What does it sound like?:

This album, originally released back in 1997, was the band’s ninth and their first after parting company with EMI. It’s now reissued in the same book format as previous efforts, with 4 cds plus a bluray and an informative 52 page book. The first cd has a new mix of the album, while the next two discs are devoted to a previously unreleased live show from Grand Rapids recorded in 1997. Disc four has a generous and comprehensive selection of B sides and bonus tracks, which are a welcome addition to any collection and it’s useful to have them all collected together in one place at last. The bluray, audio wise, along with the usual high resolution and surround mixes, has a further 25 tracks of jam sessions and early versions of the songs that ultimately appeared on the finished album. As with all these things, they are not something I would play on a regular basis but nevertheless it’s nice to know they’re there and to be able to trace the development of the songs over time. Finally the video element of the bluray encompasses an 85 minute documentary on the making of » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Three years ago, when Madfish issued American Dreamer, an 8 LP box of her first seven studio albums plus an extra platter of bonus material, Laura Nyro fans cried, “What about CD?” Now, Madfish have gone all in with this gargantuan 19 CD limited edition box set: 10 remastered original studio albums, each with their own disc, 6 live albums including 2 previously unreleased live concerts, Laura’s original demo tape from 1966 and a bonus disc of rarities including mono versions, alternative takes and live tracks, plus a 90-page coffee-table book with liner notes by Vivien Goldman and a foreword from mega-fan Elton John. They won’t be crying now, except maybe over the expense.

Laura Nyro began her career as a quiet, introspective teenager with prodigious talent, recording her first album at 19 years old. Her songs seem to be wrung from her very being, burning with an intensity that belies her years. They stand out for her unconventional use of meter and rhythm, and dramatic emotional range. Her lyrics are routinely referred to as “poetic” because they are both beautiful and elusive. If you allow her to, she will scorch your soul and » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Living In The Material World is a lovely, lovely LP that defined the George Harrison sound for the rest of his career. From conception to execution, it is quintessential George, capturing his struggles to reconcile his deeply held faith with the trappings of an ex-Beatle. All the guitars are played by him: acoustic, Leslie’d electric rhythm and lead, plus his signature slide. He also plays sitar. His singing is the best of his career. He doesn’t have the natural vocal talent of his ex bandmates but he can hit a wide variety of notes with accuracy and, more importantly, he expresses himself with genuine feeling. A choir is deployed sparingly but he sings the rest of the backing vocals, too. In addition, he is the sole producer. Phil Spector gets a credit for the backing track for Try Some, Buy Some, recorded during an aborted Ronnie Spector project, but, otherwise, George is decisively in charge.

Perhaps as a reaction to the extremes of All Things Must Pass, on which there were at least twenty-four musicians, he gathered together a trusted few. Nicky Hopkins and Gary Wright play keyboards, Klaus Voorman bass, and Jim Keltner » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

This album, originally released in 1978, marked the end of the band’s classic run of albums with the mad axeman Michael Schenker on guitar. It’s now been remastered and reissued as part of a two cd set, the second disc being a contemporaneous live show. The original cd still sounds great – real classic British hard rock – and is augmented by four bonus tracks, two of which are the studio recordings of Mother Mary and This Kid’s which were surreptiously sneaked on to the Strangers in the Night live release, cunningly augmented by crowd noise. The live set included here is a new mix of a gig from Cleveland recorded in October 1978, which has a similar content to Strangers, and indeed parts of this show were apparently used on that album which appears to have been an amalgam of various performances supplemented by numerous studio overdubs, apart from Schenker’s guitar parts which he apparently refused to redo. The band are in top form, wheeling out some of their best material with the likes of Love to Love, Only You Can Rock Me and Natural Thing, and there’s a great end to the » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Hawkwind’s epic 1972 “Doremi Fasol Latido” is choc-full of bikerdelic belters; “Brainstorm”, “Space Is Deep”, “Lord of Light”, “Time we left the World today”, The Watcher,” are just some of the spicy little numbers. A single of the time – proto-punk “Born to Go” is added, along with the naughty “Urban Gorilla”, and “Brainbox Pollution”. Yes, an awful lot of this ended up on the mighty and still formidable “Space Ritual”, not that this is a bad thing. I still wonder how, given the band’s alleged consumption of hallucinogens, they kept the show as tight as they did – maybe Lemmy mostly keeping to speed helped. If you know Hawkwind, you know this album or the tracks, many of which remain mainstays of their live set. Not uncoincidentally, a legendary live set at the Greasy Truckers Party on 13th February 1972 is also included – note my observation re keeping it together.

The album has been give a remix which makes it a bit cleaner, enabling a spot of definition in the synths and bass, but over my aged ears and mediocre computer speakers, it was wasted (which I wasn’t – another problem » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

A year ago Adams released a live 3 album retrospective which pulled together “Cuts Like A Knife”, “Into The Fire” and “Waking Up The Neighbours”, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall. He broke the chronology as “Reckless” was skipped, but even before the det was released, Adams was back at the RAH to give “Reckless”, “18 ‘Til I Die” and his most recent studio release “So Happy It Hurts” the same treatment.

Available as 3 CDs or 4 LPs, there’s also a blu ray of each concert. I’ve bought a great many concert DVDs and watched them very little but, in this case, I found myself preferring them to the identical audio versions. “Reckless” is up first, and the band emerge from moody backstage monochrome onto a full colour stage, although the band are all decked out in black, white sneaker laces the only offset. Adams continues to sport a retro slicked back haircut and an equally vintage Gibson ES-295 and is in fine vocal form throughout.

Although Adams is reprising previous releases, he changes the playing order and here throws in tracks that didn’t make the original. He restores the song “Reckless” that » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The reason this review is late is a simple one; Frost* albums take a while to absorb and take in, especially when it’s a double, like this one.

Their previous release, 2021’s Day and Age, was something of a departure because it contained songs with no solos. I absolutely loved it but I know that wasn’t the case for everyone. Life in the Wires is a return to the band’s roots; a proper concept album with an absolute plethora of fantastic melodies, virtuoso playing and terrific songs. Oh, and a solo or ten.

Jem Godfrey, Frosts*’s leader, keyboard player and co-singer, puts out hilarious ‘the making of’ videos which give fans the background and timeline to the gestation of each album and for this one, we can see that it is very much his baby, especially as he has taken all of the lead vocals. The whole ‘double concept-album’ is obviously his passion and that shines through in the music.

Ah, yes; the music.

The songs are almost universally glorious. There’s an intensity in many of them but without too much of the heavy, complicated time-signature stuff which I know turns some fans off. » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

It’s a dull weekend afternoon in early summer, 1972. I’m in the living room at my parent’s home in Plymouth, with the transistor radio on, likely listening to Rosko or Freeman. I’m not really paying any attention to the chat between tracks when on comes this dreamy little single driven by electric piano chords and a subtle bass part. Then there’s a breathy, slightly treated vocal from someone whose accent sounds as if maybe English is not their first language. It builds nicely and then the chords part and there is an utterly wonderful guitar solo break that unfolds magically and leads into another vocal verse. This verse then leads directly to the close, where the whole thing fades to a silence that just leaves me wanting to hear it again, immediately. 2 minutes 55 seconds of perfect. What. The. Heck. Was. That?

I fail to gather any information except the name of the track: ‘Break’ and that of the artist: a bunch called Aphrodite’s Child, apparently. Dimly I recall a couple of singles a few years past, poppy and fun, but not anything I’d longed to own at the time. I store » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

No-one thumps a drumkit as robustly as Chris Frantz. The highlight of this 3 CD + 1 Blu-Ray is a live recording at CBGBs on 10th October 1977. It sounds fantastic and features Frantz walloping away with gusto, the missing link between the weedy production of the debut album and the power unleashed on More Songs About Buildings And Food. His battering introduction to the opening song, Love -> Building On Fire, is both deafening and gasp-inducing. Martina Weymouth, as she is credited on Talking Heads 77, a keen student of Bootsy Collins’s basslines for James Brown, sounds equally beefy, providing the core strength of Take Me To The River, already fully constructed well before Brian Eno added his adjustments. Thank You For Sending Me Angel is present and fully formed, but Stay Hungry is yet to lose a few extra parts. The boys on guitars, +/- keyboards, are wonderful, too. David Byrne’s vocals are as quirky and dynamic as they ever were. It’s great to hear his introductions, always the same for every song; “This name of this song is…” Disc Three is a familiar experience for those of us lucky enough to » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Keith Jarrett was a singular talent. A child prodigy, he began piano lessons at the age of three. Early on, his first experiment with composing was to add a note to a Mozart piece. He played the original to his teacher and his own version to himself at home. From the very beginning, he combined the classicist’s ambidextrous ability to wring every emotion from little squiggles on a page with the jazz musician’s ear for improvisation and adventure. His talent was so huge, his taste so mercurial and his personality so prickly, he struggled to fit into groups with other musicians. It’s no coincidence that it was his solo pieces made him famous, my favourite being Bremen/Lausanne rather than the big seller, Köln. Charles Lloyd, a saxophonist leaning towards Coltrane experimentation, accommodated him early in his career by giving him plenty of space to extemporise. He served a stint in Miles Davis’s electric band of the early seventies, where he worked alongside Jack DeJohnette, a powerhouse of a drummer who found a way to provoke and cajole Jarrett on to greater heights. The pair combined with Gary Peacock, a patient and melodic bass player, » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Rave music of the late eighties/early nineties was designed for immediate consumption. Its purpose to enhance the moment a sea of bodies moves as one as they glimpse heaven in a collective trance. It’s best experienced in a field or a warehouse with hundreds of others. There is a science behind it. A maximal beats per minute, combined with a certain harmonic amplitude and a rhythmic peak and drop, added to the social setting and various substances, creates delta waves in the brain normally associated with deep relaxation and a loss of sense of self. In other words, rave music blows the mind. The Hartnell brothers looked like boffins with matching bald heads. They named themselves after the M25. People used to drive round it waiting for the message with the venue of that night’s event. Social media was in its infancy and it was the era of the CD. The extra space, compared to vinyl, meant the recorded music could stretch out, building relentlessly, increasing the tension up to the dramatic drop and blissful release. John Major’s government was highly suspicious of an outsider culture that involved youngsters enjoying themselves, taking drugs and » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

When an album has already had 30th and 40th anniversary reissues, as well as its own box set, The Road To Red, one wonders what’s left for the undoubted landmark of fifty years. Well quite a lot as it turns out, as this 2 cd plus 2 bluray set amply demonstrates. The main selling point for me is the new 2024 Atmos and 5.1 mixes once again produced by the estimable Steven Wilson, plus the elemental mixes created by David Singleton. The latter, featured on the second cd, have been prepared to create an alternative version of the album, with the emphasis on parts that were perhaps somewhat overlooked before, while also incorporating things that were ultimately never used in the final mix. In fact, all the surviving session material has been used, and these in depth examinations really shed new light on the music, providing a breath of fresh air to the familiar pieces. For good measure, the first cd, along with a new stereo mix, also has an instrumental version of the entire album. The Atmos mix, found on the second bluray with the other surround mixes, is breathtaking in its clarity, » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

What is the point of a Best Of collection in the era of streaming? Modern day megastars don’t bother with them any more. Just selecting two at random; Beyoncé and Taylor Swift have never released one. Instead, they have playlists on streaming sites or video collections. T.Rex, however, are a band of the seventies, when vinyl, TV and radio were the only ways to hear records and Best Ofs were a great way of collecting all the singles relatively cheaply. It’s no surprise that they are wedded to the concept, releasing no less than 28 compilations, all but four after Marc Bolan’s death. The last one was Gold in 2018, consisting of 45 tracks, most of which overlap with the 36 presented on this brand new, “definitive” collection. You can still buy a 3CD physical copy for less than a tenner. You can also stream all but two of its tracks, neither of which feature on Bolan Boogie.

This physical product is two discs, CD or vinyl, in “deluxe” gatefold packaging. You really can’t fail when Bolan’s pretty face fills the front sleeve. The music covers the whole period of T.Rex’s career and includes » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

By 1986, many Costello fans were confused. Where was the spittle-flecked, forehead-beaded ball of fury of This Year’s Model and Armed Forces? On Kings Of America, he is gazing cautiously through new facial hair and wire spectacles, with a crown on his head. His name has changed to The Costello Show or The Little Hands of Concrete when he plays guitar. The songs are credited to Declan MacManus but Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus co-produced, the Aloysius appearing from nowhere. The Attractions, who had done so much to sharpen his music into a frenzy, are restricted to one song out of fifteen tracks on an album just shy of an hour long. A casual observer might think Costello was suffering an existential crisis. He was concluding a divorce, had fallen out with his band, was in a chaotic relationship with Cait O’Riordan, and had ‘retired’ after his previous album flopped. Musically, the enfant terrible of New Wave was unrecognisable, even so soon after a detour into Country Music, a shot at Pure Pop and an ill-judged effort at over production as art. Many of his post Punk fans may not have been able to name » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

I wasn’t too sure what to expect from this – presumably a lot of backstage chatter and some music clips, basically a promo for the upcoming tour, but we actually get quite a moving rumination on what being on the road means to Springsteen and the rest of the band after doing this for 50 years (one of our number watching with us was in actually tears at one point). I’m hesitating to say too much here as it would spoil the narrative, but it starts with the band getting together to rehearse after 6 years away from the stage. In that period Bruce released Letter to You and the soul album Only the Strong Survive, and we see him putting the set list together incorporating songs from those which have actually never been played live. We do hear that Bruce really isn’t one for rehearsing too much, and a lot is made of retaining the spontaneity in live performance, and there is one song they try out where Max Weinberg and Gary Tallent realise it is being played far too slowly! We also see the E Street Band expanding to include backing singers » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Julian Copes output in the noughties onwards is very variable at best. I made the mistake of buying his 70 minute ambient mellotron album last year that is an exercise of torture

However I read a few things that suggested this was a “proper” album and indeed it is. There’s only “Me and the Jews” that sounds like he made it up as he goes along The rest are proper vintage Cope with proper melodies and everything. Bits of it remind me of Fried

It doesn’t appear to be on any streaming services or been reviewed anywhere. I only knew it was coming out as I’m on his Twitter account. Would be a crying shame for it to disappear into the ether and not be heard, but I’d get why people gave up on him years ago considering the volume of dirge he puts out at times

It’s very low fi ala Skellington of course but I’d say this is his best album in 20 years plus. If only he’d tour again…

What does it all *mean*?

The old bugger still has it in there somewhere

Goes well with…

Release Date:

18th October

» Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

This is a fabulous live album, smooth and slick, everything you could hope for from Tears For Fears. It was recorded during the Tipping Point tour, promoting their excellent studio album released in 2022, eloquently reviewed on the Afterword by Dave Ross. They sound as young as they did over forty years ago, the baritone textures and tones of their vocals completely unchanged. They have upgraded their synthesisers, they can afford a real Fender Rhodes these days, but, nevertheless, the musicianship is flawless. Props to the band: Doug Petty keyboards, Charlton Pettus guitar, Jamie Wollam drums, Lauren Evans, Janae Sims and Jasmine Mullen vocals, plus of course Roland Orzabal guitar and Curt Smith bass. The sound is magnificent. They were never particularly prolific. In the eighties they released just three albums, split up for the nineties and managed only two this century, but, gradually, they have acquired a substantial catalogue of song choices. Tipping Point is a late career album of high quality, the equal of their early fresh-faced peak, and it provides almost a third of the set. They are so confident in it, one of their biggest songs, Everybody Wants To Rule » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

CSNY were drawn together by the ethereal beauty of their harmonies. They were also born out of conflict. David Crosby had fallen out from The Byrds partly because he sat in for Neil Young, at the request of Stephen Stills, after Young had quit Buffalo Springfield. Graham Nash’s exit from The Hollies was less of a gordian knot of turmoil but the strands that held CSNY together were gossamer thin. Nevertheless, CSN was a successful debut album released in May 1969. Stills had carried most of the musical load but needed help in order to tour. Young was recruited as a full band member and was allowed to continue pursuing his solo career with Crazy Horse. Dallas Taylor and Greg Reeves were brought in as the touring rhythm section.

Their first gig was on 16th August, opened by Joni Mitchell, at The Auditorium Theatre, Chicago. Their second, on the 18th August 1969, was at Woodstock, catapulting the new lineup into the spotlight. Footage from two performances at the Big Sur Folk Festival on September 13–14, 1969 appears in the movie Celebration at Big Sur. Their first tour also included a performance at the notorious Altamont Free Concert on December » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Sometimes a new album sideswipes you; whips the rug from under your feet and sends you tumbling into a different time and space. Once such album is the new one from Danny & The Champions of the World, ‘You Are Not a Stranger Here.’

It is seven years since the band’s last studio album, seven years in which so much has happened to Danny George Wilson, the band’s principle songwriter, voice and frontman; from solo album to his other band, Bennett Wilson Poole, he’s been a busy Antipodian. He bought into a record shop – Union Music in Lewes which also has a satellite branch in the wonderful Sound Lounge in Sutton where, if it’s your lucky day, you can drink coffee and talk music with the man himself when he’s ‘behind the counter.’ This has exposed him to so much new music, broadened his horizons and, along with the pandemic, made him look differently at the world.

So, if you were expecting another Champs homage to The E Street Band for this, their seventh studio album, then this is where the rug gets pulled right from underneath you.

The ten tracks here, four » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

This is a reissue of the 2007 album in a sumptuous set incorporating a remaster of the original album (Steve Wilson mixed albums don’t need a Steven Wilson remix, obvs), the spinoff “Nil Recurring” EP, a disk of demos, a live performance of the songs, a number of BBC and other sessions which includes tracks from other albums and finally a 5.1 surround sound Blu-ray. Also included is a well written book with many photographs and a film about the recording of the album. All you could possibly want then!

The album at the centre of this followed “Deadwing”, the PT album which heralded some much deserved success after the band completed the hard yards of global touring and making in-store appearances to an enthusiastic but frustratingly small(ish) audience though SW himself will admit that progressive music is a tiny genre of passionate fans and that’s how he likes it. Richard Barbieri notes that they were not making any money, but at least weren’t losing any. It is a concept album (naturally) inspired by the Bret Easton Ellis book “Lunar Park” and takes the perspective of the son of the narrator who lives in » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

This six cd box set comprises three albums, White Snake (1977), North Winds (1978) and Into The Light (2000), all of which originally appeared as David Coverdale solo records, but which he has now, in his wisdom, decided to rebrand as Whitesnake releases, the logic being that to all intents and purposes he is Whitesnake. The three albums have each been revisited, being given a new 2024 stereo remix alongside a remaster of the original version, and all are supplemented by a generous selection of demos and alternate takes. White Snake and North Winds are both pretty decent if quite low key blues rock albums, much in the vein of the later Deep Purple records. Although they were solo albums, they very much laid the groundwork for the Whitesnake band that was to follow and which built up such a solid fanbase in the following years, before their subsequent transformation into a mega successful but totally different US based band that became a staple of MTV in the late eighties. The Into The Light album from the turn of the century actually sees a return to a more back to basics sound as Coverdale » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The Animals’ debut LP followed The Beatles by a year and a half, The Hollies and The Rolling Stones by six months, coincided within a week of The Kinks and preceded The Yardbirds by a couple of months and The Who by a full year. All seven bands were heavily influenced by American Rhythm & Blues and Tamla Motown. Without exception, these bands covered Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, at least in spirit, and their debut albums were full of covers. Eleven of the twelve tracks on the UK version of The Animals are covers and the remaining one, the opener, co-credits Bo Diddley, a song that acknowledges their debt to the Diddley beat and their third place in the UK pecking order by quoting A Hard Days Night and I Wanna Be Your Man.

The Animals, the LP, tends towards the gritty, bluesy end of the R&B spectrum, featuring three John Lee Hooker songs, two Fats Domino and two Chuck Berry, but any or all of them could have appeared on the first two Stones LPs. The Animals’ two main advantages were Eric Burden’s powerful rasp and Alan Price’s distinctive riffs on his » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

At my age, It is great to discover a new group, and suddenly become a little obessed. Even better if they have a back catalogue

The Courettes are the marriage between a Dane (Martin Thorsen) and Brazilian (Flavia Couri) over their shared love of 60s music. The obvious comparison is the White Stripes, but switched. She plays the guitar and sings while he drums and adds occasional support vocals.

I only discovered them as they played my home town, a relativly rare event. They seem to have forged their reputation through regular touring with energetic shows. Explosive is the description from their PR and it was a great night out

This fourth album, moves on from the Spector influenced “Back in Mono” There are more variety of instruments and wider 1960s styles However the old fans will be still happy with the grarage sound of the opener – You Woo Me

The last album saw a classic girl group tribute to Ringo. However now Flavia has moved on to Charlie Watts. Rolling Stones songs are name checked and there is a typical spoken part “sorry Richard. . “

SHAKE! and » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

As the title suggests, this is a selection of Rory’s many BBC appearances spanning the early 70s to the mid-80s and as you’d expect, the sound quality is uniformly excellent. Many versions of the 1973/4 tracks also appear on “Irish Tour ‘74” which is considered by many to be the definitive Rory live album. Well, those tracks are equally excellent here in much better fidelity so are a pleasure to listen to, like an old friend appearing fresh faced and in great shape after the passage of the years. Other gems have also been pulled from the archives. A particular highlight is 1971’s “Used to be” from “Deuce” – certainly one of Rory’s best studio albums. He’s still with the first trio here who blow up a funky bluesy storm, Gerry McAvoy on especially great form. Another treat is “Banker’s Blues”, from 1973, with Rory on acoustic guitar and harmonica fingerpicking superbly with newly arrived Lou Martin on acoustic piano. Nice. Around half of the set is from a 1979 set at The Venue in London. This was a two-night show and, as it happens, I went to the other night. The band is » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Here’s a great idea for a re-release; take the best calendar year for a band and put out everything they recorded, both official releases, alternate mixes and unreleased tracks.

So, the first cab off the Universal rank is Thin Lizzy 1976, five CDs and a Blu-ray or limited edition coloured LP sets.

You get brand new stereo and atmos mixes of the Jailbreak and Johnny the Fox albums, demos, radio sessions, outtakes, remastered original versions of the albums plus a previously unreleased live show.

By the beginning of 1976 the classic lineup of the band had been together for 18 months;Phil Lynott, Brian Downey, Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson; and the band’s distinctive take on the classic ‘Wishbone Ash twin-lead guitar’ attack had begun to cut through, on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Jailbreak album was recorded at The Who’s Ramport Studios in Battersea, London, between December ’75 and February ’76, with John Alcock producing. The band had worked up the songs in a small studio in Buckinghamshire in late ’75 so that the arrangements were really tight by the time they got to Ramport, (too tight for Robertson who later complained that » Continue Reading.