REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Day: September 25, 2023

DREAM POLICE – Messing With The Blues

I’m not sure many people outside of Norway have heard of this band, which is such a shame as this is a very good record. You may have heard of the guitar player however, who is none other than Trond Holter who plays with the mighty Wig Wam and Baby Snakes, amongst others.

This album came out in ’91 and was the band’s second release, when the US had basically given up on melodic rock and melody in general. Luckily Scandinavia had not!

Look For A Lover opens up the album and man we are on a roll straight away, great groove and riff and plenty of Trond. Bad Bad Bad is next and it’s my favourite song. Such a killer tune with a massive hook and chorus, and boy does this tune swing. It’s ballad time next with Its Only Love. Great solo! Communication follows and the Extreme-style funk is on the menu. Great riff and groove, and they sure know to to write a tune. The hook and chorus are huge. Great intro to Don’t Let Go, and you will be singing the chorus for days. Brand New Car closes out Side 1 with some dirty blues.

Down On Your Luck kicks off Side 2 with some yeehaw slide geetar and man what a great hook and chorus. Superb! Some sleazy barroom jazz next with So Damned Lonely. Such a different groove but it works so well. In The Monkey Hour has that Extreme groove and vibe again. The main verse is sooo cool in this one. Woke Up This Morning is sure living up to the title of the album. Harmonica intro before the heavy blues riff kicks in. We close out the album with No More Lies, an acoustic country blues tune maybe not be the best way to close out a killer melodic rock record.

Great band and this (a part from the last track) is a great follow up to their first album.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

TOBRUK – Wild On The Run

The band were formed in ’81 and they released their first single on Neat Records in ’83, and it wasn’t until ’85 that this album appeared. I think with their association with Neat they were classed as NWOBHM, but in reality they were closer to Bon Jovi.

This is a very melodic album and for all the hard work they put in with touring they only had moderate success and splintered apart after their second album. If I’m honest, they were really unlucky. The songs are really strong especially the title track and Falling, which I remember did quite well in the UK and was played a lot on the radio, and the Lance Quinn production is perfect. My favourite track is Running From The Night, a great up tempo rocker which has American radio written all over it. A close runner for favourite is Rebound. A killer riff and groove and I love the guitar sound. I know you may think I’m smoking something when I mentioned Bon Jovi, but you should check out the close out tune Going Down For The Third Time. It’s very reminiscent of Jon and the boys early efforts.

8/10 from The Grooveman.