Friday New Releases – September 3, 2021

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We are already in to September and being a Holiday Weekend here in the States, it seems to be a lighter week than what we have seen the past and what is coming in the future. There is one Massive release for a lot of my friends and I will give it a listen, but otherwise there is nothing I am looking forward to this week. There are a few big releases outside of the Massive one and maybe they will be what you want to hear. My choice is highlighted in Blue. Let me know what you want to hear and what I may have missed as that does happen. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I know I will as it is a long weekend for me.

  • 91I6X06DZmS._SS500_  Iron Maiden – Senjutsu – (Iron Maiden / Sanctuary Records / BMG): Iron Maiden is back with another release and there are a lot of readers excited by this one. I have never gotten in to them, but I will give it a listen so I am not completely left out of the conversation when it begins. This is the band’s 17th Studio album which is why I haven’t tried to get in to them as that is a lot of albums to buy plus the million of live albums they have it is quite daunting. But if you like Metal, this should be up your alley.

And that is it for me. Hopefully one of these albums will strike your fancy and you’ll give them a spin…

  • 916XKCZuPhS._SX522_  Imagine Dragons – Mercury: Act 1 – (KidinaKorner / Interscope)
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Cheap Trick – ‘Cheap Trick’ (1977) – Album Review (The Cheap Trick Collection Series)

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Welcome to the new series The Cheap Trick Collection Series. That means we will be going through every Cheap Trick album that I have in my collection whether it be on studio album, live album, compilations, singles or whatever it may be and it doesn’t matter if it is on Vinyl, CD, 7″ Single. We will go through them in chronological order starting with their 1977 debut and all the way up to the 2021 release ‘In Another World’ and most things in between…not all as I don’t have everything. Currently I’m missing some live albums, some greatest hits albums and even the Christmas album which I don’t think I can convince myself to buy (not a fan of Christmas albums). So, why don’t we get started with the debut, self-titled album from 1997, ‘Cheap Trick’.

Cheap Trick’s roots stem back to a band called Fuse which Rick Nielsen formed back in 1967 with Tom Petersson back in Rockford, Illinois. They recruited Bun E. Carlos on drums and they moved to Philadelphia where they changed their name for a short time to Sick Man of Europe. was formed back around 1973 and then lead singer, Randy “Xeno” Hogan, left the band shortly there after in 1974. They quickly replaced Randy with lead singer Robin Zander and the current line-up of Rick Nielsen, Tom Petersson, Bun E. Carlos and Robin Zander was born. By 1975, they recorded a demo and they played a ton of shows. They shopped the demo around and by very early 1976, they were signed to Epic Records. Epic Records didn’t waste much time and got the band in the studio to record their first album, simply titled ‘Cheap Trick’.

Now the above story is what Wiki has you believing, but if you read the back of the album sleeve, you get a different history of the band. One that has them spending a lot of time in Europe (which they did) and forming the band while they were there. That European influence the guys had opened them up to so many different sounds and influences that broaden the scope of the type of music they would perform. If you have the sleeve, give it a read.

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Judas Priest – ‘A Touch of Evil: Live’ (2009) – Album Review (The Complete Albums Collection Series)

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We are now to the final album in the box set, The Complete Albums Collection. Why is it the final album in the set, because it is the last album to feature original guitarist, K.K. Downing. This box set contained ALL albums that featured the 4 main members, Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton, Ian Hill and K.K. Downing. We know it wasn’t because of a single drummer as they close to a 1,000 drummers in their career…and yes, that is an exaggeration. This live album is also the band’s fifth live album, but only 3rd in this series. We won’t be doing the other two any time soon, so sorry about that fact.

This live album was the first one since Rob Halford rejoined the band and it is also noted for an old producer friend of the band sees his return. Tom Allom is back as co-producer with the band and I can’t say that was actually a good thing after you hear my complaints about this album. They did a good job about not repeating any tracks on any other Halford led Live album up to this point. There are a lot of repeats on the Tim “Ripper” Owen albums, but those don’t count for this conversation. Why don’t we jump straight in to this release.

The album took songs from the band’s tours in 2005 and 2008 and not from one show which is okay. The problem was they didn’t mix the album to sound like a full live show. Nope! Each song fades out and then the next song comes in totally ruining the live album effect. If you are going to make a live album, at least give it the feel that it is one consistent show even if it is not. It totally takes me out of the game when you fade the songs in and out.

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August 2021 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

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Wow, how time has flown. Summer is winding down, school is back in session and we had a big month here at the 2 Loud 2 Old Music home life. Our oldest daughter turned 18 and moved off to college the very next day. A very happy and sad time in our life. And my youngest became a freshman herself in High School. Man, they grow up so fast. And usually when I have these big moments that make me happy and yet sad, I drown that sad part in purchases and I have to say, there were a few this month and so we might as well get to it…

To start it off, the first album on the list this month is one that came out on July 30th, but I didn’t get the album in time for the July post so it kicks off this month’s post. The brand new album by Needtobreathe called “Into the Mystery” and my copy is CD. I also have the Vinyl on order but due to delays we won’t see that until November which is why I have the CD now.

Then my daughter and I were out and I picked up a few random items. First was bought at Manifest Disc in the used CD section and was something I have already, but didn’t. It was a limited deluxe edition CD with a 64 page mini-magazine of Kiss’ Monster. I have this one on vinyl, but this was too cheap and cool to pass up.

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Billy Idol – “Cradle of Love” – 7″ Single (The Billy Idol Series – Bonus Edition)

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If you remember a couple months back, I bought about 21 7″ Singles and in that were a couple of Billy Idol Singles. The first one is for the single, “Cradle of Love”, which was the first single off his 1990 album, ‘Charmed Life’. The single was released on April 17, 1990 and the album came out 2 weeks later on May 1, 1990. This was the first time Billy had released a song, or an album, without Steve Stevens on guitar (except for his debut E.P.). The song is the highest charting Billy Idol song going all the way to #2 in the U.S. and it went #1 on the Mainstream Rock Chart which is the one and only time he has done that as well. What was the song that kept him from the #1 slot…well, it was Mariah Carey’s “Vision of Love” which was her debut and we know what happened to her.

The A-Side, “Cradle of Love”, was for the Andrew Dice Clay movie, ‘The Adventures of Ford Fairlane’. The song is about a whole slew of cradle-robbing rockers like Jerry Lee Lewis.  It is a classic Billy Idol song and has everything you know and love about his sound. It showed he could do it without Steve Stevens. The song was written by Billy Idol and David Werner and the song on this single is actually the album version of the song and not a remix which is okay because the B-Side is the treasure here and we will get to that shortly.

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My Sunday Song – “Jesus Came to Tennessee” by Will Hoge

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For My Sunday Song #262, we are talking about “Jesus Came to Tennessee” by Will Hoge. The song is off one of Will’s protest E.P.s called ‘Modern American Protest Music’ from 2012. The whole album is Will speaking out about what was going on in America at the time and there will be another song we highlight from this E.P. That will be two songs out of ten that will come from an E.P. and not an album and that should tell you what I think about the E.P.

This one is where the lyrics need to be read as it is totally and utterly brilliant. The song is a fictional story about Jesus coming down to Tennessee and visited with Will. It is a conversation he and Jesus had as they drove around Tennessee. It is hilarious at times no doubt with Jesus saying the following…

And I’ll call off this doomsday end of the world and I can go back home
“It gets wild when I leave Daddy and John Lennon up there all alone”

But most of it is commentary to how badly we have screwed up things down here. Will and his wife had a child out of wedlock, but Jesus says thats okay as he was born out of wedlock as well. Jesus sees all the war and poverty and how we treat the gays and He is ready to pull the plug on us. Will asks Jesus if he wants to watch Fox or CNN and Jesus says he just wants to hear the truth. And then Jesus calls off the Doomsday when he sees the little children of all different races and sexes playing together with no cares about race or anything. Jesus then said maybe there is hope. Which reminds us that racism is learned and not natural. There is so much great stuff in this song that you need to listen to it more than once. Here is one more line that I love…

I yelled, “One more thing Jesus, could you help me write some hits?”
And in a big voice he said that “I will, if you quit writin’ songs like this”

I love that line as it shows that Will doesn’t take himself serious and has a great sense of humor. I’m telling you, this guy is pure gold!! I could dissect every line in this song and relate to current events, but I think you will pick up on it easily enough when you hear it. It is a combination of everything that is wrong with our country right now and some hope that we could fix it.

Musically, it is a country style track and Will speaks-sings the lyrics like some old-school outlaw country track. It is a simple beat the whole time and Will goes through the whole conversation with Jesus. There isn’t too much to it as this song is all about the lyrics so listen close and take it all in.

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Friday New Releases – August 27, 2021

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Welcome to the final Friday New Release post in August and let me tell you there are a bunch to choose from this week. There are over 50 new albums to pick from so sit back and get on scrolling as I am sure you will find something you like. There are a handful I want to hear, but nothing I am running out to buy at this time. The ones I want to hear are marked in Blue. Let me know what you see that you want to hear and let me know what I might have missed that came out this week so everyone will know. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

  • 81JBdQH7PhS._SX522_  Brian Setzer – Gotta Have the Rumble – (Surfdog): Brian Setzer, former front man of The Stray Cats, is back with another solo album. I am hoping for some good old rockabilly as no one does it better. His singing and guitar playing are exceptional and I am always ready for a good time from Setzer.
  • download  Big Red Machine – How Long Do You Think It’s Going to Last? – (Jagjaguwar / 37d03d): I know nothing about this band, but keep seeing good things about it so I am going to venture out and try this one. The band is Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon and the music is indie/alt/folktronica which I didn’t even know was a thing. We will see how it turns out.
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Queensryche – ‘Operation: Mindcrime’ Super Deluxe Edition – Box Set Review

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What is one of the greatest concept albums of all time? That is right! It is the Queensryche masterpiece, ‘Operation: Mindcrime’. The band is celebrating this album with a Super Deluxe Edition Box Set and it is full or wonderful things. You get 4 CDs, 1 DVD and a book all included in a wonderful and sturdy box. It look 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…or does it? More on that later.

Before we get to the meat of the box set, the CDs and DVD are housed in a tri-fold cardboard sleeve that is all black with the exception of the logo on the front. The CDs slide in to slots on each side while the DVD is housed in its own mini-cardboard sleeve which slides in to its slot in the middle fold. It is not my favorite way to house CDs as you have to be careful not to scratch them when you insert or pull it out.

The Front Cover
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Judas Priest – ‘Nostradamus’ (2008) – Album Review (The Complete Albums Collection Series)

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For the band’s sixteenth studio album, they went somewhere they had never gone before and really pushed the boundaries of what they could do. “Nostradamus” was going to be a concept album about the man himself, Nostradamus. The idea was brought to the band by their manager, Bill Curbishley, way back in 2005. Eventually the band came around and work started on the album in 2006 and went through 2007. The album finally saw the light of day on June 16, 2008 and saw the band get their highest charting album to date at #11 (now realize that was only sales of 42,000 and in 2008 that had become a lot as album sales were way down).

The band would shed their speed and thrash metal sound and stick strictly to a more symphonic metal sound so if you were expecting anything from before you were in a shock. This was going to be so different than anything else they had done. The album turned in to a 2 CD set with 23 tracks and over a 103 minutes worth of music. You were taken on a journey through the life of Nostradamus and would get songs about his notorious prophecies and about the man himself. You can tell by the titles of the songs on the first disc they are about some dark prophecies that talk about war and the basically the end of the world. The album is full of orchestrated moments and even choirs and if you are looking for the classic Halford scream, you will only get that on the very rare occasion. Rob sings more in an operatic singing style and fits the music perfectly. This is the band stretching their limits and really reaching for the stars.

The band is still Rob Halford, K.K. Downing, Glenn Tipton, Ian Hill and Scott Travis on drums. Don Airey is still on keyboards and then you have Pete Whitfield who handles all the string instrumentation. The band was hitting on all cylinders and have given an album that has to be listened to as an album and from front to back in the order intended to get the full effect and follow along. And due to the length of the album there is no way we are going to go through song by song in any great detail so forgive me. I will stick with the highlights and there are many.

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AC/DC – “Through The Mists of Time” / “Witch’s Spell” – 12″ Limited Edition Picture Disc (RSD 2021 Release)

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I really like Picture Discs. I find them quite beautiful and a wonderful piece to add to the collection. I doesn’t even matter if that is not a new song, bonus track, live version or rare track on the release. I still like to have them. For the June 12, 2021 Record Store Day, AC/DC had a limited edition picture disc that I didn’t even realize was being released. I only caught it because I was online and ordering the Def Leppard RSD release and noticed it. So, I added it to the cart, and sold!!

The Picture Disc is for the song “Through the Mists of Time” and the B-Side is “Witch’s Spell”. Both are on the new release Power Up and not some special mix or anything else that I can see. This is a Limited Edition and that means there are only 5,000 copies. I don’t know what number mine is as it doesn’t say that anywhere on the packaging. Mine has a sticker that says 14280, but that is handwritten and I think was added by the local store. No idea what it means but don’t want to peel it off. The release was made in the Czech Republic based on a sticker that is on the back. There is a Record Store Day Sticker on the front as well plus a little obit type strip at the top (no Japanese on it though) that lists the band and the song info on the back. And that is all there is to it.

On Side A is “Through The Mists of Time” and I love the white background with the band and speaks wrapping around the front. It is a cool shot. Speaking of cool, the coolest song on the album is “Through the Mists of Time” which is not a normal AC/DC title. It harkens back more to a Zeppelin title and has this nostalgic feel to it. And let me tell you what a breath of fresh air this song is and might be one of the best songs on the album. Over 40 years and they still can throw surprises at you. 

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