THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Tag: music (Page 320 of 454)

RICK JAMES – Street Songs

November 13, 2021 /

I have guilty pleasure of old school funk records, especially with the full horn section. This album was released in ’81, but it has that mid-seventies feel to it. This album was his best selling record with tracks like Give It To Me Baby and Super Freak, which had great crossover appeal.

There are disappointments on this album, namely Make Love To Me and Fire And Desire, which slow things down and both are a bit of a vibe killer, but the highs out weigh the lows for me. The best track IMHO is Below The Funk, which really grooves. Back in the day these were the types of songs that filled dance floors.

There are a few live shows on YouTube that show you what a great live act Rick and his band were.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

VANDEN PLAS – Colour Temple

November 12, 2021 /

This is the first album by Germany’s finest purveyors of Prog/Metal. Before they truly found their sound on the absolutely stunning The God Thing, they were a cross between Dokken and Dream Theater with slightly more radio friendly material.

The opening to Father is seriously dramatic, with the classical instruments giving way to a crushingly heavy riff and a fantastic song. The riff to Push is pure melodic rock heaven, and it leads into another killer song with some nice guitar from Stephan Lill. This is basically the whole album: great songs with some great playing, and a killer in your face production. My favourite track is Judas, it’s a superb song with everything that I love in a rock song all squeezed into its 6.04 minutes.

This album was originally released in ’94 and still sounds great today. Another band that don’t mean a whole bunch once you leave Europe, which astounds me, but what do I know. If you love hard rock played well and with great attention to detail, this will not disappoint you.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

SIMO – Rise & Shine

November 12, 2021 /

The album that was released before this one, Let Love Show The Way, was a huge surprise for me. It totally blew me away as I loved their brand of roots blues and funk. So I was expecting big things from Rise & Shine, but with a lot of bands around at the minute, they didn’t want to repeat themselves and wanted to keep the creativity going – even if it takes away from the success they already received. This album is a lot harder to get into and it takes a lot of plays for it to dissolve into your soul.

It’s a very groovy record, and on tracks like Meditation they nail it perfectly. Such a sexy vibe, a great melody, and some very subtle guitar with nice clean tones make this one of my favourite songs by the band. The track, Shine, musically has a Stevie Wonder Higher Ground feel to it but the lyrics are very old school RnB. The final track, I Pray, at times is the heaviest sounding piece on the record, and then it’s the most thought provoking track on the album.

This is a very varied album. If you give it time I’m sure you will be rewarded with a deep listening experience that at times goes from pure psychedelia, to soulful blues and funk.

8.5/10 from The Grooveman.

TRUST – Paris By Night Live

November 11, 2021 /

Now we have bands like Gojira and Uneven Structure to glory over, but for the longest time France’s best export to the world of rock n roll was Trust. This album was recorded in Paris at the Monsters Of Rock show with Iron Maiden and Anthrax. The band were on fire the night they recorded this. I’m sure you all know that even Anthrax covered Antisocial as a single. They even improve on the album takes of the songs, and I really love the tone of Nuno’s guitar. Some people are put off by the fact that they sing in French, but I don’t hear anyone complaining about Rammstein.

A really cool opening with Paris By Night as it’s Love At First Feel by AC/DC with different lyrics – Bernie and Bon Scott were good friends. Highlights here (and there are many) are Sors Tes Griffes – with a great riff and groove, a killer version of Antisocial with great crowd interaction, Ton Dernier Acte – as l love the power of the song, and L’Elite which closes out the album.

A really great album by a band that many people pass over. If you are a lover of mid-eighties hard rock then you will love this album.

10/10 from The Grooveman.

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