THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Tag: vinyl (Page 44 of 50)

STING – Bring On The Night

January 6, 2021 /

I know it’s not cool to admit it, but I really like Sting and The Police before. I first saw them at a small club before the 1st Police album came out playing to 3 men and a dog. Shoot forward about 8 years at the recording of this live album and Sting is somewhere in the stratosphere of stardom. How quick things change.

This album was recorded in support of the Blue Turtles album, so the songs on here are from that album plus a select few Police toons. One look at the band and you can tell the groove that Sting is aiming for. Omar Hakim ex Weather Report on drums, Darryl Jones ex Miles Davis on bass, Kenny Kirkland ex Dizzie Gillespie on keys, and Branford Marsalis ex every great jazzer on sax. A whose who of great groove players.

First track in is the title track segued into When the World is Running Down with the extended groove work out is just fantastic. This is part of the problem with this record really as it shows up the Blue Turtle songs as not being as strong as the Police songs that they sit along side on this offering. It’s not till we get to the end of Side 2 with Demolition Man that the groove really picks up again.

Onto Side 3 and we are into a serious reggae groove of One World and then the tempo drops right off again. Now I know all about the spacing of a show with highs and lows and giving the audience a breather as well as the band, and when to use peaks and troughs and the big build points throughout the show. I just don’t think the way the album is presented makes it flow very well as you end up wanting to skip tracks to get to the awesome bits. My favourite track is the first of Bring On The Night/ When The World mash up – then it’s downhill all the way.

7/10 from The Grooveman.

OPETH – Watershed

January 5, 2021 /

Unlike a lot of Opeth fans, I really love this record. Most fans say this is the album that death metal Opeth ended and prog band Opeth started. I disagree, as I think the seeds were sown back on Blackwater Park. Personally I think because this was the first album to feature Mikael’s drumming partner from Bloodbath Martin Axenrot and ex Talisman guitarist Fredrick Akesson (who both replaced fan favourites Peter Lindgren and Martin Lopez), fans saw this as the change. I think both of them are upgrades for the music that Opeth are creating.

The opening of the very melodic sorrowful Coil into Heir Apparent is pure genius. If any fan was in any doubt that Axenrot could not fill Lopez’s shoes then the blast beats at the start of The Lotus Eaters should blow that away. The riff, the groove and the melody on this song are just fantastic all mixed with the death growls – we have all bases covered here. I want to call the next track Burden a power ballad but it’s way more than that. I really love Mikaels clean vocal and on Burden it’s just perfect, complete with a killer solo from Akesson. Still a live favourite today.

I’ll admit to owning this twice on vinyl as I bought the original when it came out with the bonus CD, and I bought the green splatter that came out for a RSD day release. The bonus CD is worth a mention for a great cover of Robin Trower’s Bridge of Sighs.

This being a double album, the second disc contains 4 Opeth classics: Porcelain Heart, Hessian Peel, Hex Omega and Derelict Herds – each an absolute metal fans wet dream. The beginning to Porcelain Heart feels as though the end is about to begin – epic stuff. My favourite on this album is Hex Omega, this is such an epic song. It starts out with an almost medieval feel and just builds and builds into the most incredible of songs and concludes with a monstrous ending.

I really don’t think there is another band out there like Opeth. They are very original in their approach. Mixing all elements together to create this wonderful sound.

10/10 from The Grooveman.

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.

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