Welcome to New Release Friday! We have another batch of releases for you this week. Close to 40, but not quite. A ton of variety so hopefully there is something for everyone. I might stream the Brian May Deluxe set of Star Fleet Sessions with Eddie Van Halen on it, but that might be it. However, no buying this week which is good as the wallet needs a break. What are you interested in hearting this week? Let me know and what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Brian May – Star Fleet Sessions (Deluxe Edition) – (Duck Productions / Universal International)
Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real – Sticks and Stones – (6 Ace Records / Thirty Tigers)
Before there was a band called Bon Jovi, there was a young man, named Jon Bongiovi, who worked as a janitor at a recording studio called The Power Station which was located in Hell’s Kitchen in New York City. During his time as janitor, he’d be allowed to use the studio when it wasn’t in use. The years were 1980-1983 and this release is a collection of all these unreleased songs from that time period in his life prior to becoming Jon Bon Jovi and fronting one of the biggest bands in the world.
But wait…let’s go back a ways. Jon could play both guitar and piano and at 13 started playing gigs with his very first band called Raze. When he was 16, he met a curly haired dude named David Bryan and they would start a band called Atlantic City Expressway. David would leave that band to go to Med School…but that didn’t work out as he felt music was his path. So that band didn’t go anywhere and while still south of 20, he had another band called Jon Bongiovi and the Wild Ones. Again, nothing. So by 1980, he started yet another band called Rest and they actually got to open for a hero of Jon’s, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Dukes. During the 80’s he spent time at his cousin’s studio and recorded the song “Runaway”…yeah, that song. He shopped it around, but little notice. And we will end that story there as we will talk further about how that song changed things for him later.
This album was released by Tony Bongiovi who is Jon’s father’s first cousin…what does that make him to Jon? I have no freaking idea…maybe second cousin. Tony, I believe, owned the studio and was the producer of these songs we have before us. The album has been released several times and is not an official Bon Jovi or Jon Bon Jovi release so I am sure Jon wasn’t overly thrilled with it seeing the light of day. The first release was in 1998 and was only 10 songs. The second release was 1999 and suddenly was up to 14 tracks. My version, however, was released September 18, 2001 and was the third iteration of the songs and this time around there are a whopping 20 tracks. That is a lot of music. And when you hear it, you will hear a very young Jon with songs that were a sign of the times and a Jon whose voice hadn’t really found…well…his voice or style. The songs aren’t great…but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a fun and interesting listen to see how it all began.
“Who Said it Would Last Forever” kicks things off with an opening piano, an infectious groove, some nice guitar work and energized vocals by Mr. Bongiovi. A high energy rocker that shows a singer with a lot of promise as the chorus is catchy and you can see something there that was ready to explode.
David Coverdale has really outdone himself with these Super Deluxe Editions Box Sets. First was the ‘1987’ album, then an UnZipped Box Set, then ‘Slide It In’ and the 1989 album ‘Slip of the Tongue’. Heck, He even did the 25th Anniversary Edition of ‘Restless Heart’ which for some reason I have yet to review. I need to get on that. Now, to the surprise of everyone, he has done a 15th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition for ‘Good to Be Bad’ now called ‘Still…Good to Be Bad’. It doesn’t seem the album has been out long enough to deserve such a treatment and that might explain why it isn’t chock full of goodness the other ones gave us. More on that soon enough. The album was the band’s 10th studio album and the first one in over a decade which is way too long to go without a Whitesnake album. But they came back with a bang.
This special edition consists of 4 CDs, 1 DVD, 1 Book, 1 Tour Program replica and 1 Album Cover Poster. And it has over 58 tracks amongst all the CDs. Well…not really. It has 15 tracks done four different ways (minus 2 tracks done 3 ways). So, this is why I say this is for the diehard fans as it is very repetitive…this is for the diehard fans as it is very repetitive! Yes, I said this twice to prove a point and yes, I did this joke on pretty much every box set review for Whitesnake because its true. Here is everything you get.
During the Covid Pandemic, Jeff had time on his hands since he wasn’t touring the world. However, that doesn’t mean he sat around twiddling his thumbs. Nope. Instead he decided to revisit some old songs. Now, he wasn’t thinking of doing another album like ‘Revisions’ and thank goodness for that. Instead, he re-recorded a bunch of his classic songs throughout his career and the twist was he invited a bunch of his fellow musical friends that could sing and do the songs as duets. And the line-up he has is second to none. They are some of the most exciting new melodic rock singers in the field and some that are legends in their own right.
He used a bunch of his bandmates and friends also to handle the music. Most of these names you will recognize if you’ve been following along on this series. He had Jorge Salan (guitars), Howie Simon (guitars), Leo Mancini (guitars), Tony Dickinson (bass) and Edu Cominato (drums). And let me tell you, they really brought these songs to life and made them sound fresh and more modern in some cases. These guys are playing songs by Yngwie Malmsteen, Axel Rudi Pell and Marcel Jacobs so they have to step up their game and let me tell you they do just that. The combination of this band, Jeff’s powerhouse vocals and these incredible guest singers actually surprised me with an album that at first I went…”really?”… but by the end I was like…”Hell Yeah!!”. The album came out on October 8, 2021 and continued his run with Frontier Records and what a run it has been. Enough chit chat, let’s get to the music.
The album opens with a high energy, bombastic guitar rocker called “Livin’ the Life” from the Rock Star soundtrack and what a way to open the album. Jeff had his W.E.T. bandmate, Erik Martensson, dueting with him and this one and if you’ve heard the W.E.T. albums, then you know what a lethal combo these two are together. This is not a song Jeff plays a lot, so what a pleasure to have this one covered and a sign of great things to come. If you were expecting an album full of ballads, you’d be so wrong.
Welcome to July! It’s been waiting for you! Our first big release of the month doesn’t get much bigger than this. The new Taylor Version for the album ‘Speak Now’ is out this week so does it really matter what else is out this week as it will blow the doors off the competition! Of course it matter what else there is or why do these posts. I’m sure my kids will get Taylor, but I’m more interested in Nita Strauss’ new album as well as the latests from Degreed. Outside of that, we will see what kind of time I have. Let me know what you want to here this week or what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend.
Taylor Swift – Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) – (Republic Records)
Nita Strauss – The Call of the Void – (Sumerian Records)
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The boys are back with their third album. The boys, of course, are Paul Laine, Bruno Ravel and Rob Marcello or more properly known as The Defiants. The band was brought together back in 2016 thanks to Frontiers Records. I was worried this was going to be a one and done, but thankfully that wasn’t the case.
I spoke with Paul Laine a couple years ago and I knew he was working on this album. And about 6 months later, when I was exchanging emails with him, he was coming up on his deadline to submit the album to Frontiers. He seemed a little stressed, but in a good way. This was around January 2022. I am not sure what happened, but the album didn’t see the light of day for another 18 months. I hope to talk with him again soon and I will make sure to see what was going on. Regardless, as of June 7, 2023, we have the new Defiants album and I couldn’t be happier.
The guys had worked together before in a band called Danger Danger, you remember them from the late 80’s and 90’s. The Defiants were made to recapture that 80’s rock magic and capture it they did. I will try not to be biased as I am a huge Paul Laine fan and I pretty much love everything he does and there is a reason for that…he is one of the best vocalists in the business and his voice gets stronger as he ages. He does not disappoint here either. In fact no one does. This is my album of the Summer and in fact, could wind up as album of the Year. Yes, I said it! And here’s why…
The album opens with a scorcher in “Hey Life” which is a massive anthemic rocker. And listen to that opening guitar riff…does it not sound like “Rise” by Extreme??? Which is wild as both albums came out on the same day. Paul’s vocals soar as he tells life to get out of his way. The drums are pounding, the guitars are a rip-roaring shredfest and the song makes a massive opening statement.
We are starting out things a little different. We aren’t starting with the earliest Bon Jovi piece in the collection. We are going to start the Bon Jovi Collection Series with the piece that convinced me to start the series. I picked this up around Christmas of last year and when I had all the album on vinyl, I thought, let’s do it. I took some time filling some holes in the collection and arranging what I wanted to review and now here we are. Currently this collection is going to take some time as there are around 60 pieces to review so this will take over a year to complete so I hope you are along for the ride. We will save the history of the band and how it got started to later. For now, let’s look at this box set in all its glory.
The Box Set was released on February 10, 2017 and was released on both vinyl and CD. I chose the Vinyl collection as I love to have their albums on vinyl. The set carries all studio albums up to that point which means it stops at ‘This House is Not For Sale’. But that isn’t all, it has both Jon Bon Jovi solo albums as well as an “Extra” LP with a bunch of their international B-Sides which is a nice treat. But that is it. There no extra posters, stickers, booklets or anything. Each album though is remastered on 180g LP and the 16 albums are spread over 24 LPs. At the time this was released, 7 of the albums had never been released on vinyl and then you have the “Extra” LP which is the first time this had ever been released. So, for the vinyl collector this was the easiest way to get everything. Now, they did release the albums individually, well the Bon Jovi ones were, I don’t think I ever saw the Jon Bon albums ever in the stores…I mean ever.
As we now know as we are now on their fourth studio album, W.E.T. is a culmination of some great artist including Robert Sall of the band Work of Art (The “W”); Erik Martensson of the band Eclipses (The “E”) and Jeff Scott Soto of the band Talisman (The “T”). All three bands are Swedish bands and all on Frontiers so it made it easy to bring these three guys together. Rounding out the band are Magnus Henriksson and Robban Back both from the band Eclipse as well. And a new face to the band with Andreas Passmark (Royal Hunt) will handle the bass duties.
The album was released on January 22, 2021 right slap dab during the COVID pandemic. So, no touring sadly. However, at this point in the pandemic, band’s were still delaying albums and we are so grateful that W.E.T. did not. Their fourth studio album, ‘Retransmission’, sees Erik still at the helm and this time, the guitar is king a little more than it has in the past. But don’t worry, if you are expecting to hear W.E.T., you will in spades as you still get melodic rock, 80’s anthemic AOR and solid music throughout still drenched in keyboards and smothered with great melodies and vocals from the great Jeff Scott Soto. They have become AC/DC in a sort of way with the fact that all the albums sounds the same, but in a very good way. I think people might be upset if they changed their sound, thankfully, they did not. Just punched it up, polished it off and delivered another spectacular release. Let’s see how it holds up.
“Big Boys Don’t Cry” comes screaming out of the gates with its bombastic drums, ear-splitting guitars and as is usually the blueprint, you get both Erik and Jeff on vocals for this first song and it is a scorcher. The melodies and harmonies between the two are better than ever. The anthemic beast of a song shows that W.E.T. have not lost a step in the three years since their last release. They come out swinging with this one.
This been a great month of releases and two of which might end up on My Top 10 list at the end of the year. We have a lot more for you today, but for me this is a good break week to get caught up on all the stuff I’ve purchased over the last month. Let me know what you want to hear this week or what we may have missed on our list so everyone will know. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend!!
The Weeknd – The Idol Vol. 1: Music from the HBO Original Series – (XO Records)
The Hu – Rumble of Thunder (Deluxe Edition) – (Better Noise Music)
Brian May – Star Fleet Sessions (Deluxe Edition) – (Duck Productions / Universal International)
Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real – Sticks and Stones – (6 Ace Records / Thirty Tigers)
Taylor Swift – Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) – (Republic Records)
Nita Strauss – The Call of the Void – (Sumerian Records)
The Weeknd – The Idol Vol. 1: Music from the HBO Original Series – (XO Records)
The Hu – Rumble of Thunder (Deluxe Edition) – (Better Noise Music)
2 Loud 2 Old Music 