Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Find the real (Alter Bridge) (LP 168 - 169)

Alter Bridge One Day Remains (CD - Wind-up Records, 2004) ****
Alter Bridge Blackbird (CD - Universal Republic Records, 2007) ****

Genre: American pop/rock  

Places I remember: Virgin Megastore Abu Dhabi; Music Box Record Exchange (Hastings)  

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: White Knuckles (Blackbird) is nicely representative of the Alter Bridge experience.




Gear costume: Wayward One (Blackbird); Find the Real, Down To My Last (ODR)  


Active compensatory factors: They used to be Creed but please don't hold that against them. Along came the lung busting vocals of Myles Kennedy and hey presto, they are Alter Bridge!

These are the band's first two albums. They sound kinda like Volume 1 and 2, even though are three years apart so it seemed a good idea to pair them here.

If old school guitar shredding rawk is your bag - get hip to be square and check out these dudes!  

Where do they all belong? America is next up in the US pop/ rock genre.

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Playing my game (Lene Marlin) (LP 167)

Lene Marlin Playing My Game (CD - Virgin, 1999) ***

Genre: Norwegian pop/ rock  

Places I remember: Virgin Megastore Dubai Mall.   

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Sitting Down Here




Gear costume: Unforgivable Sinner  

Active compensatory factors: I started my Lene Marlin obsession via a sampler. Sitting Down Here was a crazily effective ditty. It got into my brain and wouldn't let go. In a nice way.

Lene's whole sound is a superb mix of pop hooks, Scandinavian mystery and appropriate beats. 

It's catchy as all get out.

Taylor Swift was certainly one person who was listening and watching closely!   

I can just imagine a preteen Tay Tay picking up on what Lene was doing!

Where do they all belong? Debut album in a stellar career. Another Day is next. No difficult second album syndrome for Lene.

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Engel (Rammstein) (LP 166)

Rammstein Live Aus Berlin (CD - Universal, 1999) **** (***** for the DVD version)

Genre:  German pop/rock

Places I remember: The Warehouse (Cambridge)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Engel (sadly, the Berlin version not available)




Gear costume:  Du Hast, Asche zu Asche, Rammstein

Active compensatory factors: Brutal. But not humourless. There is no better place to start if you have never experienced the joy of listening to Rammstein.

Utterly captivating - the DVD of this concert trumps the CD/Record. The malevolent robot cartoon concept is breathtaking in its execution. It's impossible to turn away for even a second.

Go view it now and turn your hifi stereo support system up to 11!!    

Where do they all belong? Next up - the boys head back to the studio with Mutter

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Got my mojo working (Muddy Waters) (LP 165)

Rory Gallagher BBC Sessions (CD - Capo, 1999) ***

Genre:  Irish pop/ rock

Places I remember: HMV Stratford Mall, London  

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: I take What I want




Gear costume: Country Mile, Race The Breeze 

Active compensatory factors: Rory played everywhere, and he always played for fun. If ever a guy had a guitar shaped heart, it was Rory Gallagher. If ever I guy had his mojo working on a consistent basis, it was Rory.

Here we find Rory on the wireless, both in the concert and studio mode over two CDs.

He lets rip! As he always did! 

Faithful allies Gerry McAvoy, Lou Martin and Rod deAth are present and correct - laying down the bedrock for Rory to do his expansive best upon.

Where do they all belong? More to come in the firey/bluesy guitar stylings of Rory Gallagher.

Thursday, November 9, 2017

Wonderland (Big Country) (LP 163 - 164)

Big Country Live in New York City 1986 (CD - Immortal, 2012) ***
Big Country Without The Aid Of A Safety Net (Live) (CD -EMI, 1994) *****

Genre:  Scottish pop/rock

Places I remember:  The Warehouse (Hastings); Music store in the Onehunga Mall back in 1994.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles/ Gear costume: Just A Shadow (Live in NYC); Everything on Without...Net




The whole concert is magical but if you want a brief sample - try Thirteen Valleys at 9.40 mark.

Active compensatory factors: I quite liked Big Country when, in 1994, I came across Without...a Net in a remainder store in the Onehunga Mall (best $5 I've ever spent).  

From that point on, I LOVED Big Country.

Without...a Net is a nigh on perfect live album: bags of atmosphere at the Barrowlands in Glasgow; Stuart Adamson's warm vocals and welcome; the way it begins with a number of acoustic versions and builds and builds; the crowd singalongs and chiming in at appropriate times; the electric intensity at the end of the concert!

It is magic and I could listen to it every day without ever getting weary of it. 

The other live album in this post has some great moments but the audio quality and atmosphere is not a patch on Without...a Net.

Where do they all belong? A fitting tribute to Adamson's genius. More BC to come.

Sunday, November 5, 2017

So maybe tomorrow I'll find my way home (Stereophonics) (LP 159 - 162)

Stereophonics Word Gets Around (CD - V2, 1997) ***
Stereophonics Performance and Cocktails (CD - V2, 1999) **
Stereophonics Just Enough Education To Perform (CD - V2, 2001) ***
Stereophonics You Gotta Go There To Come Back (CD - V2, 2003) ***

Genre: Welsh pop/rock 

Places I remember: Record shop Central World Plaza in Bangkok, Fives (Leigh-on-sea) and HMV (Edinburgh and Oxford Street)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Maybe Tomorrow




Gear costume: Traffic (Word Gets Around); Local Boy In The Photograph (WGA);


Active compensatory factors: We were living in Essex in 2004 and I had back catalogued from 2003's You Gotta Go There To Come Back, which I'd bought in Bangkok on the way to my first ever visit to the UK the year before. Which is why I've lumped the first four Stereophonics albums together. Keeping up in the back?

At the time (2003), the title struck me as being particularly prescient, and I'd heard Local Boy In A Photograph on a compilation, and liked it a lot. So I took a punt. 
  
The song Maybe Tomorrow is responsible. I listened to YGGTTCB a lot on the plane ride from Bangkok to London to help quell my nerves.

It had the right kind of melancholy longing and haunted wistfulness that matched my mood. In the end I was going home (to Rochdale) but that was fleeting and, as it turned out, unsustainable.

Although it's not brilliant, when I got sorted in Leigh-on-sea I dug around and picked up the back catalogue. None are classics but there are enough individual brilliant songs scattered among each one to make me keep coming back for more.


While Word Gets Around is a really good debut, Performance and Cocktails, for me, suffers from classic second album syndrome (most of the time, Kelly Jones tries too hard).

Third album Just Enough Education To Perform hits the mark with some classic pop and a more varied approach - Mr Writer and especially Have A Nice Day distinguish themselves.

Which brings us back to where I started with Maybe Tomorrow.

Where do they all belong? A swag of post YGGTTCB albums to come.