REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Month: May 2021 (Page 1 of 15)

PAUL GILBERT – Stone Pushing Uphill Man

One of the world’s best guitarists, Paul has recorded and appeared on tons of albums. After taking a break from Racer X, Paul was part of the awesome Mr. Big who tasted mega success with some well written and played hard rock. In between all this super stardom nonsense, he also started recording solo albums starting with King Of Clubs in ’98. Now, these albums were a mixture of sung and instrumental tunes – all of them being very diverse with the content. This album is slightly different again, as the majority of these tracks are cover songs. Some of them may seem like odd choices, but they work really well when you get used to the fact that the guitar is playing the vocal parts.

First up is a ripping cover of Loverboy’s Working For The Weekend with some amazing guitar. Aerosmith’s Back In The Saddle is next and is a pretty standard take – except for the killer solo. One of the great tracks of the album is next and it’s a freaking awesome cover of James Brown’s I Got The Feelin’. A fast funked up beast of a track with LOTS of guitar. Elton’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is played with a slight blues vibe, and if I’m honest, it does sound a bit karaoke – but the killer guitar just makes it all seem good. The Beatles’ Why Don’t We Do It In The Road follows and his guitar tone really makes this track – it just proves that you can shred guitar on any tune. Last track on Side 1 is the first original tune, Shock Absorber, and Paul is wailing over an old RnB groove – it’s just awesome, I could listen to this all day!

Side 2 starts with another original, Purple Without All The Red, and with the theme of the album its an almost country standard, but done PG style. A cover of The Police’s Murder By Numbers is next up and doesn’t really stray too far from the original, albeit with lots of PG on guitar and some heavy skin bashing from Kenny Aronoff. My Girl by Eric Carmen follows and how PG picked this I will never know, but it kinda works. Another weird choice is next with Wash Me Clean by KD Lang – it’s the most chill song on the album and it’s beautifully played. Last track is the title track and the third original. It’s the only track with vocals and it starts like a gospel song with some killer acoustic guitar from PG, until BOOM, and the power gets turned on. Best track on the album, a great vibe and arrangement with incredible soloing as the cherry on the top.

I love all of his solo albums as they are all different, and I’m a sucker for great guitar playing.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

LIMELIGHT – s/t

In my Saxon review recently, I mentioned how I first got to know them by seeing them in their previous incarnation in working men’s clubs around Doncaster. Well, Limelight were maybe more famous in that scene as they had quite a following wherever they played. Even this record was released on Future Earth Records, which was a local Doncaster label. Hailing from Mansfield, which is just down the road from Doncaster, they were another local band that I thought would make it. The band are made up of Mike Scrimshaw on bass and vocals, his brother Glenn Scrimshaw on guitar, and Pat Coleman on drums. They can best be described as a poor man’s Rush.

Opening track, Going Home, is decent but the first thing you notice is how flat and sparse the production is. Knife In Your Back is a pretty basic tune and doesn’t really try too hard to stand out from the crowd. Mamma I Don’t Want To Lose You is not a bad track but again suffers from that flat production. Next track, Man Of Colours, was the band’s showpiece song when they played live. This is where the Rush comparisons came, but I guess it’s influences are based in Prog . It’s still a good track today and holds up quite well.

Side 2 starts with another favourite with Metal Man. This was as NWOBHM as they got. They were thrust into that scene as this album came out in 1980, even though they had been around as Limelight since ’74. An opportunity is an opportunity right? Walk On Water is next and it starts with a twin guitar assault – this is one of their best tracks. How do they get a twin guitar with a three piece I hear you ask ? Well, Mike played a double neck guitar for this piece, a guitar on one, and bass on the other. They were quite an ambitious band, even with very limited resources. Last track, Don’t Look Back, which is the epic track for this side. The Prog shines bright with this one young Skywalker.

Some bands are destined not to make it, and I’m afraid Limelight falls into this category.

6.5/10 from The Grooveman.

HONEYMOON SUITE – The Big Prize

Hailing from Niagara Falls (the Canadian side), this was the band’s 2nd album released in ’85. After the success of the first album, which spawned four singles, Warner Bothers decided to throw the kitchen sink at this release to hope lightening struck twice. They got mega producer Bruce Fairbairn to produce, and Bob Rock was the engineer. Well it worked, as four singles were also released from this one.

Bad Attitude was one of those singles and opens up the album with its polished rock sound tailor made for the North American market. Second track, Feel It Again, was an even bigger hit with its huge chorus, melody, and huge production – it couldn’t fail – they had that pop/rock sound nailed down. Lost And Found has that big eighties keyboard driven sound, again with the big chorus, and everything sounds super polished. Of course the ballad rears its ugly head with What Does It Take. When the band writes such good pop/rock songs it amazes me that they are put under pressure to write them. And again, what do I know, as this was a hit also. Side 1 closes out with One By One, again with the big keyboard intro, and the guitars are a bit louder to give it that extra bounce.

Side 2 kicks off with Wounded. It’s an ok track with a bit of a cheesy lyric but the big production carries it through. Words In The Wind is up next, again with the super processed keyboards, it’s nearly a mirror image of the previous track – at least this track has a decent solo. The final single from the record is All Along You Knew and its claim to fame is that it had flute played by none other than Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. How that came about I would love to know. Once The Feeling follows and we’re back to the slick big rock sound which Fairbairn is known for. Album closer, Take My Hand, is super disappointing as it’s a ballad. Who closes an album with a ballad? Anyway, this is what an album sounds like after it’s had a million bucks thrown at it (slight exaggeration).

8/10 from The Grooveman.

SAXON – Wheels Of Steel

This, ladies and hemorrhoids, is what NWOBHM was all about. To me, Saxon were the best band to come out of this period. Even though they disappeared into the wilderness for a while, they had all the songs and could write a tune. Now, I know everyone will say Maiden were the best – blah blah blah – but to me, a lad from “OOP NORTH”, Saxon were the schnizz!!! I’m from Doncaster, a working class town where the coal mines and railways were the main industries (until Thatcher destroyed them, but that’s another story) – it was also the land of the working man’s club. I remember seeing Son Of A Bitch a few times in said clubs before they were Saxon. To see one of our own making it was awesome.

There is not one bad track on this record – in fact – there were even two hit singles on this opus of awesomeness. 747 Strangers In The Night, which is a great choice for a single, and Wheels Of Steel with that repetitive riff – plus they got to play on Top Of The Pops. Opening track was an anthem for the NWOBHM movement as a whole – what a flag bearing track it is. Freeway Mad carries on the fast bike and car theme that opens side two – a belter of a track. Every song is just fantastic right up until album closer, Machine Gun, where Graham would do his tribute to Hendrix by setting fire and smashing up a guitar.

I could go into lengthy detail how one person took control of the band, which is a sad tale to tell as the heart and soul of the band was removed. The band are still rocking today, and I hold out hope for Graham and Steve that one day all hatchets can be buried and see them all on stage again. A classic.

10/10 from The Grooveman.

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