.

The opening track, “Radio waves”, starts with Billy telling the DJ he hears radio waves in his head, and the DJ responding incredulously. The track is a bouncy, boppy number, plenty of guitar and warbling keyboard, as Water talks about the state of the world: ”The atmosphere is thin and cold/ The yellow sun is gettin' old/ The ozone overflows/ With radio waves/ AM, FM, weather and news/ Our leaders had a “frank exchange of views”/ I get confused.” The song introduces ”Magic Billy/ In his wheelchair” and explains that he picks up radio waves in his head. Great guitars from Andy Fairweather-Low, and that great scream from “The Wall” is worked into the song too. Great opener.

In true concept album style, the narrative continues as one song flows to another, so that there is no dead air as the story unfolds. In “Who needs information” Billy is introduced formally as a caller on the line, and synthesisers and male backing vocals recreate the sound of a Welsh male voice choir, mentoned later. In fact, when I first heard this album I thought Waters had employed the services of an actual choir on it, but it seems not. “Who needs information” is a slower song, with great backing vocals and saxophone from Mel Collins. It relates the pub crawl Billy and his brother went on, and the incident that landed Benny in jail and left Billy on his own. Great trumpet and trombone section on this too.

“Me or him” seems to be Benny's confession to a priest in jail about dropping the concrete slab on the motorway, and for some reason he seems to think it was a case of him or the other guy. This is a much slower song, almost a ballad, and its theme would be revisited in part on “Amused to death”, where Waters talks about the emergence of Man and civilisation. Here, he sings ”You wake up in the morning/ Get something for the pot/ Wonder why the sun makes the rocks so hot …/ Then some damn fool/ Invents the wheel/ Listen to the whitewalls squeal/ You spend all day looking for a parking spot/ Nothing for the heart/ Nothing for the pot.”

It's unclear in the lyric whether Billy has now his own radio show, or whether he just wishes he has one. I think the latter. Again, Waters uses the double-vocal that he utilised on “The Wall” here, where he sings normally, and in the background he screams the same lyric. Always very effective, and very Roger Waters. As ever, he uses backing tracks and snippets of newscasts and other media here to build up the picture. The tempo then jumps for “The Powers That Be”, where Waters vents his anger at the Suits, the shadowy figures who run the world and whose faces we never see. ”They're the Powers That Be/ If you see them comin'/ You better run/ You better run on home!” Lots of keyboard in this, but the guitars make it an angry indictment, growling away behind Waters' impassioned and acid-tongued vocals. Great backing vocals too. The brass section really makes this track though, trumpets, sax and trombone giving it a false upbeat feel.

“Sunset Strip” is another boppy track, relating the circumtances which led to Billy's being sent to LA to his uncle. It's something of a funky number, with a totally weird section in it, where someone runs off a list of fish, while someone else says “I don't like fish!”. There are a lot of references to Wales and to mining in this song. The brass section really get going on this song, then we're into “Home”, featuring the vocal talents of Clare Torry, who you may remember as the incredible voice behind “The Great Gig in the Sky” from “Dark side of the Moon”. A mid-paced rocker, it asks the question what will you do when the end comes, and what will you do NOW to prevent that happening? ”Will you discreetly withdraw/ With your ear pressed to the boardroom door/ Will you hear when the lion within you roars?” Of course, the album is replete with anti-war rhetoric, like ”Could be the pilot/ With God on his side” or ”Could be a Vietnam vet/ With no arms and no legs.”

In the end, Billy manages to hack into the Department of Defence computer system and tricks everyone into thinking the missiles are about to be launched, leading into one of the most emotional songs on the album, with vocals again by Clare Torry. “Four minutes” is a lament for that which is passing, as the Earth awaits the end. The simple things, like the feeling you get from running a red light, or the simple love of another person. As Waters sings ”After a near miss on a plane/ You swear you'll never fly again/ After the first kiss after you make up/ You swear you'll never break up again.” you really feel the pent-up emotion leaking out. Powerful vocal chorus helps to underline the drama of this track, while in the background Billy does a countdown, as Margaret Thatcher declares ”Our own independent nuclear deterrent/ Has helped to keep the peace/ For nearly forty years!”

Everything comes to a head, with a final “Goodbye”, and then, when the world is not destroyed, people come out of their houses and realise that they have had the nearest of near misses, and begin to talk to each other, and love spreads across the world, to the backing of the final track, the exquisite “The tide is turning”, carried on keyboard and gentle percussion. Waters snaps ”Who is the strongest?/ Who is the best?/ Who holds the aces/ The East or the West?/ This is the crap/ Our children are learning.” And in the face of almost Armageddon, the world begins to think about more important things than profit, war and politics. It's a rose-tinted and over-optimistic view of what could happen, of course, but it's nice to consider. A great track, a semi-ballad, closing the album and bringing the story to its end. The track, and the album, end on a rousing chorus by the “Welsh male vocal choir”.

I always love listening to this album. Being a concept, it's one that you really can't listen to piecemeal, or one track here or there. It really needs to be experienced in one sitting to get the full power and majesty of the album, and the intelligent and creative writing of Roger Waters. It's a view of the world full of hope, and even if it were never to happen, we can dream that it would, can't we?

TRACKLISTING

1. Radio waves
2. Who needs information?
3. Me or him
4. The Powers That Be
5. Sunset Strip
6. Home
7. Four minutes
8. The tide is turning

Suggested further listening: “The pros and cons of hitch-hiking, “Amused to death”, and the double-live “In the flesh”

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In this section I'm going to look at songs which share the same subject matter. They can end up being all from one genre or right across the spectrum, which may make it a little more interesting. I'll be choosing my favourite songs with that theme, though of course there will almost certainly be many more with the same subject matter. Certain “universal” themes will not be explored, such as love, girls, cars, drinking etc, as I feel these are too broad to be included.

The first subject, or theme, to be featured is that of RAIN.

We kick off with one of my favourite bands, and a cover version of a very old song. This has of course been covered by many bands, including Crystal Gayle, Art Garfunkel and Mickey Dolenz. Originally recorded and made famous by the Everley Brothers, it was co-written by songstress Carole King. This is A-Ha's version of “Crying in the rain”, from their “East of the sun, west of the moon” album.


Next up, a true classic from a band whose classic songs outnumber virtually anyone else you can mention. Mention a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival and the chances are it's a classic. This most certainly is, from 1970, this is “Who'll stop the rain?”



One of my favourite bands, ELO, the Electric Light Orchestra. I could have gone for something off the “Concerto for a rainy day” on “Out of the blue”, which is written all about weather, but I wanted to be a little less predictable, so instead I've decided to take this track, from their “Time” album, and a track called “Rain is falling”.


Journey always pen a lovely ballad, and this has added rain and thunderstorm noises on it, so it just had to be included. From the album “Trial by fire”, it's called “It's just the rain”.


Another of my favourite bands, but one few know of, this is Ten from their album “Babylon”, and a gorgeous little ballad called “Silent rain”.


A more upbeat song now, from the great Elkie Brooks, with her version of “Sunshine after the rain”.


And no rain selection would be complete without ol' Phil's song, from “But seriously”, his last album before he went all crap, this is “I wish it would rain down”, with a very funny video.


Not forgetting his good mate and former Genesis bandmate, Peter Gabriel, with his own take on rain, from “So”, this is “Red rain”.


I was never a big Leo Sayer fan, but you can't fault the quality of a classic like his cover of Buddy Holly's “Raining in my heart”!


And of course, we couldn't close without the king of all rain songs, the one everyone thinks of when you say “give me a title of a song about rain”. The one and only Gene Kelly with “Singin' in the rain”. I wanted to get the proper video, but they only have that colourised rubbish on YT, so instead I went for another screen icon doing his version. This is Paddington Bear, with vocals by Gene Kelly. Enjoy!

Random Track of the Day
Saturday, August 27 2011

What's weird about today's selection is that only one or two tracks short of where I normally stop, up again came David Bowie's “Suffragette City”, featured on Thursday, so had it been two tracks less then we would have been looking at a repeat. How random, really, is that? Well, if I do ever come across a repeat track it will be ignored: no point in posting the same thing twice, is there?

Anyway, leaving that aside, what we end up with for today is a nice one for the weekend, considering he wrote “Something for the weekend”. This is not from that album, ie “A short album about love”, but is in fact from his third album. This is Neil Hannon, better known as The Divine Comedy, from the album “Promenade”, with “Tonight we fly”.

Tonight we fly --- The Divine Comedy --- from “Promenade” on Setanta
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Certainly to feature at some point in my section “The Very Best of Irish”, Neil Hannon is a native of Derry, and has carved himself a very unique niche in the music world. Playing a mixture of pop, dance, blues, trad and classical music, there really is no-one to compare him to, and I'm sure he likes it that way. This is the closing track from the album “Promenade”, a fast, violin-led piece full of joy and delight as two lovers fly over the city (presumably this is meant as a metaphor for their love), looking down at all the people and places they know. It's a very happy, boppy and uptempto track, from an album that swings between a lot of different influences and styles.

The bridge of light --- Apocalypse --- 2008 (Free Mind)
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A real oddity, this one. Apocalypse are a progressive rock band from Brazil, whose albums prior to this one were all sung in their native Portuguese. This is the first album to contain all English singing, in addition to being a live album, recorded in their home country. It starts off with “Next revelation”, evincing a very 70s-era prog vibe, similar to the likes of ELP and Yes, or even the likes of Camel and Canned Heat. Nice twiddly keyboard with what sounds like a Hammond organ in there too, very reminscent of Fish-era Marillion. Vocalist Gustavo Demarchi is a little rougher than I would like for a prog band, touch of the David Byrons about him, but he sings the songs well.

“Dreamer” is a lot more like it, with its long, very Marillionesque keyboard intro, a bouncy rocker, while Demarchi's flute-playing adds a definite touch of Jethro Tull to “Ocean soul”. But this is primarily a keyboard-driven band, and founder member Eloy Fritsch certainly knows his way around the keys! The sound of Apocalypse, at least on this album, is built around his dextrous and memerising playing, though the guitar work of (surely brother?) Ruy Fritsch cannot be ignored either. I'm personally not for the flute, which was okay at the beginning of the track but now sounds not only intrusive but unnecessary.

Perhaps unusually for a prog band, Apocalypse have not included any epic or overlong songs on this set, the longest being just under seven and a half minutes, the powerful “Last Paradise”, which is in fact broken into two sections, the first, called “The world behind”, a power-rocker with some great guitar solos, almost verging on AOR territory. Then the tempo slows for “The Mourning”, with Twelfth Night-style keyboard and acoustic guitar, choral voices and the prog rock vibe well and truly re-established. I could swear there's a fiddle in there somewhere!

“The dance of down” is pure Yes or ELP, and another seven-minuter, while “Meet me” is big, dark and moody. “Wake up call” starts off as as close to an Irish jig as you can get, then becomes sombre and deep with heavy synth and crying guitar, a truly virtuoso performance from Ruy Fritsch, then a ticking clock and an alarm (wake-up call, geddit?) kick “To Madeline” into life, a powerful rocker that lopes along at a nice pace, more great guitar work from Fritsch. “Escape” is striding, strutting stadium rock (obviously very at home here, in a live setting), while the enigmatically-titled “Meeting Mr. EarthCrubbs” has an interesting bass intro, and that damn flute again, before Eloy Fritsch goes a little looney on the keyboards, a great piano line then driving the song, taking us to the penultimate track, the Genesis/Queen hybrid “Follow the bridge”, and the whole thing wraps up with “Not like you”, a semi-ballad with again what sounds like violin, or maybe cello?

I do like this album, however I feel that Apocalypse are a little stuck in the past. The sound is very seventies prog, the vocals are at times hard to discern, though that could be down to production or the fact that this is a live album. I'd probably need to hear one of their studio ones to make proper comparisons and not sell them short. I believe they have a new album due out this year (may already be out), so I will try to get a hold of that.

For a relatively unknown prog rock band from Brazil though, you can't fault them for their effort, their dedication and the quality of their music. Worth picking up if you can find it, which may prove to be something of a problem.

TRACKLISTING

1. Next revelation
2. Dreamer
3. Ocean soul
4. Last Paradise
(i) The world behind
(ii) The Mourning
5. The dance of down
6. Meet me
7. Wake-up call
8. To Madeline
9. Escape
10. Welcome outside
11. Meeting Mr. EarthCrubbs
12. Follow the bridge
13. Not like you

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Okay, time for some more instrumentals. Here's another three I really like.

I think to date the only instrumental I have heard from Marillion, this is from their album “Happiness is the road” (one of the first to be reviewed on my journal, as it happens) and a really short but lovely little piano tune called “Liquidity.”


And one of the first instrumentals I remember hearing and being totally impressed with, though the album was largely rubbish! This is ex-Genesis member Steve Hackett, with the title track from his album “Spectral mornings.”


And keeping with the basic progressive rock theme here, let's close with Twelfth Night, from the album “Fact and fiction” (again, reviewed by me previously). This is the only version I could find, and it's live, but doesn't take away from the simple beauty of the song. This is “The poet sniffs a flower.” Watch for it speeding up later on in the song!


There is such a wealth of instrumentals that I know and love, that I will try to feature this section more regularly, but then I'm working on so much that sometimes it's hard to remember to revisit sections I've already done. See below for an example of a new section started only today. But I'll do my best to keep updating this section.

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I find the most important thing when you buy a new album has always been the first track. If the first song doesn't grab you, it colours your enjoyment of the rest of the album, even if it turns out to be a great one. First impressions last, as they say, and you only get the one chance, so your first track, like the opening paragraph of a book, should hook in the listener and make them want to hear more. If it's not a good song their expectations are immediately lowered and their disappointment will hang around like a dark cloud as they go on to track two.

If the track is good, or great, then the euphoric feeling of vindication and relief may even carry the listener past one or two bad tracks. It really is that simple: if the first track doesn't hook you, there's a small chance that you may not listen to the rest of the album, or may listen to it in a biased way. If it is good, you're going to enjoy the album much better. (Of course, if ONLY that track is good then you end up in my “Nice song --- shame about the album!” section!)

So here I'm presenting tracks which open albums which I feel have right away helped me enjoy those albums, and have set the standard for what follows. It's like they say in advertising: get them in the first few seconds or you may lose them. These tracks certainly do the job.

First up is the opening track from Thin Lizzy's 1981 album “Renegade”. Written by Phil Lynott and Darren Wharton (hence the excellent keyboard solo that helps to make the track so impressive), “Angel of Death” sets the bar for what is to follow, with its powerful guitars and swirling synths, and its narrator being the Devil himself for most of the track. Classic.


This is completely different song, from a totally different artist, but it still grabs you from the off. As the opening track to Suzanne Vega's “Solitude standing”, it's completely acapella and for that reason it makes you sit up and take notice. The rest of the album is great too, by the way.


Kicking off a true classic album, you know exactly what to expect when that piano and harmonica introduce “Thunder Road”, and there's no argument that Bruce Springsteen's “Born to run” lives up to the promise of its opening track.


Yes, it was the single that preceded the album, but even so this is a great way to open Don Henley's second solo album, “Building the perfect Beast”, with the excellent “The boys of summer”.


And to close this first edition of “Head start”, what better way to get a rock album going than this powerful slice of hard rock, with great keyboard intro and slamming guitars, this is “Let it rock” from Bon Jovi's phenomenally successful “Slippery when wet”.


Of course, it's almost as important how an album ends, and soon I'll be introducing a section covering the best album closers I've heard. Watch out for it!

Random Track of the Day
Sunday, August 28 2011

Something different to close the RTOTD for this week, it's an Italian progressive metal band called Time Machine, and this is from their EP called “Shades of time”, released in 1997.

New religion --- Time Machine --- from “Shades of time” on Lucretia
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/4/9/9/4/4994.jpg


I couldn't find a video for this song (or this band!) on YT, so I had to throw together my own. It's nothing special, just a shot of the album sleeve, but it allows you at least to hear the track. Which, it has to be said, is really nothing all that special, though not a bad rock song.

So that's it for another week. Those of you who are living in the UK or NI have a bank holiday to look forward to, so no work/school Monday! The rest of you, have a good Monday and don't work too hard, and I'll see you tomorrow for the opening of another week of “Random Track of the Day”. See yaz then!

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We've all heard certain bands or artistes do certain cover versions and thought “WTF??” There are covers that have been attempted by artistes who, on the face of it, should not have any interest in, or connection with, the original. Sometimes they work, a lot of the time they don't.

This section will feature a cover version and its original, both to highlight the differences (if any) in the two versions and also to either show how well the artiste did in covering the song, or how utterly they failed, and should have stayed away.

First up, a band who were known for their hard rock and uncompromising sound. Faith No More had big hits with singles like “Epic” and “Midlife crisis”, and their type of cover song was more in the line of Black Sabbath's “War pigs”, which they immortalised on their album “The real thing”. But rather amazingly, the song which has become one of their biggest and most recognisable hits was a cover of a hit single by a smooth soul group from America, who served as the launching platform for the solo career of one Lionel Ritchie. An odd choice, indeed, but it certainly paid off for them commercially.

Below, then, are the two versions, first the cover by FNM and then the original by the Commodores. Make up your own mind as to whether it was genius, luck or chart savvy that led Faith No More to cover the Commodores' “Easy”, and how well they did with it.

Random Track of the Day
Monday, August 29 2011

Another week begins, and for many of you it's a stay-home-from-work day otherwise known as a bank holiday. Also getting to the end of August, and the end of the first month of RTOTD. To start us off this week here's some more culture for you. Sarah Brightman is one of the most accomplished operatic singers in the field, as well as being married to muso supreme Andrew Lloyd-Webber. This is from an album I have called “Chill: Classical” --- you know the type, full of themes and the like. It's quite good, for the most part.

Figlio Perduto --- Sarah Brightman --- from “Chill: Classical, Disc 2” on Warner
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I'm no fan of operatic singing, but you have to give Sarah Brightman kudos for her talent. This is a vocalised interpretation of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. You may recognise it, as I'm fairly sure it's either been used in films or advertisements.

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Hah-har! Time to splice the mainbrace, weigh anchor and set sail once again for those uncharted lands of independent music which are beckonin' to me! In other words, time for another dip into Trollheart's Treasure Chest (and no, that has nothing to do with being stuck beside Katie Price in a lift!) to see what gems we can unearth. As before, all this music comes from self-uploaded tracks and biogs on SoundClick - Free MP3 music download and much, much more., and we're continuing alphabetically (we're still on A)...

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A Beautiful Tragedy
There is no information at all on this artiste on their page other than the above picture. I therefore can't say whether this is one guy or a full band. He has a good singing voice though. Some unexpected death vocals in there...

SoundClick artist: a beautiful tragedy - page with MP3 music downloads
Genre Rock/AOR
Nationality American (San Marcos)
Gold: Bending the light in new directions, Shore, We always rewind the best part
Silver: Emily, Call it karma, Take care, Until the day I die, One-armed boxer, Driftwood, Penelope

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A Big Guitar
A band from California who aim to have “a big guitar” sound in all their music, hence the name! Their music in fact seems to feature more synth and drum machines, so I'm not really sure where the guitar comes into it... They seem to be mainly a dance/electronica band, which is usually not my cup of rosie, but these guys aren't too bad, and that's high praise from me, considering how little I rate this sort of music personally!

SoundClick artist: A Big Guitar - Ecclectic and instrumental guitar rock combined with genre breaking backing tracks and various other
Nationality American (Californ-eye-ay!)
Genre Dance/ electronic/ ambient/ instrumental
Gold: Actro, Slipstream, Antartica, Serengeti, Time rolls on
Silver: Dynami, Europe, Supersonic, Cascade, Complications

(No image available)
A Blue Duk
I don't know whether that's meant to be a blue duck or a blue duke, and there is so little information on this artiste that I can only tell you that he/she/they is or are from the US, but there's no state filled in.

SoundClick artist: A Blue Duk - page with MP3 music downloads
Nationality American
Genre Rock
Gold: Gone, Under the bridge (RHCP cover), Slow blues, Song A
Silver: Our song 6

So that's another three artistes you probably had never heard of, perhaps never will. I certainly hadn't. But it's often worth taking the time to click on these links, as you can really discover some great music you would otherwise never hear, or even know existed. Plus, maybe in some small way this tiny bit of exposure may help these struggling artistes. Hey, you never know who's reading my journal (of if anyone is)!

Right, we hit a big rock on the way back so I'm off to dry dock to get this ship repaired. See ya all some other time!

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Here I am back with another album that seriously disappointed me, where the bad tracks vastly outweigh the few good. However, whereas with the first in this series I was reviewing an album by a band I had never heard before, and whenever doing that your expectations are by definition not too high, this time the disappointment is much deeper, as the album is by an artiste whose career I've followed for years, and from whom I had yet to see a bad album. Until this one.

The road to Hell, part 2 --- Chris Rea --- 1999 (East West)
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To be fair, there are one or two good tracks on this album, but as a Chris Rea fan I would have expected much, much better, and it really made me wary of future releases by him. The opener, “Can't get through”, sets what I hoped would be the standard, with the same radio-announcements and sounds of rain that opened the original album “The road to Hell”, and even a reprise of the opening melody to the title track. After that the track slips in quality a little, but it's not too bad, considering what's to follow.


And about the only other good one is really good, the one-letter-titled “E”.


But then you get the godawful “Coming off the ropes”...


the annoying “Evil No. 2”


Not forgetting the extremely disappointing and flat “Last open road”


The brain-crushingly dull and unimaginative “Good morning”, with its single line of lyrics --- come on Chris: you can write better than this, I know you can!


But then the album closes on the utterly hokey “New Times Square”. Oh dear!


I didn't lose faith in Chris Rea, and thankfully the last of his albums I got --- “Dancing down the stony road” --- was brilliant and reaffirmed my belief in him as an artist. But though this album has one or two good tracks on it, they're not enough to compensate for the bad ones. I almost gave up on the guy after listening to this. Don't do that again, Chris!

Random Track of the Day
Tuesday, August 30 2011

A band previously featured when I reviewed their album “Paradise in flames”, today's random track is German metal band Axxis. This comes from their live album “Access all areas” (access = axxis: geddit?) and a track originally taken from their second album, imaginatively titled “Axxis II”.

Save me --- Axxis --- from “Axxis all areas” on Massacre
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A good pure rock track, with vocals that, to be honest, sound like the lead singer is trying to be a ghost (listen to it and you'll see what I mean), this is typical of Axxis. Good, strong guitar solos, decent melody and nice hooks all make for a catchy song that's as much rock as it is metal.

Random Track of the Day
Wednesday, August 31 2011

One of my favourite artistes, Judie Tzuke, brings a close to August on Random Track of the Day, with a track from one of her albums which I have previously reviewed. This track was not featured in that review (not posted) as there is little YT footage of Judie and none of this track, so once again I had to get out the hammer and chisel and furnish another of my own creations.

Falling --- Judie Tzuke --- from “The cat is out” on Legacy
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...QpDIu1OQ6lTkfu


“Falling” is a nice little mid-paced ballad, not the best on the album but certainly not the worst. It has a nice beat and Judie is on song as ever. Nice percussion reminscent of Phil Collins around his “Hello I must be going” period. Primarily keyboard-driven, but with some nice guitar in there too.

So, tomorrow a new month begins. We'll see what the random-o-meter chooses for us then....

Tao of the dead --- … And you will know us by the trail of dead ---2011 (Richter Scale)
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Unofficial winners of both the Award for Most Enigmatic Band and also Longest Band Name, ...And you will know us by the trail of dead were completely unknown to me until I read about them in Classic Rock presents Prog, a magazine I get regularly, and which exposes me to bands I would not otherwise have heard or, or thought to listen to. Sometimes this knowledge is beneficial to me, sometimes not, but in the case of (look, let's just call them “Trail of dead”, ok? My typing fingers are just not up to this!) Trail of Dead, the experience looks to be positive, at least for this album.

Their seventh, the album is broken into two parts called, not surprisingly, “Tao of the dead part one: Tao of the dead” and “Tao of the dead part two: Strange news from another planet”. The second part is taken up by one sixteen-minute composition, while the first part comprises eleven tracks, almost all of which are short. The album opens with an instrumental, “Introduction: let's experiment”, which begins as a barely audible piano melody which is suddenly upstaged by heavy guitar, leading into the first real track, “Pure radio cosplay”. It's a heavy track, relying again mostly on guitar, with sometimes hard to make out vocals, but it does get your attention.

It's followed by the first single from the album, the post-punk “Summer of all dead souls”, with a lot of feedback guitar, frenetic drumming and mostly shouted vocals, but some good synth parts too. Near the end of the song it goes all acoustic, slowing down completely. It, and the previous track, are the only two long tracks on the first part of the album, save the closer, and every other track on this part is no more than three minutes long, some less than two. “Cover the days like a tidal wave” has a sort of mechanised vocal, and more feedback guitar, thumping drumming and some weird effects that add to the track. The end of it sounds like the opening to Pink Floyd's “On the run” from “Dark side of the moon”...

Trail of dead is the brainchild of longtime friends Conrad Keely and Jason Reece, each of whom play guitar, drums and also sing on this album, with Keely also playing the piano. “Fall of the empire” is a slower song, but not without those heavy guitars (get the feeling there will be no ballads on this album!), and some more cool effects. Very atmospheric. To be fair to Keely, or whoever is doing vocals on this track, since they both sing, though the guitars are very loud, he has no problem not only being heard above them, but understood. That's a powerful voice right there.

Still not too sure what to make of this album. I've never heard anything close to it before. It's almost as if a punk band had got fed up bashing out the same chords and started fiddling with keyboards and complex arrangements. A punk prog rock band? It really does sound that close. There are elements of Tears For Fears around the “Seeds of love” era, or a really sophisticated Clash. I'm sure there are many influences coming to bear on Trail of Dead here, and it ends up being a real hybrid sound, hard to pin down.

“Spiral jetty” is almost an interlude, so short is it, then “Weight of the sun (or the post-modern Prometheus)” is an acoustic start which turns into another heavy number --- those crashing guitars are never too far away! --- with some pretty frantic piano work from Keely. “Pure radio cosplay (reprise)” is essentially a guitar workout with some lyrics thrown in, then “Ebb away” is the slowest and most restrained track so far, not a ballad but close to one. Sort of. Part one ends with “The Fairlight pedant”, the only other long track other than the two already mentioned, at just under six minutes. It's an instrumental, but more than that. It's a full-fledged jam where the guys get to try out their best moves and really show what they're capable of. Speeding up to almost unthinkable pace, slowing back down, speeding up again... it takes your breath away.

And so ends part 1, and we're into “Strange news from another planet”, which is broken into five separate parts, though I think I'll have to guess where one ends and another begins. It starts off with a heavy rocker, this being the first movement, as it were, called “Know your honour”, where even Keely struggles to be heard above the roar of the guitars and the pounding of the drums. What I take to be the second movement, “Rule by being just”, features a slowing down of the tempo, a more introspective (for these guys!) mood with picked guitar and backing tracks a la Pink Floyd, and an almost bluesy air.

A keyboard passage and a speeding up of the tempo introduces the third movement, “The ship impossible”, an instrumental passage, with a Rush-style bridge (circa “Caress of steel”) to the fourth movement, “Strange epiphany”, a sort of boogie rocker with a really odd Santana-ish ending. And so to the closer, and final and fifth movement, “Racing and hunting”, a big and brash finale that takes this huge track to an immensely satisfying conclusion.

To be perfectly honest, I'm a little shellshocked by this album. I knew it was going to be different, just didn't realise how different! It's kind of hard to judge it properly on one listen (Probably should have spun it a few times before trying to review it then, eh? ---- Shut up, Ghost Who Never Lies: you're no help at all!) --- I'm pretty sure I don't dislike it, but whether I love it or not is something I can't say at this point. I've just never heard anything like this at all. Ever.

Probably the only way you'll be able to judge for yourself is to listen to it. To paraphrase “The Matrix”: you can't be told what “Tao of the dead” sounds like. You have to hear it for yourself.

TRACKLISTING

Tao of the dead part I: the tao of the dead
1. Introduction: let's experiment
2. Pure radio cosplay
3.Summer of all dead souls
4. Cover the days like a tidal wave
5. Fall of the empire
6. The wasteland
7. The spiral jetty
8. Weight of the sun (or the post-modern Prometheus)
9. Pure radio cosplay (reprise)
10. Ebb away
11. The Fairlight pedant
Tao of the dead part II: Strange news from another planet
(i) Know your honour
(ii) Rule by being just
(iii) The ship impossible
(iv) Strange epiphany
(v) Racing and hunting

The smoker you drink, the player you get --- Joe Walsh --- 1973 (ABC-Dunhill)
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Ain't the human brain an amazing thing? The title of this album makes no sense at all, and yet the brain manages to fill in the gaps and make it make sense! I love the title, and to be honest I've never heard this album before but I just wanted to review it because of the title. Shallow, you say? Wasting your valuable time? We shall see, we shall see...

Most people know Joe Walsh for his two big hits, “Rocky Mountain way”, which is featured on this album, and “Life's been good”, which isn't. But you may also know him for his association with the Eagles, when he played on the “Hotel California” album and tour. A larger than life figure, Walsh is an accomplished guitar player, but here he also plays keyboards, bass and of course sings.

The album kicks off with the aforementioned “Rocky Mountain way”, which helped break him commercially as his first big success. It's a fun song, a real slice of boogie rock with chunky guitars, honky-tonk pianos and a great beat. “Book ends”, by comparison, is a much more sombre affair, almost balladic in its composition, and mostly driven on a piano line with backup from guitar. Although credited just to him, the album is in fact by Walsh and his band at the time, Barnstorm. It was also to be the last with them.

“Wolf” is a ballad, with lovely mournful guitar and atmospheric keyboards and backup guitars. Its mood sort of reminds me of very early Fleetwood Mac, while “Midnight moodies” is almost soul/funk, with some jazz influences and even a little flute thrown in (yeah, I know, but it works somehow)! It's an instrumental, and very good it is too.

The vocal duties are shared on the album between Walsh and keyboard player Rocke Grace, as well as bassist Kenny Passarelli and drummer/keyboard player/everything player Joe Vitale, and as it's a little hard to work out who's who (though that's obviously Walsh on the opener) I won't go too deeply into the vocal performances here. But it's pretty obvious that it's not Joe Walsh on the caribbean flavoured “Happy ways”, while “Meadows” starts off with someone shouting something far away and then screaming before the track gets into its groove, a nice mid-paced rocker, the first of the tracks to come closest to the style of the band he would later join, the Eagles. You can almost hear Don Henley or Glenn Frey singing this one (though I'm fairly certain it's Walsh himself on vocals here).

The two longest tracks are next, the first being the lush “Dreams”, a lazy, laid-back ballad with some great organ helping to create the drift-away mood of the song. This actually puts me in mind of the first Supertramp album, a very underrated record as it happens. Well named indeed, the song is lazy and dreamy. It's followed by “Days gone by”, a sort of funky mid-paced rock tune, with some great guitar, especially at the end. Proceedings come to a close on “(Day dream)Prayer”, a short piano-led ballad with elements of Floyd/Waters.

An album with a lot of varied styles, it's pretty much true that there's something for everyone here. It's a classic album which I always wanted to hear. Having heard it, I have to admit to not being totally blown away, but there are some really good tracks on it, and it's a good signpost to where Joe Walsh's career was going to go in the future.

TRACKLISTING

1. Rocky Mountain way
2. Book ends
3. Wolf
4. Midnight moodies
5. Happy ways
6. Meadows
7. Dreams
8. Days gone by
9. (Day dream) Prayer

Random Track of the Day
Thursday, September 1 2011

No better way to start the month that with a nice slab of good old hard rock! That's what you get with Iced Earth, though they'd probably prefer to be described as heavy or progressive metal. Whatever way they style themselves, the words “hard” and “heavy” are in there! This is from their live album “Alive in Athens”.

Last December --- Iced Earth --- from “Alive in Athens” on Century Media
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Good hard rockin' track, lots of heavy guitar and some killer vocals. I don't know too much about Iced Earth --- they're another band whose discography I have, but have yet to listen to --- but on the basis of this I must say they sound very promising. I know they've been going since about 1989, so they've certainly had time to hone their craft! “Last December” gets no complaints from me.

Remembering the Dead... my own little contribution
 

As next Sunday marks the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York, I feel it's only appropriate to mark the occasion. Whether you agree or not with US policy, wherever your sympathies lie and whoever you are, there's no argument that thousands of innocent people lost their lives on that black day, and thousands more are still living with the pain of that loss.

So on September 11 I will be posting a special selection of songs that in one way or another refer to or mark the attacks. Haven't decided on the content yet --- could be some patriotic songs (Bon Jovi's "Bells of freedom", Springsteen's "The Rising" etc), sad songs, certainly some political songs --- but I will do my best to remain true to the memory of those who died, and those who have been left behind. My intention is not to sensationalise anything, but to underline the anniversary and just pay my own little tribute to the victims of the Twin Towers attack.

I would appreciate anyone who reads it taking it in that spirit. It's not meant to be politically partisan, judgemental or sanctimonious, and anyway, if you feel uncomfortable for any reason with this section you are under no obligation to read it. I would welcome, as ever, any comments on this when it's posted, but mostly I hope it will just encourage us all to stop for a moment and think about the honoured dead and their loved ones, and remember a very black day in the history not only of the USA, but of the world.

Thanks.
Trollheart.

Cuts like a knife --- Bryan Adams --- 1983 (A&M)
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Ah yes, Bryan Adams, before he got all famous with “Reckless” and began to get above himself! There was a time when we would have said Bryan who? And this was it. The first album to chart for Adams, and the one that led to the phenomenally successful “Reckless” and mega-stardom, this is in fact a much better album than the one that followed it. Or any of the others since.

It's a real rocker's album, kicking off with “The only one”, a good hard rocker with a great melody and Bryan's soon-to-be-internationally-recognised drawl, as well as his signature guitar sound which would soon be flowing out of more radios than you would care to remember. On this album he's joined by such luminaries as Jim Vallance and Lou Gramm, and there's hardly a bad track to be heard. Hardly. One or two don't quite make the cut for me, but generally speaking it's a solid album.

“Take me back” is dirty, no-holds-barred rock in the mould of AC/DC, no frills attached. Some nice organ on this, very atmospheric but doesn't take from the basic roots rock of the song. The third single released from the album, and the first to get Adams a hit in the UK, “This time” is more commercial rock, verging on pop, but a great song with a hard-to-resist hook. The type of melody used on this track would surface later on the millions-selling “Reckless”, and become inextricably linked with Adams' material.

Two monster hits come one afer the other next. The first is Adams' first hit single, the piano ballad “Straight from the heart”, which is now recognised as one of his greatest hits. It's a real power ballad, with piano, organ and guitar all meshing to create a lush melody against which Adams' trademark hoarse singing soars. Nice backing vocals from Lou Gramm, he of Foreigner fame, really add to the feel of this song. The title track is a mid-paced rocker, kicking in with thumping drums and very much more guitar-led, a rawer rock song. Great guitar solo here, and again the backing vocals are spot-on, especially on the “singalong” chorus at the end. Guaranteeed crowd pleaser.

A good heavy rocker then in “I'm ready”, with great keyboards and some superb guitar solos. “What's it gonna be” is a lot more commercial, but a fast rocker nevertheless with some great hooks. Would have thought this might have been released as a single, but it wasn't. Certainly had the potential to do well. The hard rockin' continues in “Don't leave me lonely”, with a great soaraway guitar opening, kind of Bon Jovi in its feel, certainly around the early eighties albums anyway, while for “Let him know” bryan legs it back to the sixties, with a very Beatlesesque tune.

The album closes on another ballad, nice digital piano leading in “The best was yet to come”, the sad tale of how things don't always end up the way they begin. There's a very lounge/cabaret feel about this, like you could see Adams onstage in some club in Vegas or somewhere singing this as people talk and drink and have their meal. It's a really nice song, but that's just the impression it gives me. As ballads go, on this album, I much prefer “Straight from the heart”.

Like I said, this is one hell of an album, and if you've always shied away from Bryan Adams due to his overpopularity and his sellout on that bloody song (which I love, sorry, but I know many people get physically sick when they hear the piano opening to “Everything I do”...), then take heart. Before he became mega-famous and more than a little of a caricature of himself, like Michael Bolton, Bryan Adams was a rocker. And he wrote some great songs. And made some great albums. And this is one of them.

TRACKLISTING

1. The only one
2. Take me back
3. This time
4. Straight from the heart
5. Cuts like a knife
6. I'm ready
7. What's it gonna be
8. Don't leave me lonely
9. Let him know
10. The best was yet to come
Suggested further listening: “Reckless”, “Into the fire”

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Whereas our last (and indeed, first) look at collaborative efforts by two musicans was indeed two musicans as different as could be, this one is more two on a par with each other, and the song was a huge international hit. Not that surprising when you consider the quality of talent involved. Queen of course were already well known and respected as a driving force in the rock world, with albums like “News of the world”, “A night at the opera”, and huge hit singles like “Killer queen”, “Crazy little thing called love” and of course their number one classic, “Bohemian rhapsody” to their credit. David Bowie was also internationally renowned as an innovative and enduring artist, having created albums like “Ziggy Startdust”, “Diamond dogs” and “Heroes”, and with a string of hit singles to his name, including the seminal “Life on Mars”.

So the teaming up of these two forces, while not exactly envisaged, was no huge wrench to anyone. Both were in the rock arena, both quite firmly in the dramatic/theatrical side of rock, with makeup, costumes and lavish stage shows part of each's indentity and persona, and each were accomplished musicians and songwriters. Both also had a strong sense of moral justice and a desire to do what they could to change the world, evidenced by their ongoing charity work.

Queen and David Bowie --- Under pressure
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When Bowie arrived at Queen's studio to record a track for their forthcoming album, “Hot space”, both found the session was not working as they had hoped. So they took a break, had a jam session and within that session the embryonic “Under pressure” was born. After much tweaking and re-recording, the song was finally released as a single (Queen's name first, as Bowie was essentially guesting on the record) and became a huge hit. It has an instantly recognisable and catchy bassline, as well as handclap beats that help to form the rhythm. Bowie is on his best form, while Freddie Mercury sings scat in the background, joining in on the verses later and both of them on the chorus, though Bowie sings “Under pressure” on his own.

Although the single, being a number one hit, has been somewhat dulled by repeated plays, and one tends to more reach for the off button when it comes on the radio or TV, it's stood the test of time, sounding as fresh now as it was when it was recorded thirty years ago. It's also been covered and sampled, sometimes well, sometimes not.

“Under pressure” is without doubt a true example of consummate professionals getting together to produce a quality product, and the fact that this was (up to then) the only time Bowie collaborated with anyone, says a lot about the admiration he had for Queen, and they for him.

Without question, a Marriage Made in... Heaven!

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They're out there, you know. They always have been, and they always will be. The albums that we sneer at, laugh at and discount as “have to be crap”. And usually they are. I'm talking about albums by artists who should have no business at all making music. Artistes who cross over from the world of film, TV or other disciplines to try their hand at music. It's usually a side-project for them, some sort of outlet or something they feel they have to try. Sometimes it's nothing more than a cynical ploy tp squeeze some more cash out of their already rich revenue streams. Consider the likes of Kevin Bacon, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Robert Downey Jr. and so on. People who should never, under any circumstances including a death threat or all-out nuclear war (or even worse, the threatened reformation of Hearsay!), be let within a million miles of a microphone or a recording studio.

Admittedly, there have been some, a few, who have taken the step across the great divide and managed to either marry an acting and music career --- like (dare I say it?) --- Miley Cyrus and Hilary Duff, or have left the acting behind and taken on music as a fulltime career, and done well with it. The shining example here of course would be Kylie Minogue, who bucked the trend and took her music seriously, and became something of a beacon for aspiring crossover acts to follow.

But generally speaking, actors should stick to acting and musicians to making music. Jon Bon Jovi's few forays into the film world are never going to earn him any Oscars, and though Tom Waits did a star turn in “Bram Stoker's Dracula” as the mad Renfield, we much prefer to hear him play and sing, and he makes a far better career out of being an amazing musician than he could ever do acting.

So when we see these sort of people making albums we generally roll our eyes and move on. It's a natural reaction. How good an album can, say, Eddie Murphy or Jack Palance produce? And let's not even go into the delights of “Transformed man” by Captain James T. Kirk, William Shatner! But occasionally, these crossovers work, and it's then that, if we decide to take a chance, we can end up pleasantly surprised, gobsmacked even, that such a result is possible.

That's, then, what this section is all about. Not just actors singing, but ANY album by ANY artiste which I thought, before shelling out my hard-earned on it, that it was going to be rubbish, and found the opposite to be true. They're few and far between, certainly, but as I said at the beginning, they are out there, just waiting for you to take a chance on them.

Heartbeat --- Don Johnson --- 1986 (Epic/CBS)
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And we kick off with an album I fully expected to be pants, and turned out to be far from it. I had never watched “Miami Vice”, and only knew of Don Johnson, one of the crime-fighting duo in the show, peripherally. I always considered him a pretty-boy actor with perhaps delusions of talent. It now appears to me, three decades later and a lot wiser, in some respects, that the show itself was not the flash, vacuous programme I had expected it to be. From what I have seen of the little I have watched, it's quite dark and gritty, and realistic, to a point. I'm still no fan, yet, but it does seem my preconceptions of the show were way off.

So, too, it would appear were my idea of Johnson, at least his musical talent. Having for whatever reason decided to chance buying his album in 1986, I listened to it expecting nothing but pap and formulaic songs, and was totally blown away by what I heard. Now, it's not a classic rock album by any means, and it was never going to skyrocket his career in music and make him a star, any more than he already was, but as a side-project, from someone who had never entered the music arena up to this, it was damn good!

First off, it's not peopled by the usual plethora of stars and guests who tend to appear on records of this nature, ostensibly to raise the album or the singer's profile, but more often than not to help him on the album and often to almost record it for him, or her. That doesn't happen here. Yes, there are guests: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dweezil Zappa and Ron Wood, and there are songs written by Bob Seger and Tom Petty, but this is unmistakably Don Johnson's project. He sings, writes (well, co-writes) one song on the album, and wisely leaves the production to the professionals, where so many other artistes would insist on having a hand in that. There's no big-name producer either: Chas Sandford and Keith Diamond are names known to me, but hardly Steve Lillywhite or Quincy Jones!

And, this album rocks! The title track opens the album, and it's a great slice of AOR, Johnson's vocals clear and steady, and powerful, with the band he has assembled doing a fine job, especially Omar Hakim on drums and Bill Champlin on keys. Rather than a limp-wristed, digital piano-driven barely-there rock song, it's a powerful anthem, bouncy and rocky, and a great start. “Voice on a hotline”, the next one up, has that digital piano, but it's not oversaturated with it, and there's some great sax from Lenny Pickett. It's a mid-paced semi-ballad with a certain element of slow jazz to it, and good backing vocals.

The next track would have been the standout, had it not been for the closer, which earns that title. But this is a close second. “The last sound love makes” is another powerful rocker, with great guitar and an excellent hook. Johnson's voice is actually suited to the material, strong and poweful; he doesn't have to stretch to hit the high notes nor croak on the low ones. He seems to have quite a decent range. The lyrical idea here is very impressive too: ”The last sound love makes/ Is the sound of a heartbreak.”

Another ballad follows then for the Tom Petty-penned “Lost in your eyes”, with some great organ and jangly guitar. The quality then takes something of a dive for the next track. “Coco don't” is Robbie Nevil's “C'est la vie” in another guise, worst track of the album so far and the first time I've felt let down, in a way I almost expected before I started the album but had grown to expect less as it went on. “Heartache away” redeems the album with an almost-ballad with country flavourings, and somewhat incongruous heavy drumming, but some nice guitar and a good melody.

“Love roulette” is another AOR tune, with a good backbeat and some really fun horns and a great guitar solo, while “Star tonight”, Bob Seger's contribution to the album, is a typical Seger track, slow, heavy ballad with harmonica by Mickey Raphael and acoustic guitar. I've heard better from Seger, but it's a decent addition to the album, and there's a really evocative acoustic guitar solo in it too. “Gotta get away” is Journey at their heaviest and rockiest, real eighties AOR with Johnson on great form vocally.

Standout track is the closer, as I mentioned earlier, and rather surprised to find it's actually written by Johnson (collaborating with drummer Curly Smith). It's a heartbreakingly beautiful bittersweet ballad, driven on a simple piano line with strings section coming in later. “Can't take your memory” is the song that once and for all blew my preconceptions of Don Johnson as a bandwagon-jumping talentless blow-in for ever. The way he sings this song makes you think he has been doing this all his life, and it's a truly beautiful closer to the album.

So you see, life is full of surprises. I didn't in any way expect to hear songs or indeed singing of this calibre from an actor trying his hand at music, and it impressed me hugely. Johnson did not make a career of music: he only released one more album after this, in 1989, before returning to the world he knows and excels at best, that of acting. I won't say I'm disappointed, but on the basis of this album I am left wondering what might have happened if Don Johsnon had forsaken the world of Hollywood and concentrated completely on his music career. I think we all might have been surprised by what would have developed.

TRACKLISTING

1. Heartbeat
2. Voice on a hotline
3. The last sound love makes
4. Lost in your eyes
5. Coco don't
6. Heartache away
7. Love roulette
8. Star tonight
9. Gotta get away
10. Can't take your memory