Heart Fanatic

I discovered the band Heart in 1986. Sure, they had been around for a decade by this point, but they had been pretty much ignored or overlooked by UK radio stations until 'These Dreams' came along and broke into radio playlists, if not actually the UK top 40 singles chart. I quite liked the song. Soon after this I discovered their 1985 self-titled album in my local audio library. I borrowed it. Nobody had recommended it to me, nobody had mentioned it, I had never heard a review, I had only heard one track on it.

From the first listen, I loved it. 

For a teenage boy in 1986 it was the ultimate rock album. It was perfectly of its time and virtually every song was great. By the time I had to return the album to the library I had probably listened to it about 50 times. I had become a Heart fanatic.

The next few months became a frantic search for other albums by Heart. Rumour had it that their earlier material was quite unlike this album and I might not like it. So I couldn't just rush out and buy the early stuff. And besides, funds were limited. But nobody in my circle of friends had heard anything before 1985. Eventually, it turned out that the big brother of one of my classmates (hello Andy Ketchin) had two tapes by Heart, so I finally got to hear the albums 'Magazine' and 'Dog and Butterfly' (both from 1978). I loved them too. Whew. I could take the risk and buy some of the earlier albums.

By this time I also had a bootleg concert of Heart live at the NHK Hall in Tokyo from 25th June 1986 so I knew a few songs from the early albums. Thus 'Little Queen' (1977) featuring the classic Barracuda was first on my purchase list. What an amazing album - it quickly became my 2nd favourite Heart album, a position it has probably retained from that day to this, despite the number 1 place having changed since then!

Over the space of the next six months I bought 'Dreamboat Annie' (1976), 'Dog and Butterfly' and 'Magazine' (got it really cheap at a record fair). Despite them being considerably more expensive than most LPs in my local record shops, I eventually gave in to temptation and bought 'Bebe le Strange' and 'Greatest Hits / Live' ( both 1980). Bebe le Strange was a disappointment. While its not a bad album, its not a great one either. Sure, it has some great tracks on it, but quite a few lower quality ones too.

I had heard tale, by this point, of an album called 'Private Audition' that came after Bebe le Strange, but all I had heard about it was that it was weird and not very good. You have to remember that this is all way before the internet, Spotify, Wikipedia, etc. The only way you could hear rock music back then was if someone you knew had it, or if Tommy Vance played it on his Friday night rock show (sigh, nostalgia). I also knew there was a song I really liked on the NHK bootleg called 'Allies' but it wasn't on any of the albums I'd heard of.

1987 brought the release of a new Heart album, 'Bad Animals'. I think I did buy it on the day of release. At the time it seemed great, but time has not been too kind to this album. However, the commercial success of Bad Animals in the UK meant that record stores started stocking all the Heart back catalogue. 'Private Audition' (1982) and a previously unheard of (by me, at least) album 'Passionworks' (1983) appeared in stores and were quickly bought by me. Private Audition wasn't as weird or bad as I'd been led to believe, but Passionworks was brilliant - here's where that song 'Allies' came from. Its basically the precursor to the 1985 Heart album, and pretty much in the same vein. For a while it became my number 1 favourite Heart album. When Heart toured the UK in 1988, I managed to get the sleeve of Passionworks signed by all three male members of the band, but sadly not by Ann or Nancy.

So by the time I left school in 1988, I had all the Heart albums on vinyl, most of the 12" singles, a few 7" singles, a wall covered in Heart posters and a well worn and much loved Heart tour t-shirt.

I have to admit things began to cool off between me and Heart from then on in. 'Brigade' (1990) came on the back of a couple of Mutt Lange written power ballads that I didn't much like, and which spoiled the whole album for me. The 1991 live album 'Rock the house: Live' was nothing special, so when 'Desire walks on' came along in 1993, I didn't even buy it. Besides, by then grunge had come along and killed big hair, big shoulders, power ballad rock. The obligatory post-grunge acoustic live album 'The Road Home' didn't interest me at the time. It looked like it was all over for Heart. And so it was...

... until 2004 when Heart returned with their best album so far. 'Jupiter's Darling' came with no expectations at all. I went to see them on the 2004 UK tour for a bit of nostalgia and came out from a fantastic gig absolutely desperate to buy the new album. 8 years on and it is probably still one of my favourite albums by anyone, certainly my favourite Heart album, and definitely my favourite album from the whole decade of the 2000s!

Their next release, 'Red Velvet Car' (2010) came with expectations and didn't quite live up to them. It is not a bad album. I'd go as far as to say its quite good. But the problem is, its only that, quite good.

So I was unsure what to expect from the brand new release 'Fanatic', which came out this week. I kind of expected a disappointment. I knew it couldn't be as good as Jupiter's Darling. I hoped it would be quite good. The cover art suggests an album that has been knocked out quickly, which is not a good start. The running time is short (39 minutes), which sent alarm bells ringing. And the guitarist who seemed to inject new life into Heart to help bring about the greatness that is Jupiter's Darling, Craig Bartock, was not involved with the album at all. But I bought it anyway.

I'm glad I did. It rocks. It rawks! Whereas Red Velvet Car kind of washes over you, Fanatic grabs you by various body parts and drags you into the midst of raw distorted guitars, heavy riffs, classic rock hooks and plain, simple and pure-distilled-essence-of-rock drums. This album wears its heart on its sleeve. Ann and Nancy have always admitted to being huge Led Zep fans, but here they do the classic imitation-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery thing and just put all their Zep fandom into song. They admit as much on the title track, which not only states that they are Fanatics, but it riffs on the Misty Mountain Hop riff, just in case you didn't get the point. Page and Plant should be proud of their illegitimate offspring.

But its not just classic rock, loud guitars, and Plantesque screaming. There's so much more. There's something for everyone here. How this album manages that in only 39 minutes is a mystery to me, but it does it. Ballads, acoustic bits, funky bits, loud bits, quiet bits, moving bits and soothing bits. On the first couple of listens 'Million Miles' stood out as the best thing in here, but on subsequent listens everything else seems to have risen up to the same level. Its all great.

So there you have it. Heart's best album since 2004, probably one of the top 5 of their career, and the most enjoyable album I've bought this year so far.

Listen. You'll probably like it.

Freddie and me

I'm not really one for reading biographies.

I don't think I've ever read an autobiography before.

I've certainly never ready a biography of someone I'd never heard of and who didn't actually live that interesting a life.

I'd never even seen a graphic-autobiography before.

But the story of a Queen-obsessed boy from the UK, moving to the USA and remembering important events in his life and how they relate to Queen concerts and album releases sounded like fun...

So is it any good?

Well, its alright. Obviously if you don't like comics / graphic novels, then this one is not for you. Also, if you don't really care much for the music of Queen then you'd probably best avoid it too. But if you shed a tear on the day when Freddie died and have ever sung along to a Queen song holding a (real or imagined) half microphone stand, then you'll probably relate to this guy and enjoy the book.

The artwork is good and the story is touching. But when the two most significant events in the life of the central character are the death of his grandmother and the death of Freddie Mercury, its not exactly the greatest or funniest story ever told.

Possibly the most interesting sub-plot in the book is the relationship between the central character (a Queen fan) and his younger sister (a Wham! fan), how they are divided by musical differences, then united watching the Freddie tribute concert. Given this sub-plot, the book actually ends on a really heartwarming note... which you'll have to read the book to find out.

Perhaps not as good as I'd hoped it would be, but well worth a read if you're a geeky Queen fan.

Cosmos Rocking...

I saw Queen + Paul Rodgers live at the SECC last night. Fabulous.

No support act, no hanging about, no delays. Queen + Paul Rodgers came on at 8pm, exactly as planned and played for two and a bit hours. Great set.

I saw Q+PR at Newcastle on the 'Return of the Champions' tour a couple of years ago, they were good then, but they were better this time.

The audience ranged in age from about 8 to about 70. There were lots of Queen fans from the 70s who had brought their kids - now also Queen fans - along with them. There was a 16 year old boy near me air-guitarring the whole time. And there was a great atmosphere, everyone was just there for some fun.

I've often found the atmosphere in concerts in Glasgow to be more aggressive than concerts elsewhere, with the possibility of violence lying closer to the surface than normal, but there was none of that last night. It was a very good-natured gig.

There were no major surprises in the set-list, they played more or less the same range of 'greatest hits' as last time with a few tracks from the new album thrown in for good measure. But the sequence of songs was good and worked really well.

Let's face it, they won me over by starting with 'Hammer to fall' ;o)

Highlights:
Hammer to fall, Radio Ga-ga, I want to break free, I want it all, '39, All right now and the drum solo...

Low points:

Guitar solo, C-lebrity, Seagull.

Up until last night, the best drum solo I had ever seen in concert was Mick Fleetwood's solo in the Fleetwood Mac concert in the Edinburgh Playhouse in 1988. That solo was innovative and entertaining in that, halfway through it, Mick Fleetwood left the drum kit and carried on 'drumming' on his electronic waistcoat and, erm, dangling balls... but that solo has now been surpassed.

Roger Taylor started the solo with a single drum and cymbal - this was out on the satellite stage - after a minute or two, bass player Danny Miranda pushed the electric double bass that he had played the last song on closer and Roger started drumming on the strings of the double bass. A few fingerings from Danny and they played a few classic basslines between them - the theme from Jaws, Another one bites the dust and Under pressure. After a few minutes of this, Roger returned to the single drum and cymbal combo and Danny left the stage. Every minute or so, a stage hand would appear with another drum or cymbal and add it to the kit, so the drumkit ended up being a full kit - after about 10 minutes of this. The culmination of the solo turned into 'I'm in love with my car' which was good.

Brian May's guitar solo had its moments too. Those moments were the bits when it turned into 'Bijou' (complete with a tape of Freddie singing the single verse, which was really good) and 'Last Horizon' - in other words, the best bits were when he played actual tunes. But the rest of the 10+ minutes solo was the usual heard-it-all-before 'Now I'm here' and 'Brighton Rock'-esque guitar grunting with heavy delays. This was probably cool in 1974 but he's been doing more or less the same solo for over three decades now and its getting boring! Brian, please stop it!

Another thing Brian should stop is doing 'Tie your mother down' as the second song in every concert. Clearly he must think that this is his greatest song, but you know what? It isn't. Its dull and predictable these days.

But those two Brian gripes aside, he does well for a man of his age - running all over the stage, not seeming to get a note wrong, singing the occasional song and backing vocal and apprently having a good time. Of course, he is surpassed by Paul Rodgers when it comes to overall fitness and looking good for his age - I'd go as far as to say that PR looks better and fitter now than he did in his 70s heyday. On the last tour, Roger looked half dead at the end of the night, this time round he looked fine, so I guess all that touring and drumming over the past few years has been good for him.

I had hoped that the experience of the 'Return of the Champions' tour would have got the necessity of playing a 'greatest hits' set out of their systems, and the band could let songs like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and 'Fat bottomed girls' go and play some more obscure (or rarely played) songs from their back catalogue. Sadly, no 'White Queen' or 'Sail away sweet sister' sneaked into the setlist. And it was faintly disappointing to realise that we'll probably never hear the great Brian or Roger solo tracks live in concert again. Pity, 'Foreign sand' or 'Resurrection' would have been good thrown into the mix.

But these are minor gripes. The band played a good selection of great songs and did them well. The atmosphere was fab and everybody on stage and off was having a good time.

Yes, it cost me £62 all told (once you take booking fees, postage and car parking into account) but it was worth every penny.

The Cosmos Rocks

I bought the new 'Queen + Paul Rodgers' CD on CD-WOW a couple of weeks ago. It still hasn't arrived. So the other day I got fed up and a copy from someone else...

Circumstances have contrived to make it very hard for me to listen to this album. The first issue was my wife, who actively dislikes Queen, so I didn't get to listen to it in the house. Then my car stereo decided to stop talking to my iPod. Hmph. But I have now managed to listen to it a few times. And I have formed an opinion:

Its quite good.

Considered as a Queen album its clearly not one of the greats. But maybe that's not a fair comparison. As a Paul Rodgers solo album featuring Brian May and Roger Taylor its pretty good. It ranks as generally better - and more consistent - than the rest of Brian May's solo output and is head and shoulders above almost everything Roger Taylor has done as a solo artist (or with 'The Cross'). So I'm happy with it.

1. Cosmos Rockin'
   
   What's with the 'scary' voice at the start? It was off-putting the first few times I listened, and then I realised it actually is quite Queen-ish. They're clearly trying to sound like Queen here. Basically this is old-fashioned rock 'n' roll. And absolutely fine for all that. The title is a bit contrived, I get the feeling that the title and the song evolved independently and were tagged together, but I could be wrong. Sounds to me (haven't seen the writing credits yet) like a Brian May tune with Paul Rodgers lyrics.
   
2. Time to Shine
   Nice. Another May/Rodgers composition, I guess.
   
3. Still Burnin'
   
   This is a 'we're not dead yet...' song. I'm guessing its originally a Roger Taylor song with input from the other two. Album filler, but not too bad. Good backing vocals from Roger and the WWRY bit is good and appropriate.
   
4. Small
   
   Lighters in the air. Quietly strummed ballad with anthemic sounding chorus. Good. But I'm sure we've heard the guitar solo somewhere before.
   
5. Warboys
   
   This is what I feared the whole album would sound like. Uninspired Roger Taylor lyrics, OTT Brian May guitar and Paul Rodgers grunting about in the middle. Thankfully it only lasts for one song. I'm sure we've heard that guitar stuff somewhere before too. Not bad but far from great.
   
6. We Believe
   
   Lighters back in the air. Yes, this world can be made a better place if only we all join together, grow our hair long and curly and wear clogs. Musically its a quite good album track, lyrically its a bit much. I suppose you can't have everything. This would have fitted quite nicely on 'Back to the Light' or 'Made in heaven', if you like those albums, you'll like this.
   
7. Call Me
   
   This has to be the most chauvinist, egotistical sentiment on the album - "Call me if you need my love". Truly awful. Only a 70s rock star could write or song this. But musically its perfectly fine, really quite good actually. Sounds like a pure Brian May song.
   
8. Voodoo
   Bluesy. One of the best songs on the album. I can't really imagine Freddie singing this one.
   
9. Some Things That Glitter
   
   Surely the most nonsensical opening line on the album: "Once I loved a butterfly, don't wonder how, don't ask me why...". Yet another ballad. Yet another perfectly serviceable song, neither great not bad. Guitar work kind of reminiscent of the late 70s Queen stuff.
   
10. C-Lebrity
    
    Another Roger lyric. Rock song by numbers. Scores a 'C-' try harder next time.
    
11. Through the Night
    
    Guitar ballad. Something annoys me about the way that PR sings the word 'through' every time. And as it occurs many times in this song its hard to get past it. "Throooeoeoooough". But there's lots of nice guitar bits in there too. A bit like 'Nothin but blue', in a good way.
    
12. Say It's Not True
    
    Well, we've heard this before. In this version it comes across more like "Foreign Sand" than I'd noticed before. But as Foreign Sand is Roger's best solo track since Freddie died, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Its a small song, more suited to Roger's and Brian's voices and kind of loses its 'smallness' when PR's big voice takes over.
    
13. Surf's Up... School's Out!
    
    A jam session that should really be a single b-side, not on the album. Quite a lot of cliche rolled into one song.
    
14. Small Reprise
    The guitar ballad style reprise to 'Small' (track 4). Not really a track in its own right.

So. If you like Brian May's solo work, you'll almost certainly like this. If you like Paul Rodgers stuff, you'll probably like this. If you're a Queen fan, you might like this. But its not really Queen.

Marillion: Happiness is the Road [first thoughts]

• Remember last year when Marillion's "Somewhere else" album came out? I reviewed it as "adequate. Nothing more."
• Later last year I saw them in concert and reviewed the experience as "disappointing."
• A month or two ago Marillion gave away a song from their new album for free. My response to this was that it was "mediocre. As bland as most of the last album was. "

So it would be fair to say that I didn't have high hopes for the new album...


The album isn't officially out yet. I'll be released next month. But, in an effort to beat P2P file sharers at their own game, Marillion have given away the album for nothing online. Find it here. So in return for giving them my e-mail address (which they had anyway) I have legally downloaded all of the new double album.

And

it

is

very

good!

Ha! Bet you weren't expecting that! I wasn't even expecting that. First impressions (I've only listened to it twice, thus far) are that it is a far more coherent album than anything since Anorak, its certainly better than Somewhere Else and possibly better than Marbles. Its fairly mellow throughout although some of the longer songs build and build to something noisier and more energetic than they start off sounding.

I'll give a more detailed review of it after a number of listens, but it'll be a pretty positive review!

And for what its worth, I think that "whatever is wrong with you" is one of the weaker songs on there.

New Heart album in the pipeline...

I'm excited. In a recent interview, Nancy Wilson says that the new Heart album is scheduled for an 'early-09' release.

You may not be excited by this. But that is probably because you (like oh so many people) don't believe me when I say that Heart's 2004 album 'Jupiter's Darling' is still the best rock record of the millennium so far. It is. Anyone who says otherwise has simply never heard it.

So I'm expecting great things, especially as guitarist and co-song-writer Craig Bartock is still on board.

Here's hoping.

Oh, and a couple of UK tour dates to promote the new album would be fab too.

War of the Worlds (one man show)

"Take a look around you
at the world we've come to know,
Does it seem to be much more
than a crazy circus show?
But maybe from the madness
something beautiful will grow,
In a brave new world,
With just a handful of men.
We'll start, we'll start all over again..."

Just a handful of men? How about only one man?

No one would have believed in the first years of the 21st century that Jeff Wayne's musical epic "The War of the Worlds" could be performed in under an hour at the Edinburgh Fringe. No one could have dreamed that it could be done by one man. Few men even considered the possibility that Jeff Wayne himself would give permission for such a show. And yet in one of the Niddry Street vaults of the 'Underbelly' venue, a mind immeasurably superior to ours dreamed up an excellent show and slowly but surely he performed this play before us.

I think it would be fair to say that I'm a fan of "War of the Worlds". I love the H.G. Wells book. I used to have a tape of the talking book of it (in the 1980s) which I wore out through over-playing. I love Jeff Wayne's musical version of it. I like the 1953 movie. I have a tape of Orson Welles's 1938 radio show. I loved the recent movie starring Tom Cruise. Basically, I like it. A lot.

So when I saw it was on at the Fringe this year, it was my only 'must see' show. I went to see it yesterday. I wasn't sure I was going to like it - how could one man perform the story? How could one man sing the songs? (was he going to sing the songs or was the tape just going to play them?) Was he going to try and play any of the music? Hang on, there's at least one female role in there, how can one man perform 'Spirit of Man' (a duet between Phil Lynott and Julie Covington on the original musical)? But I went and found out.

The venue ("Underbelly's Baby Belly 1") is one of the Niddry Street Vaults - supposedly one of the most haunted places in Edinburgh. Its basically a stone and brick cavern, wide enough for ten chairs with an aisle up the middle and deep enough for a stage (circa 10 feet deep) and about 20 rows of seats. The vaulted ceiling is quite high up and was covered in sheets for the Fringe. Basically, its an atmospheric place. The audience were ushered in at the start of the allotted time with "The Eve of the War" already playing. About half the seats in the place were filled. But it was a Thursday at 4:20pm, so that's not too bad.

Once we were all sitting in place, Pip Utton ran up the aisle, leaped onto the stage and began performing with some of the most iconic words in English literature "No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century..."

I'm always the same when watching plays. The opening few minutes are always a disappointment to me. I'm like "is that it? Just a man in a waistcoat on stage..." this feeling of slight disappointment came to a head when he got to the (almost as iconic) "The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one he said..." - yes, he sung them. But while he hit all the right notes, the man is clearly not a singer. And his timing on some of the words was off slightly. Oh dear.

But then we got into the meat of the story, the cylinder landing on Horsell Common, and the ensuing events, and I was captivated. Next time he sang I realised he was acting in song, not singing. He wasn't aiming to reproduce the vocal performances of the original musical version, he was telling the story and occasionally doing so in song. Thus, his performance of Forever Autumn, while not as musically perfect as the CD was still beautiful and actually more moving than the original. You could feel the loss in the guy's voice: "A gentle rain falls softly on my weary eyes, as if to hide a lonely tear, my life will be forever autumn, 'cause you're not here..." Heartbreaking - in a way that the CD never is.

Of course, to bring the show down to about a 50 minute run time, some of the story and songs had to be abbreviated and one of the songs dropped entirely. Given that this was a one man show it was quite reasonable that 'Spirit of Man' was dropped and the character of Beth, the Parson's wife was lost from the story. That was a shame - as I really like that song - but I guess it had to be done. Thus the performer had only three primary roles to play: The un-named journalist who narrates the story (i.e. Richard Burton in the original recording), the artilleryman (David Essex) and the Parson (Phil Lynott). While performing the character of the artilleryman, he used an accent very similar to David Essex's from the original recording, but also somehow managed to convey a different character through body language. Surprisingly, the Parson was portrayed using a Welsh accent. This worked rather well.

The performance was generally excellent, if I hadn't known every word of the script fairly well I'd only have noticed him fluff his lines once (actually I noticed three deviations from the original words, but two of them would have passed the non geeks by entirely). The only prop on stage was a small 'hill' on the right hand side, but its amazing how much of the atmosphere of the story can be conveyed by a masterful storyteller and some careful use of green, red and white spotlights.

So all in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommended (there's 3 days left, so hurry up). And I'm now - more than ever - inclined to go to the full-scale 30th anniversary tour next year. Tickets on sale in October. If its half as good as the one man show, it'll be great.

Extreme: Saudades de Rock

Its a bad title. Apparently 'saudades' (pronounced 'sow-dodge') means something like 'vague nostalgic yearning' - a nostalgic yearning for rock. Unfortunately, this is a feeling you are left with after having listened to the album.

In their time together (the first time around) Extreme managed to produce two excellent albums bookended by two which were OK, with occasional flashes of greatness. After they split in 1996, Gary Cherone went on to various stage musical roles, was briefly a member of Van Halen, recorded a depressing album called 'Exit Elvis' by 'Tribe of Judah' and then released a really quite bad (and very middle of the road) EP under the name of 'Cherone'. Nuno Bettencourt on the other hand has had a quite interesting 'solo' career. One album released under his own name, two under the name of 'Mourning Widows', one CD and an EP under the name of 'Population 1' and a CD under the name of 'Dramagods' - all of these (IMO) either very good (Nuno CD, 2nd Mourning Widows, Dramagods) or excellent (1st Mourning Widows CD, Population 1). I think its fair to say that Gary needs Nuno more than Nuno needs Gary. But neither had great post-Extreme financial success. So the reunion was inevitable.


And so, 13 years since the last Extreme album we have "Saudades de Rock". As you'd expect, this album has many bits which are basically the band trying to prove that they're still the band they once were. Also it has many bits that sound like the sort of stuff Nuno has been doing on his own for the past decade. But sadly it doesn't have anything new and fresh, its all nostalgia and stuff we've already heard before.

Track by track:

1. Star: This song is here to proclaim that this is the same band you used to like. Guitar riffs and verses are basically the distilled essence of 'Pornograffitti' while the harmonies on the chorus are more like 'III sides'. I think in time the chorus will get really annoying, but on the first few listens its quite a good song.
   
2. Comfortably dumb: Another song in the funk-rock style of 'Pornograffitti'. But not that interesting.
   
3. Learn to love: Oh. Another song in the style of 'Pornograffitti'. Yawn. It also instills a bit of the Zep-influenced 'Punchline' album. By this point I'm getting bored of hearing Gary Cherone scream rather than singing.
   
4. Take us alive: Thankfully this track is more interesting and fun than the three that have preceded it. This is flavoured with 'tex-mex' seasoning. I could have said 'country' there, but thankfully it doesn't go that far. I like this one a lot.
   
5. Run: Not very interesting, but at least this is in the style of 'III sides' a bit more. Variety is good.
   
6. Last hour: One of those quiet-shouty-quiet-shouty type songs. I quite like it, but fear that I might tire of it.
   
7. Flower man: If you've heard Nuno's solo album you'll recognise this song as basically 'Two Weeks in Dizkneelande' with different lyrics. If you've not heard the Nuno track, this will probably be one of the best tracks on the album for you.
   
8. King of the ladies: Oh dear, this is embarrassing. More nostalgia. With bad lyrics.
   
9. Ghost: Starts like a ballad, this album should have had one before now, but builds in beat as the song goes on. Nice piano and vocal performance. You can see the Queen influence quite clearly.
   
10. Slide: Nice and funky album filler track. But quite good for that.
    
11. Interface: This song is on Nuno's last album, 'Love' by Dramagods. Its a nice song, but the new version doesn't really add anything to the existing version.
    
12. Sunrise: Slow funk-rock with a touch of Zep. Degenerates into stereotypical Extreme for the solo. But one of the better tracks on the album for all that.
    
13. Peace (Saudade): Saving the best for last. Quiet, slow and beautiful. This is the stand-out track on the album. Shame it comes so late in the day.
    
14. Americocaine (Demo 1985): A funny way to end the 'comeback' album, with an old song that wasn't good enough to put on any of the earlier albums. Just sounds like late 80s album filler material.

So, all in all, a disappointing album with a couple of highlights. I think I'll still go and see them in concert when they get to Scotland (Glasgow Carling Academy, Sat 15th November) but I'll be hoping for a greatest hits set, not a set full of the new stuff.

But maybe the album will grow on me...

Musical roundup...

After months and months of buying nothing, somehow the stars have aligned and I found myself buying three new CDs this week. So, in order of increasing awesomeness, here are my thoughts on them:


Revelation by Journey

Journey have had a bit of a hit and miss career. They started in the early 70s, the core of the band being the musicians left behind by Carlos Santana when he went solo from 'Santana'. They pootled about for a few years flirting with various (unpopular) musical styles before recruiting Steve Perry as their front man and opting for a 'radio friendly', pop-rock, AOR sound. Then they went massive. A few years on and keyboard player Greg Rolie had had enough of touring and suggested that Jonathan Cain replace him. They did this and Journey went on to produce the finest AOR album of all time, 1981's 'Escape'. Things kind of slowed down and drifted apart in the late 80s, but then they reconvened for a 'reunion' album 'Trial by Fire' in 1996. But Steve Perry was unable to tour for health reasons, so the classic lineup dissolved once again.

In 2001, Journey re-emerged with a new lead singer, Steve Augeri, and a fantastic (IMO) album called 'Arrival'. This was followed up by 'Generations' a few years later, which was quite similar to Arrival in many ways. But there were problems with Steve Augeri's vocal capabilities on tour, so the band eventually fired him and went looking for a new singer.

So now we have the new album 'Revelation' with new lead singer Arnel Pineda. The CD release is a double album, disc 1 being entirely new songs and disc 2 being a 'greatest hits' compilation - but all re-recorded versions with Pineda singing lead vocals.

The new songs are great. Pineda can certainly sing, and while his voice is reminiscent of the Steves that have gone before, it is also distinctive enough. So vocally and musically things are fine. Its just that the songwriting is very much in the same track as Arrival and Generations were. There's nothing bad here, but there's nothing particularly new either. Some songs really do sound very similar to others that have gone before. If you love Journey but haven't heard Arrival, then you'll find this to be a great album. But if you already love Arrival, there's nothing really to be gained by getting this. Maybe it'll grow on me though.

I have a problem with the re-recorded songs though. What is the point? Steve Perry had a highly distinctive voice with great range and power. Pineda is a good singer, but not a better one, so his vocals add nothing new to the old songs. And its not as if the band opted to 're-interpret' the old songs, they just went for re-creation. So there really is nothing special here. The CD is fine, but if you know the old songs then the minor differences will just niggle at you.

Good but not great.


Silver Spoons and Broken Bones by Stone Gods

I reviewed a Stone Gods gig back in January. They're the band that are basically The Darkness without Justin Hawkins. Well, their debut album came out a couple of weeks ago. And its pretty good really. This is a wall of hard-rocking, old-school metal with chunky guitar sounds and riffs & solos aplenty. Stone Gods sound better on CD than live in a basement, and they certainly look better when you can't see them.

This is heavier and harder and more serious than The Darkness ever were, but there are still moments of humour that come shining through. This won't achieve the crossover success that The Darkness had, none of these songs will be troubling the airwaves or the singles chart, but this will go down well with folk who identify themselves as metalheads already.


Rise by The Answer

This is the first time that Amazon.co.uk has 'recommended' something to me that I hadn't previously heard of and turned out to be exactly my kind of thing when I investigated further. This is a fabulous album.

Once upon a time there was a genre called 'blues-rock', I'm not sure when it died out, but certainly there haven't been any great blues-rock albums out for a long time. In the 70s all the big rock bands dabbled with blues-rock and of course the biggest in the genre was Led Zep. Somewhere in the 80s, blues and rock parted company. Occasionally folk like Gary Moore would jump from one to the other, but few bands kept one foot in each camp - except for aging blues-rockers like Paul Rodgers.

So I have no idea how a band like The Answer can suddenly explode on the scene - in 2007 - all big riffs and blues vocals. I think what mut have happened is this - at some point in the late 80s, the former members of Led Zep, Free and early Whitesnake must have been sowing their wild oats in Northern Ireland. As a consequence of these liaisons, four boys were born who grew up to form a band. That band is The Answer.

From about 30 seconds in to track 1 on the CD, I knew I was going to love this. And the album kept going with great song after great song. The bonus disc on the special edition release has some great stuff on there too, but its not quite as coherent as the entire first disc is.

And special mention has to be made of the track "Preachin'" which is some old time blues and has an opening line which made me burst into laughter (on the bus) the first time I heard it. Genius.

If you like your rock with a little touch of blues, you'll love this album.


And there's more to come. Extreme are back next week with a new album called "Saudades de Rock" which is an odd name, but hopefully a good album. Will let you know.

Marillion: Whatever is wrong with you?

Marillion have just given away a free edit of one of the new tracks from their forthcoming album.

Its called "Whatever is wrong with you" and can be downloaded from the website of the same name:

www.whateveriswrongwithyou.com

Its, erm, mediocre. As bland as most of the last album was. If this is typical of the stuff they've just recorded, I'm not going to like the new album. :o(

Waiting for the new albums...

Some time ago, actually in January 2007, I wrote this blog posting. In it I wondered if 2007 was going to be a great year for albums...

I listed my favourite 5 bands (according to last.fm) and noted that most of them were working on new material. So what's the update? Well, for one thing, the 'top five' order has changed since last year (but not the actual five), and here's the updates:

1. Fish
   Fish released a rather good solo album last year. I reviewed it on the blog. This year seems to be mostly tied up with promo stuff for that album and another album is not on the cards for 2008.
   


2. Queen
   
   The long awaited new 'Queen+Paul Rodgers' album is due out in September. The first track I've heard from it is adequate, but not great. However it is good enough for me to have high hopes. And I've bought tickets for the SECC show in October.
   


3. Marillion
   
   The 2007 album ('Somewhere else') from Marillion was disappointing. I saw them live in concert and was disappointed. It sounded like an album that was just thrown out there because an album was due. Shame. But they're working on a new double album for release later this year, which will hopefully be good. But I'm not going to see the tour this time.
   


4. Spacehog
   Still waiting for something from Arckid...
   


5. Heart
   And I've just heard that Heart are recording a new studio album in 2008. This now jumps ahead of Queen+Paul Rodgers as my most anticipated album of the year!
   

C-lebrity

This is the first new song from the, as yet untitled, Queen+Paul Rodgers album due in September. Of course, we've already heard 'Say its not true' but its been around for a few years.

So first impressions? Its clearly a Roger Taylor song with an overlay of Brian May guitar. Not great, but not awful. Hopefully Roger didn't write everything on the album as I think Brian and Paul are generally better songwriters than Roger. But its a glimmer of hope - this is better than anything on Roger's last solo effort and is up there with the best from his other solo back catalogue.

Roll on September...

'I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master' by Electric Six

I've commented before that - despite being a generally contented, non angry and not prone to mood swings type of guy - I have a peculiar liking of angry music and art which is 'dark'. This probably explains why I really quite liked Electric Six's first album 'Fire' (2003). Most folk will only remember the hits 'Danger! High Voltage!' and 'Gay bar' both of which were (lyrically) quite rude but (musically) an intriguing mix of rock and disco which I quite liked. Since then Electric Six have released 'Senor Smoke' (2005) , which was disappointing, 'Switzerland' (2006), which I didn't like that much, and now they have a new album (OK, so it came out in November, but I've only just heard it) called 'I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master'. Nice title.But is it any good? Well, first listen shows promise, some good tunes, silly humour and a few angry expletives... Watch this space for my more detailed thoughts later...

...much later.

Well, after quite a few listens, I think its safe to say that this album falls quite well into the 'guilty pleasure' category. I like it a lot but it contains such a mixed bag of negative emotions that I probably shouldn't be filling my mind with stuff like that. Probably need to listen to Delirious?'s entire back catalogue to balance up the karma. Or something.

There are a few great stand out tracks in the first half of the album, jam packed full of humour and punch-the-air angry rock moments. The album opener, "Its Showtime" sets the tone for the album, its an intro to the themes of dancing, entertainment, sexiness and so on that are to come; "...and put a little mustard on it!" is a great metaphor for taking the entertainment to the next level. Cool.

The trio of "Dance pattern", "Rip it" and "Feed my f$%#ing habit" are the core of the album, the first being quite reminiscent of the first Electric Six album and the others being so full of anger its almost astonishing. This is not an album to listen to in the company of anyone who can get offended at anything.

The rest of the album is full of good songs, mostly in the same kind of flow as the first 5, but none stand out as being significantly better or worse than the rest. But its all entertaining stuff, and certainly as good as, if not better than, the first album.

Light and Darkness

In November 1988 I experienced both ends of the musical spectrum on two consecutive nights. I saw acoustic guitar playing, Christian singer/songwriter Ian White in concert at 'the Gate' in Dundee on the Sunday night and followed it up with a trip down to Edinburgh the following day to see Iron Maiden in concert in the Edinburgh Playhouse. Heaven to hell in one simple step, or something like that.

I had a similar experience this weekend, although perhaps the contrast wasn't quite so extreme. On Friday night I went to see 'The Burnsong Song House' show which was part of Glasgow's Celtic Connections festival. On Saturday night I saw 'The Stone Gods', which is the new band featuring three out of the four former members of The Darkness - everyone except Justin Hawkins.

The Burnsong Song House was a bit of a hit and miss affair. The idea behind it is that a group of singer/songwriters from diverse musical backgrounds get together for a week and write songs together. They did this back in November last year and this was the second show where they got together to play the songs they wrote together. The primary reason we went was because my wife (and, indeed, her sister & brother-in-law, who we went with) is a big fan of Roddy Woomble (of Idlewild; pictured), who was one of the musicians taking part. Also In the house were Norman Blake (of Teenage Fanclub), Ziggy Campbell (of Found), Louise Quinn (of Quinn), Nuala Kennedy (trad Irish folkster), L-Marie (big woman with a big, soulful voice) and Jo Mango (folky type). And they were joined by Midge Ure for the songwriting, but sadly not for the gig.

It was a mostly entertaining evening, but the word that most springs to mind while trying to describe it is ramshackle. There was little organisation in evidence and even less rehearsal. The majority of the performers were playing or reading lyrics from loads of bits of paper rather than knowing their stuff by heart. And they had never really worked out how many of the songs would end and so quite a lot of songs stopped abruptly.

I'm not so sure the mix of styles worked. The songs hadn't been written by the group as a whole, but rather the various musicians had paired off for each of the days and had written things together. Some of these combinations worked well - I liked most of the songs co-written by Roddy Woomble, Norman Blake and Jo Mango. Some of the ones by Loise Quinn were good too. And although completely not my thing, the two collaborations between L-Marie and Nuala Kennedy were good. Unfortunately Ziggy Campbell had a bad influence on many songs. He generally does weirdy electronica music, which doesn't gel well with traditional folk. Also, having been written in a week, many of the songs were kind of forced and not exactly inspired. One was actually a complete rip-off (I assume unintentionally) of 'Living in the Past' by Jethro Tull and they did admit that another song they had written, but not performed, was basically 'Purple Rain' by Prince. I doubt that many of the songs will ever make their way onto proper recordings. But the show was entertaining, or maybe I just don't get out much.

At the other end of the musical spectrum is heavy metal. The Darkness were always a 'rock' band in my opinion, not 'metal', but The Stone Gods have their sights set on metal, I'd say.

I was a quite big fan of The Darkness. Their first album Permission to Land is one of the albums of the decade in my opinion. Their second album was a much weaker affair with as many 'miss' songs on it as 'hits'. I think the things that made The Darkness great were:

1. Classic rock guitars, well played, great solos.
2. Good tunes.
   
3. A good sense of humour.
4. Justin Hawkins' completely OTT vocals.

The Stone Gods don't feature all of these factors. Obviously, they don't feature Justin Hawkins anymore and former bass player of the Darkness (second album only), Richie Edwards, who now does the vocals doesn't try to emulate him. The sense of humour also seems to be lacking. Guitarist Dan Hawkins has said in an interview that the tone of the Stone Gods is very different to that of the Darkness as he is in a very different place now. The tone is much darker, more angry, more serious. But the tunes were good and the classic rock guitars were still in evidence.

The set was only about an hour long and featured only new songs. Nothing by the Darkness, and no cover versions (at least, none that I recognised). The overall feel of the music was an amalgam of Bon Scott era AC/DC, early 90s Metallica and Status Quo.

On the basis of this, I will buy an album when it comes out, but I might not bother going to see them live on any future tours. You see, while the music was good, I found the sight of Richie Edwards tramping round the stage with a goofy grin on his face quite off putting. Unfortunately, Richie Edwards is only a wannabe rock star, not the real deal. He was trying far too hard, and failing. Oh, and the only adjective he seems to know begins with a 'f' - it gets a bit wearing after a while: "The f-ing third night of the f-ing tour and we're in f-ing Glasgow..." You get the idea.

Anyway, that's probably most of my quota for gigs gone for this year already. Except Fish at the Liquid Rooms in March... more on that in about 6 weeks.

---

And here's a clip of The Stone Gods playing the one acoustic track of the evening.

Fleetwood Mac: Live in Boston (DVD)

I got the Fleetwood Mac Live in Boston DVD/CD set out of my local library the other day. Partially because I like Fleetwood Mac and I hadn't seen or heard this recording, but mostly because I have a new surround sound system and wanted to listen to some music mixed in 5.1 surround.

On that count it failed for the most part, as all that comes out of the surround speakers most of the time is crowd noise. Atmospheric, but nothing particularly worth blogging about.

But I found myself captivated by the performance. I have seen Fleetwood Mac live in concert, way back in 1988 - on the Tango in the night tour, just after Lindsey Buckingham left the band - but not with the 'classic' lineup. OK, so Christine McVie isn't on this DVD, so its not the 'classic' lineup either, but it wasn't far off.

Apoligies to John McVie. His bass sounded really good through my new superwoofer, but it wasn't his performance that was captivating.

It was great to watch Mick Fleetwood on the drums though. I've been to a fair few concerts in my time and I have to say that out of all of the drummers I have seen, Mick Fleetwood seems to enjoy himself the most. Every time the camera fell on him he was clearly having the time of his life, it was just a joy to watch.

But, of course, the real show was watching Stevie Nicks & Lindsey Buckingham. Their up and down, on and off relationship is, of course, well known. There were many famous Rumours about it in the 70s, so much so that they named their greatest album in honour of that fact. But from the interplay between the two of them on stage, there is clearly so much more than is commonly known. Theirs is a really complex relationship, and that makes for an enthralling performance as they dedicate songs to each other, dance around each other, stare enigmatically into each other's eyes and almost, but not quite, kiss. It was a bit like watching a mystery thriller - you don't really know what is going on but it is gripping nevertheless.

Oh. And the music was quite good too.

My Last.fm chart

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

I have finally seen the 1982 movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".

You're probably wondering about the 'finally' part of that statement. I've wanted to see that movie for a long time. Probably about 21 years...

You see, in 1986 I had a minor obsession with guitar playing rock goddess Nancy Wilson of the band Heart. Perhaps it was more than minor. Well, I was 15 and Heart were briefly one of the greatest rock bands of the moment. The self-titled Heart album from 1985 is the pure essence of 1985 - if you want to know what rock music in 1985 was, that's the album to listen to. All power ballads, power chords, big hair and emotive vocals. Actually, I still think its a great album. But anyway. In 1986 I discovered that Nancy Wilson had a 'starring' part in this movie, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I desperately wanted to see that movie.

But in 1986 things were a bit different to how they are today. No Amazon.com, no downloads, and (most importantly) in my house, no VCR! Add to this the fact that no video store in Edinburgh had the movie (Virgin could order it in for £25 - which was a lot of money in those days) and you see why I never saw it. By the time I actually owned a VCR my Nancy obsession had diminished and so I never tried to get it then.

But it was on Film 4 last week. So I watched it.

No, it wasn't worth 21 years of waiting. To add insult to injury it turns out that Nancy's 'starring' role lasts less than a minute and she doesn't even speak! Khah!

The film ticks all the boxes of the early 80s 'bawdy teen sex comedy' genre, without actually being particularly bawdy, sexy or comedic. And as usual in American movies, the high school 'teens' are mostly twenty-somethings.

But while it wasn't particularly funny, it was still quite watchable. The cliched characters all seemed actually to be reasonably real people and you were interested in what happened to them. There were some genuinely touching moments in there too, which I wasn't really expecting. But there wasn't actually too much of a plot. About 75 minutes in I found myself wondering when the real story was going to begin.

So it was OK, but not worth the wait.

So here's a clip of Nancy Wilson in her 1985 prime...

Don't believe the video, Nancy does all the singing here not Ann, her darker haired sister.

And here's the other single from the 80s with Nancy on lead vocals. Erm, I have no idea what they thought they were doing in this video...

Van Halen: 1984

Currently listening to Van Halen's 1984 album (actually released 1983, but hey...). I don't think I've listened to it in about 15 years (I have it on vinyl, not CD), but listened to it a lot in the late 80s.

I still remember all the lyrics and every note in the instrumental breaks! How much of a sponge was my memory when I was a teenager? And how come it doesn't retain half as much these days? Humph.

Good album though.

Lucky Star?

Fish, who as I said below is my favourite solo artist, released his 9th solo studio album last week (mail order, you'll have to wait a bit to buy it in the shops). Counting the four studio albums he recorded as part of Marillion, this is album number 13. Hence the title, The 13th Star.

But is it unlucky 13 or lucky star?

The release of a new album often produces one of two reactions from fans (of any band):

1. "Brilliant, fantastic, best thing they've ever recorded...", or
2. "Not very good, don't like it, worst album ever..."

Quite often the fans aren't able to find the middle ground and acknowledge that something is neither fantastic nor rubbish. So I set my initial reactions aside and listened to the album a few times before deciding to declare my opinions to the world. But here goes now:

Fish, the 13th Star.

Is it any good? Well, its neither fantastic nor rubbish. I don't hate it, but I also don't love it (yet). However, it is growing on me with every listen, in much the same way that Sunsets on Empire did.

Lyrically, this may be Fish at his most heart-felt, his most open. Certainly the man's true feelings shine out from several of the songs, revealing his hopes and heartbreak. For those of you who don't know, Fish wrote most of this album in the run up to his marriage with Heather Findlay of Mostly Autumn - presumably a happy time in his life. Then they split up 'with no possible chance of reconciliation' - and times must have been tough. Both the happy and the sad are reflected in the lyrics.

Musically, however, something is lacking. I've commented before that the quality of Fish's music is entirely dependent on his co-writers. Here, most of the songs were co-written with long-time band member (since 1998) and bass player Steve Vantsis. Crucially, Steve has never written songs before. It shows. That's not to say that there are not any good songs on here, there are, but several of the songs are quite run-of-the-mill musically and I suspect I may skip a few of them on future listens. Some of the songs have clearly been composed by formula - there are times when you know that there should now be an instrumental break, and sure enough there is. But on a number of occasions its just formulaic and uninspired. None of the solos on this album stand out in the same way as, for example, the guitar solos on 'Cliche'. None are exceptional.

The feel of several of the songs is what I would describe as 'industrial' - grinding, overdriven guitars and heavy thumping drums. It has a rawer, harder edge than Fish's more usual melodic style. I'm not entirely sure this is a good thing. I suppose its more in keeping with the style of Sunsets on Empire than any of the more recent albums.

Song by song:

1. Circle line
   Continuing the trend of the past three albums, this one opens with a perfectly serviceable but fairly unremarkable track. Of course, the song is trying to convey the boredom and pointlessness of a life going round in circles, so perhaps expecting something interesting is too much.
   
2. Square go
   Reminiscent of 'The Rookie' (one of the weaker tracks on 'Field of Crows'), this is quite a low point on the album. Dull and unengaging. Tends towards being simply 'a racket'. Or maybe I just don't relate to the feelings expressed in the song.
   
3. Miles de besos
   The first great song on this album. A beautiful, gentle song with nice acoustic guitars. Great use of the female backing vocals on the chorus. Builds nicely into a powerful climax. This is one of those songs that are pure Fish - a bittersweet love song juxtaposing declarations of love with moments of despair and anger.
   
4. Zoe 25
   On first listen this was the track that stood out from the rest as being something special. It still does.
   
5. Arc of the curve
   Musically this is a quite nice but is hardly an earth-shattering song. It suffers slightly from having the phrase 'magic of the moment' early on in the song - this always reminds me of naff Scorpions songs. This is one of the better formulaic songs here, but its still clearly rooted in a prescribed pattern.
   
6. Manchmal
   Sorry, don't like it. Back to the 'industrial' sound again. Drum loops, hmmm. 'Manchmal' is German for 'Sometimes'. Strange syncopation in the verse and the angry chorus, which is clearly meant to be emotive and powerful, doesn't engage me at all. And I usually like the angry Fish songs best. Interesting lyrics though.
   
7. Openwater
   This one is still growing on me. I hear more in there with each listen. I think I'll probably like it better in a few weeks time, so I won't say much about it here. This one was co-written with Frank Usher.
   
8. Dark star
   Almost 'Manchmal part II'. Another one with a slightly odd beat. Not sure if I like that. This song tries to be mean and moody but I'm not sure if it hits the mark. Its oddly reminiscent of 'Black Canal' from the Suits sessions. Slightly muddled metaphors - which is it, do you want to be a meteor or travel at the speed of light, you can't have both? I think someone had been listening to Tony Iommi's guitar playing before recording this. Dark and heavy.
   
9. Where in the world
   Deep breath and relax. Ahhhh. Take it gently, open your heart and let it all pour out. Its hard to listen to this one, I mean really listen to this one, without a tear in your eye. Seventeen years ago, in Vigil, Fish sung "If there's somebody up there, could they throw me down a line...". Here he echoes that again "...if we found out no one's listening to our even louder prayers... where in the world do we go from here?". Here is a man, lost in the world with questions and no direction, looking for an answer. Heartbreaking. And sounds quite like Pink Floyd too.
10. 13th Star
    An unhurried and appropriate end to the album. Heartfelt and moving. I wonder if Heather Findlay has managed to listen this far into the album yet. This song is clearly for her, the 13th star. Its all very sad, really.
    

So, in conclusion, this album isn't as great as Vigil, Internal Exile, Fellini Days or Field of Crows, but it is much better than Suits and far more coherent than Raingods with Zippos. It wears its (broken) heart on its sleeve and invites you to look. Its hard work. Musically its not an all time classic of all time, but pretty good nevertheless. And still growing on me. Probably on a par with Sunsets on Empire, to which it is a close relation.

By the way, Gareth also reviewed this album.