What does it sound like?:

Finally, after what seems a very long wait, we have the deluxe edition of Stormwatch, the final instalment in Tull’s so-called folk rock trilogy of the late seventies. As you’d expect, it comes in the now familiar format, with 4 cds and two dvds, alongside the usual excellent informative book. Originally released in 1979, this was the last album to feature Tull’s classic line up, and Steven Wilson’s remix really breathes new life into theses songs, making them sound vibrant and contemporary without sacrificing any of their original spirit. In fact, you could say that although the album hasn’t changed, it has certainly been improved. The second disc is the real treasure trove here though, showcasing a wide selection of top quality songs, some of which have appeared on previous rarities sets and as bonus tracks on reissues, but a good number of which are being heard for the very first time. It’s amazing just how prolific the band was at this time, and that they had the luxury of discarding completely finished pieces that didn’t fit in with the album’s themes of ecology and matters maritime, while others such as Kelpie were simply » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

With the recent sad passing of lyricist Robert Hunter, it seems an appropriate time to have a listen to this latest live release from the Grateful Dead’s seemingly inexhaustible supply of concert tapes. This one is a complete show from Giants Stadium recorded in the summer of 1991, and unusually for the time recorded on 48 track. This tour showcased my favourite line up of the band, with the addition of Bruce Hornsby’s piano and vocals really adding something to the band’s onstage sound. Kicking off with a super Eyes Of The World, the band then kick straight into Brown Eyed Women, before the first slice of a three part rendition of Dark Star makes its appearance. Other high spots include a cover of Dylan’s When I Paint My Masterpiece and a jaunty run through of Cassidy and Might As Well, while the second part of this three disc set showcases a great section encompassing Truckin’, New Speedway Boogie and Uncle John’s Band. I’m not a lover of the Drums/Space segments of their shows, which can drag on seemingly interminably, but disc three climaxes with extended workouts of China Doll, Playing In The Band » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

A first vinyl release (five albums plus a download code) of this set that originally appeared as a cd/dvd in 2013, being put together from two 2012 shows on Rush’s US tour. Live albums seem to have appeared thick and fast during the latter stages of the band’s career, this set originally appearing only a couple of years after 2011’s Time Machine release. Nevertheless, this is a good album, with the band being accompanied by a nine piece string ensemble for the second half of the show. That’s not always an experiment that works, with the volume of the band often drowning out the strings, but on this occasion the sound is well balanced, although whether that reflects what is was like on the night is perhaps a different matter! The first half of the show focuses on the band’s less guitar-centric eighties albums, such as Power Windows, Signals, Grace Under Pressure and Hold Your Fire. Need I say the performances are spot on, although I do detect a change in Geddy Lee’s voice, his range being noticeably lower these days. The second half of the show features ten songs from the band’s final » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Whitesnake’s ‘1987’ album was not only one of their finest, it was also a massive worldwide seller (8 x platinum in the US alone) in a year that also yielded classic rock albums such as Hysteria and Appetite For Destruction. Its streamlined hard rock sound was a far cry from the original band’s roots in the UK blues-rock scene, and it broke the band in a big way in the lucrative US market. By unceremoniously dumping the core of the original line-up and replacing them with more photogenic, if highly talented, musicians David Coverdale alienated a huge chunk of the band’s UK audience, but was no doubt laughing all the way to the bank. The 1989 follow up set, Slip Of The Tongue, given a deluxe thirtieth anniversary reissue here in this huge set of six cds plus a dvd, had a tough act to follow, but took the band’s new line-up, look and direction a stage further. Steve Vai handled all the guitar parts after co-guitarist Adrian Vandenberg sustained a hand injury that put him out of action for the duration, giving the songs the requisite classic hair metal sheen that ensured maximum » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

I made the point in a recent piece that it’s hard to imagine nowadays that some artists, who are now such familiar household names, were once looked on as serious musicians, whose new albums were eagerly awaited by fans and critics alike. A prime example is Rod Stewart, a man whose commercial fortunes seemed to rise in inverse proportion to the quality of his albums. This set covers the fourteen alums he released between 1975 and 2001, thus sadly omitting his first five albums, which were by far his best, presumably for licensing reasons. Having said that, the first few of the albums collected here aren’t bad at all – a bit patchy, a bit too much filler, but with some good individual songs, well written and performed. Atlantic Crossing, probably still his best selling set (with the exception of the much later Great American Songbook releases) has Drift Away, I Don’t Want To Talk About It and Sailing for example, while subsequent efforts have You’re In My Heart, First Cut Is The Deepest and Tonight’s The Night among others. The problem is that for every good song like The Killing of Georgie, you » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

With The Moody Blues seemingly on indefinite hiatus, founder member John Lodge has taken the opportunity to release this ‘best of’ set, which combines Moodies songs with the cream of his solo material, covering the period from his Natural Avenue debut record from forty odd years ago right up to 2015’s 10,000 Light Years Ago and the subsequent live album. He’s remixed a couple of songs from his 1977 set to give them a more contemporary feel, and rerecorded completely his 1980 (then) non-album single Street Café. The rerecording also extends to new versions of the Moody classics Legend Of A Mind and (Evening) Time To Get Away, while a further four of their songs appear in faithful live recreations of the originals, ending with a rousing Ride My See-Saw. There’s even room for something from the Blue Jays album recorded with Justin Hayward in the mid seventies in a break from the day job, although sadly it’s not the lovely Blue Guitar. Although there is seemingly little prospect of any new Moodies music, efforts like this go some way to filling the void. I’m not sure it will draw in too many new » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The live releases from Crimson keep coming and are the gifts that just keep on giving. This 5 cd set, covering the years 2014 to 2018, was on sale at the band’s gigs on their recent tour, but has now been given a deserved wider release.

The material covers performances from the first show by this incarnation in New York in 2014 up to one of their most recent gigs in Tokyo in December of last year, devoting one cd to each year. The current line up is now the most enduring in the band’s half century of operations, and they have lost none of their spark – indeed, as the years have passed the creative fire has seemed to burn ever brighter. As purchasers of their previous live offerings will expect, this set has been superbly curated, and is accompanied by a very nice 24 page booklet.

Musically, the playing and improvisations are off the scale, and even when pieces are repeated on different cds no two performances are the same – there are always differences, some subtle, some more obvious. There are some great Crim classics here such as Moonchild, Starless and » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Running On Empty may not be Jackson Browne’s best album – well, it does have some pretty stiff competition after all – but perhaps surprisingly it is his biggest seller. This is a straight remaster of the original 1977 album, and thus excludes the two extra songs that appeared on the 2005 reissue. It’s not a live album as such – instead it’s a mixture of songs that were recorded in live environments rather than in a studio, be that in a concert setting, backstage, on the tour bus or in a hotel room. JB is accompanied throughout by a crack band that included David Lindley, Danny Kortchmar, Russ Kunkel and Leland Sklar among others. You simply don’t get a better supporting cast than that!

Although the two most well known pieces are the title track and the version of Stay (segued with The Load Out) that closes the album, it includes a number of very fine songs, as beautifully crafted and performed as you might expect. Having said that, only two songs are actually new Browne solo works, with four others being co-writes and the remaining four tracks being cover versions. None of » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The next four releases in this series of remasters (no bonus tracks alas) covers the nineties, a tricky and traumatic time for Maiden. Again, these use the masters created for the 2015 vinyl reissues, this being the first time they’ve been available on cd.

First up is Bruce Dickinson’s intended last hurrah, 1992’s Fear of the Dark, best known for its epic title track, still a live favourite today. It’s good to hear again the swashbuckling Be Quick or Be Dead, but with the exception of Afraid To Shoot Strangers it sounds at times like the band was struggling for inspiration, and there are a few too many metal by numbers songs for comfort.

Then came news of Dickinson’s departure, his replacement being Wolfsbane vocalist Blaze Bayley. The X Factor is actually better than I remember it, not having heard it for years. Although the album sags in the middle, there are good songs such as Man on the Edge, Sign of the Cross and Lord of the Flies. It’s certainly worth digging out for another listen as Bayley is a decent enough singer and this is an underrated and often neglected set..

The » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

When Bad Company rose from the ashes of Free in the early seventies, they seemed a band made in heaven for lovers of classic British blues-rock. Paul Rodgers voice was in its prime, and their first two albums, Bad Company and Straight Shooter, still hold their own today, over forty years later. The band somehow seemed to get distracted though by the lucrative US market and rather lost their focus, and for me the next two releases were of nowhere near the same standard, often resorting to run of the mill, plodding songs that really went nowhere and amounted to nothing. At least Run With The Pack (remember that silver embossed cover anyone) had the title track to redeem it a little, but Burning Sky had very little to offer, sounding totally devoid of inspiration. Indeed, when the band released their first best of set, 10 from 6, tellingly not a single track from that album featured. After a lengthy, by those days, hiatus they returned with 1979’s Desolation Angels, replete with obligatory Hipgnosis cover art. This was something of a return to form, although it still had more than its fair share of » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

By now, in 2019, Elvis Presley has been dead for as long as he was alive – 42 years. However, his legend lives on through his music, as evidenced by this huge eleven cd box which marks the 50th anniversary of his run of 57 shows spread over 29 nights in Las Vegas in the summer of 1969. This was the first time he had performed to a live audience for over eight years, so anticipation was at fever pitch. By and large, the performances lived up to expectations, showcasing a greatest hits set spanning the years, plus the live debut of the then unreleased Suspicious Minds. A few years back, I reviewed on here the Yes box set ‘Progeny’, which covered seven almost identical shows from their 1972 US tour. This set tops it though, by presenting no less than eleven consecutive shows from the tail end of Presley’s residency at the International Hotel, which apart from the odd variation here and there, are virtual replicas of each other, even down to the between song chat which is repeated almost verbatim night after night. Although four of the performances here are released in » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Swedish proggers Isildurs Bane have already had a long career on their own account, releasing numerous albums of their idiosyncratic, often instrumental, music. They’ve never shied away from collaborating with other artists though – check out 2017’s Colours Not Found In Nature effort with Marillion’s Steve Hogarth – and now they’ve joined forces with Peter Hammill to produce this collection. The band have never been afraid of experimentation, always being prepared to take a few risks to expand their musical palette, and this album is no exception, featuring for example, the 25 string koto on the excellent opener Before You Know It (King Crimson’s Pat Mastelotto also weighs in too). Hammill contributes beautiful, plaintive but fragile vocals throughout this imaginative music. For me, the longer pieces like This Is Where and The Day Is Done are the most successful, the songs really being given the time to develop through twists and turns in style and tempo while still remaining a cohesive whole. This fresh and exciting piece of work, from a band that simply refuses to stand still, really puts the prog in progressive. If you’re a fan of this genre, have a listen » Continue Reading.