Category: Album Review

Kiss – ‘The Very Best of Kiss’ (2002) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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Kiss and their label are know for releasing a ton of greatest hits compilations as you have seen over the last few months from what I’ve posted. And we’ve barely scratched the surface. I have another one for you and this one is was released on August 27, 2002. It is called ‘The Very Best of Kiss’ and you get 21 songs. There is nothing new, unreleased or anything special about these songs. They are all taken from the albums they represent with the exception of “Detroit Rock City” which is the edited version but it is from ‘Double Platinum’ and has been released before. Basically, there is really no reason to buy this one.

It is not well representative of their whole career as we only get 3 songs from the 80’s and 1 from the 90’s and that is it. We also only get 1 song from the solo albums and that is Ace’s “New York Groove”. The 70’s heyday is what is mostly represented here and if you want that era, get the ‘Gold’ compilation we mentioned awhile back as it is splendid. You do get a lot of band members represented as we have songs with Gene Simmons, Paul Stanely, Ace Frehley, Peter Criss, Eric Carr, Vinnie Vincent, Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer. No Mark St. John nor Tommy Thayer though. The album did chart at #52 on the Billboard 200 album chart and it did go Gold in the U.S., but otherwise nothing special. And with that, let’s get in to the music.s

The album kicks off with the song “Strutter” from the debut album.  The song was written by both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons and over the years, this would be a rare experience as they would wind up writing songs by themselves.  The music of the song was based off an old Gene song called “Stanley the Parrot” which was recorded even before there was a Wicked Lester. 

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The Collection: Ep. 37 – Scorpions On Vinyl (Part 2 of 2)

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A few years back I did a complete collection series on the Scorpions. I figured it was time to show all the vinyl off on The Collection. We will break it up in to two parts with the first being from the debut album, ‘Lonesome Crow’, all the up to ‘Blackout’ with every thing I have in between which we covered last week. For Part 2, this week we will cover ‘Love at First Sting’ up to their latest ‘Rock Believer’. This will cover from 1984 all the way up to their most recent released in 2022. This will have the classic line-up of Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker, Mathias Jabs, Francis Buchholz and Herman Rarebell. There will be new members on bass and drums down the road including Mikkey Dee from Motorhead on drums. We will talk covers, music and sound…all the good and bad an inbetween.

So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, October 14, 2024 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

Def Leppard – ‘Yeah! Live’ (2021) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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On June 11, 2021, Def Leppard finally released The Collection, Vol. 3. It had been 2 years since the released of Vol. 2 in part probably due to Covid-19. By 2021, things were slowly starting to get back to normal. This was a crucial collection because these albums were not available on vinyl prior to this. So, it is is a must have set for you vinyl collectors. Ok, not really because they are available now individually…well…except for the bonus material. We’ve talked through the B-Sides, Yeah! II and now it is time for the final bonus album in The Collection, Vol. 3…Yeah! Live.

‘Yeah! Live’ is a compilation of 8 live cover songs the band have done over the years. They are B-Sides or recorded from tribute shows they have done and now they are all in one spot. I feel like they have to have more then this, but maybe not. What is cool is Side B as it has Brian May on most of the tracks. I guess he is the 6th member of the band now.. It is not a vast chunk of songs, but it is all quality here not quantity. What is cool is there is a couple recordings on here from the 80’s so we get Steve Clark on a couple tracks. But the rest of the guys are here too with Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Rick Allen, Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell.

SIDE A:

The B-Side to the song “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” is a live version of the Alice Cooper classic, “Elected”. It was recorded in July 1987 at Tilburg, Netherlands on the ‘Hysteria’ Tour. The crowd was really in to this show as they are screaming loud. Joe attacks the vocals with that Alice Cooper style, with grit and attitude. I wonder if the crowd noise is pumped in as they repeat some of their chants throughout. Anyway, the band rocks it out and does a fair job at this one. All I know is when it came out and I picked it up with this song as the B-Side I was happy to have something I didn’t have in my collection at the time. I’ll take new stuff any day.

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Retro Rock Reviews: Ep. 10 – Stryper ‘Against the Law’ (1990)

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This week we stay in the 90’s and we go with another Glam Metal / Hair Band but this album was a huge change on their image and messaging. It is Stryper’s ‘Against the Law’. It saw the band shed their Christian image from losing the Yellow and Black to dropping the Christian, God fearing lyrics. They don’t go all devil worshipping, the songs are still positive, just different. It was released August 21, 1990 and had three singles, but overall did not perform to where it should have. I think it is their best, even if Michael Sweet ranks it as the worst Stryper album. We will find out if this is worth your time or not so join me as I walk through the album song by song.

So go check it out as it is live now on October 10, 2024 at Noon. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

Whitesnake – Washington State Wipeout (Spokane & Glasgow Broadcasts 1984) – Bootleg (The David Coverdale Series)

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Out on my constant vinyl digging adventures, I found a couple Whitesnake bootlegs at the same store. They weren’t old bootlegs, rather they were released recently in 2023 out of Europe. The shows, however, are not recent. First one up is one called Washington State Wipeout and is a 2 LP set that comes in a nice gatefold with a picture of the band included. The vinyl that comes with the set are a beautiful clear color and they look stunning as you will see in one of the pictures below. It was a brand new set, unopened…well at least until I got my hands on it obviously. Now, it is open and has been played!

The 2 LPs carry a different a show for each. On LP 1, we get the Spokane Washington show that was on July 24, 1984. This would’ve been after the release of their 1984 album, ‘Slide it In’, which came out on January 30, 1984. The show was at the Spokane Coliseum and had the line-up of David Coverdale, John Sykes, Richard Bailey (no Jon Lord), Neil Murray and Cozy Powell. A stellar line-up, just wish Lord was still playing. They opened for Dio so not a long setlist and it is all captured here on LP 1. The recording was an FM Radio Broadcast.

On LP 2, we get a show that was recorded on March 1, 1984 and was another FM Radio Broadcast. It was recorded at the Apollo Theater in Glasgow, Scotland where they were the headliner with Great White opening. The full show is 16 tracks so we don’t get the whole show, but we do get 5 tracks at least. If you want the full show, pick up the Slide It In Super Deluxe Edition as Whitesnake issued it officially in that box set. I believe this show would include Jon Lord as he left the band in April. Correct me if I’m wrong.

LP 1:

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The Collection: Ep. 36 – Scorpions on Vinyl (Part 1 of 2)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic5 Comments

A few years back I did a complete collection series on the Scorpions. I figured it was time to show all the vinyl off on The Collection. We will break it up in to two parts with the first being from the debut album, ‘Lonesome Crow’, all the up to ‘Blackout’ with every thing I have in between. For Part 2, next week, will cover ‘Love at First Sting’ up to their latest ‘Rock Believer’. This part covers the 70’s up to 1982 it will feature a lineup of Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker plus a cast of characters from Michael Schenker, Uli Jon Roth, Mathias Jab and Francis Buchholz and numerous, I mean numerous drummers. We will talk the controversial covers and the albums and the sound.

So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, October 7, 2024 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.


Def Leppard – ‘Yeah! II’ (2021) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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On June 11, 2021, Def Leppard finally released The Collection, Vol. 3. It had been 2 years since the released of Vol. 2 in part probably due to Covid-19. By 2021, things were slowly starting to get back to normal. This was a crucial collection because these albums were not available on vinyl prior to this. So, it is is a must have set for you vinyl collectors. Ok, not really because they are available now individually…well…except for the bonus material. This is the only place for those. And we are going to talk about one of them here now called ‘Yeah! II’.

‘Yeah! II’ is a collection of cover songs throughout Leppard’s career including all the bonus tracks from ‘Yeah!’ so no need to buy 3-4 different versions of that album as you get them all here in one set. The set includes some B-Sides and other rare tracks from Leppard and there are a total of 19 songs in this splendid collection. I love how they used a variation of the cover of ‘Yeah!’ and added the ‘II’. It is also a 2LP set and includes a gatefold with some great shots of each of the band members, Rick Allen, Rick Savage, Joe Elliott, Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell. This is a lot of cover songs that is for sure, but what an awesome treat to have them in one collection.

SIDE A:

The album kicks off with a cover for the Mick Ronson song, “Only After Dark”. Originally this song appeared as the B-Side to “Let’s Get Rocked” and it is a raw, headbanging rock song from the band. It has a great, catchy groove, a swing to it and it basically kicks ass. They did a different version for ‘Retro Active’ that added more guitar parts, but this version might be better.

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Retro Rock Reviews: Ep. 9 – Danger Danger ‘Screw It!’ (1991)

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This week we talk move on to the 90’s and first up is a Glam Metal / Hair Band era little nugget. It is the epitome of everything that was wrong with the era, but does that mean it was bad…check it out to see. It is the 1991 release for Danger Danger called ‘Screw It!’. Does Ted Poly, Bruno Ravel, Andy Timmons, Steve West and Kasey Smith suffer from the Sophomore Slump or do they hit it out of the park? This rock era was about to die a fast sudden death and I hated to see it die, but it need to die I guess. We will find out if this is worth your time or not so join me as I walk through the album song by song.

So go check it out as it is live now on October 3, 2024 at Noon. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

Motley Crue – ‘On With The Show’ (1988) – Bootleg

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In my quest for interesting, unique and rare albums for bands I like, I found this bootleg of an old Motley Crue concert from 1986. It says it was recorded at Fresno & Boston in 1986. It was released on Toasted Records in 1988 out of Australia, so pretty cool I found a copy here in the States. The show, as I said, states it is 1986. The label on each of the 2 LPs included in this set have a copyright of 1985 which is impossible if the show didn’t take place until 1986. Actually, the 1985 is probably correct as the Fresno, California pieces of this disc are from November 25, 1985 and the Boston, Massachusetts parts of this show are from a 1984 show.

But Bootlegs are never known to be very accurate. Just take a look at the cover above. That picture is from at the very least the ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ era which was 1987. And the picture on the back looks more like ‘Shout at the Devil’ which is probably where the Boston piece of this show was recorded. A 1985 show (Fresno) would’ve been ‘Theatre of Pain’ era. Based on all this we have two eras in one with this bootleg. And from what else I can find on this album, two of the songs are from the US Festival in 1983. Sound quality of the release isn’t bad. It doesn’t sound like a soundboard, but I’ve read it is and an FM broadcast, but the quality isn’t a normal soundboard if it is. There is a little hollowness to it, but still very listenable.

LP 1:

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Def Leppard – ‘B-Sides’ (2021) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic21 Comments

On June 11, 2021, Def Leppard finally released The Collection, Vol. 3. It had been 2 years since the released of Vol. 2 in part probably due to Covid-19. By 2021, things were slowly starting to get back to normal. This was a crucial collection because these albums were not available on vinyl prior to this. So, it is is a must have set for you vinyl collectors. Ok, not really because they are available now individually…well…except for the bonus material. This is the only place for those. And we are going to talk about one of them here now called ‘B-Sides’.

I love the cover is they made it look like the cover for ‘X’ which most of these tracks are from (well – bonus tracks and radio edits from. The back cover also has a cool drawing of the band as well. All a simple white and black shade. “Now”, here is a little gripe that would not have that “Long Long Way to Go” to make this a perfect set. This is a 2LP set and there are two things wrong. One, no gatefold as that would’ve been a sweet add to give us more info or pictures of the band. Two, no slick album sleeves with pictures. It is just basic white paper sleeve. A little more effort would’ve been great. I get there is a cost issue, but come on…give us a little.

SIDE 1:

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