Category: Album Review

Cheap Trick – ‘Dream Police’ (1979) – Album Review (The Cheap Trick Collection Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic56 Comments

The success of the live album, ‘Cheap Trick at Budokan’, kept delaying the release of the band’s fourth studio album, ‘Dream Police’. And that was a great problem to have. The band recorded the album during ’78 and was ready to be released, but the label thought since ‘Bodokan’ had been imported so much in to the US, why not release the live album domestically. And it certainly paid off. They cleaned up a few things in early ’79 and it finally got a released date on September 21, 1979 as Budokan was blowing up the charts. That momentum set the band up for what would become their biggest commercial album to date. Heck, it only took the album a few months to go platinum. The album spawned four singles across the globe and gave the band two Top 40 songs on the Billboard Charts. Yes sir, Cheap Trick had made it to the big time. An audience that wasn’t ready for them a few short years earlier was finally on board.

Cheap Trick brought back Tom Werner for a third time as producer and this time around, the band experimented with their sound and brought in new elements such as orchestration and even songs that were structured to be more complex and definitely longer tracks as one almost hits 10 minutes. This was a band that was not afraid to try new things and this time around, it paid off…big time!! Band members, Robin Zander, Rick Nielsen, Tom Petersson and Bun E. Carlos were ready to take on the world and now the world was ready for them.

Continue reading “Cheap Trick – ‘Dream Police’ (1979) – Album Review (The Cheap Trick Collection Series)” →

Queensryche – ‘Empire’ Super Deluxe Edition – Box Set Review

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic24 Comments

After the band’s revolutionary album ‘Operation: Mindcrime’, Queensryche delivered another masterpiece with the album ‘Empire’. The band is celebrating this album with a Super Deluxe Edition Box Set and it is full or wonderful things. You get 3 CDs, 1 DVD and a book all included in a wonderful and sturdy box. It looks like a lot of time was spent on the packaging. And if you look at the back cover, it tells you everything you are going to get, but maybe it is overstating things a little and I will get to that later.

Just look at all the stuff you get. You get a remastered album, ‘Concealed Empire – Bonus Tracks’, ‘Live at Hammersmith Odeon, London 11-14-90’ and a DVD called ‘Building Empires’. If that isn’t enough you get a hardback book with lot of wonderful goodies inside. Let’s not waste anytime and get right into it.

The 3 CDs / 1 DVD come housed in a cardboard foldout that houses each disc in a slot with the DVD getting its own packaging as well. And if you were smart, you would pull each disc out and place them in to their own jewel slim case so they don’t get scratched up…at least that is what Aaron would do over at keepsmealive.wordpress.com.

Continue reading “Queensryche – ‘Empire’ Super Deluxe Edition – Box Set Review” →

You Pick It! – What Album to Review in November?

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic67 Comments

You, my reader, are going to pick an album for me to review each month.  It is really simple…first, I will give you 5 albums to choose from and second, you will tell me which one of those you would like to see reviewed on the site.  See…simple!

There are a few simple rules I have put in to place in my selections.  They are…

  • One has to be a new release (within the last month)
  • One has to be one I have never heard before (new releases don’t count for this one)
  • One has to be from a genre I don’t normally listen to at all or very often
  • And the last two are choices from my collection that I haven’t reviewed before

What are the 5 albums you ask?  Funny you should ask because I have those right here…

  New Release – Duran Duran – “Future Past”

  Never Heard Before – Big Star – “#1 Record”

  Not My Normal Genre – Television – “Marquee Moon”

  From My Collection – Stevie Ray Vaughan – “Soul to Soul”

  From My Collection – Dokken – “Tooth And Nail”

Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in November, I will post a review of the album that gets the most votes. You have one week to decide and from there I will start listening to the album and do a review.

Thanks for participating!!

Aerosmith – ‘Rocks’ (1976) – Album Review (The Aerosmith Collection Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic53 Comments

The band had their break-through album with ‘Toys in the Attic’, then their fourt album, ‘Rocks”, would solidify them as one of America’s greatest rock & roll bands. The album would see the band go a little more raw and heavy as the band really let it loose with this one. They recorded the album at the “Wherehouse” which was the band’s rehearsal space where they took the Record Plant’s mobile recording studio and backed it right in to the space and did their thing. Producer, Jack Douglas, was able to get the band loose and wild, which I am sure the heavy usage of drugs helped. Despite all the drugs being used, the band was clicking and the end result fits the album title perfectly because the band ‘Rocks’.

The album came out on May 14, 1976 and would spawn three singles, two of which hit the Top 40 and would eventually go on to sell over 4 million copies in the U.S. (but not all in the year of release of course). The album would go all the way to #3 on the Billboard Charts and would inspire so many future musicians such as Kurt Cobain, James Hetfield, Nikki Sixx and even Slash all citing this as a major influence in their decision to pursue music. Heck for the longest time, ‘Toys in the Attic’ was always my favorite…now, it is ‘Rocks’! The band was still unchanged with Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer and for this album they were a true band, a single unit and were on fire…but not sure how long that would last.

Continue reading “Aerosmith – ‘Rocks’ (1976) – Album Review (The Aerosmith Collection Series)” →

You Picked It! – Candlebox – ‘Wolves’ – Album Review

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic21 Comments

Alright…You Picked It! And this one was really, really close. There were three going for the gold and one edge them out slightly. It was much closer than last months blow away with that horrendous Captain Beefheart album you guys tortured me with. Thankfully you went easy on me this time. The winder is Candlebox’s ‘Wolves’ which is a new album and as a result, one I’ve never heard. I am glad to have something less challenging this time around as I am still in therapy from the last album. Good news is the crying has stopped.

  1. Candlebox – ‘Wolves’ – 7 votes
  2. MC5 – ‘Kick Out the Jams’ – 5 votes
  3. Guns ‘N Roses – ‘Chinese Democracy’ – 5 votes
  4. Issac Hayes – ‘Hot Buttered Soul’ – 4 votes
  5. Mothers Finest ‘ Another Mother Further’ – 1 Vote

Thanks to all for participating. The November choices will be up on Saturday!

CANDLEBOX – ‘WOLVES’

There are not too many 90’s bands that are still around putting out decent music, but thankfully for us, Candlebox still is. Their last release, 2016’s ‘Disappearing in Airports’, was absolutely stellar. Go check out that review. So I had high hopes for this one. The only original member still in the band is lead singer, Kevin Martin, and since his voice is what I always loved about the band, I am okay with that fact. He still can sing and such a good tone on his vocals.

The band’s old sound was grunge and they were pretty good at it. It was much heavier than we have been given lately and that is okay. The band is older, more mature and have evolved. The sound now is more pop rock with some heavy garage elements at times but more on a softer side at other times and all in a good way. Nothing bad about that change. I applaud that change as grunge is kinda depressing.

Continue reading “You Picked It! – Candlebox – ‘Wolves’ – Album Review” →

Rob Zombie – ‘The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy’ – Album Review

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic18 Comments

Rob Zombie never does anything half-assed especially when it comes to his song titles and album titles. ‘The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy’ is a perfect example of this. The album is Rob’s seventh studio album as a solo artist and might be his opus, his masterpiece, his piece de resistance. The most badass album he has ever made and the fans might agree as it is his first album to reach #1 on the Billboard Top Album Sales Chart after its release on March 12, 2021. I think it is definitely his strongest and most accessible because his past albums usually have some strange shit, but this takes the strangest stuff and packages in a way that has more hooks, more melodies and more of everything that is great about him including more John 5 who is one of my favorite guitarist.

But before we get in to the music, let’s talk about this packaging of the album as it is nothing short of amazing. The back cover is hand-drawn space monster’s in the vein of Planet of the Apes I guess. And check out the names of the songs, nothing simple and straight forward here. The album is also a gatefold with what my one of the coolest pictures of Rob just relaxing with his arms behind his head and probably saying, “Yeah, I’m a cool mother-f’er”…okay he probably would have said the full word.

Continue reading “Rob Zombie – ‘The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy’ – Album Review” →

Cheap Trick – ‘Cheap Trick at Budokan’ (1978) – Album Review (The Cheap Trick Collection Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic56 Comments

After the release of Cheap Trick’s second album, ‘In Color’, the band was getting quite a bit of recognition in Japan. So, a week after third album, ‘Heaven Tonight”, was released, the band did a quick tour in April of 1978 and they didn’t waste any time playing those songs. The band’s reception was nothing short of amazing. It was Beatlemania 2.0 as the Japanese fans went…well…fanatical. While in Japan, they decided to record the shows at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo and release the album in Japan only.

Here is a little fact for you, the recordings done at Nippon Budokan really sucked and the recording is actually the show in Osaka, but don’t tell anyone. Okay, don’t know if that is a fact, but I did read that somewhere so we will continue that statement here as it is cool if it is true. Regardless of where it was recorded, the show is amazing and the release in Japan on October 8, 1978 saw tremendous success, so much so that 30,000 copies of it were sold as imports to the US which prompted the label to finally release it in the US in February 1979 under the name ‘Cheap Trick at Budokan’. The album would go on to be one of the biggest selling albums in the band’s career selling over 3 million copies and go to #4 on the Billboard Charts. Rolling Stones said it was one of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003 where it ranked at #426.

The album also introduced us to 2 new songs that had not been released yet and one of those, “Need Your Love” would wind up on their next album ‘Dream Police’. The other song, “Lookout”, was a leftover from their debut and would end up being released as a bonus track on later editions of the album starting in 1998. Due to the popularity of Budokan, the ‘Dream Police’ released date got pushed back as they were still having hit singles from this album. Not a bad problem to have actually.

Continue reading “Cheap Trick – ‘Cheap Trick at Budokan’ (1978) – Album Review (The Cheap Trick Collection Series)” →

Aerosmith – ‘Toys in the Attic’ (1975 ) – Album Review (The Aerosmith Collection Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic54 Comments

After a very long tour in support of their album, “Get Your Wings”, the band was tight and playing better than ever. They were ready to jump back in the studio and bring producer Jack Douglas back with them. This time around though would be different. Their first two albums used up all the songs they had been playing for years. Aerosmith now had to write a whole album from scratch. As a result, they would create an album that was spawned from a new level of confidence with the band and a more polished understanding of how to write songs. The album they created, ‘Toys in the Attic’, would take the band to a whole new level of stardom. The album would go on to sell more than 8 million copies and be one of their most commercially successful albums of all time.

‘Toys in the Attic’ was released on April 8, 1975 and was recorded at the Record Plant in New York City from January to March of that year. It would go as high as #11 on the Billboard Charts and deliver not one, but two Top 40 hits with one going all the way to #10 as well. The success of this album also saw the band’s first two albums get a renewed interest and so they would re-release the single “Dream On” in from the debut seeing it go to #6 on the charts. Yes, ‘Toys in the Attic’, finally saw Aerosmith get what they had been working so hard for over the years. Fame, Fortune and Drugs…lots and lots of drugs.

As you can see from the pictures, my copy of the album is well loved.

The band was still the same old song and dance of members with Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford and Joey Kramer. Everyone had at least one writing credit on the album except for Joey. Tyler had them on all of the songs except for the cover song they do. The band was on fire, but so were things behind the scenes, especially with the band members wives who didn’t all get along and would be a driving force behind a lot of the band’s battles and problems over the years…well that and drugs…did I mention drugs? These boys could not get enough of the stuff. That would soon become a problem, but not so much now.

Continue reading “Aerosmith – ‘Toys in the Attic’ (1975 ) – Album Review (The Aerosmith Collection Series)” →

Cheap Trick – ‘Heaven Tonight’ (1978) – Album Review (The Cheap Trick Collection Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic64 Comments

The band finally started to catch on to the world with the release of their third album, “Heaven Tonight”. The album was released on April 24, 1978 and what is interesting is four days later they were touring Japan and played at a little arena called Nippon Budokan and we will get to that story in the next review. First, we need to talk this album. The band’s third album, which in some circles is considered the best, but it is way too early to make that call. This one though does bring the best of the first two albums in to focus. It has some of the first albums raw sound and then it takes some of the power pop sounds of the second and makes a pretty damn fine combination. The album did well as it charted at #48 on the Billboard Charts and going Gold a year later. By 1995, it has since been certified Platinum.

There are also two big firsts on this album. The first is they finally had a single chart with “Surrender” as it went to #62 on the Billboard Hot 100. The other first is more of a recording history fact in that this is the first recording to ever feature a 12-String Bass…yep…that is a right…12 strings. Not the wimpy-ass 4 string bass, nope four strings are for pussies. Only bad ass bass players play a 12 String bass!! Okay, I have no idea if that is true, but it sounds good…to me at least.

This is also the second album in a row to feature only Robin Zander and Tom Petersson on the cover similar to ‘In Color’. Based on the cover, it looks like a standard background, but when you flip it over you see Rick Nielsen and Bun E. Carlos standing in bathroom. Yes, great place for a group photo. As a result, the record company wanted to call the album ‘American Standard’ as that is a very popular brand of plumbing supplies. Thankfully, that was nixed and they went with the ‘Heaven Tonight’ title.

Continue reading “Cheap Trick – ‘Heaven Tonight’ (1978) – Album Review (The Cheap Trick Collection Series)” →

Max the Axe – ‘Oktoberfest Cheer’ E.P. – Album Review

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic43 Comments

Max the Axe has made an appearance on our site before with the stellar album ‘Status Electric’. They are back but this time around we only get a 3 song E.P. which is fine. I will take what I can get. I want to thank Mike Ladano for making sure I received a copy as he knows I enjoyed the last one.

Max the Axe are a Canadian band out of Kitchener, Ontario (yeah, I don’t know where that is either).  It is made up of the following members…

The Band:

  • Mike “Max” Koutis – guitar
  • Eric Litwiller – vocals
  • Dave Haslam – drums
  • Mike “Mitch” Mitchell on bass

You probably know Eric Litwiller if you watch The LeBrain Train as he is Uncle Meat. I have been on the show with him and he is a great guy so it is cool to say I know someone in the band. Before we get in the album, what did I say about the last album? I think it was this…“The songs are filled with some gritty, distorted guitars and the lyrics at times have a slight comedic flare which makes me think that this band is the bastard child of Black Sabbath and Barenaked Ladies.” This time around, we get something totally different. I feel a little more rawness and punk attitude at times and at others a bunch of drunks having a good time…more on that later.

Continue reading “Max the Axe – ‘Oktoberfest Cheer’ E.P. – Album Review” →