This is a big week for me. Two of my favorite artists are releasing 40th Anniversary Editions of their biggest albums. First, Def Leppard and ‘Pyromania’ and Billy Idol with ‘Rebel Yell’. Yes, I ordered both and they are on their way. Can’t wait to dive in to this and here the previously unreleased material. If those don’t shake your tree, there are ton more new releases this week that are actually new releases. Let us know what you want to hear or what we may have missed. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
It is the after Thanksgiving in the States and it is known as Black Friday. Because of that, there are not many new releases unless you are being released on Record Store Day – Black Friday…that list is at the bottom of the regular album releases. And for the regular releases there is nothing for me, but for Black Friday Record Store Day I would like the Collective Soul and my daughter wants the Olivia Rodrigo one. I also wouldn’t mind getting the Limp Bizkit one on CD but don’t tell anyone. Let me know what you want to pick up this week or what we may have missed. Thanks and have a great weekend.
By 1990, Jeff Scott Soto was basically a journeyman as a singer. He would take any job as long as he could sing. He went from Panther, to Yngwie, to Kuni, to Kryst the Conqueror and now we have the band Eyes. Jeff wasn’t the original lead singer, that belonged to James Christian who left the band to go join this little band named House of Lords…probably a smart move on his part as House of Lords did way better than Eyes. Which is a shame because this album is a lost classic of the late 80’s Hard Rock sound. Think Bon Jovi, Danger Danger, Firehouse and any other band from that time period.
The biggest problem this album had was only timing and the fact there were 100’s of bands out there that were all the same. These guys had the sound as they had the rock anthems, they had the ballads and oh my god…they had the hair!! They weren’t on a major label which probably got them lost in the shuffle. They were on Curb Records which back in those days was not a rock label. Without the major label push, they fell to the wayside and were overlooked by most…heck, I didn’t discover them until sometime after the 2000’s began.
The band consisted of Jeff Scott Soto on vocals, Steven Dougherty on guitar, Aldy Damian on drums and Jimmy O’Shea on bass. From what I can find, it looks like Jimmy only played bass on two of the songs as the rest were played by a name I told you to remember from an earlier review…Marcel Jacobs. Marcel didn’t join the band as he was busy with another band at the time which we will discuss very soon. The album came out some time in 1990 as a specific date can’t be found on the web anywhere for its actually release. And as I said, it didn’t go anywhere but as you are about to find out, it still kick some major ass!!
Things are heating up as we are now in the middle of Summer and if you think it is hot outside, just look at the heat on this list of new releases. There are 44 albums set and ready to go so there is something for you I am sure. We have metal, rock, pop, folk, country, world, r&b, alternative, indie and probably genres I’ve never heard of until now. There are 2 I am interested in hearing, but not so much buying just yet. They are marked in Blue as usual. Let me know what you want to hear or what I may have missed as I am sure there is still something out there I don’t know about. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all stay cool and have a wonderful weekend.
John Mayer – Sob Rock – (Columbia Records / Sony): The new Mayer album intrigues me especially with an album cover that celebrates an old Richard Gere movie. I heard that this might be where Mayer turns into Clapton with his sound or maybe even yacht rock, but I will have to wait and hear it.
Ida Mae – Click Click Domino – (Vow Road / Thirty Tigers): Ida Mae is a British band that plays American roots music. When I saw them open for Needtobreathe, I was hooked by their sound. The husband and wife duo are great together. I can’t wait to hear the new one and see what new they have to offer.
For My Sunday Song #100, we are ending the Power Ballad set with a true classic, Whitesnake’s “Is This Love” off the 1987 album simply known as ‘Whitesnake’ or ‘1987’. The song reached all the way to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped propel Whitesnake into the stratosphere of rock stardom.
This midtempo power ballad was written by David Coverdale and the great guitarist John Sykes. They wrote it during the writing sessions for the album in one of the worst places you could possible be, the south of France (read as sarcasm). They recorded in David’s villa called Le Rayol. It must have been rough.
The song was actually going to be used for Tina Turner until Geffen heard the song and quickly put the brakes on that. Although David thinks Tina would still have been great for the song and you know I think he is right.
Def Leppard – Pyromania 40th Anniversary Box Set – (Mercury Records)
Billy Idol – Rebel Yell (40th Anniversary Expanded Edition) – (Universal Music)
 Pet Shop Boys – Nonetheless – (Parlophone Records / x2 Recordings Ltd)
Take That – This Life – (EMI / Universal Music)
Busta Rhymes – BlockBusta – (Conglomerate Ent. / Epic Records)
2 Loud 2 Old Music 