Tag: The Darkness

February 2022 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

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February is over so it is time for our monthly round-up of what 2 Loud 2 Old Music got their hands on this month and it was another banner month. It all started with a trip to the antique mart called Sleepy Poets. My daughter loves that place and I don’t mind because there are records and I found a couple good ones. One was the only early Stryper album I was missing and the other was one of my mother’s favorite bands Air Supply so I had to buy it. I miss her a lot so it will be something in my collection that when I am really, really missing her I can pull out and play.

Then the following week, my daughter wanted to hit more antique shops as she loves to find old vintage clothes at not a too ridiculous of a price. The first place we hit in Mathews said it was an antique place, but really it was a record store and now I have another great place to go buy albums!! Yeah me!! I found some great vinyl, CDs, singles and cassettes…they had it all. First are the albums, which are an early pressing of Mariah Carey’s debut on vinyl and a Billy Idol 12″ Single of Mony Mony.

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December 2021 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

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Welcome to the final Monthly Purchase review of 2021. Sit back because we are going out with a bang!! Not only did I score some major vinyl and CDs in my hunts, but my Christmas/Birthday presents were a lot as well. I am not going to waste anymore time and we will just jump right in.

First up this month is an RSD release that I didn’t get until after the Black Friday RSD. It is the latest Aerosmith release and will be final review in The Aerosmith Collection Series. It is the very first live recording of the band…

Then my daughter and I found out that one our digging holes was going out of business. Manifest Disc closed its doors and before they did, we hit them up for some of their deep discount deals. My daughter did some damage in the DVD section and I did some in the CDs and one vinyl. The CDs are hodge podge of stuff some of it I was hoping to find vinyl, but I have given up hope so I just bought the CDs since they were dirt cheap.

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You Pick It! – Which Album to Review in December?

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You, my reader, are going to pick an album for me to review each month.  It is really simple…first, I will give you 5 albums to choose from and second, you will tell me which one of those you would like to see reviewed on the site.  See…simple! Now, if you want to cast more than one vote, comment on the Twitter and Facebook post and you could get up to 3 votes on your favorite pick.

There are a few simple rules I have put in to place in my selections.  They are…

  • One has to be a new release (within the last month)
  • One has to be one I have never heard before (new releases don’t count for this one)
  • One has to be from a genre I don’t normally listen to at all or very often
  • And the last two are choices from my collection that I haven’t reviewed before

What are the 5 albums you ask?  Funny you should ask because I have those right here…

  New Release – The Darkness – “Motorheart”

  Never Heard Before – The Band – ‘The Band’

  Not My Normal Genre – Dusty Springfield – ‘Dusty in Memphis’

  From My Collection – Stryper – ‘Against the Law’

  From My Collection – David Bowie – ‘Let’s Dance’

Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in December, I will post a review of the album that gets the most votes. You have one week to decide and from there I will start listening to the album and do a review.

Thanks for participating!!

Friday New Releases – November 19, 2021

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You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best! The Hottest New Release Day of the Year!! TODAY!!! Man, there are so many great releases today and I can’t wait. I have 3 I will be listening to and one is a Massive Box Set. This also seems to be a day for older established artists releasing new albums or anniversary albums and maybe for you younger listeners you might find some of these older artists totally awesome. Now, go check them out and let me know what you want to hear this week. Also, let us know what we may have missed. My choices are up first and in BOLD! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend.

  • 91C7w0t0NLL._SX522_  Kiss – Destroyer (45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) – (Universal Music / UMG): KISS!!! Man, I can’t wait for this to arrive. I hope it makes it today. Kiss is releasing a 45th Anniversary of one of their biggest albums. It is remastered and there are a ton of demos and unreleased tracks and it is about time the band did a Box Set like this. Now, they need to go back and do them all with this special treatment. They’d get my money!!
  • 719ZBpfe0eL._SX522_  The Darkness – Motorheart – (Cooking Vinyl): The Darkness is upon us and that makes for a much brighter day for me! I love these guys. Their love of that old glam rock sound makes for a wonderful listen. They bring that style to today’s market and for that we are lucky. I loved their last album ‘Easter is Cancelled’ and if this is half as good as that one, this will be awesome then!!
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The Darkness – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

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The Darkness came out of nowhere in 2003 with the song “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” and when I heard that song, I was hooked.  It was so 80’s retro and 70’s glam all rolled in to one while at the same time being a little tongue-in-cheek.  I didn’t even know if this was a parody of if these guys were for real, but I loved it.  Thankfully, it was for real.  Lead singer, Justin Hawkins, has this insane falsetto that not many people could ever think of doing and the band is loud and awesome.  After their second album, the band hit a rough spot.  Justin entered in to rehab and afterwards decided to leave the band.  On hiatus they went.

Not knowing if they were ever to return, I was sad not having them on the music scene.  Then in 2012, some 6 years later, they returned with their 3rd album “Hot Cakes” and have been on a regular basis about ever 2 years and they keep getting better.  18 years now after the release of their debut album, there is still 3 of the 4 original members in the band which is pretty impressive in today’s world.  The members are as follows:

  • Lead Singer, lead and rhythm guitar – Justin Hawkins
  • Rhythm and lead guitar – Dan Hawkins
  • Bass – Frank Poullain
  • Drums – Rufus Tiger Taylor

With the 2019 release of “Easter is Cancelled” which had my #1 song of 2019 with “Rock and Roll Deserves to Die” and was their 6th studio album, I felt it was time to do an album ranking. So sit back and enjoy The Darkness albums ranked Worst to First!

THE WORST – ‘HOT CAKES’ (2012):

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The Top 20 Rock Songs of 2019

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Welcome to the Top 20 Rock Songs of 2019.  These songs are my favorite songs of the year and were not necessarily played on the radio or even shot up the charts.  They just moved me in some way good or bad!

If you missed the Top Rock Albums of 2019 or the Top Albums of 2019 (that were not Rock), just click on the link and go check them out.

It is time to start the list so here we go…

#20 -“Chase the Feeling (feat. Chris Cester)” by Wolfmother – Single:

No album, just a single and anything they put out will probably end up on my list.  It is full of the distorted guitar sound that is reminiscent of Wolfmother and don’t forget that voice os Andrew Stockdale.  The drum fills are great and that groove keeps the song driving forward.  I hope this is a sign of things to come.

#19 – “All Animal” by Through Fire off the album ‘All Animal’:

I like it loud and I like it heavy at times and this does both.  Pounding drums, blistering guitars and vocals that can scream it out or sing with such great melodies.  A modern rock sound that rips it from the opening notes until the very end.  Perfect for driving down the road at 100mph as it wakes up the beast in you!!

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Top Rock Albums 2019

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2019 was another year with some great releases and way too many to get through them all so I am sure I missed a number of great albums and if you look around the web, there will be tons of Top Album lists you can get a pretty good idea of what you should check out in case you missed any of these.

This list will be my favorite “Rock” albums of the year.  All other types of music will be for a later post.  I am going to leave this one to my favorite genre.  It is a broad genre, but these are the albums that I consider to be ROCK!!

Also note, these are MY FAVORITES!!  These are not the most popular or trendy albums.  You won’t find the new Tool album here because I don’t like them and I never had any desire to hear it.  So, they won’t even be rates as worst album because I didn’t listen to it. These are the albums that I connected with during the year and I kept coming back to again and again.  And without further adieu, here are the Top Rock Albums of 2019:

#10 – Michael Sweet – Ten

81esW6bXErL._SL1500_ Michael Sweet’s 10th solo studio album brings us a very Stryper sounding album, but one that takes us back to the early days of Yellow & Back Attack and To Hell With the Devil which in my opinion is a very good thing.  He brings a special guest on each song which you would think would make the album a little disjointed, but it works on so many levels.  The album rocks out from beginning to end!

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The Darkness – ‘Easter is Cancelled’ – Album Review

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The Darkness return with ‘Easter is Cancelled’.  It is their 6th overall album and third in just 4 years.  I haven’t had much interest in the band since their debut ‘Permission to Land’ in 2003 and its follow-up ‘One Way Ticket to Hell…And Back’ in 2005.  Yes, I listened their releases after that, but nothing has grabbed my attention as their first two releases. Well, that was until now.

The album harkens back to the early days of the band I enjoyed so much.  The ingredients of which are a dash of the flamboyance of Glam Rock sprinkled with hints of 80’s Hair Bands and a splash of heavy metal all mixed together with a sense of humor that is purely tongue fully implanted in cheek.

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The band opens with what I think is a contender for song of the year, “Rock And Roll Deserves to Die”  It has a grand epic feel to it and Justin Hawkins delivers a commanding vocal performance.  The falsettos he hits are high enough to shatter glasses and windows all over the world.  It is both grandiose and bombastic as well as calm and serene.  A journey worth taking.

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Friday New Releases – October 4th

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Welcome to October and the first Friday of new releases for the month.  And what a month this will be. I already have something on order for every Friday of the month so it will be my favorite day of the week.  Who are we kidding, it already is my favorite day.  Now even more so.  There are only 2 releases I really care about this week and they are highlighted in Blue. Let me know what has your interest peaked this week or if I missed anything.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!!

  • 81Ygt6wO5yL._SX522_  The Darkness – Easter is Cancelled – (Canary Dwarf LTD):  The Darkness returns with their sixth studio album and if you love that whole retro glam rock feel, then this will be right up your alley.  No one does Glam today like these guys do.  From the ear-piercing falsettos to the screeching guitars, it is all a blast and this should be no different.  Check them out.

  • 9145LZlryQL._SX522_.jpg  Whitesnake – Slip of the Tongue (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) – (Rhino Records):  Whitesnake brings us yet another box set celebrating one of their big albums.  This is the 3rd and the 30th Anniversary Edition of ‘Slip of the Tongue’.  The other two were ‘Slide it In’ and ‘1987’ and the were fantastic.  Full of live songs, rare songs and remixes and remasters and everything you could want and this one is no different.  This is on order but it will NOT be home when I get there as for some reason Amazon isn’t giving me release day delivery.  I’m a little pissed, but I guess I will get over it.  Check out David’s unboxing video below…

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Friday New Releases – June 15th

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Are things heating up for you?  Well, the new releases are heating up!  Okay, maybe they are lukewarm; however, there are a few worth checking out and mine will be in Blue.  Let me what you are looking forward to hearing.  There are live albums, Blues, Pop, Rock and electronica…something for everyone. If you like 90’s artists, there a several back this week that might be worth at least a stream or two.  Have a great weekend!!

  • 61PHqjoSN2L._AC_US436_QL65_  The Darkness – Live at Hammersmith – (Canary Dwarf Ltd):  The 80’s Hair Metal throwback band are back with a live album and wasn’t that what we were waiting to hear! This might be first up on the stereo today for me.  These guys would have been huge in the 80’s!!  Turn it up because I Believe In a Thing Called “Live”…see what I did there!!  Here is the original video as I didn’t see a live one for this release.

  • 51jjidBu5YL._SS500  Mike Shinoda – Post Traumatic – (Warner Bros):  The co-lead singer of Linkin Park is set for his first solo release and his first music since Chester Bennington’s passing.  As a fan of Linkin Park this is a no-brainer.  I am really interested to see where he takes it and how he responds to Chester’s death.  It should be a great release.

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