There are four Frank Marino albums that are off the charts awesome. This one, Juggernaut, What’s Next, and the Live album. Forget about the fact that two of them were titled Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush – basically it’s the same thing, “Mahogany Rush” was dropped after the What’s Next recordings. No mention of the Hendrix nonsense as I touched on that in the review of the Live album. What I will say is I’m surprised and amazed that more guitarists don’t cite Frank as an inspiration. The only person that does is Zac Wilde. As I have mentioned before, Frank is an absolute monster of a player and he is up there with the very best for me.
We start things off with a couple of Frank-standard rockers. Some healthy solos are thrown in for extra points in the title track and Play My Music. Then track three, Stay With Me, rockets into the stratosphere with some killer playing, the first of the 5 all killer no filler tracks on the album. The close out track to Side 1 is Running Wild, and you just have to hear the playing – it’s other worldly. I’m sure there is a kitchen sink in there somewhere.
Time to take a breather before Side 2 kicks in with Crazy Miss Daisy. Another patent Marino rocker with another killer middle section. Go Strange is next, and is one my favourite Frank tracks. There are lots of textures and grooves happening on this track. Just freakin’ awesome! You run out of superlatives to describe his playing. Young Man is next and the pace drops slightly with a straight up rocker. Last track, Ain’t Dead Yet is my favourite Frank tune. This one has everything times ten. The ending is epic, you feel as though you’re in a war zone.
Big shout out to the band, Frank’s bother Vinnie on rhythm guitar, Paul Harwood on bass, and Jim Ayoub on drums for holding it all together. Another definite buy album. It loses half a point for Play My Music.
9.5/10 from The Grooveman.
