Summer Ear Candy for 2009
You know the score on this by now!
It's warmer and the days are longer and it's my favourite time of the year; early summer. So, here's the current crop of Compact Diskeroonies that have walked themselves into the house lately!
Poison - Poison'd
OK, stop sniggering at the back. I know that I should know better than to spend my hard earned money on covers albums by Poison. But this time I can safely say that, in the recent tend of rock artists recording covers albums, this one is pretty good and is an entertaining listen, so you can take that daft grin off your face and listen to the damn thing!
Poison recent albums have been hit-and-miss affairs for me since "Native Tongue" came out (cough) sixteen years ago (bloody hell, that's a long time ago now!), but this one is a pretty good spin. There's a good range of songs on here from a nice range of artists. There's stuff by The Cars ("Just What I Needed"), Alice Cooper ("I Never Cry") and Bowie ("Sufferagette City") that sits side-by-side with songs that Poison have covered before on record (Kiss' "Rock and Roll All Nite" and the immortal Loggins-Messina "Your Mamma Don't Dance") It's a good set list for a party on a summer's afternoon and the band give it their all. As an album, it's got a similar feel to Leppard's "YEAH!" from a few years back (it's not a "Dreamland" or "Hope and Glory") and it's a good companion to it.
I'd recommend it of you see it cheap (like I did) and you want something easy on the ears...
Diving for Pearls - Diving for Pearls
I could have sworn that I've had this on CD for years, but on looking through the racks, I found that I had been mistaken. I just don't understand what happened there! So, I found a good cheap copy and pressed "Buy"... and now I can be mistaken no more.
This is all good summery rock for those who like a it all AOR and lovely. Bright choruses and clean production bring the songs to life and provide a good platfor for Danny Malone's great vocals. There's nothing on here that you would call "highly original", but putting that aside, there are some great tunes that would make a rocking good soundtrack for a sunny barbeque in the garden with your pals around taking the piss out of your copy of the Poison covers album that you just had on.
The best way to describe this album is that it sounds like 1989... and I mean that in a good way!
Slamer - Nowhere Land
Kicking in with an atmospheric intro with Slammer's trademark guitar mastery which is followed by the introduction of Terry Brock's huge vocals, the title song that kicks off the album sets the tone for the rest of this album. This first song has hints of Journey and a bit of Leppard, as you'd expect with something like this, and also hints of Dream Theater and the slightly proggier end of the Hard Rock spectrum. From here on in, you are presented with a great selection of ballads and rockers all given a lovely production job and delivered with a high sheen, but also a good deal of punch.
There are some great moods on here, from the brooding "Beyond the Pale" to the hugely lush balladry of "Jaded" and back to the rockery of "Audio Illusion", there are some great songs here and it's hard to fault them on the whole, especially copnsidering the production values and the excellent band performances.
So, thank you to Andy for recommending it to me and Ross in the Netherlands for sending me a copy cheap!
Steelhouse Lane - Metallic Blue
I always got this lot confused with Steelheart, but they are obviously two different bands. This one was another Mike Slamer band and is full of cracking AOR songs, including a take on "Dr Love", which I always thought was written by the Hardline boys, but I'm shown that it wasn't!
There's nothing too adventurous on this album, but it is a cracking set of songs all performed with style and produced as cleanly as you'd expect from a project like this with crackling guitars and full-on vocal harmonies all over the place. The balance between ballads and rockers on here is good with big, bright rockers like "Metallic Blue" sitting nicely with huge songs like "Find Your Way Home", and it all rattles along nicely. There are some songs here written with the Saltis brothers here and you can hear the Tower-City-isms in the massive choruses of songs like "Fire With Fire", it's all good stuff.
So, if you like big fluffy rock, then this is a good one and heartily recommended. Put it this way, this album would follow the Diving with Pearls one nicely at the sunny barbeque I was talking about in that little review!
Billy Idol - Charmed Life
Again, I've had this on vinyl since time began and always kind of liked this one, so I thought it was time to get a CD version of it since I saw it on sale for a quid or something like. There's a lot of good stuff on here delivered in Broad's usual drawl with a suitably epic production by Keith Forsey which builds quite an atmosphere over the duration of the album, even if the comparisons to Simple Minds get a little bit too much after a while. What was the first side of the LP never lets the quality drop, even when they decide to tackle The Doors' "L.A. Woman", which I prefer to the original, mainly due to the fact that Idol in concert would sing "city of shite" at the appropriate place in the song and he throws himself into his Jim Morrison impression. The first side builds nicely and songs like "Prodigal Blues" slowly slink from the speakers. The second half opens with the hit single "Cradle of Love", but for me, this "side" never really meets the standard set by the first side. That's not to say that it's crap, but it's just not as memorable.
All in all, this is not a bad album at all, but not as good as it could have been possibly.
Lamb of God - Ashes of the Wake
After all the fluffiness this season, it's time to spin something brutal and heavy and very metal... so this is a good place to start. This is the 2004 album and I first fell for this one on hearing the opening "Laid to Waste" in the title sequence of Sam Dunn's "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" documentary (more on him later). The opening track has all the heavines that you'd expect from a band like this, but also uses some interesting sounds to lift the music above the pack.
This is tight stuff that is delivered with a good deal of power and a very crunchy production. The vocals are just painful and I've no idea how Randy Blythe can keep up that delivery with such anger and power. The backing is tight and fast with some great drumming keeping the music flowing. For such heavy music, this does romp along nicely (for want of a better word). I'm sure the kids love it!
Global Metal OST
You've got to hand it to Sam Dunn, he knows how to represent metal and present a good movie. It also turns out that he's pretty good at putting together compilation albums and selecting music, the clever son-uva-gun. This soundtrack brings together some of the music that he explores in the excellent follow-up documentary to "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" that focusses on the the world of MEEE-TAAAAL in territories other than Europe and America. So here you get music from Brazil (guess who?!), China, Iran, India and many other countries. Sepultura kick things off with "Inner Self" and then there's no turning back. This is all stuff from the heavier end of the Metal spectrum and it's all fast and furious, but with interesting differences that come from the influences of the different countries of origin of the band. You get the Viking chanting of Norway's Enslaved and the Middle-Eastern sounds in Isreal's Orphaned Land, it's all good stuff.
I think that in the end, you should start by watching the documentary first so you can see some of the bands talking about their lives and music. I totally recommend the movie and think that as a companion piece and introduction to some of those bands, this CD is a good start. This has been a way for me to hear some new stuff, which is always a good thing!
Ted Poley - Smile
I remember when I first heard this. I texted everyone who would care telling them that they should get this. I may have been a little over the top about it, but this really is a good fun listen. There's some cracking AOR on here with big bright riffs over some cracking rockers and lots of lush vocals over some big ballads. It's all as you would expect it to be from Danger Danger's frontman. Sure, his vocals can be a little lacking, but the man sure does know how to put a song together.
Getting this one was a nightmare, by the way. I ordered it in March or sometime like that, but it was a right faff to get it. Cancelled orders and confusion meant I didn't get a legit copy for ages! Ah well, such is...
Heaven and Hell - The Devil You Know
I was a bit non-plussed by this when I first heard it. It certainly has the punch that you'd expect from this line-up of (hushing voice so Sharon Osbourne doesn't hear) Black Sabbath with riffs that shake the floor and vocals that could melt your head at a range of a mile, but the songs just aren't quite as immediate as the numbers on "Heaven and Hell" or "Mob Rules". That said, I stuck with it and it's starting to grow on me, even though I still can't sing you the melody of one song from it yet. It's good, but not quite good enough I reckon.
By the way, there's not enough calls of "LOOK OUT!" from Mr Dio on here... 'nuff said!
Simon & Garfunkel - The Collection
So, five studio albums and a DVD packaged in mini LP style card cases in a tidy little box which looks nice on the shelf for a tenner?! Who could say no? Especially when you consider you're getting some of the greatest songs of all time for your Pavaroti. Part of me thinks that it's the dodgy state of the music industry when material like this is offered for sale for such a ridiculous price, but who can refuse the offer to replace those vinyls with this set? Not me.
What can I say about the music that's not been said already? You get the remastered (with bonus songs) versions of the albums, so they sound as good as they should with those great S&G harmonies soaring across the songs. I defy anyone to think that songs like "Sounds of Silence" and "Homeward Bound" are sh*t. They just aren't.
The DVD is of the 1981 Central Park gig. Instead of putting in the CD of the album, you get to watch it on your telly. There's a bit of tension there between the dudes, but the music sounds good and it was good to see the movie as I've never seen it all before.
So, this is a great value package and it's a winner!
ABBA - The Albums
This one has been on my shelf for a while, but I never got round to talking about it for some reason. So now seems limke a good time to break it out.
Much in the same way of the Simon & Garfunkel set, this one contains all of ABBA's studio ablums and an extra disk of unreleased and other stuff. This one cost fifteen quid, but again, you get some great stuff for your money, all packaged in a tidy little box and LP replica covers. It may not be metal and Rich would definately not approve, but how could I resist?
Again, the material has been talked about over and over again over the years and there are some classic numbers in the band's catalogue with great melodies and vocals to die for. There is no doubting that (even when it was not cool to say so) they are one of the best pop bands to have walked the Earth and this set shows the reason why.
"But it's not Rock, Gray!" I hear you call. Well, to my ears there is a lot that could be compared in this lot to rocking numbers that we all love. Take a minor key approach to the riff from "Waterloo" and you're skating very close to Uriah Heap's "Easy Livin'". "Eagle" definately has elements of Maiden and Helloween in it. "Does Your Mama Know That You're Out?" is totally a number that you could rock up with a great riff that Noddy Holder could have fun with. Journey are the only band who could write something as epic and stirring as the incredible (and my favourite) "Winner Takes It All". So no, it's not exactly "Rock", but who cares when "Not-Rock" can sound so damn good?
Sarah McLachlan - Wintersong
Just as the other Candian Mc did, here is a collection of wintery and Christmasy songs to keep you warm in the mild weather of spring. Err, yeah. It's all nice and sounds superb, but a collection of new originals would go down better in this house, hense me taking over a year to buy this one!
Queensryche - American Soldier
I'm going to leave this one short and sweet. This one's another disappointment for me and I've finally come to the conclusion (after over ten years of trying to convince myself otherwise) that The 'Ryche just don't have "it" anymore. If it wasn't bad enough that they keep regurgitating live versions of Mind:Crime and putting out compilation albums, the studio albums are just not getting any better (never mind what Derek Oliver says). This album bangs on about war (again) and has some interesting ideas, but it just goes on and on and on. I know it's a cliche, but they really did go shit after Chris DeGarmo left. There, I said it...
The Holiday Stash
The following titles were found on trawls around CD boutiques and charity shoppes in the Lake District in April. I found quite a bit this time, much to certain people's horror... So here goes!
Bon Jovi - Bounce
I've spun this twice now and I'm still a bit non-commital about it, to be honest. It's OK, but there's nothing exceptionally exciting on it. It all sounds like it should; clean and bright with plenty of parts for people other than Jon to have their moments of glory and lots of guitar talkbox. There's a lot of good guitaring and quite a bit of orchestra going on here. Tico sounds magnificent, as usual too.
It's a hard album to get excited about, put it that way and I wouldn't have paid top whack for it, but for a couple of quid, it's worth getting for completion's sake.
John Paul Jones - Zooma
I collection of storming instrumentals from Zep's "Quiet One", and as it turns out here, the one with all the ideas! In some hands, a set like this could be a terrible assault on the ears, but Jones being the genius he is (wait a minute whilst I remove my tongue from... anyway...) rattles off nine pieces of music in rapid succesion and it all sounds grand. There is lots of mood and lots of experimentation, as well as a fair share of bizarre sounding instruments; 12-string bass anyone? It's all good and quite heavy stuff, so give it a go if yer feeling fruity.
The Saw Doctors - If This is Rock and Roll, I Want My Old Job Back
A bit of rabble-rousing folky-punky-rock-and-roll. I picked this up in a charity shoppe, remembering that I quite liked their other stuff, so a quid was not much to part with to grab a bit of this. It's all good stuff and a good fun listen. I should imagine (I've not tried yet) that this is a good one to put on when the drinks are out. The album's live feel really does give the impression that these numbers would pack a punch live. Not a bad album!
Motorhead - From The Vaults
This complitation from a good number of years ago has been floating about on tape in my bucket at home for a long while, courtesy of Fingers Goodchild, obviously. It's a good one, so when I saw this one on the racks for a Holy Diver, there was no question about whether I should get it or not. Now I can't remember what's on this and what's on the boxed set, but any CD with the highly contentious cover of "Stand By Your Man" which caused your man Fast Eddie to walk out of the band for the final time, is worth getting.
There's a good mix of stuff that's been readily available like "Too Late, Too Late" and the Girlschool cover of "Bomber" and other stuff like the Young and Moody Band on "Don't Do That". Also, you can never have too many copies of "No Class". I had this on in the car a few times over the last few days and it's all good "RRRROCK AND ROLL-AH", as you'd expect.
Get it if you see it!
Bonnie Raitt
To paraphrase my good pal Pete, It's the voice. It does something to me especially! So here are three early albums that I liberated from the Plum Piano in Ambleside. Blame KFK for these...
Bonnie Raitt - Takin' My Time
Kicking in with "You've Been In Love Too Long", this album breezes by in a flash. The songs are a little less country here but with a good deal of bluesy tinge and it all sounds lovely. The voice is right up there in the mix and it's not a hard record to fall for. There are certain turns on this record which kind of remind me of the first Maria McKee album, especially with songs like "Let Me In". It's all good though and lends a good deal of variety to the listening experience. She even pre-dates Amy Winehouse by a good thirty years on "Wah She Go Do" before slinking back to "I Feel The Same"... Great stuff.
Bonnie Raitt - Streetlights
Again, it's all good stuff on here. I always think she's a bit more Joni Mitchel on this album, but then again, I've been wrong before. I think that I prefer "Takin' My Time" to this one, although there's nothing too bad about this. I think this album seems a bit more laid back. The variety of material is good again with lots to chew on with Raitt's voice cutting through as you would expect. It's all emotive stuff and a grand listen.
Bonnie Raitt - Sweet Forgiveness
1977 saw Ms Raitt take a funkier direction. It's still bluesy, but there's more of a groovy angle to it, but don't worry, it's far from Disco! On the whole, I'm not as keen on the songs on this album as on the other two, maybe a few more plays may help to let them sink in a bit better (I always say that, I realise!) That said, the voice still sounds good, the title track is excellent and the band is playing great. Not sure about this one... One to live with, methinks.
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© 2006 Graham T. Ebbrell