What does it sound like?:

To The 5 Boroughs is The Beastie Boys sixth studio album, released in 2004. Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D were all pushing forty years old. Two of them were responsible fathers, the other a peace-loving Buddhist. They were positively ancient in the world of Hip Hop, so, naturally, they go Old Skool in an attempt to get back to the party vibe of their debut. They go so far back, Triple Trouble doffs its cap to The Sugarhill Gang. However, financial constraints resulted in the closure of their record label, 9/11 had destroyed the Twin Towers and decimated their beloved New York City, and George Bush had begun the War On Terror. A gloom hangs over the album like the dust from the towers’ collapse. Nevertheless, it followed the previous two albums by debuting at number one in the Billboard chart and selling over a million copies in the States.

To The 5 Boroughs is self produced and the only credited additional musician is Mix Master Mike on turntables. The backing tracks are simplified, building strong, muscular beats, and eschewing frivolous samples. It is their most coherent album. With no real skits and » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

James Blast, ex of this parish, believed Bongo Fury to be a Captain Beefheart album interrupted by Frank Zappa. The two mavericks knew each other from high school. Zappa produced and wrote some of Trout Mask Replica. In return, the Captain contributed his gnarly vocals to Willie The Pimp on Hot Rats. Their relationship was feisty. They were both innovators and autocratic band leaders but Zappa liked his music to be nerdy, clean and sleek, whereas Beefheart preferred it messy, wild and chaotic. Lyrically, Zappa relied upon cleverness and a peurile sense of humour, while Beefheart specialised in the unhinged ravings of a peculiar mind. Zappa surprised listeners with frequent time changes. Beefheart had a “problem with rhythm”. But, despite their differences, they were inextricably drawn to each other, both finding inspiration in the other’s love of nonconformity and improvisation. By 1975, Zappa was on a roll. 1974’s Apostrophe (*) was a top ten Billboard hit, followed by the virtuosity of Roxy And Elsewhere and One Size Fits All, wherein screwball satire rubs shoulders with disciplined jazz fusion. Beefheart, on the other hand, had lost his Magic Band, disillusioned with his attempt to make » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Aerosmith are an enormously successful business. They have achieved 25 gold, 18 platinum, and 12 multi-platinum album certifications, in addition to one diamond album, four gold singles, and one platinum digital single. Having sold more than 69.5 million albums in the United States and 150 million worldwide, they are the best-selling American rock band. They have a nice little side line in video games. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is considered to be the best-selling band-centric video game across both the Guitar Hero and Rock Band platforms. They formed in 1970, broke through with their third album, Toys In The Attic, but temporarily lost their twin guitarists to drugs and rehab during a fallow ten years until a mid-eighties resurgence turbocharged by teaming up with Run-DMC on Walk With This Way. Since then, alongside the cash registers ringing, they have enjoyed critical acclaim and multiple awards. They were inducted to The Rock And Roll Of Fame in 2001.

This debut album was released in 1973. It wasn’t well received at the time and the staunchest of Aerosmith fan is unlikely to rate it as one of their best. It is meat and and potatoes, Stones cos-play, minus the swing and » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The Paper Kites have been together, with the same five members, since 2009. They are Australian and have all known each other since high school. They paid their dues, in the old fashioned way, endlessly performing live, honing their sound, working on their technique, and building a following. Their early single, Bloom, gradually gathered momentum, crossed the Pacific and sold a million in America. If You Go There, I Hope You Find It is their seventh studio album.

If The Eagles were soft rock, The Paper Kites are soft folk: largely acoustic instruments, including banjo and lap steel, gentle melodies and smooth caramel harmonies. They occasionally plug in an electric guitar to rough things up but you won’t find much gore or gothic horror. After all these years together, they are in danger of slipping into cosy domesticity. To spice things up their last album, At The Roadhouse, was recorded live with an expanded band, and the one before, Roses, is a collection of duets with guest female vocalists. This time, they return home, almost literally, back to Melbourne, back to their roots and the Sing Sing Studio, stripped down to the five » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

London Records celebrate forty of years of these bands with matching two disc sets, either vinyl or CD. The first disc consists of remastered singles and the second DJ remixes.

Happy Mondays have enjoyed the longer career and are still touring. London own the rights to their Factory recordings, which cover the first four studio albums and fourteen singles, all presented in chronological order. Disc one effectively tracks their development over seven years when a gang of urchins from the back streets of Little Hulton, Salford, somehow managed to conquer the music world and produce two national treasures. Built around two brothers, Shaun and Paul Ryder, and their best mate, Bez, the chaos co-ordinator, they were unruly, immoral, hedonistic, and never worried about consequences. They delivered one of Factory Records best selling albums and bankrupted the company with the follow up. Happy Mondays spearheaded the genre Baggy, a perfect adjective for their music and their dress sense. Perhaps through a lack of ability to keep time, especially when Bez was involved, their main rhythm was a loose, muddy groove, layered with lots of percussion and led by Mark Day’s sinewy jangle guitar. It was » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

You’ve got to hand it to the Cheap Trick lads. Three out of the four original members are still banging out Rock albums, full of new original material, in their mid seventies. Robin Zander’s scream hasn’t lost a single decibel, Tom Petersson’s bass continues to pulsate with virility, and Rick Nielsson’s lead guitar scorches with the exuberance of a teenager. Only the drummer has been replaced, by Nielsson’s son and he’s now fifty-five. Zander’s son also helps out on guitar. All Washed Up is their twenty-first studio album, the title referencing their fifth, All Shook Up released in 1980, and it’s as good as anything they’ve done.

Cheap Trick have a happy knack of blending melody with raw aggression, old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll showmanship with the menace, and brain-melting metal with the youthful degeneracy. There is good reason they were revered by nineties grunge acts such as Nirvana. They are a little less irresponsible these days and pace themselves a little more, leaning towards the power-pop end of their sound and away from hard-rock. However, they have never taken themselves very seriously and have always had a charming line in self deprecation. » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Black And Blue was a minor detour for The Rolling Stones on their quest to find out what Rock sounded like when it grew up, a quest they’d embarked upon in 1973. Mick Taylor quit in December 1974. They toured America in 1975 and released Made In The Shade, a rather limp Best Of, as a stop gap. Black And Blue was recorded with their touring band, which included Ron Wood, and they used the opportunity to audition a number of auspicious lead guitarists for Taylor’s role.

There are eight tracks, four each side. Three are experimental, one is a cover left over from It’s Only Rock And Roll, two are ballads and only two are proper Stones-y tracks. The style of Blues Rock that defined their imperial phase was petering out. The presence of Billy Preston and Ollie Brown gave them the confidence to try dance, funk, latin and a bit of jazz. Wood’s enthusiasm for reggae added to the mix. Jagger dominates proceedings, clearly having a ball. Richards sits back, contributing little to the writing and leaving plenty of room for the guest guitarists. He was swimming in a fog of » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Ronnie Wood is one of nature’s collaborators. He gets on with everybody, loves being part of a gang, and is willing to participate in all the fun, even if it means taking risks with excess alcohol, street drugs and groupies. He is an ideal band member, someone who can make the long hours in the studio or on tour pass more quickly. He has some guitar prowess but nothing that will steal the limelight from a real guitar hero. He brings occasional ideas to songwriting, but generally he needs someone to add melody and lyrics. He is blessed with a voice that suits backing vocals. Most importantly, he is too polite to demand top billing and equal pay.

Fearless collects together 38 tracks from the whole of his sixty year career, in chronological order. It starts well. The Birds and The Creation were raw and exciting, part of the UK Mod scene. The first song he wrote and recorded is You’re On My Mind by The Birds, one he has admitted is a copy of The Yardbirds. He co-wrote three tracks on Beck-O-La, the whole of side two in old vinyl, represented here by » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Ah! The vicissitudes of conducting a romantic relationship in the work place. This is the long lost album by the famous star crossed lovers before they joined Fleetwood Mac. It had one single print run on release in 1973, sold very little, and this simple remaster is the first time it has been available on CD, download or streaming. There are no extras, despite one well known bootleg having twelve additional tracks. It begs the question why it has been buried all this time.

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks met at High School in California. They found themselves harmonising to a Beach Boys song at a youth event. Later Buckingham invited her to join his band, Fritz. They touched real fame, supporting Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix, learning valuable lessons in stagecraft at first hand. It took five years and the breakup of the band for them to begin a personal relationship and for them to start writing songs of their own. Tempted to record demos at Sound City Studios by Keith Elson, they dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles. Nicks earned money cleaning Olsen’s house, waiting tables and » Continue Reading.