THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Tag: music review (Page 488 of 493)

VAN HALEN – S/T

January 5, 2021 /

Let’s get this out of the way straight away!! VH1 (as its affectionately known), is the greatest album of all time, if not, then it’s surely the greatest debut album of all time.

Right that’s got that out of the way!!

Let’s travel back into the mists of time way before internet, social media, cell phones and all that nonsense. I was living in the UK and information about new bands and music was scarce to say the least. Hell, we only had 3 TV channels!! I know! Positively caveman. I used to get my fix of weekly music news by reading Sounds music paper, wherein there was a column written by someone called Laurel Canyon or Sylvia Simmons – can’t remember which but it was one of them. She kept mentioning in her column about this band from LA called Van Halen who was going to melt my face off. We used to read that about bands all the time from the US that they said that about, and 9 times out of 10 it wasn’t the case.

Cut to a Saturday afternoon album show on Radio 1 by Alan Freeman and he announced next a new track by Van Halen. Well my 17 year old brain was not ready from what came out of the radio that day. He played Eruption and You Really Got Me. The sound of the guitar alone had me thinking what the hell was that?! I had never heard anything like it before, and boy was I hooked. Immediately I went to the local record store and bought me some of that.

I’m sure most of you will have heard this album before but go on do your self a favour. Go down to your decks of doom and give this a spin very loud.

There is not one bad song on this album. From the opening distorted car horn at the intro to Runnin’ With The Devil through to the close out track On Fire, there is not one second that is not pure brilliance. Not only is this a great rock record but nearly every song could have been a single – the melody on each track is killer. Atomic Punk is just freaking insane the guitar sound alone is worth the price of admission.

Ladies and Germs, this is the album that launched the whole LA scene and 10,000 copy cat guitar players. I love every minute of this record and everyone should own one.

1,000/10 from The Grooveman. Did I go over the top there?! HELL NO!!

MIKE OLDFIELD – Tubular Bells

January 4, 2021 /

I remember when this came out in ’73 and how all the press and my Prog loving friends were freaking out about it’s release. The buzz was unreal as it went to number 1 in all album charts and I think this was the fledgling Virgin label’s first major release.

Most notably, Oldfield nearly plays all instruments on this release apart from a few backing vocals and drums. If any of you have ever watched The Exorcist, I’m sure you’ll be familiar to the opening of this album. This is the grey vinyl version of the 2009 remaster and it sounds crisp and clear. There are no song structures anywhere on this album and are all instrumental pieces linked together on each side to make one long piece of music. I love how all the instruments are introduced and play the main theme on Side 1 .

Other than classical pieces, this was the first album in mainstream rock music to use this format. Would you put this on at a party? Hell no! But it’s a great stress reliever and something to have one while you’re reading a book. I don’t think Oldfield reached the highs of this on anything else he recorded and still records today. An album to bring out once a year to jog the memory.

7/10 from The Grooveman.

WHITE LION – Big Game

January 4, 2021 /

This is the third of the four albums that White Lion put out towards the end of the whole “Hair Metal” thing at the end of the eighties right into the grunge episode. In fact, White Lion were one of the bands whose career virtually ended overnight by the birth of grunge, which is a shame really as they are quite talented and great musicians unlike bands like Poison who deserved to be wiped out. And in Vito Bratta they had an incredible guitar player right out of the Eddie Van Halen school of histrionics. In fact the VH comparisons are a little to close on Let’s Get Crazy, which is a clear rip of Hot For Teacher.

This album, although not the strongest of the 4, still made Top 20 on Billboard and spawned 4 singles – the most successful was Little Fighter. Mike Tramps strained vocal style is not my thing but it does suit the music well. Though its Bratta’s six string wizardry that holds the attention as nearly all songs have his stamp all over them, and the excellent production by Michael Wagner bring it to the fore in the mix. One other notable member of this line up is James Lorenzo who has played with just about everyone, and I do believe is now playing with John Fogerty. Other than the cover of Radar Love, may favourite track is If My Mind Is Evil. All in all a quite enjoyable album.

7/10 from The Grooveman.

THE RODS – s/t

January 3, 2021 /

This is the Arista version of the album as the original was called Rock Hard before they were signed. If anyone is unfamiliar with The Rods, they were part of the USA’s answer to the NWOBHM around the early eighties, and Dave “Rock” Feinstein was Ronnie James Dio’s cousin – in fact they were in the band Elf together. I remember really liking The Rods at the time mainly due to Feinstein’s guitar playing.

In classic power trio tradition, Feinstein handles lead vocal duties on all songs apart from Ace In The Hole, which bassist Gary Bordonaro sings. I guess they were going for that Ted Nugent style which Feinstein’s vocal suit, but Bordanaro is the way better singer. Nothing Going On In The City and Power Lover probably sum up what The Rods are all about the best as they are the stand out tracks. Heads down no nonsense mindless rock n roll. It’s still a fun record to listen to even though it does sound dated.

7/10 from The Grooveman.

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