Jeff Scott Soto – ‘The Duets Collection, Vol. 1’ (2021) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic23 Comments

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.

Continue reading “Jeff Scott Soto – ‘The Duets Collection, Vol. 1’ (2021) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)” →

My Sunday Song – “Die For You” by The Weeknd

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic13 Comments

For My Sunday Song #368, we are on Morgan’s 8th Choice and this time around it is The Weeknd’s song “Die For You” off his 2016 album ‘Starboy’. The song was a single and did fairly well, but in 2022 there was a resurgence on the popularity of this song thanks again to the wonderful social media tool, TikTok (that “wonderful” is very sarcastic btw). The song went all the way to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 six years after its original release. And the Weeknd is not stupid and took advantage of that popularity by releasing an new mix of the song with Ariana Grande. The version we will discuss is not that one. The song was written by an army of writers. Yes, because a good song needs 7 writers and they are the Weeknd,  Doc McKinney,  Cirkut, Prince 85, Cashmere Cat, Dylan Wiggins, and Billy Walsh.

The song was actually the last song written for the album and was apparently hard to finish and that might explain why there are so many writers…and yes, that does bother me. The song is apparently about a former girlfriend (rumored to be Bella Hadid) and their breakup. Although their relationship has ended, he still lovers her and would do anything for her, even die for her. It was hard for him to get over her and there was a lot of frustration and pain over the break up. I think it is a great little love letter for her to let her know he still cares and although they aren’t meant to be together, they are connected as he will always care for her.

The song is a ballad and there is a lot of pain and heartbreak in it and The Weeknd really comes across vocally with that emotion. The music is all electronic, the bass, the drums and the keys, but there is a really nice groove to hit and it gets my head bobbing back and forth. The chorus has a big payoff and is really catchy. The music is amped up, a little heavier and it s really a great beat. He sings at such a high register, it almost feels a lot like Michael Jackson and that is saying something. The song sticks with me long after I have listened to it.

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Die For You” by The Weeknd” →

Friday New Releases – July 7, 2023

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic18 Comments

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.

  • 71Phx8z8ttL._SX522_  Taylor Swift – Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) – (Republic Records)
  • 81hfp5WQqdL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  Nita Strauss – The Call of the Void – (Sumerian Records)
Continue reading “Friday New Releases – July 7, 2023” →

The Defiants – ‘Drive’ (2023) – Album Review

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic19 Comments

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.

Continue reading “The Defiants – ‘Drive’ (2023) – Album Review” →

Bon Jovi – ‘The Albums Box Set’ (2017) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic103 Comments

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.

Continue reading “Bon Jovi – ‘The Albums Box Set’ (2017) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)” →

W.E.T. – ‘Retransmission’ (2021) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic22 Comments

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.

Continue reading “W.E.T. – ‘Retransmission’ (2021) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)” →

My Sunday Song – “Escapism” by Raye (Feat. 070 Shake)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic8 Comments

For My Sunday Song #367, we are now on the 7th selection in the Morgan’s Choice Series. This time around we are talking about the song “Escapism” by British singer Raye which features 070 Shake. The song started off as a huge TikTok sensation and became the third single off her 2022 album, ‘My 21st Century Blues’. The song hit #23 on the Billboard Top 40 and it charted in dozens and dozens of countries. It was written by Raye along with 070 Shakes and Mike Sabath who also handled production.

The song is about escaping from reality after a bad break-up. That escaping deals with unhealthy coping mechanisms including drugs, alcohol and even hooking up with a lot of people. In the lyrics she is hitting the clubs and sitting in the back of a cab doing coke. Within 24 hours after the breakup she is with another man doing God knows what. It is not healthy at all and not a great way to deal with the breakup, but she made a hit song so who can argue with the results.

The song has a strong electronic beat that carries a certain cock swagger. The drums and the bass are turned up almost to a slight distorted level, but that beat will get you moving. There are lots of changes throughout as Raye tackles the lyrics in different ways whether it is a cocky spirited delivery or a soft, vulnerable state and she has a great voice and can handle both perfectly. 070 Shake’s (or Daniella Balbuena’s) vocals pair nicely with Raye’s and she brings that hip hop break that a lot of todays’s songs have, but I don’t think they always need. This works with it or without it in my opinion. This isn’t something I would gravitate towards, but no denying it is a catchy number

Continue reading “My Sunday Song – “Escapism” by Raye (Feat. 070 Shake)” →

Friday New Releases – June 30, 2023

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic20 Comments

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!!

  • 71sdHhDEJmL._SX522_  The Weeknd – The Idol Vol. 1: Music from the HBO Original Series – (XO Records)
  • 71yt3mi74pL._AC_UY436_FMwebp_QL65_  The Hu – Rumble of Thunder (Deluxe Edition) – (Better Noise Music)
Continue reading “Friday New Releases – June 30, 2023” →

June 2023 Purchases – Vinyl, CDs & More…

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic20 Comments

Welcome to another monthly round-up of what we obtained here at 2 Loud 2 Old Music. It was another big month, but not quite like last month. The month started off with another Buy 5 Get 5 deal and ended with a trip to Los Angeles so it was a fun month here at the site.

First up was the 2nd & Charles Buy 5 Get 5 Free on Used CDs, so of course, I took advantage of that deal. Not a bad haul I must say…

And of course, we did get some new releases this month including Extreme, Neal Schon and my personal favorite, The Defiants!! I went the cheaper route of CDs for these mainly because Neal’s isn’t on vinyl and The Defiants isn’t available until September (pre-ordered).

Continue reading “June 2023 Purchases – Vinyl, CDs & More…” →