For the August 29th, 2020 Record Store Day, Collective Soul issued a 12″ EP called Half & Half. It is played at 45 RPMs and consists of 2 new songs and 2 cover songs…thus half and half. The vinyl isn’t an exclusive RSD issue, it is a First Release meaning the band will release this at a later time. I am hoping the fact that his is a clear transparent vinyl will be the exclusive RSD part otherwise the only good about it is that I got to hear it before anyone who gets the regular release.
A few interesting notes on the back cover, the band mentions that their new album ‘Vibrating’ will be coming out soon which probably means this two new songs will be on it, but I hope not the covers then this stays a little special. Also, I find it funny they are all wearing some form of sunglasses and I still get a kick out of Ed Roland now going by E Roland because a) it is must have been hard with such a long name as Ed that E is just easier for his mind and b) he is starting to think he is Prince and we will soon be getting a symbol as a name and he is just prepping us.
The 90’s Post-Grunge band, Bush, bring us their 8th album and first in 3 years. Post-Grunge? What the hell is that anyway. I hate these sub-genre names. Bush is a Rock band, plain and simple. And this album is some heavy-ass Rock!!
Gavin Rossdale, the only original member still in the band, gave us an album with so much guitar, some incredible riffs and there is a little anger in the songs that comes through loud and clear. In what might the bands best album since Razorblade Suitcase, Rossdale shows that he still has life in those bones and still has a lot to say.
If you saw John Wick 3 last year, you heard “Bullet Holes” and you thought, Damn! If the album is anything like this, it was is going to be awesome. And you’d be right! Their next single of the album “Flowers in the Grave” sealed the deal for me, this album had to be heard. Songs like “Flowers…” were so inviting and accessible. What do I mean by that? Yes, what do I mean. The song felt familiar and catchy and stuck with me and I just connected to it. When you have songs that can do that, you have an impactful album.
Then you get the next song, “The Kingdom” and your life is changed. The song is one of the heaviest on the album and maybe that they’ve done. It is an incredible portrait of the state of our world right now. The star is not only Gavin’s vocals, but Chris Traynor on lead guitar. This album is a showcase of his talent. He lays down killer riff after killer riff. The band is hitting on all cylinders with this song and I don’t want to leave out the drum sound on this one either, The newest member, Nik Hughes has an immense sound here.
This album goes from one heavy song to the next and you don’t want to skip anything. “Ghosts in the Machine”, also known as “Slave”, is a favorite with its haunting lyrics and what feels like references to his painful divorce (Apple Music calls it “Ghosts…” and the CD calls it “Slave”). Then it is “Quicksand” which really sounds like early Bush to me. There is so much here that remind you of the best of 90’s Bush that you get this big grin on your face when you are listening to it and finding those moments.
It is one heavy rock song after another until you get to “Undone” which slows things down without losing any of the momentum that has been building. And by this time in the album you need to catch your breath. “Undone” is actually quite beautiful and very melodic and I would think it takes me back to “Glycerine”. And the album ends with “Falling Away” and it leaves you wanting more. The song is not that heavy, but not a ballad either. Somewhere in between and it is so melodic, catchy and there is a tenderness to its sound you can’t help but become engrossed.
I could go on and on, but let’s be honest, I would be repeating myself on how great this album truly is. It has already garnered a listen every single day since its release and will garner more to come. Gavin Rossdale has given us an album that could be a pinnacle in the career of Bush. It is one of the band’s heaviest sounding albums, the production is polished and lays Rossdale’s vocals front and center, it is melodic, accessible, inviting and everything you want in a rock album. It is as close to perfection as you can get. With all that being sad, this is easily a 5.0 out of 5.0 Stars!!
The second Kiss solo album in the review series is none other than the Demon himself, Gene Simmons. Gene’s album was released on the same day as all the other band members on September 18, 1978. And Gene had the distinction of being the highest ranked album on the Billboard charts at #22, however, that doesn’t mean it was the best of the bunch.
Gene approached his album a little different than the other members. Gene wanted as many people as he could possibly get to appear on his album. And he delivered a smorgasbord of guest including Joe Perry from Aerosmith, his current girlfriend Cher, Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen, Bob Seger, Helen Reddy, Donna Summer, Michael Des Barres and an unknown artist at the time Katy Sagal (you know her as Peg Bundy from Married with Children). And an interesting note on the album is that Gene did not play bass on it at all, that was handled by Neil Jason.
On Record Store Day, August 29, 2020, I was able to pick up a few albums and one of the ones on my list this time around was a Def Leppard release of the live performance of their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony on March 29, 2019. For a band that once said, live albums were for bands that couldn’t come up with anything else, they have now put out a bunch of live material since those words years ago. I’m not complaining, just saying.
As you know if you follow this site, I buy anything and everything Def Leppard and I figured this is a nice piece for the collection as it is a special moment in the band’s history. This band that I like so much was voted in to the 2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!! That means…well…it really means nothing, but still a cool honor for the guys. A little more validation that they are a great band so screw you haters out there that think differently!!! I will unfriend you and delete you because that is how Facecrack works right!!
By 1978, Kiss had reached the peak of stardom. They were flying high and a couple members were too. Trouble was brewing and most especially with Ace Frehley and Peter Criss. From what I have read, they both wanted to do solo albums, but the band needed to keep the train rolling. So Bill Aucoin and others came up with a strategy to help keep the peace. The entire band would each do a solo album and they would all be released at the same time on the same day, however, they would be under the Kiss umbrella. Brilliant or Stupid was still yet to be seen. No band had ever attempted this prior or since and probably for good reason.
Each member had to find their own producer, their own musicians as no one in the band played on the other persons record. It took a lot of time and while they were working on the records, the label released ‘Double Platinum’ which we discussed last week. All the albums came out on the same day, September 18, 1978. Now I needed to decide what order to review these so it wouldn’t look like I was showing favorites so I let the posters do the talking. The order of these Solo reviews is based on how the posters piece together from left to right. In that case, Paul Stanley’s album is up first.
Europe came to fame with the album, and the song, ‘The Final Countdown’. I mean , come on, who doesn’t know that song as it has been played to death. Europe became lumped in to the “Hair Metal” title as they did all have big hair and they were MTV darlings for a few years. However, before the major record deal and all the screaming women, Europe was this hard rock, close to metal band that know one really knew about (at least here in the states). Their second album, and last released independently, was a gem called ‘Wings of Tomorrow’ which was released on February 24, 1984.
I was out doing some crate digging a couple years ago and I came across this album and thought what a beautiful cover and then I noticed that it said Europe. I never went back and explore their early catalog before ‘Countdown’, so I thought now was a good time and at $8 for the vinyl, why not. And I am glad I did as it is now one of my all time favorite Europe albums.
Kiss was flying high. Alive II was doing well and heck, all their albums were selling and some even reaching Platinum status. Kiss had been in and out of the studio and on the road touring for over 4 years straight. They had 6 studio albums and 2 live albums under the belt now and they were tired. Band friction was starting to form. They were about to implode. Ace wanted to do a solo album and to help keep the peace, management and the band came up with the idea of doing 4 solo albums all under the Kiss moniker. To keep the ball rolling and capitalize on their current success, a greatest hits album was put together for a quick cash-grab and to give them more time to finish the solo projects and save the train wreck about to happen.
The album was released on April 2, 1978 and not just a simple single LP. No, this was a 2 LP, 20 song greatest hits compilation. It covers everything. To entice people to buy it, they remixed a number of songs on here so the fan would have something a little different than what they already had. And the packaging was beautiful. The album cover was a gatefold which made sense for a double LP. It was also embossed in a silver, foil-like sheen. And let me tell you that trying to take a picture of this and not have me and the camera visible was very difficult. The front and back cover for my version, are exactly the same. I know some later ones, the back is different. Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Double Platinum’ (1978) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)”→
There is nothing better than going through racks of CDs and finding something you’ve never seen before. I was at 2nd & Charles in Mathews, NC with my wife (she was looking at books) and I started digging through the used CDs. I started in the “A” section and within 30 seconds I stumbled across this album…Robbie Williams “Sexed Up”. Yes, in the “A” section as naturally that is where it would be instead of the “R” or “W” section. Makes total sense. It had Japanese or some Asian lettering on it so I snatched it up especially knowing that the price was only $3.50.
I did some research once I got home and all I could find out is that the CD is referred to as Robbie Williams – “Sexed Up/Forever Texas” and is an unofficial release. As a result, Discogs won’t sell it. I did see a copy on eBay for about $36 and Discogs had a single cd version on sale for over $100. Either way, my $3.50 is looking like a pretty great deal.
The packaging is great as the plastic CD case comes in this nice cardboard housing with a flap to open and remove your CD case. The disc is also labeled as an HDCD whatever the hell that is supposed to mean. I figured it was going to sound better, but it is CD, it already sounds good as a CD should. Continue reading “Robbie Williams – ‘Sexed Up – Forever Texas’ (2003) – Album Review”→
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…note: I tried to throw in some non-obvious choices to make things a little more interesting.
New Release – Adelitas Way – ‘Shine On’
Never Heard Before – Funkadelic – ‘Maggot Brain’
Not My Normal Genre – Stevie Wonder – ‘Songs in the Key of Life’
From My Collection – Mr. Mister – ‘Welcome to the Real World’
From My Collection – Genesis – ‘Genesis’
Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in September, 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.
After three studio albums, it was time to repeat the magic with another live album, ‘Alive II’. It worked well the first time so it seemed like that was the intention this time around to try and capture that gold again. However, that was not the original intention. While the band was touring Japan for ‘Rock & Roll Over’, they recorded the entire show of the band at the famed Budokan Hall in Tokyo on April 2, 1977. They felt the band needed a break before recording the next album and this would be it. However, Casablanca hated the album and it was scrapped.
The band went and released ‘Love Gun’ as planned and then it was time for another live album. This time they recorded three shows at the LA Forum on August 26-28 of 1977 while out on Tour for the ‘Love Gun’ album which was just released in June. Heck, they even recorded the soundchecks as the goal for this album was to not duplicate any songs that were on ‘Alive!’. And to add something special to the album, Side Four was going to be all new studio songs which gives this release a little something extra. Eddie Kramer was brought back in to produce and he worked his magic. Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Alive II’ (1977) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)”→
New Release – Adelitas Way – ‘Shine On’
Never Heard Before – Funkadelic – ‘Maggot Brain’
Not My Normal Genre – Stevie Wonder – ‘Songs in the Key of Life’
From My Collection – Mr. Mister – ‘Welcome to the Real World’
From My Collection – Genesis – ‘Genesis’
2 Loud 2 Old Music 