THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Month: December 2022 (Page 8 of 11)

BULLETBOYS – s/t

December 8, 2022 /

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

December 8, 2022 /

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.

JOHN NORUM – Face The Truth

December 7, 2022 /

This is the second solo album from the Europe axeman, and was released back in ’92. It’s more of a full on rock album than his first, and sees Glenn Hughes singing on several tracks. One of these is opener Face The Truth, a superb heavy blues groove with a killer vocal and superb solo. Night Buzz is more of an LA eighties glam groover with a nice riff and hook, and a ripping solo. Interesting to hear how Glenn’s voice has changed over the past thirty years since this was recorded. Third track in and it’s ballad time with In Your Eyes. Normal service is resumed with Opium Trail a cover of the Thin Lizzy tune. A great homage to a great tune with John handling lead vocals. Side 1 closes out with We Will Be Strong ,which sees John’s band mate Joey Tempest on vocals and it’s also ballad number two.

Side 2 kicks off with Good Man Shining, another heavy blues groover which reminds a little of Whitesnake. Then it’s, Time Will Find An Answer. A great opening guitar solo that leads into a gallop groove. I love the main riff. Counting On Your Love is a straight up melodic rock groover with a great hook and chorus. Enidca is the only instrumental on the album and this is where John really let’s it rip, not in a total shred fest but with a lot of melody and feel. Still The Night was written by Hughes and Thrall, I think for what was to be their follow-up album and it definitely has that groove. We close out the album with Distant Voices, a fast uptempo rocker and my favourite on the album.

8.5/10 from The Grooveman.

KIX – Cool Kids

December 7, 2022 /

This is the band’s follow-up to their hugely entertaining debut, and was released back in ’83. Change was already afoot as original guitarist Ronnie Younkins was replaced by Brad Divens, and that energetic archaic approach was being smoothed out to a more corporate sound, which would pay dividends with the Blow My Fuse album.

The more basic AC/DC sound was becoming more prevalent with tracks like Love Pollution and Get Your Monkeys Out, which is fine, but tracks like Body Talk and Loco Emotion just fail miserably as they do not sound like the band at all and sounds more new wave. Thankfully there are redeeming tracks like Mighty Mouth, which is just kick ass rock n’ roll and more of what the band are all about. The last track Restless Blood feels more like the energy of the first album and is my favourite track.

7.5/10 from The Grooveman.

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