REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Day: December 8, 2022

BULLETBOYS – s/t

Warner Brothers must have thought they had struck gold when they came upon the Bulletboys. Having had success with Van Halen they must have thought they had found VH2 when they saw these guys. Hell, they even brought in Ted Templeman to weave his magic over the band. Marq Torien is a ringer for Dave and had all the stage moves to match, and the rest of the band looked the part, the vibe was slightly different however.  Now, that doesn’t mean this is a bad album, on the contrary, it’s a classic of late eighties hair band grooves. In fact, it’s a freakin’ superb album all the way through and they would not make anything better.

Hard As A Rock blasts its way into your ears with a kick ass riff and groove. That cheeky little ditty Smooth Up In Ya follows and is a sleazy dirty beast of a tune. Owed To Joe is another sleaze fest with Torien singing his ass off. Shoot The Preacher Down is pure VH, with that double kick groove and Ice Cream Man intro. For The Love Of Money is a cover of the O’Jays tune and sounds nothing like the original.

Side 2 opens up with glam anthem, Kissin Kitty. Pure LA sleaze n’ roll. Hell On My Heels is slowed down a tad and the riff is simple and huge. Crank Me Up is a turbo charged rocker that flies by. Badlands follows and is another sleazed up groover and I love the tempo change at the end. We close things out with F#9 and my favourite track on the album. A quirky little tune with a nice and dirty riff that I would say is a trademark Bulletboys tune. A great fun album.

10/10 from The Grooveman.

ELECTRIC SUN – Earthquake

This is Uli’s first project after leaving Scorpions where he could expand on his Hendrix-influenced style. I’m a huge Uli fan and I guess I’m in the minority liking the early Scorpions material the best. The production is a bit flat and when the solo’s kick in, the background band drops out somewhat. It’s all about the guitar and how masterful Uli is.

The opening title track is awesome with lots of Uli ripping in with that beautiful melodic style. Lilac is a fairly short piece and has a spoken vocal before the guitar takes over. What a superb tone and melody! Burning Wheels Turning is musically beautiful and the solo is incredible. Uli’s vocals are an acquired taste and on the shorter pieces they are okay but here ,where the lyrics come at a fast pace, they come up a bit short. A short instrumental piece, Japanese Dream closes out Side 1.

Sundown opens up Side 2 and the guitar intro and melody are superb. The lyrics are definitely from the planet freak out, but it’s the guitar we are all here for and the fade out solo is superb. A short classical-style instrumental follows with Winterdays. Still So Many Lives Away is about as normal a song as you get on this album. The solo is just superb. The album closes out with the title track and this is Uli at his best. I would have bought the album just for this tune alone. Uli’s interpretation of an Earthquake, before, during and after. The sounds and tones that come flying at you are just incredible. There are not many modern players that have the tone and feel of the players from the seventies, it’s all about playing as many notes in the quickest time.

8.5/10 from The Grooveman.