Ace Frehley – ‘Now Playing’ (2025) – Album Review

Ace Frehley has a number of greatest hits album. Do we really need another one? The short answer is No! The long answer is we do need a solid greatest hits album that is a career retrospective of his entire catalog. I would like that very much. In 2025, we get new Ace Frehley comp from Rhino Records and Atlantic and I can tell you with 100% certainty…this is not a career retrospective and is total waste of time and money. “Now Playing” is a generic compilation that is a series and many artist have had one of these comps such as Ratt and Twisted Sister. It is a cheap, low budget comp and it only covers his first 3 solo albums outside of Kiss. Two with Frehley’s Comet and then his solo album ‘Trouble Walkin”. And that is it.

It is only a vinyl issue and was released on March 7, 2025. It is on a very pretty cobalt blue vinyl and that is the only thing it has going for it. Really, that is it. There are no special mixes, live mixes or unreleased tracks. It is simply 4 songs from “Frehley’s Comet”, 3 from “Second Sighting” and 3 from “Trouble Walkin'”. Woohoo…so exciting…NOT!!! The picture on the cover is one we’ve seen a million times, there is no insert, there is nothing special about it at ALL!! Thank goodness it only cost $19. So, why did I buy it? I have every Ace release available on vinyl so I need it to complete the collection ( I do not have every variant as my house isn’t big enough to hold all of them…I believe there were at least 30 from his last album alone). Enough negativity…let’s talk music. What is on it?

SIDE ONE:

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The Collection: Ep. 50 – March 2025 Wrap-Up

As we end another month, it is time to go back and see what 2 Loud 2 Old Music added to the collection. This is March 2025 and we have lots of vinyl, CDs and even some 8-Tracks. So much to go through including a new Rock Candy collection, new items for the Kiss collection and a couple Box Set collections. Lots of great albums to go though and show for this month so I hope you enjoy the show!!

So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, March 31, 2025 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

Farm – ‘Farm’ (1971/2022) – Album Review

One of the more popular Noble Record Exclusives they’ve released, ‘Farm’ by the band Farm, has been re-issued 4 times by Noble and all with a different color vinyl. My copy is the Gold Edition and was limited to around 300 copies. I am not someone who will buy different color variants so this is the only one of the four re-issues I have. If for some reason I have a bunch of money laying around wanting to be spent, I’ll get the other colors, but don’t hold your breath. Don’t get me wrong, the album is great, just don’t need four copies of the same album unless you give me a different song or an entirely different cover. But enough of that stuff, let us talk about Farm.

Farm is a band out of southern Illinois that recorded one album way back in 1971. Southern Illinois in 1971 was not exactly a mecca of famous bands, heck, I don’t think they have ever been. As a result, this band went mostly unheard of from the average music fan. However, the cult level fans knew about them and loved them and is the reason why there have been a ton of re-issues of this album. If you have around $2,000, you can pick up an original vinyl…but no point since these are way cheaper.

If you like dual guitar bands, then this band is for you. The band consists of Del Herbert on one guitar and Gary Gordon on the other. They are joined by Jim Elwyn on bass, Steve Evanchik on percussion, Roger Greenwalt on organ and Mike Young on drums. Together, they make up Farm and they are a southern rock, bluesy boogie band with elements of progressive rock thrown in for good measure. If you like Quicksilver and The Allman Brothers, these guys will be right up your alley. A short album with only 5 songs, but those songs leave quite the impression.

SIDE A:

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Bon Jovi – ‘Slippery When Wet: Liquid Vinyl (40th Anniversary Edition)’ (2025) – Album Review (The Bon Jovi Collection Series)

For the band’s 40th Anniversary of the album that made the band rock stars, they decided to release a Liquid Version of the album on vinyl. With a title like ‘Slippery When Wet’ and filling it up with a bluish liquid that resembles water, it is pretty cool!! The liquid will slosh around as you move the vinyl around so it never seems to be in the same place twice. The vinyl itself is really thick to accommodate the liquid and it actually does play, however, I’ve never dropped a needle on it and don’t know if I will. I did spin around on the turntable and the liquid doesn’t actually move much when playing.

My only concern with it is what happens if it leaks? I will be storing it in a plastic vinyl storage sleeve just in case so the liquid doesn’t damage anything else. However, I think the liquid will eventually evaporate, but hopefully years and years later and long after I’m gone. Bon Jovi’s first run of these albums were number and I believe there were 1,300. Mine is #0538. Those sold out extremely quickly and are now selling on discogs for $500 and up. I wonder how long that price will hold because Bon Jovi has reissued it again in a non-number version so people can now get one again for the original $99. I have no intention of selling. Don’t get me wrong, if I would’ve known I could sell it for $500, I would’ve sold it and then been able to buy it again for $99…hell yeah…no brainer. Too many for sale now to think I would even get that price.

ORIGINAL ALBUM REVIEW:

Bon Jovi had two moderately successful albums under their belt. However, they weren’t happy with the fact they weren’t superstars yet. So, changes had to be made. Not in the band line-up as it was still Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Tico Torres, David Bryan and Alec John Such. Nope. They needed to change their approach. One of the first things they chose to do was bring someone in to help with the songs. That person was Desmond Child. Desmond didn’t try to change who the band was with the songs, but he helped refine them, make them better. Jon and Richie wrote well together, but with Desmond’s help, the songs became stories that connected with people, but first they had to record them.

To do that, they changed even more stuff. Jon was listening to Black & Blue’s album ‘Without Love’ and he loved the production of it. So, he reached out to Bruce Fairbairn and he was hired as producer..with some other cat named Bob Rock as the engineer. The band moved to Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver, Canada and the record was started. The album was finished and released on August 18, 1986 and would become a 12,000,000 selling album making it Diamond. It would spark 4 Top 40 singles of which 2 went to #1 and would see the band tour massively. They would start out the tour as an opening act, but by the end they were the headliners. The band got what they wanted and they were now Superstars!

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The Collection: Ep. 49 – Airbourne on Vinyl

This week on The Collection, we are talking the Australian band Airbourne. Founded in 2001, however, their first album didn’t come out until 2007. Brothers Joel O’Keeffe and Ryan O’Keeffe along with David Roads and Justin Street bring their musical influences of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motorhead, Def Leppard and of course being from Australia…AC/DC and create some killer rock music.  The AC/DC influence is the biggest as they are now doing what they did in the late 70’s and early 80’s.  They are delivering some dirty, gritty, sleazy, no holds barred, uncompromising rock & roll.

So go check it out as it is live tonight right now, March 10, 2025 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

Robbie Williams – ‘Life Thru A Lens” (25th Anniversary 7×7″ Box Set Edition)

After a very tumultuous time in the boy band Take That, Robbie left the group, recorded an album and went in to rehab. Robbie’s drug problem and ego problem was too much for Take That. He was tired of his creative input being ignored and was ready to branch out on his own. And branch out he did. His first album, ‘Life Thru a Lens’ was released on September 29, 1997 and though it started off slow, it would go on to great heights hitting #1 on the UK charts and selling over 3 million copies in Europe.

Now, we peasants here in the States, knew nothing about Robbie and sadly that would continue throughout most of his career. He had some moderate success with a few songs, but for the most part, the U.S. missed out on a hugely talented guy. I’m glad to say, I didn’t miss out. I discovered him a few years later with the songs “Millennium” and “Rock DJ” and I was hooked. But we aren’t here to talk about the albums those songs were on. Nope. We are here to talk about the 25th Anniversary Edition of his debut album, ‘Life Thru a Lens’ and what a box set he put together. This box set I bought when Udiscovermusic.com had a 50% off sale and I couldn’t pass it up.

What we get with this Box Set are not one, but 7 different 7″ singles. There are so many great songs on here. While Take That was pretty much ballads, Robbie was all Britpop! And he does it pretty fucking well. Not only do you have the five great singles of “Old Before I Die” (written with Desmond Child and The Hooter’s own Eric Bazillian), “Lazy Days”, “South of the Border”, the beautiful ballad”Angels” as well as the Queen-esque “Let Me Entertain You”. All fantastic songs, but the best song on here wasn’t even a single which is the angry, funtastic song “Ego A Go Go”. The box set even has the hidden track “Hello Sir” which is Robbie reciting a poem telling off an old teacher who told him he wouldn’t amount to anything…boy was he wrong. You get the whole album over the singles plus 2 bonus tracks all in the order of the album. Some day I’ll do a proper review of it, but for now, these are the Seven Singles.

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Needtobreathe – ‘Best of the Insiders: 4th Edition’ (2025)

For the 2022 Insiders Club, Needtobreathe changed things up. They were no longer going to release a physical product and only do the Digital Songs only. I stopped being a member right then and there as I want a physical product. Well, I think the backlash was swift and loud as a few months in to the year, that all changed. They decided that there will be a new tier level in the Insiders Club, more expensive of course, but a physical product would be given. This time around instead of only a CD, you will get an autographed vinyl copy as well. They still have the digital songs, which are different then the ones on the vinyl. The new CD and Vinyl are now a Best of The Insiders giving us the 9-10 songs from the 8 years of The Insiders CD series they had started 8 years earlier. The 1st Edition came in March 2023 almost a year after the announcement, but the band was smart as they went ahead and worked on the 2023 Edition at the same time they were working on the 2022 Edition. We received this vinyl in April 2023. Then in February 2024, we got the 3rd Edition and a year later in February 2025, we get the 4th Edition. And I have them all…

This time around, we get 9 songs but you have to remember they are trying to fit them on easily on a vinyl with only a set amount of time, so I’m okay with only 9 songs. We did get the CD again which is unsigned but that gives me all four of those as well…

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Def Leppard – “Just Like ’73” – 7″ Single (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

Back in June 2024, Def Leppard released a new single called “Just Like ’73” and it was in support of any album. In fact, not sure if this will be on a new album or if this was simply a new song to support their Summer Stadium Tour. Whatever the reason, I’ll always take a new single. This one came out on the Streaming services, but physically you could get it on 7″ Single or on a CD Single that I believe was only available in Japan. The vinyl was released on August 2, 2024

The 7″ Single came in two colors. You got your standard black vinyl or a bright sky blue color. And if you can’t decide which one, do like me and buy both. I still need the CD single though as it didn’t come out the same time as the vinyl, I don’t believe or I would’ve bought it.

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The Collection: Ep. 46 – Matt Nathanson on Vinyl & CDs

This week on the collection, we go through my entire Matt Nathanson collection which includes all the Vinyl and all the CD’s. We go from his debut in 1993 called ‘Please’ all the way up to this 2025 release called ‘King of (Un)Simple’. We get all the studio albums, the live albums, the E.P.’s and even all the CD Promotional Singles. Matt is one of my favorite singer/songwriters out there so come see all the greatness that is Matt Nathanson.

So come check out the show as it will be live, February 24, 2025 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.

Def Leppard – ‘One Night Only: Live at the Leadmill (RSD – 2024) – Album Review

At one time in their career, Def Leppard made a statement that a band only releases a live album when they have run out of ideas. I’m not sure the actual count, but we are on maybe the fifth or sixth live album they’ve released now. And based on ‘Drastic Symphonies, I would say they are out of new ideas. With that aside, I’m still a massive fan and buy everything. In fact, back in April 2024 for Record Store Day, I got in line to get the very limited vinyl release of ‘One Night Only: Live at the Leadmill’ which was a Record Store Day First (not exlcusive) release and limited to only 6,000 copies. And I was able to grab one.

That is what we are reviewing today. It came in a beautiful gatefold with a great live shot of the band at the club and is on 2LP’s of a cool silver cover that coincides with the album cover. The LPs are housed in a thick cardboard like sleeve with some great pictures of the band members taken at the show. They later released it on October 11, 2024 in CD format that either had a DVD or a Blu-Ray included. And, I have the CD/Blu Ray combo as well as I like to have at every format (I know I didn’t get the DVD but the Blu Ray is better visually so that is all I need).

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