Category: Album Review

Whitesnake – ‘Starkers in Tokyo’ – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)

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In support of Whitesnake’s ‘Restless Heart’ Tour, the band played a couple of acoustic shows.  Well, not the band really, but only David Coverdale and Adrian Vandenberg.  Their performance at the EMI Studios in Japan was recorded and ended up on this release which was recorded on July 5th, 1997 and released on September 9th of that year.  A pretty quick turnaround, but honestly, not sure there was that much to fix as it is splendid.

The setting was a very intimate one with the 2 Snake members and a small studio of fans.  It was David on vocals and Adrian on an acoustic, both sitting on chairs like they were sitting in your living room.  The songs were of course, Whitesnake classics…but more from the later years at the time. And surprisingly a Deep Purple song which David had normally been against playing (Oh how that has changed over the years).

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The songs on this album you’ve heard a thousand times, but you haven’t heard them like this.  They are stripped down “to the bone” and are played in away that is new and refreshing. The opening track “Sailing Ships” feels so sad and Adrian’s playing is simply beautiful.  And can we talk about David’s vocals?  Well of course we can, it’s my site.  David sounds better than he ever has. Not just on this song, but the whole album.  Proving at the time, he was one of the best voices in rock. Continue reading “Whitesnake – ‘Starkers in Tokyo’ – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)” →

Generation X – ‘Generation X’ Deluxe Edition – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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There is nothing like waiting over 40 years to release a deluxe edition of your debut album.  That is exactly what is happened with Generation X whose 1978 self-titled debut album finally received a deluxe edition in 2019.  And was it worth the wait?  That is what we are here to discover.

For those that don’t know and haven’t read the entire Billy Idol series.  Generation X is Billy’s band prior to him going solo in the 80’s.  The band wasn’t just Billy’s, but it also included Tony James, Bob “Derwood” Andrews and Mark Laff.  Generation X was a punk band out of the UK that tended to lean a little towards the Pop/Punk side of things rather than full on punk and they caught a lot of slack for that.  But who cares as here we are 40+ years later celebrating this release.

The Deluxe Edition is a 3 LP set consisting of a remaster of the debut album, an LP of Non-Album singles and B-Sides and a third LP of outtakes and remixes.  The reason to buy if for the 2 extra LPs…at least it was for me as I already had the original LP on vinyl.

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Generation X:

The first LP is a remastered version of the debut album.  The sound is sensational, crips and clear.  However, I prefer the original in all it’s former glory as that was the way it was intended to be heard.  I won’t go through a song-by-song breakdown as I have already done that before on the very first post of the Billy Idol Series.  You can read that here – Generation X – ‘Generation X’.

What you get for the set is a complete replica of that original disk…

And then a nice update on the inner sleeve and LP itself.  It is all very nice quality and high-end material. Very sturdy…

A-Sides and B-Sides:

The second LP is the cool one for me.  This has the a couple of Non-Album singles and all the B-Sides from the album.  I believe you could have gotten all these singles before (or most of them anyway), but I didn’t have them on vinyl so it was a no-brainer for me.  Since I actually have the U.S. version of the debut, I already had a few of these songs, but not all.

“Your Generation” was available on the U.S. version of the debut, but not the UK.  It was released prior to an album and I think displayed fully what the band was about.  It was uptempo, full of wild abandonment, aggression and a total blast.  Their punk roots were on full display and it summed them up nicely.

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The B-Side of the song was “Day by Day” which is on the album.  The album version was a little repetitive at times for me, but still packed full of attitude.  The one thing going for this song is Derwood’s guitar work which seems to be something I focus on more and more with this band.  A bright star that never fully shined.  This mix didn’t leave me feeling like it was too repetitive.  It was a richer and fuller sound.  I really like this version.

“Wild Youth” is another non-album track for the UK release.  It was also released prior to the album. It too made the U.S. version and should have been on both versions as it is awesome.  It is a shining example of punk attitude and youth rising up to be heard.

“Wild Dub” is the B-Side and was also on the U.S. release.  It is a complete remix of “Wild Youth” in the same vein you would get from Billy later with his Vital Idol releases.  It is full on dub and honestly, kind of annoying. I prefer the original song above.

“No No No” is the B-Side to “Ready Steady Go”.  Not on either releases of the album.  Derwood’s guitar riffs kick off the song.  It is 2 minutes full of speed and youth angst.  The cool thing is it ends with a little Elvis shout out and I am sure Billy had the snear going.

Next up is “Trying for Kicks” which was an outtake from 1977.  It actually ended up as a B-Side on the “Friday’s Angel” single from the “Valley of the Dolls’ album. Since I didn’t have this song, this was what I was after.  It is really early Generation X.  For an outtake, it is pretty awesome.  It is in the same vein as all their early stuff so nothing new to add other than it is a great addition to the collection.

The final track on this LP is “This Heat” which is another 1977 outtake and B-Side on “Friday’s Angel”.  A little slower tempo song and Billy sounds so young.  I see why it wasn’t an album track as it does have the same vibe or energy as those other tracks, but still a good song.  A very decent B-Side.

Outtakes and Rough Mixes:

The final LP consists mostly of remixes by both Phil Wainman who produced some songs, but not the album and Alan Winstanley who was the engineer on the album.  I am not a huge fan of remixes especially since most of these don’t stray too far from the originals. You get a some different arrangements, some added bits and difference in song lengths, but overall nothing better than the originals…in my opinion anyway.

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For me, this disk was great for 3 tracks.  The first is “Gimme Some Truth” which was an outtake and released on the U.S. version of the album. A punk cover of the John Lennon song.  It was a strange choice to be the song to kick off that album.  It captures the band’s essence so it works for Generation X.  A good choice of a cover.  They make it their own.

Another song is “Rock on Dub” which is an outtake and not on any album.  It is a rocking song that seems to be unbridled and out of control.  The dub style is obvious as it is in the title.  Another example of a great song, but not quite right for the album.  This is my favorite on this disk as I didn’t have this one either and plus it’s a lot of fun.

The last song on here I wanted was the Single version of “Promises Promises”.  The original is over 5 minutes.  This was streamlined down to 3:42, over 1 1/2 minutes chopped off.  Here’s what I said on the original version…“Promises, Promises” is more of a 70’s glam rock song than punk. At over 5 minutes it is not your typical length.  The song was inspired by Mott the Hoople both musically and lyrically.  I liked Derwood’s guitar work on this one as well.  It is a nice change of pace from the rest of the album.  The album had some really great moments on it and this was one of them.  I still stand by that.  This version just packs all the greatness into a smaller more manageable package.  I like this shorter version a little more.

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Overall, if you don’t have the original album on vinyl, then skip getting that and go after this box set.  It isn’t over-priced and all the little extras will add to the experience.  It captures the essence of the band and you will get a good education in to the roots of Billy Idol.  And that was the joy for me.  Like I said earlier, I could do without the remixes.  If the 2nd LP would have added the 3 songs from the 3rd LP and made the set two disks, I would give it a higher score.  For now, it is a 4.0 out of 5.0 Stars.  The original album got a 3.5 score, but having this overall great package, it gets a higher score.

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Now, if you want to check out the full reviews and the entire Billy Idol Series, click on any and all of the links below…

  1. Generation X – ‘Generation X’
  2. Generation X – ‘Valley of the Dolls’
  3. Gen X – ‘Kiss Me Deadly’
  4. Generation X – ‘The BBC Transcription Disc Series No. 126 1978’
  5. Billy Idol – Don’t Stop E.P.
  6. Billy Idol – Billy Idol
  7. Billy Idol – Rebel Yell
  8. Billy Idol – Whiplash Smile
  9. Billy Idol – To Be A Lover – Single Review
  10. Billy Idol – Vital Idol
  11. Billy Idol – Charmed Life
  12. Billy Idol – Cyberpunk
  13. Billy Idol – “Speed” (song from the Speed Soundtrack)
  14. Generation X – K.M.D. Sweet Revenge
  15. Billy Idol – VH1 Storytellers (Live)
  16. Billy Idol – Devil’s Playground
  17. Billy Idol – Happy Holidays
  18. Billy Idol – The Very Best of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself
  19. Billy Idol – Kings & Queens of the Underground
  20. Billy Idol – BFI Live (#RSD 2019)
  21. Billy Idol – Revitalized
  22. Generation X – Your Generation (7″ Record Store Day Release)
  23. Generation X – Generation X Deluxe Edition
  24. Billy Idol – The Albums Ranked From Worst to First

Gene Simmons – ‘The Vault’ – Album Review (Part 14 of 15 – The Worst Songs of the Vault)

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I can’t believe I am done going through all the disks in detail.  It took 10 solid weeks to get through all 11 disks.  I read the entire Vault Book and researched more details online.  I dived into it like I have never done before for any release.  It was time consuming and it was a total and utter blast.

And to keep the fun going, I thought I would compile what I found to be the 20 Worst Songs in The Vault.  There are a 164 songs in The Vault to go through.  I know you get 166, but one song is in there twice (oops on someone’s part) and the Bob Dylan 15 minute track with Gene at a writing session doesn’t really count.

To determine the songs, I picked all the songs that scored a 1 or 2 and placed them in a playlist.  That gave me around 40 songs to choose from.  From there, I played the playlist and easily determined some of the songs weren’t as bad as originally thought and some were worst or just as bad.  That made it easy to narrow down and it didn’t take me long to determine the 20 Worst Songs of The Vault.

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This time, no song was off limit.  If it was a Kiss song originally, it could be included in this list unlike The Best of where I excluded any demos of previous Kiss or Gene songs as that seemed unfair.  Not here.  If it sucked, it sucked…plain and simple.  Again, the order is subjective and could move around at any time depending on my mood, but generally speaking these songs didn’t cut the mustard.  Let’s get started. Continue reading “Gene Simmons – ‘The Vault’ – Album Review (Part 14 of 15 – The Worst Songs of the Vault)” →

David Coverdale & Whitesnake – ‘Restless Heart’ – Album Review (The David Coverdale Series)

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Whitesnake remained dormant for quite a while.  But in 1994, the band released a greatest hits album and ended up doing a short tour that included David Coverdale, Adrian Vandenberg, Warren DeMartini (RATT), Denny Carmassi (Coverdale/Page) and Rudy Sarzo.  The tour was short and the band disappeared again shortly there after.

I know I am skipping a Deep Purple live album that came out between ‘Coverdale/Page’ and ‘Restless Heart’, but I am trying to not repeat live shows with the same line up.  The  Purple release ‘California Jammin’ was released in 1996 and has the Mark III line-up which I covered on ‘Made in Europe’ so I don’t feel the need to cover them again. I hope you are okay with that choice…I know I am.

Now on to the next Whitesnake album.  Okay, not really.  This isn’t a Whitesnake album.  It is a David Coverdale solo album that the record company made him add the Whitesnake name in to the title and that is why it reads David Coverdale & Whitesnake.  When you hear it, you will agree, this isn’t Whitesnake.

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The new album does have Adrian Vandenberg and we finally get an album that he actually plays on with David.  But it is not what you expect.  The dual guitars of Whitesnake are not there.  The playing is very understated on most of the songs and it is not a guitar heavy album at all.  No sir.  It is back to the early R&B and Blues roots for this one.

 

Adrian and David wrote most of the album together and the band for this album included Carmassi on drums and then added Guy Pratt on bass and Brett Tuggle on keyboards.  The band had a label in Europe and Japan, but the U.S. market never had an official release of this album. After the tour of this album, Whitesnake would end yet again.  David decided to shelve the band one more time and it would be 10 years before we got another Studio album from the band.  I don’t know what happened, but it can’t be good for David to hang it up so fast.  He wasn’t happy at all with the turnout of the album and tour.

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It was a very hard album for me to wrap my head around and I am not positive I am fully there yet, but it is time to write the review as I have spent the last 2-3 weeks trying to absorb this album.  And on that sour note, let’s get to the music.

From the opening song, “Don’t Fade Away” you knew this was going to be different.  It was soft, full of keyboards, a soft drum beat and it was a ballad. An opening track as a ballad…baffling.  It is a nice song though, it is evident that the bombast of the last 3 releases is over.  David is putting that behind him.  This one isn’t a complete throwback to the earlier Snake sound,  but is in that direction.  Adrian pulls out a nice solo to keep the “Power” in power ballad and David sounds quite pleasant with his emotive vocals.

Then comes “All in the Name of Love” which has a mixture of 80’s/90’s pop soul sound.  A little blues vibe as well in the guitar sound, but the song falls flat for me.  It is too generic and familiar sounding and not in a good way.  There is no good hook to grab you and I felt empty.

The title track, “Restless Heart”, finally brings life to the album.  Great opening guitar riff and the song has some punch.  David’s soulful-filled vocals on the opening lyrics turn into the David we love throughout the rest.  The song is more of what we are used to hearing from the band, and honestly what I love the most.  This song gave me some hope in the album.

Then it was immediately back to the ballad with “Too Many Tears”.  This tune had a great blues guitar sound and harkened back to days of old with the band and is actually a welcome sound.  Adrian throws these little bits throughout that really add to the song and feel and his solo helps make the song as well.  And let’s not forget David as this is one of his best performances on the album.  He digs deep and goes so soulful and feels right at home.  The album is a little full of ballad type songs, but this one is worth it.  It was the lead off single, so the band felt that way as well.

“Crying” takes us full on blues and David gets down and dirty as does Adrian’s badass riff.  The grit in David’s vocals and Adrian’s playing is so gritty and sleazy that it makes me feel like I need a shower and I loved it.  This song feels like it could be on Slide It In or anything earlier.  A total kick ass song.

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Next up is a cover of Lorraine Ellison’s song “Stay With Me” (written by Jerry Ragovoy and George David Weiss).  The original is a soul song from 1966 and David captures the feel and essence of the song with the vocals and tones of the song.  It starts off a little slow with a nice groove and as it builds in volume and tempo, David adds some gravelly bits to the vocals to get the emotion across.  The band nails this song.

“Can’t Go On” was yet another blues and ballad song.  A slow groove and nothing flamboyant, just a simple song.  There is something catchy about it despite its simplicity.  Maybe that is it.  There isn’t much here, but a low toned guitar solo by Adrian and David’s vocals and that is enough.

We get a little pick me up with “You’re So Fine” and it is a happy tune which a few and far between on this album.  Being 1997, this song feels like an 80’s track that seems to be pop and rock mixed together. Maybe a sounds a little like John Parr.  A little of David’s womanizing songs that might have been a left over off any of the 3 previous Whitesnake albums.  It isn’t a bad song, but not over-the-top great either.  Just fun.

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“Your Precious Love” slows it back down and by this time, I am tired of the ballads.  This one is generic and boring and very skippable.  So enough said about it.

Things don’t pick up tempo wise with “Take Me Back Again”.  It is a pure blues track and David ends up screaming a few verses and Adrian’s playing is nasty at times as he shows off his blues playing.  The tempo picks up a little and David is giving it his all on vocals and saves the song.  I didn’t want another slow song, but this one turned out okay with Adrian’s playing and David’s vocals…mostly Adrian’s playing.

And the album is completely saved with the final track “Woman Trouble Blues”. This song sounds like it was a leftover from Coverdale Page with the Page-like guitar sound and the electric harmonica played by Elk Thunder (yes, that is his name).  It feels so Zeppelin like and Adrian captures Page’s essence.  Might be my favorite song on the album so what a way to go out.  Even David sounds like he did on that album.  Now I want to go back and hear Coverdale Page again!!

Track Listing:

  1. Don’t Fade Away – Keeper
  2. All in the Name of Love – Delete
  3. Restless Heart – Keeper
  4. Too Many Tears – Keeper
  5. Crying – Keeper
  6. Stay With me – Keeper
  7. Can’t Go On – Delete
  8. You’re So Fine – Keeper
  9. Your Precious Love – Delete
  10. Take Me Back Again – Keeper
  11. Woman Trouble Blues – Keeper

The track score is 8 out of 11 tracks or 73%.  The album does take me back to the early blues and R&B Whitesnake albums, but still keeps a little of the modern sound.  The album had too many slow tracks which would be my biggest complaint.  It won’t be one I go back to a lot, but it still has some memorable tracks that are essential to the Whitesnake family such as Woman Trouble Blues, Restless Heart and Too Many Tears to name a few.  Overall my rating is going to be a 3.5 out of 5.0 Stars.  Maybe not the best, but still enough on the bone to give it a try.

Up next…Whitesnake – ‘Starkers in Tokyo’

The David Coverdale Series:

  1. Deep Purple – Burn
  2. Deep Purple – Stormbringer
  3. Deep Purple – Come Taste the Band
  4. Deep Purple – Made in Europe
  5. David Coverdale – Whitesnake
  6. Deep Purple – Last Concert in Japan
  7. David Coverdale – Northwinds
  8. David Coverdale’s Whitesnake – Snakebite
  9. Whitesnake – Trouble
  10. Whitesnake – Lovehunter
  11. Whitesnake – Ready an’ Willing
  12. Whitesnake – Live…in the Heart of the City
  13. Whitesnake – Come An’ Get it
  14. Deep Purple – Live in London
  15. Whitesnake – Saints & Sinners
  16. Whitesnake – Slide It In
  17. Whitesnake – “Give Me More Time” 12″ Single (Bonus Review)
  18. Whitesnake – ‘The Best of Whitesnake (Bonus Review – 1982 release)
  19. Whitesnake – Whitesnake (1987)
  20. Whitesnake – “Is This Love” 12″ Promo (Bonus Review)
  21. Whitesnake – Slip of the Tongue
  22. David Coverdale – “The Last Note of Freedom” – Single Review
  23. Coverdale/Page – Coverdale/Page
  24. Coverdale/Page – “Take Me For A Little While 12” Single (Bonus Review)
  25. David Coverdale & Whitesnake – Restless Heart
  26. Whitesnake – Starkers in Tokyo
  27. David Coverdale – Into the Night
  28. Whitesnake – Live…In the Still of the Night (DVD)
  29. Whitesnake – Live…In the Shadow of the Blues
  30. Whitesnake – Good To Be Bad
  31. Whitesnake – Forevermore
  32. Whitesnake – Live at Donington 1990: Monsters of Rock
  33. Whitesnake – The Purple Album
  34. Whitesnake – The Purple Tour (Live)
  35. Whitesnake – Flesh & Blood
  36. Whitesnake – The Rock Album
  37. Whitesnake – The Albums Ranked Worst to First
  38. David Coverdale – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

Other David Coverdale Albums reviewed – (Box Sets and Bootlegs):

  1. Whitesnake – 1987 (30th Anniversary Edition) – Box Set
  2. Whitesnake – Slide It In (35th Anniversary Edition) – Box Set
  3. Whitesnake – Unzipped – Box Set
  4. Whitesnake – Slip of the Tongue (30th Anniversary Edition) – Box Set
  5. Whitesnake (Snake) – Still of the Night Live in Battle Creek, Mich. July 26, 1987 (Bootleg)

Friday New Releases – March 27th

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What a crazy month March has been and thank good it is almost over.  If you are still home cooped up from this whole virus thing, then here are some new releases you can get to help pass the time as I am sure you will need it.  Some good stuff for me this week, but don’t know about you.  Hopefully and if so, let me know what you want to hear, buy or don’t care about.  Also, let me know what I might have missed that people should know about.  My choices are in blue.  Enjoy and have a great weekend!

  • 815RjVdY3AL._AC_UL115_  Pearl Jam – Gigaton – (Monkeywrench/Republic/UMG):  I was never a huge Pearl Jam fan, I’m not afraid to admit it.  But it doesn’t mean I don’t like them.  I heard the first song off this and I have to say it is pretty great.  I think I will try out the whole thing.  It is nice to see one of those 90’s Grunge bands still be kicking and Eddie is the only singer left and we are thankful for that.

  • 81RpqUX-rZL._SS500_  Tesla – Five Man London Jam (Live at Abbey Road Studios 6/12/19) – (Universal Music): Okay, Tesla had huge success with an acoustic album like 30 years ago.  Are they hoping to recapture that magic?  Who knows, but I will give it a listen like I do everything they put out.  Buying it?  We will have to wait and see.

Continue reading “Friday New Releases – March 27th” →

H.E.A.T. – ‘H.E.A.T. II’ – Album Review

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Swedish hard rock band H.E.A.T. are now on their sixth studio album simply titled ‘II’.  The band unapologetically deliver a melodic rock album that is a throwback to the 80’s hard rock scene while moving straight into the new decade of 2020. 

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They check off every box in a hard rock style I grew up with and loved…

  • Blistering guitar driven songs – “Dangerous Ground” √
  • Anthemic Rock songs – “Adrenaline” √
  • Beautiful Ballads – “Nothing to Say” √
  • Epic sounding songs – “We are Gods” √
  • Glorious melodic songs – “Heaven Must Have Won An Angel” √
  • Sexed up synths – “Rock Your Body” √

Continue reading “H.E.A.T. – ‘H.E.A.T. II’ – Album Review” →

Def Leppard – ‘The Early Years 78-81’ Box Set – Album Review

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To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the bands debut album, Def Leppard put together quite an impressive box set.  The debut album was ‘On Through the Night’ which arrived in 1980.  The band didn’t stop with that album to commemorate, they decided to cover the 4 years of major transition from the band.  They are gong back to their humble beginnings of 1978 and up through 1981 and the album ‘High & Dry”. The last album  before the band blew up in to major Rock Star status.  And man they were huge.

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This set is 5 CDs.  And they consist of the following:

  1. ‘On Through the Night’ (Remastered)
  2. ‘High ‘N Dry’ (Remastered)
  3. When the Walls Came Tumbling Down (Live at the New Theatre, Oxford – 1980)
  4. Too Many Jitterbugs (Rare and bonus tracks)
  5. Raw (Early BBC Recordings)

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It is over 4 1/2 hours of music.  And believe it or not, there are some things on here I did not have which is why I bought the whole set.  The packaging is pretty sweet.  The box it comes in looks like a box to hold a collection of 45’s and the front and back covers even show the wear of records being included which is a nice touch. The CD’s themselves come in a tri-fold cardboard folder that is pretty durable and it looks like this… Continue reading “Def Leppard – ‘The Early Years 78-81’ Box Set – Album Review” →

Gene Simmons – ‘The Vault’ – Album Review (Part 12 of 15 – The Bonus Disk)

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Welcome back to the Gene Simmons The Vault review.  We are now on the Bonus Disk and the final disk in the set.  Below are the rules I am trying to follow with each review.

I will try and keep some consistency between each disk.  I will go through each song and mention who wrote, who played on it and what I think about the song. I won’t go through all the stories as you should get the vault to get all the information.  I will grade each song (ranking 1 to 5, 5 being best) and then take an average of the grades for the score of the disk.  I know most of these are demos, so I won’t be taking quality of the sound in to play that much because I know what I am getting and I am more interested in the overall song.

At the end of all the reviews, we will average the score of each review and come up with an overall ‘The Vault’ score which I hope will be a fair representation of the whole package.  I am going to do my best to do one a week, but as I said before, life sometimes gets in the way so I am not going to promise one a week.  Plus, this is 11 disks to digest and that is a lot as I am also doing the David Coverdale Series at the same time.  That is a bunch of music to go through.

The songs aren’t in chronological order.  Gene states each disk is more of a mood or vibe.  The vibe of this one appears to be one of celebration.  Not with all the music being upbeat and party, no not at all.  But a celebration of Gene’s writing.  There are some of his earliest songs on here and Gene is giving us a taste of everything style he has done…almost.

Well, are you ready?  Then let’s get right to it.

The CD comes with one of Gene standing with The Vault.  Plain and simple, yet effective.

IMG_1613 Continue reading “Gene Simmons – ‘The Vault’ – Album Review (Part 12 of 15 – The Bonus Disk)” →

Ozzy Osbourne – ‘Ordinary Man’ – Album Review

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It has been 10 years since Ozzy’s last studio album and yet somehow, the man is still relevant.  How relevant, so relevant in fact that Post Malone had him guest on one of his songs. So there is a whole new generation of people discovering Ozzy.  And better late than never.

Now, it might be 10 years since his last studio album, but the last studio album I bought was 1987’s ‘The Ultimate Sin’ and the last Ozzy album I bought was 1997’s ‘The Ozzman Cometh’ so it has been a lot longer for me.

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With the sad news of Ozzy’s Parkinson diagnosis and hearing that Post Malone song, I thought I would give this album a try as I figured it might be his last (thankfully, it isn’t as he is already working on another).  To my surprise, I was completely blown away by this album.  The album is full of hooks, melodies, great guitar solos and Ozzy hasn’t sounded better.  The album is so accessible and harkens back for me to ‘The Ultimate Sin’ in catchiness and how radio friendly it is.  Some fans might not like that, but I couldn’t be happier.

The guests on this album are immense.  The main rhythm section is Duff McKagan on bass (GNR) and Chad Smith on drums (Red Hot Chili Peppers), but that isn’t all.  You get Slash, Tom Morello, Elton John, Charlie Puth, Post Malone, Travis Scott, Andrew Watt and even daughter Kelly Osbourne on backing vocals.  A mix of old and new with the musicians and it comes across in the music. Continue reading “Ozzy Osbourne – ‘Ordinary Man’ – Album Review” →

Gene Simmons – ‘The Vault’ – Album Review (Part 11 of 15 – Disk 10)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic78 Comments

Welcome back to the Gene Simmons The Vault review.  We are now on Disk 10.  Below are the rules I am trying to follow with each review.

I will try and keep some consistency between each disk.  I will go through each song and mention who wrote, who played on it and what I think about the song. I won’t go through all the stories as you should get the vault to get all the information.  I will grade each song (ranking 1 to 5, 5 being best) and then take an average of the grades for the score of the disk.  I know most of these are demos, so I won’t be taking quality of the sound in to play that much because I know what I am getting and I am more interested in the overall song.

At the end of all the reviews, we will average the score of each review and come up with an overall ‘The Vault’ score which I hope will be a fair representation of the whole package.  I am going to do my best to do one a week, but as I said before, life sometimes gets in the way so I am not going to promise one a week.  Plus, this is 11 disks to digest and that is a lot as I am also doing the David Coverdale Series at the same time.  That is a bunch of music to go through.

The songs aren’t in chronological order.  Gene states each disk is more of a mood or vibe.  The vibe of this one appears to be a little all over the place.  I had a hard time getting in to this one.  Let’s see what the result was.

Well, are you ready?  Then let’s get right to it.

The CD comes with a picture of one of Gene’s very first bands…

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