THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Day: January 4, 2021

MIKE OLDFIELD – Tubular Bells

January 4, 2021 /

I remember when this came out in ’73 and how all the press and my Prog loving friends were freaking out about it’s release. The buzz was unreal as it went to number 1 in all album charts and I think this was the fledgling Virgin label’s first major release.

Most notably, Oldfield nearly plays all instruments on this release apart from a few backing vocals and drums. If any of you have ever watched The Exorcist, I’m sure you’ll be familiar to the opening of this album. This is the grey vinyl version of the 2009 remaster and it sounds crisp and clear. There are no song structures anywhere on this album and are all instrumental pieces linked together on each side to make one long piece of music. I love how all the instruments are introduced and play the main theme on Side 1 .

Other than classical pieces, this was the first album in mainstream rock music to use this format. Would you put this on at a party? Hell no! But it’s a great stress reliever and something to have one while you’re reading a book. I don’t think Oldfield reached the highs of this on anything else he recorded and still records today. An album to bring out once a year to jog the memory.

7/10 from The Grooveman.

WHITE LION – Big Game

January 4, 2021 /

This is the third of the four albums that White Lion put out towards the end of the whole “Hair Metal” thing at the end of the eighties right into the grunge episode. In fact, White Lion were one of the bands whose career virtually ended overnight by the birth of grunge, which is a shame really as they are quite talented and great musicians unlike bands like Poison who deserved to be wiped out. And in Vito Bratta they had an incredible guitar player right out of the Eddie Van Halen school of histrionics. In fact the VH comparisons are a little to close on Let’s Get Crazy, which is a clear rip of Hot For Teacher.

This album, although not the strongest of the 4, still made Top 20 on Billboard and spawned 4 singles – the most successful was Little Fighter. Mike Tramps strained vocal style is not my thing but it does suit the music well. Though its Bratta’s six string wizardry that holds the attention as nearly all songs have his stamp all over them, and the excellent production by Michael Wagner bring it to the fore in the mix. One other notable member of this line up is James Lorenzo who has played with just about everyone, and I do believe is now playing with John Fogerty. Other than the cover of Radar Love, may favourite track is If My Mind Is Evil. All in all a quite enjoyable album.

7/10 from The Grooveman.

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