Category: Album Review

Billy Idol – ‘Devil’s Playground’ – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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On March 22, 2005, Billy Idol returns to music with his first album of new material in over 12 years.  Way too long in my book.  While on tour prior to the album, Billy was approached by Sanctuary Records to record an album.  The trick was that they wanted it in the old Billy style and sound.

As a result, Billy, Steve Stevens and producer Keith Forsey re-teamed to record the album. Yep, the gang was back together and I couldn’t be more happy.  Along for the ride was Stephen McGrath on bass, Derek Sherinian on keyboards and Brian Tichy on drums.  Not a bad line-up.

Of course, Steve and Billy had some songs together.  However, it was only 3 songs for Steve.  Billy did most of his writing with drummer Brian Tichy who had 8 writing credits on the album.  Of course, Billy had to have a cover song and the album checks that bucket as well.  All was now in place.

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The Alarm – Strength Live ’85 (RSD) – Album Review

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For Record Store Day April 13, 2019, The Alarm released a live album in support of their 1985 album ‘Strength’.  It was a previously unreleased show recorded at the Boston Orpheum Theatre on November 9th, 1985.  Since ‘Strength’ is one of my favorite albums, this was quickly added to the albums I needed to grab on RSD.

The album has 20 songs, of which, 16 have never been released before (officially). There have been bootlegs of the show, but none with the actual mixed recording which was done about a month after the show by Nigel Luby.  The sound is untouched and no overdubs.  It is as it was back in the day.  You can hear the rawness, the crowd and you know it is truly live.  It is fantastic.

With only 2 albums out at this time, the band played a ton of songs from both ‘Declaration’ and ‘Strength’ (which hadn’t been out long) and some you hadn’t heard before.  Songs like “Majority” and “The Chant Has Just Begun” were not on the studio albums, but later released as bonus tracks on deluxe editions.  You get to hear them live here before ever seeing the light day.

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Billy Idol – ‘VH1 Storytellers’ – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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For the last half of the 90’s, Billy didn’t release anything.  After the failure of the ‘Cyberpunk’ album (which was awesome) and the issues with the label, Billy sort of vanished from the music scene.  He did have the single for the movie “Speed”, he made a memorable cameo in the movie ‘The Wedding Singer’, but outside of that, there wasn’t much else.

In 2001, that started to change.  VH1 aired a ‘Behind the Music’ on Billy and a greatest hits compilation was released that had a cover of Simple Mind’s song “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” which had moderate success.  Heck, the greatest hits album sold over 1 million copies in the U.S. alone.  VH1 also decided to film a VH1 Storytellers with Billy and along for ride was Steve Stevens which was a reunion that was long overdue.

I am not going to critique the VH1 Storytellers show, but the CD that was released.  The CD came out on February 22, 2002 and is only the songs that were played and not any of the stories.  For that, you need the DVD.

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Kiss – ‘Accept No Imitations’ (Bootleg Series) – Album Review

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On my trip to Paris, I came across a plethora of Kiss Bootleg albums so I figured why not do a whole series on Kiss Bootlegs.  And BOOM!!! Here we are with the first in that series.  Why not start off with a tour I actually saw and that would be the 1985/1986 Aslyum Tour.

This vinyl I picked up is opening night on November 29th, 1985 at T.H. Barton Coliseum in Little Rock, AR.  I would see the show a month later on New Year’s Eve in Atlanta, GA at The Omni.

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Before we get in to the music, let’s talk about the packaging of the album.  The set is a gatefold with 2 LPs and the gatefold has a bunch of shots of the band from the performance (or at least shots from some time during the tour.  The cover (at the top) is of Gene only which is a little bizarre as I probably would have rather had the group picture on the back as the front at least.  But I am being picky.

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Generation X – ‘K.M.D. Sweet Revenge’ – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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After the release of Generation X’s second album, “Valley of the Dolls”, the band started recording the follow-up release.  However, during the recording the band started having some creative issues with each other. The album was demoed, but never finished before the band broke-up.  Billy Idol and Tony James decided to continue on and they rebranded themselves as Gen X.  They released ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ in 1980 to little or moderate success.  So, the 3rd Generation X album never saw the light of day.

Well, it never saw the light of day until 1998 when former Generation X guitarist Derwood Andrews released it due to some contract obligations without the consent of Billy Idol and Tony James.  Billy & Tony were able to block the release in the U.S., but not anywhere else.  The songs were in demo form and not fully realized tracks.

Now in 2003, Billy finally did release the songs (from a different audio source) on a Generation X Anthology that he did approve.  The songs I have that I will discuss are for the Anthology and not the actual Sweet Revenge release as I am still trying to get my hands on it.  When I do, I will update the post.

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Matt Nathanson – ‘At the Point’ – Album Review

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For the regulars of my site, they already know I am a huge Matt Nathanson fan.  For those non-regulars, I will let you know I am a huge Matt Nathanson fan.  I have been re-exploring his earlier catalog lately and I want to point out a great live set he has available called ‘At the Point’.

‘At the Point’ was recorded, well, at The Point.  The Point is an intimate club in Philadelphia, PA.  It was recorded in the Summer of 2005 and released in 2006.  It is only Matt and his acoustic guitar.  Nothing or no one else.

What I love about this album is it is a lot of his old songs from before my discovery of Matt which was around 2007 or so.  The album showcases his live performance, his ability to own a crowd, his comedic stylings (he is one funny SOB), his voice and most importantly his songwriting and musicianship.

From such classics as “Church Clothes”, “Answering Machine”, “Curve of the Earth” and “I Saw” to his cover of Dire Straits’ “Romeo and Juliet” and Drivin’ N Cryin’s “Straight to Hell”, you get lost in his performances as they are delivered so flawlessly and seem so personal.  You get laughs as he tells stories that will have you laughing your ass off and you just get an hour and seven minutes of pure enjoyment.  This is what a live album should be.  Something you can feel and connect with.

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Rob Thomas – ‘Chip Tooth Smile’ – Album Review

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Rob Thomas has sort of been absent from my existence for quite some time.  And that is on purpose.  Years ago, I got a little Rob Thomas burn out.  So, I stopped listening to him and Matchbox Twenty.  When I saw he had a new album coming out, I figured it was time to open up my world to a little Rob Thomas again.

Rob’s last album was ‘The Great Unknown’ back in 2015 and after 4 years, he thought it was time to come back with some new music.  So, the album came out and I dropped the needle (not really, I pushed play on my phone but you get the point).  The album is 12 songs and at less than 40 minutes in length, it was a quick listen.  Almost perfect for my drive to work.

And what do you get?  You get a simple set of songs that are so well crafted and so catchy and pure pop bliss.  Rob has delivered an album that is so spot on and refreshing that you walk away with such a big smile after listening that you have to hit repeat and play it again.  Maybe my time away has made me long for that great voice and the Rob Thomas sound, but whatever it is, this album is that jolt of lightning I needed and has quickly become a favorite for the year.

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Paul Laine – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

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After doing the Danger Danger Album Ranking, I thought why not continue and do all of Paul Laine’s albums as well.  So, here we are with Paul Laine’s albums ranked Worst to First!.  Who is Paul Laine you might ask?  I will tell you.

Paul is a singer, songwriter, musician, producer from Vancouver, Canada.  He started out as a solo artist way back in 1990 and later joined the band Danger Danger as their lead singer.  He also formed a band called Shugaazer, a band called Darkhorse and a band called The Defiants.  He likes band names that start with “D” except for Shugaazer so not sure what he was thinking there.

Paul is a gifted singer and sings mostly Rock and his voice has matured nicely over the years.  It has gone from a wild-untamed sound to a more controlled, smooth instrument.  And he has even delved into Country music (more on that later).

I have followed his career from the beginning thanks to working at Sam Goody back in 1990.  His CD came in to the store as a promo copy (and I played it a lot) and when it was time for that CD to retire from the playlist, yours truly got to take it home with him.  It was from that point on, that Paul could do no wrong (even though he has had a few missteps).

It is out of that fandom, I bring you this list.  Enjoy!!

THE WORST – ANDERSEN, LAINE, READMAN – THREE (2006):

This is an interesting side project from Andre Andersen.  Andre is the keyboardist and composer in the band Royal Hunt.  Andre brought in two sensational voices to split the songs.  You have David Readman of Pink Cream 69 and Paul Laine.  They each get 5 songs and for the most part the songs rock and as a set is pretty cool.

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Billy Idol – ‘Cyberpunk’ – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)

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After ‘Charmed Life’, Billy wanted to do something different.  He didn’t want to keep repeating his previous work over and over again.  Let me tell you he completely succeeded.  The album is nothing like his previous work and I think was way ahead of its time. ‘Cyberpunk’ delivered Billy’s most experimental and most controversial album.

Billy became fascinated with technology and the cyberpunk movement of the early 90’s.  He saw how the advancement could be used to make music and in fact, this was one of the first albums to use ProTools for almost the entire recording of the album. He felt the use of the computers allowed him to do things faster and he felt it gave the whole feel of a garage band.  I don’t know about that last part, but it was the very early stages of how albums and music would be recorded down the road.

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When he released the single for “Shock to the System” he released it with a 3 1/2″ Floppy Disc.  MP’s eat your heart out.  The disc housed pictures, bios and all the things you now see issued in todays electronic press kits (EPK).  He was also was one of the first albums to actually have an email address in the booklet that came with the album (don’t try it, it no longer works).

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Def Leppard – ‘The Story So Far…The Best of Volume 2’ – Album Review (#RSD – 2019)

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I bought ‘The Story So Far…The Best of’ back in 2018 and at the time not realizing it was only Volume 1.  I also bought the CD Deluxe to get all the music as the vinyl didn’t have everything.  Well, now it does.  For Record Store Day 2019, Def Leppard released Volume 2 for those suckers, like me, who will buy everything they put out.

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Now Volume 1 has all the songs from their 3 biggest albums (Pyromania, Hysteria and Adrenalice).  Volume 2 covers pretty much everything else.  And for that, it has a much better selection of songs than Volume 1 for me.  It covers the band’s history better and is a lot more diverse and entertaining.

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But before we get on about the set list, let’s talk the album cover.  It is styled the same as volume 1 with some alterations to color.  The biggest pet peeve for me is the picture when you open up the gatefold (oh yeah, 2 LP set with gatefold).  It is the same DAMN concert picture as the first!!  Really, you couldn’t come up with a different picture. At least the pictures of the individual band members are different.

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