Trollheart

Random Track of the Day
Tuesday, August 2 2011

So what have the gods of chance rolled for us today? Nightwish, it would seem. Well, I've heard a few of their songs, but not that many. What I have heard I've liked, and this is from a live album, and although my music library and the album art has it as from “Over the hills and far away”, checks show that this track was not on that album. I have a feeling it may be from the live “From wishes to eternity”, but at any rate, it's the live version of “Kinslayer”, which appears on their 2000 release, “Wishmaster”.

Kinslayer --- Nightwish --- Originally from Wishmaster on Drakkar



The song was written about the Columbine school massacres, and features dialogue between the two shooters in the middle. It's a keyboard-heavy intro, with angry guitars and Tarja Turunen at her operatic best on vocals. As might be expected, it's a very intense, angry song, eerie keyboard passages perhaps mimicking the two killers stalking through the corridors of the school in their search for victims. A very unsettling track, when you know what it's about, but very powerful and effective.

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jackhammer

A great review and despite the horrible Take My Breath Away track it is a really great Pop Rock album.

I originally bought it on cassette for one reason. It IS David Gilmour on the track Pink and Velvet and not a poor imitation from Ric. As I am a Gilmour fanboy I will give anything a listen he is on.

Also Europe were from Sweden so their name is apt and Asia were a British band too!

Heartstrings and When Love Goes To War are my favourite tracks. Pink and Velvet is also damn good.

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Trollheart

Thx for the comments Jack, and am I surprised to find that WAS Gilmour on that track! Guess I should check my album liner notes more, but I only have this one on vinyl, and as I haven't fed the three-headed dog that guards my album collection on vinyl, I didn't want to take the chance and go rooting for it! Thanks for clearing that up though.

As for Europe, well yeah, they were from Sweden but [pedant] Sweden isn't part of the European Union (it's part of Scandinavia)[/pedant] so I'll stand by that one. As for Asia, what did I say they were? American? Oops! But they still weren't Asian!

Glad you enjoyed the review: keep the comments comin'!

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Flirtin' with disaster --- Molly Hatchet --- 1979 (Epic)


(Ahem. Excuse me just one moment...) YEEEE-HAAWWWW!
Sorry, just had to get that out of my system.
I LOVE southern rock! You can't get much more honest than the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, 38 Special, Blackfoot and of course these guys, Molly Hatchet. “Flirtin' with disaster” is their second album, released in 1979, and it's chock-full of hard-drinkin', poundin', smokin', down-home heads-down rock and roll! Yeah! Just looking at the lineup tells its own tale: vocals, guitar, guitar, guitar, bass, drums. No synthesisters or drum machines here! There are some keyboards, but then, where would southern rock be without a pianner?

Things get going with “Whiskey man”, and right away you know you're in Jack Daniels country. Grinding, growling guitars, thumping drums, and the raw, whiskey-honed vocals of Danny Joe Brown --- this is what it's all about! Next up is a seriously kicked-in-the-head cover of the Stones' “It's all over now”, which makes Jagger sound like a boy soprano; great honky-tonk piano from Jai Winding really gets this song rockin', and you feel it could have gone on for a lot longer than the just over three and a half minutes it lasts for, but then we're into a serious bassline and slide guitar for “One man's pleasure”, triple guitar attack making this one monster of a song.

There is, as I said, one word which describes southern rock, and that is honest, but there's another too, and it's fun. You can't help tapping your feet and even shaking your head while listening to any of these tracks, and it's clear the band too are having a good time. Guitarists Dave Hlubeck, Steve Holland and Duane Rhodes take it in turns to shine, creating a veritable wall of guitar sound that somehow never drowns out the songs, or indeed the singer, although with a voice like Danny Joe has, it'd take a 747 to drown him out!

I first heard “Boogie no more” on one of those rock compilation albums --- think it was called “Killer Watts” --- and I loved it right away. It's pure southern rock from its screaming guitar opening to the growly bass vocals, right to the inevitable guitar boogie ending. It's a great song, starting slow but quickly picking up tempo as the band really get into the groove. A real vehicle for the axemen – it's hard to know who's playing, with three guitarists, but they all put in a great shift. It's six minutes of pure southern rock power, and great fun: YOU try sitting still while listening to it! My feet are dancin' even as I'm typing this!

The title track, the next longest at just barely under five minutes, is another solid rocker, verging into heavy metal territory, with great guitar licks and stomping drumming by Bruce Crump. There are places, admittedly, where the triple guitar attack is a little overkill, and some piano would have been welcome, maybe even some fiddles, but Molly Hatchet found a style that worked for them, and they stuck to it, and I can't really fault them for it. The only thing I would say is that there is very little variety in the tracks --- not so much that one blends into the other, but “Flirtin'” is remarkably similar to the melody of “Boogie”, and so on. But then, southern rock ain't about innovation, clever lyrics or intricate passages of play. It is what it is, like it or not, and no bad thing say I.

“Good rockin'” has a certain ZZ-vibe about it, while “Gunsmoke” recalls Bob Seger at his best, with some really cool piano there. There's a real lookback to their country roots for penultimate track “Long time” before the album closes appropriately with “Let the good times roll”, a real heads-down boogie with what sounds like fiddles but I think is just clever guitar at the beginning, and an almost Beach Boys sort of melody, but suitably rockin', of course!

If your only experience of southern rock is “Free bird” or “Sweet home Alabama”, you need to check out Molly Hatchet. This is only one of thirteen albums they've released to date, so grab your shotgun, jump on your hog and head off down south, where the welcome is warm and the rockin' is hard!

TRACKLISTING

1. Whiskey man
2. It's all over now
3. One man's pleasure
4. Jukin' City
5. Boogie no more
6. Flirtin' with disaster
7. Good rockin'
8. Gunsmoke
9. Long t ime
10. Let the good times roll



Suggested further listening: “Molly Hatchet”, “Beatin' the odds”, “Take no prisoners”, “No guts... no glory”, “Lightning strikes twice”

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Back to Bedlam --- James Blunt --- 2004 (Atlantic)


Okay, let's get one thing out of the way right from the start. When most people hear the words “James Blunt” they usually respond with a curse and a (sometimes lengthy) diatribe about “THAT eff-star-star-kay-ing song!”, and I will agree, the airplay “You're beautiful” got was overkill. But then, that's not the fault of the artist. Britney Spears' “Toxic” was played, at least on my radio, as much as if not more than Blunt's single, and no-one complained about it, even though “Toxic” is a vastly inferior (imo) song.

But to dismiss “Back to Bedlam” on the basis of one bad experience, and to allow that one overplayed single to colour your entire view of the man and his work would be, without going over the top, tragic, because this is one hell of an album. With songwriting of the same calibre as the greats in this arena --- the Dylans, the Bowies, the Springsteens --- and great musicianship throughout, it's a real gem of an album that, while not flawless, has an awful lot to recommend it. But then, if you've made your mind up that you hate him, you're not going to read this review, are you? Are you? Go on, give him a chance. What have you to lose?

Kicking off with the lovely “High”, you're immediately struck by Blunt's distinctive voice, that if you give a chance can get right into your soul, believe me. It's a great little semi-ballad, a celebration of the good things in life, with nice little touches like electric piano and marimba. It's one of several ballads on the album, most of which is, after a fashion, fairly laid-back.

Then we come to the elephant in the room. Not much to say about this song that hasn't already been said (or cursed), but I personally don't think it's that great a song. The lyric is very weak, where Blunt declares ”I've got a plan” but we never hear what it is. It's a very confused and confusing song, though the melody is really nice. However, as we all know, jackhammer repeated airplay to death has ruined it for all but the very hardest-core Blunt fans. And I never liked it in the first place. Much better to skim over it and land on the weird and obscure “Wisemen”, with its classical guitar opening, and its totally uninterpretable lyric, but a great melody. Very catchy, as are many of the songs on this album, with some really nice Rhodes piano and organ adding real atmosphere to the song. In fact, apart from singing and playing guitar, Blunt plays a total of nine other instruments on the album, ranging from organ to mellotron to marimba, proving that not only is he a great singer and songwriter, but a multi-talented musician.

“Goodbye my lover” is perhaps one of the most tender ballads on the album, with its simple piano melody and its message of farewell to a loved one. I can't make up my mind whether his lover is dying, whether he is, or whether it's just a relationship breaking up, but either way it's a touching song, with some great lyrics: ”I know you well/ I know your smell/ I've been addicted to you.” There's some really nice string arrangement near the end too

But one of the standout tracks is “Tears and rain”, another acoustic ballad on piano and guitar, Blunt's soulful voice carrying the song into realms of otherworldly beauty. Another great string section here fills out the track nicely, with some feedback guitar which seems incongruous but somehow works. “Out of my mind” is easily the heaviest track on the album, slow but with a lot of power, with some nice touches on the organ, but I could do without “So long Jimmy”, a faster track that just doesn't do it for me. I remain convinced that James Blunt is at his best when tackling ballads and slower numbers, and this just comes across as filler to me, with its semi-reggae rhythm and its lyric of loss, which somehow personally fails to move me. Even the Doors-like electric piano solo leaves me cold.

“Billy” falls into the same category, but then we get “Cry”, another soulful ballad, touching and sentimental, a song of people at their lowest ebb when they need someone else to just put their arms around them and comfort them. There's a real sense of Blunt drawing on his own personal experience for this song, which makes it all the more sincere and effective. ”I have seen birth/ I have seen death/ Lived to see a lover's final breath”.

The best has been saved for last though. There are few words to describe the power and emotion of the closer, “No bravery”, a searing indictment of war, played against a piano melody as Blunt sings ”Old men kneeling/ To accept their fate/ Wives and daughers/ Caught and raped/ A generation drenched in hate...” The glamour and glory associated with serving in the armed forces is dissected as he remarks ”I see no bravery/ In your eyes anymore/ Only sadness.” Blunt has firsthand experience of such feelings and events, as he served in Kosovo before taking up a career in music. The drums come in halfway through, punctuating the song and lending it an extra dimension, with organ moaning in counterpoint, joined by electric guitar which seems to wail the despair of a torn and broken people, be they the citizens of Basra, the villagers in Kandahar, or any of a thousand more groups of civilians caught up in a war they neither understand nor want.

It's a powerful, epic and sobering finale to an album which really deserves to be heard. To think, if fate had been unkind, James Blunt could have died in action overseas, and we would never have heard his wonderful music. As it is, I think we have one of the songwriters of a new generation on our hands. Give “Back to Bedlam” a chance: as George Michael said, listen without prejudice, and you may just be surprised by what you find.

TRACKLISTING

1. High
2. You're beautiful
3. Wisemen
4. Goodbye my lover
5. Tears and rain
6. Out of my mind
7. So long, Jimmy
8. Billy
9. Cry
10. No bravery

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Random Track of the Day
Wednesday, August 3 2011

Just to show how hit-and-miss this random selection can be, here we have a very obscure track from an even more obscure album (so obscure it appears now to be deleted!) from a relatively obscure-to-most artist. Gandalf is the name taken by Austrian composer and musician Heinz Strobl, who has released over the course of almost three decades a total of over thirty albums, all of which are instrumental and of the “new-age” bent, like Michael Nyman or Eddie Hardin. I guess you could call him the Austrian Vangelis, though Gandalf tends to go for less electronic and more organic music, and takes his inspiration from nature and the world around him.

Admittedly, his music can be hard (read, boring) to listen to for a full album, but some of it is really quite lovely. The Random Track of the Day today comes from an album he recorded called “Labyrinth”, and though it says it's a soundtrack from the film, I must assume it's not the Labyrinth --- you remember the one, with David Bowie and the goblins? --- as that movie was out in 1986, already has a soundtrack (courtesy of the Thin White Duke), and this one was released in 1990, four years later.

Anyway, whatever film it refers to, this is Gandalf and a track called “Facing the demons”. Have a listen, see what you think.
Facing the demons --- Gandalf --- from the “Labyrinth” film soundtrack on Seagull

(Not surprisingly, I couldn't find a video for this on YT, so I had to throw something together myself and upload it. Don't expect much...)
First of all, don't ramp up your volume, thinking there's nothing there, as the track fades in very slowly and quietly and takes a little time to get going. If you're really impatient, you can start hearing clear music at about the 1:20 point.

Yeah, it sort of sounds like someone tightening a ratchet in the background, doesn't it? Nice keyboard work as ever though, gentle and dreamy, as most of Gandalf's work is. Some proper keyboards coming in on the 3:18 mark, as the track gets a little more distinct, then what sounds like guitar and strings. Kind of gets going just a little then fades out again.

Well, that's Gandalf for you: an acquired taste, certainly. A track like that one though is probably hardly likely to whet your appetite for more, but hey, that's where the chips fall. I don't pick 'em, I only post 'em.

Hopefully something a bit more mainstream or interesting tomorrow...

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The seeds of love --- Tears For Fears --- 1989 (Fontana)


I was never a huge TFF fan: in the early eighties I found their particular brand of electronic pop/new-wave music soulless, empty and cold. Age changes opinion, and although I would still not class myself as a follower of theirs, I can now listen to “Tears roll down”, the greatest hits package, and like most if not all of the tracks on it. This album, however, marked a pretty fundamental shift away from synth-pop for the band, and they began to experiment with jazz, blues and outright rock. “The seeds of love” was still poppy enough though to be accessible by their legion of fans, who had grown up on the likes of “Pale shelter” and “Mad world”, and while it did not yield such hugely successful singles as the previous “Songs from the big chair”, it still went to number one and was highly acclaimed by critics.

There are only eight tracks on this album, but most of them are quite long, few under six minutes and one is over eight. It kicks off with “Woman in chains”, a slow, stately affair decrying the lack of equality between men and women in today's society: I”It's a world gone crazy/ Keeps women in chains.” Curt Smith and Roland Orzabel --- who ARE Tears For Fears --- are joined on this opener by Oleta Adams, who would go on to have a very successful recording career herself. The song is carried on jangling guitar and synth, with powerful drums provided by none other than Phil Collins. Halfway through the electric guitar kicks in in no uncertain fashion and the song gets a little heavier.

On lead vocals, Roland Orzabal is on top form, and this is nowhere more in evidence than in the next track, the longest at just over eight and a half minutes. “Badman's song” opens with jazzy, tricky piano with trumpet and takes on a somewhat gospel-like feel as it relates the confession of a man deemed a desperado and a “bad man”. The jazz influences are very prevalent here, especially in the piano and bass part about halfway through. The song changes though, going from reasonably fast to a slow blues vibe before picking up speed again to the end.

The title track is a nod back to the Beatles circa “Yellow Submarine”, with its multi-tracked vocals and psychedelic sound and somewhat nonsense lyrics, rolling drums and trumpets. The album sleeve reflects this too, in a pretty hippy-style drawing. Guitar takes something of a backseat here to brass and keyboards, but comes back into its own for “Advice for the young at heart”, perhaps the most commerical track on the album, and one of the four singles to be released from it. A faster, poppier track than those which had gone before, it's also one of the two shortest, at just over four and a half minutes long. In addition, it's the only one on the album on which Curt Smith takes lead vocals. It skips along on a nice piano and guitar melody, sort of mid-paced (haven't used that expression for a while now!), very catchy. Nice guitar solo too, the first to be heard on the album.

In contrast, “Standing on the corner of the third world” is much slower, almost ambient, with the instrumentation kept intentionally sparse until brass blasts in and the backing vocals lift the song, accompanied by shivering harmonica and ending on a jazzy, dissonant fade. “Swords and knives” maintains the slow pace, piano and organ the vehicle for the tune for the opening of the track, which then sparks into life halfway and becomes quite a rocky tune, guitar and keyboard and thumping drums fading out at the end, when it slows right down again.

The penultimate track, “Year of the knife”, is recorded as if live, but I doubt it is. It knocks things up a gear or two, getting quite frenetic in places, and is the second-longest on the album at just under seven minutes. Great backing vocals give the song real heart, with the drums pounding the beat away and driving the piece onwards. It's the last fast track, and fades directly into the powerful yet undestated closer, “Famous last words”, with its almost muttered vocal and beautiful string arrangement (probably thanks to that Fairlight controller Roland is using) and touching lyric: ”As the day meets the night/ We will sit by candlelight/ We will march, we will sing/ When the saints go marching in/ And we will carry war no more.” There's a powerful explosion of instruments in the middle, an impassioned vocal from Roland, and then it all fades away very quietly, finishing the album very nicely.

“The seeds of love” is another one of those often rare albums that I can listen to all the way through without skipping a track, or at least, without wanting to. Every track on it is gold, and as a cohesive whole it really is excellent. Even if you're not into TFF --- like me --- it's a damn good album, and worth a listen.

TRACKLISTING

1. Woman in chains
2. Badman's song
3. Sowing the seeds of love
4. Advice for the young at heart
5. Standing on the corner of the third world
6. Swords and knives
7. Year of the knife
8. Famous last words.

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Aphrodite –- Kylie Minogue --- 2010 (Parlophone)


Ah yeah, I'll admit it: I've always had a soft spot for Kylie, at least since she broke away from the Hit Factory. It takes great guts and indeed vision to tamper with a winning formula, but Kylie didn't want to be another manufactured commodity, basically a mouthpiece into which messrs. Stock, Aitken and Waterman fed their pop pap recycled garbage, and made money off her. So she struck off on her own, met Michael Hutchence, dabbled in recording with the Prince of Darkness, Nick Cave, and carved herself a whole new identity, or three.

I'll also admit that Kylie records are not numerous among my collection, I have “Light years” and “The Ultimate Kylie”, and that's all I need. But then I heard the lead single from this album, and I liked it so much I thought hell, why not? And I bought the album. So is it any good, or was I fooled by one excellent track into buying a disc full of rubbish? Well, let's see.
(Hey, believe me, it's worth just watching the video! )
As mentioned, “All the lovers” was the single that preceded the album, and it is DAMN good! It's pure pop/dance heaven, with great hooks and a bouncy beat. Kylie is on top form as ever, and though no-one is expecting to hear deep lyrical ideas or intricate instrumentation on this album, it's musically very rewarding, with not surprisingly keyboards and synth taking centre stage, among a battery of drum machines. As you might expect on a dance record, it's all pretty much programmed stuff, and there's a very electronic feel to the music. There are guitars, bass, banks of keyboards, but nothing really sounds individual, everything sort of sucked into the mass to produce the hybrid sound that seems to permeate most dance music --- one of the reasons why it does little for me.

And producers! This album must break some sort of record for the number of producers it credits. I count no less than seventeen, including Stuart Price (executive producer) and Calvin Harris. In fairness, the production of the album is pristine --- you would certainly hope so, with that many separate producers involved --- it's bouncy, clean and clear. But after the initial euphoria of “All the lovers” has worn off, things take a dive towards the mundane.

“Put your hands up” is essentially “Hand on your heart” updated for the 21st century, while “Closer”, despite an interesting line in synth and an almost Abba-like melody, doesn't step far enough from the formula to establish its own identity. “Everything is beautiful” however, raises the bar a little. A semi-ballad, penned by Fraser T. Smith and Keane's Tim Rice-Oxley, it's a nice break from the constant dance rhythm, though make no mistake about it, this is unashamedly a dance album. There are no attempts to rock out, or break into any other genres here. This is, basically, Kylie returning to what she does best, and excelling at doing so.

The title track comes in on bongo-like drumbeats and then gets going as another catchy dance track, with interesting vocals by Kylie, nice electric piano recalling the heyday of ABC at their best. I guess it's par for the course with a dance album --- of which genre I admit I have very little experience --- but the drum machines always sound very dry and soulless. It's a pity she didn't draft in the services of a human drummer for at least some of the tracks. I think this may be why so many sound the same, or at least similar.

“Illusion” is the first song which Kylie co-writes, but to be honest you wouldn't know, and you'd ask yourself why she bothered, when it sounds pretty much like the ones that have gone before. Nice ELO-style strings in the song though, and decent backing vocals. Also reminds me of China Crisis, for some reason...

It's probably my own fault for trying to review a dance album. No doubt a true Kylie fan, or someone better acquainted with pop/dance music would have a lot more to say about this album, but I find it hard to find anything really positive to say about it, apart from of course the opener. Everything sounds contrived, constructed and pre-programmed, and ultimately I find myself sort of listening and typing on auto-pilot as the album winds on towards its eventual conclusion. “Too much” is a faster, piano-driven song that has a little individuality about it, for about thirty seconds, then it falls back into the same old groove. I would normally stop the album now, bored out of my mind and quite disappointed, considering the high hopes I had had having listened to the opener, but this is a review and so I owe it to you, my readers, to finish it. So I'll listen on, but I don't expect too much. Sadly, there haven't been any ballads even, which might have helped rescue this album for me. Can't beat a good love song.

To be fair, for anyone into dance music this is going to be a blast, and there's no doubt it'll be a favourite on the dance floor and at parties, but it's not an album I would put on to actually listen to. One thing I really hate about drum machines is those bloody handclaps! Is there any drumloop that doesn't use them? And don't get me started on the overuse of vocoders! Anyway, “Cupid boy” is the longest track on the album, at just under four and a half minutes, and it's more of the same. The only good thing about it is that it denotes that the end of the album is coming up: only two more tracks to go! Can I last?

It's a real pity, as I do like Kylie, but I'd love to see her bring in some proper guitarist (Slash, anyone?) and try some rock. I think she could really handle it, and could be very good at it. However, she knows her market and she plays to them, and you certainly can't fault her for that. She has taken her share of chances in the past, so at this stage in her life --- and having survived a cancer scare into the bargain --- you can't blame her for playing it safe. Hey, it's all money in her bank account, and she'll certainly never be short of fans, or people to buy her albums. I just don't feel I'll be bothering in future. File under “took a chance, failed”.

Ah well, despite it all, I still love ya, Kylie!

TRACKLISTING

1. All the lovers
2. Get outta my way
3. Put your hands up (if you feel love)
4. Closer
5. Everything is beautiful
6. Aphrodite
7. Illusion
8. Better than today
9. Too much
10. Cupid boy
11. Looking for an angel
12. Can't beat the feeling

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Random Track of the Day
Thursday, August 4 2011

Another strange one today. Oh, how Lady Luck likes to toy with me! Yesterday we had a six-minute ambient instrumental by an obscure instrumentalist. Today we have a track that's not even two minutes long, but from an internationally-recognised and acclaimed band. “Bornlivedie” (spelt that way, I'm not having problems with my spacebar!) is the opening track to the fourth album by Porcupine Tree, “Signify”, released in 1996.

Now, I am still making up my mind about this band, but one thing is without question: they are more than just a progressive rock band. They're more an experience, in much the same way Floyd are. Their music varies so much from album to album --- and even from track to track --- that I find it hard to get a handle on them. Some of their stuff I really like, some I don't and some just confuses me.
This is one of the latter.

Bornlivedie --- Porcupine Tree --- from “Signify” on Delerium

(Again, this video was not exactly available on YT so I had to knock together another of my own. I know it's not great, nor appropriate to the song, but hey, I don't have a whole lot of video footage lying around, so used the best I had.)

More an intro than a piece of music, it starts off with a radio announcer leading in a programme, then there's some ambient and feedback synth, with swirly sounds and then more voices at the end. I assume (though I haven't yet heard this album) that it then goes into the next track, but taken on its own it's really quite weird. Just shows that what I said above is indeed true: Porcupine Tree can be great, but then on other occasions they are downright strange! Ah well, I'm sure that taken in context it probably makes more sense.

Here's hoping Friday will allow us to select at least a recognisable song...

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Liberation transmission --- LostProphets --- 2006 (Visible Noise)


DUE TO THE HORRIBLE, EVIL CRIMES OF LEAD SINGER IAN WATKINS, THIS REVIEW IS NOW DELETED. I WILL BE DUMPING MY CD AND ERASING LOSTPROPHETS' MUSIC FROM MY COMPUTER. THEY WILL NOT CONTAMINATE MY JOURNALS IN ANY FORM. MAY WATKINS DIE IN PRISON, AND ROT IN HELL!

(In case you don't know what I'm talking about...)
BBC News - Lostprophets' Ian Watkins sentenced to 35 years over child sex offences

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