THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Month: April 2022 (Page 7 of 8)

ANGEL – Helluva Band

April 5, 2022 /

This is the band’s second album released in ’76, and is a pomp rock fans wet dream. Whether Casablanca records saw them as the exact opposite to Kiss with their dark image, it made perfect sense to market Angel in all white (I remember thinking it was a cool gimmick if it were true). Other than the Tower, I thought the first album was lacking somewhat in decent tunes, but this album is a lot stronger – and with all the keyboards it almost feels like a Prog album.

The Fortune is grandiose and overblown with a killer intro – Genesis would have been proud. Songs like Pressure Point have a more traditional rock approach, with the stock riff-by-numbers sound. They were a quirky little band that sort of existed in their own universe, until the record company put pressure on them and they slowly changed their sound and became just another rock band. This is probably my favourite Angel album other than the Live one.

7.5/10 from The Grooveman.

BOZZIO LEVIN STEVENS – Black Light Syndrome

April 5, 2022 /

For Terry Bozzio and Tony Levin to come together in a project like this is no big stretch, as they have both been in Frank Zappa and King Crimson respectively, so you would think the chemistry would work with them. But to throw in Steve Stevens (who was known for being Billy Idol’s guitar player) was a bit of an unknown. Well, we needn’t have worried as he is the stand out guy here.

The idea of this project was just to go into a studio for 4 days and improvise the music that we have here – then do overdubs at a later stage. 7 pieces of music were the result and captured in the grooves. This is a 2013 vinyl reissue on Magna Carta. This not an album you play for dinner parties, you play this when you have some alone time so you can immerse yourself in the vastness of it. Great playing by all three guys, but mucho kudos to Steve Stevens as his playing is a revelation.

8.5/10 from The Grooveman.

AC/DC – If You Want Blood

April 4, 2022 /

When talking about great Live albums of the past, If You Want Blood doesn’t get mentioned that often, everyone usually says Made In Japan or Strangers In The Night (the usual suspects), but this is one of the best Live albums ever recorded. If any of you were lucky to witness this line up of AC/DC, you will know they were absolutely killer Live. It’s hard to imagine today’s version of the band doing anything like this, as they are almost a completely different sounding band.

This album and Let There Be Rock are the reason that DC were classed as a metal band at the time – they put so much energy into the show. Tracks like Let There Be Rock, Whole Lotta Rosie, and Bad Boy Boogie were metal anthems at the time. If you wanted to fill the dance floor with headbangers at any rock night, then DC were the band to do it. This album is the absolute definition of the term “every home should have one”.

10/10 from The Grooveman.

BLACKEYED SUSAN – Electric Rattlebone

April 4, 2022 /

When Dizzy Dean Davidson left Britny Fox, he dropped the Dizzy and formed barroom rock n rollers, Blackeyed Susan. They signed a deal with Mercury and recorded and released this album in ’91. The album bombed, and whilst the band were on tour they were dropped by the label – so this was the band’s only official release. They sound nothing like Britny Fox, and all signs of the glam are gone and replaced with a stripped down bluesy rock n roll vibe.

I really like this album as it’s a lot more honest and more representative of what really floated Mr. Davidson’s boat. If I had to pin down a sound, I would say it’s a beefed up version of the Faces, crossed with the Georgia Satellites sitting in on a Stones session. Sympathy fits that bill perfectly and is, what I call, a Friday night drinking song. The band shows that they can write great radio friendly tunes as Nothing Else Matters would have made a great single. To nail home that Faces reference, the intro to Ride With Me is very close to the intro to Maggie May. My favourites on the album are Old Lady Snow which is a great uptempo stomper, and the very stones sounding She’s So Fine.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

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