THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Tag: vinyl records (Page 315 of 491)

BON JOVI – New Jersey

March 18, 2022 /

This is the only By Jovi (if you’re from Yorkshire, you’ll know) record that I own. The first album was ok – especially Runaway which was a big hit for the band. Then the follow up, 7800° Fahrenheit, was really quite disappointing and the record company was giving them a bit of pressure for the next album. Well we all know now that Slippery When Wet went mega huge and success was there’s, but then came the problem of how do you follow that? With the best record of your career that’s how!

The band had matured a lot by this point and Jon’s love of Springsteen came out big time on this record. There were 5 huge singles on the album and 4 of them open up the record: Lay Your Hands On Me with its killer intro, Bad Medicine which made it to number 1, Born To Be My Baby, and the syrupy ballad Living In Sin with Jon’s best Springsteen impression. Not a bad opening to a record. To assure the success though, they brought in super songwriter Desmond Child to help them get the hits.

This is one of those albums I don’t play that often as I have heard so much of it on the radio that I feel I know it inside out. Still, there’s no denying that it’s a classic record.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

BREAKING BENJAMIN – Aurora

March 17, 2022 /

I’m not usually a fan of when bands do acoustic re-workings of their songs. I think it’s usually a cop out from the label and band as a contractual obligation. Hands up here – I acquired this album for free. There is also one new song on offer, Far Away, and it was released as a single.

Benjamin Burnley has that tone to his voice that I’m sure you are all familiar with as it also appears in Nickelback, Shinedown, and any other band of that ilk. These songs sound a lot better plugged in, especially Failure which loses that power and angst. The only song that still works in this format is Torn In Two, which I’ve always liked. I loved Dark Before Dawn, but this album just doesn’t do it for me I’m afraid.

6.5/10 from The Grooveman.

DEF LEPPARD – On Through The Night

March 17, 2022 /

We all know how the future turned out for Def Leppard, and when you hear this album now you can see all the elements were in place to make a great rock band. They just needed the right producer, and boy did they get the right one – but not on this album. This album as produced by long time Judas Priest producer Tom Allom. I think I mentioned in a previous review that I saw them at a pub in Sheffield completely by accident just before their Getcha Rocks Off EP came out. That EP was raw but killer, and you knew that they had a shot. Now those songs appear on this album, albeit re-recorded. It shows that if you have the right record label it means everything.

I remember the song Hello America caused a bit of a stir when renowned rock journalist Geoff Barton accused the band of selling their souls to the USA and waving bye bye to the fans in the UK. He sought of had a point as they became huge because of the US, but there is no way anyone could have guessed how huge they would become.

There are some good songs on this album namely Rock Brigade, Wasted, Overture, Hello America, When The Walls Came Tumbling Down, and the classic Getcha Rocks Off. Any one of those songs would not be out of place in a modern Leppard set if they chose to play them. Of course, the “Getcha” is missing from this album and it’s been shortened to just “Rocks Off” but it’s still a great tune.  Still a fun record.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

FIST – Turn The Hell On

March 16, 2022 /

I remember buying the single Name Rank And Serial Number on Neat Records after I heard it on the radio, so when the album came out I bought it straight away. After playing the album I was a bit disappointed as the production/mix were not that great – the whole album sounds really flat. The drum sound is pretty bad as it sounds as though the drummer is playing cardboard boxes. Now I know they were a great Live band as I saw them supporting UFO – they seemed to have a great energy and I liked their songs, plus Dave Irwin was a really tasty guitar player.

The songs that shine through (despite the bad mix) are You’ll Never Get Me Up In One Of Those, which is the best song the band did with double kicks all the way and a killer hook and melody. One Percenter, which is a tribute to biker gangs and is so NWOBHM, and the song that got me into them, Name Rank And Serial Number. There were so many bands from this period that never made it out of the bottom division, and Fist are one of those. MCA weren’t the best of labels when it came to NWOBHM bands as they ruined a few (Tygers, Diamond Head etc.).

7/10 from The Grooveman.

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