THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Category: Vinyl Reviews (Page 108 of 492)

BLUE TEARS – S/T

January 22, 2024 /

This is a great record, and just because another flavour of sounds were occupying youth at the time does not make good music bad.

This album appeared in 1990 and basically that was it for them as the colour of brown washed over the musical landscape. In these grooves, Blue Tears created one of the best melodic rock albums ever recorded. If this came out five years earlier, they would have given Bon Jovi a run for their money.

The album has great songs that have a great positive vibe that you can’t help singing a long to. And, in Gregg Fulkerson they possessed one of the great forgotten talents of the genre. Gregg, who passed away in 2009, had a stellar voice that was perfect for the tunes, plus he was a killer guitar player.

As for favourite tracks, I could pick any and that includes the ballads. Today I will go with Side 2 opener, Innocent Kiss. It has everything I love about Blue Tears all in one song: a massive hook and chorus, big fat guitar, and a melody to die for.

I urge anyone who loves melodic rock to seek this one out.

10/10 from The Grooveman.

STAGE DOLLS – Commandos

January 22, 2024 /

This is album number two from one of Norway’s finest exponents of AOR/ Melodic Rock. You can see why this album did really well in the US, because the whole vibe is tailor made for American FM radio. The production is huge and very clear, all the tricks and gizmo’s have been applied to give the songs that extra everything. There is no way that they could do this live. Well, not without help anyway!

Commandos (the song) is a quality piece of music with a great melody and hook, it was a huge single for the band. Young Hearts is another song that you can imagine playing in your soft top cruising down the Pacific coast highway singing along to the melody. My favourite tune however is Rock You where they mix the rock with the smooth, crank those guitars, and give it the full rock party anthem.

A very good album that sounds great.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

DIAMOND REXX – Land Of The Damned

January 22, 2024 /

Some bands can pull off the whole glam image really well, but others (like Diamond Rexx) look like a bad drag act on a Friday night bender. This album was Diamond Rexx’s debut album, released back in ’86 (on Island records nonetheless), and I really like it.

The production is quite raw and that works in the band’s favour as the guitar is nice and loud with the minimum of overdubs. Vocalist Nasty Habits has an Iggy Pop feel to his vocals and musically they are a glam version of Raven. Highlights are the metal romp of Cuz I Wancha; my favourite Up And Down, which has a nice solo from S. St. Lust, (*waits for everyone to stop giggling*); and the anthemic Rock Gun.

They were never going to reach the heights that they so obviously wished for, but their first album’s “let’s go do it” attitude is quite endearing.

7/10 from The Grooveman.

TESLA – The Great Radio Controversy

January 22, 2024 /

It’s been a while since I gave this a spin. You forget what a near perfect hard rock masterpiece this is.

This was album number two for Tesla released in ’89, Geffen must have thought they had struck gold with it. Hang Tough is such a great tune to open up with and then boom, Lady Luck with those huge backing vocals nips in behind. The dirty blues of Heavens Trail follows that opening, major props to the record company for releasing this as a single. It’s a great dirty sounding tune. Be A Man sounds as though it belongs in the Deep South instead of California. You can pick any of the first three as my favourite tune as they are all equally as good.

I won’t do song by song breakdown here because this is such a class album that all melodic rock fans will know intimately, but I will tell you the album has been certified double platinum and still gets squillions of streams. Class will always be class.

Tesla are still releasing albums with quality tunes and long may they do so.

9.5/10 from The Grooveman.

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