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What ever happened to the Fine Young Cannibals, eh? Not so young anymore, probably nowhere near as fine... This is one of their big hits from back in 1985, it's “Johnny come home”.

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I know: if I start one more review with “I'm not really into [insert artiste name] but I bought this album” I'll probably be attacked on the street! Yet it's true: I'm not, and never have been, much of a fan of Tina Turner, and I couldn't tell you what possessed me to buy this album, but I was very glad I did in the end, as it's truly excellent. Given that it's her sixth album it's perhaps not that surprising, since Tina had had at this point over ten years to have perfected her sound. However, she only really came back into the limelight and to prominence as a solo artist in 1984, having left Ike in the mid-seventies and struck out on her own with very little success. “Private dancer” was the album that thrust her firmly back into the spotlight, and into the charts, and during the latter half of the eighties she was one of the hottest properties in music, and could do no wrong.

Break every rule --- Tina Turner --- 1986 (Capitol)


After the phenomenal success of the previous album, and the virtual rebirth of Tina Turner as a saleable commodity, this album was really seen as the “second album syndrome”, the one which would prove once and for all whether “Private dancer” was a fluke, an aberration, a fad, or whether Tina was really back to stay. Like expensive wine discovered in an old cellar and consumed with gusto, was this album going to be the hangover that would have everyone wondering what the hell they had been drinking, and with the clear light of day and the cold reality of sobriety, consign “Break every rule” to the trash-heap of music history?

The album proved more than a match for its millions-selling predecessor, and also showed that Tina could call in some big guns when required, with people like Bowie, Adams and Knopfler all contributing, whether playing on, writing or producing the album. It's a storming statement that the Queen was back. But it very definitely is, to borrow an old footballing cliché, a game of two halves. It opens, it has to be said, rather disappointingly with the stolid, flat “Typical male”, a sub-disco/dance number that was, unaccountably, the first single from the album, which makes me wonder even more why I bought the album, as I certainly don't rate this. There's nothing special about it; anyone could have written it and anyone could sing it, and yet her name was so big at this point that it went to number two. Well, I would say it is number two, but there you go...

Luckily enough it soon settles down, and “What you get is what you see” is far rockier fare, rather odd in a way, as it, and the next three, are all written by the same team that penned the godawful opener, Terry Britten and one half of Gallagher and Lyle, Graham Lyle. The guitar sound on this is classic Mark Knopfler, and though the album notes don't say so, he has to be playing geetar on this! It's just his sound, through and through, and he is on the album somewhere. It's a good boppy rocker, and soon banishes the memories of “Typical male”, with a sort of “Twisting by the pool”/”Walk of life” melody and rhythm, then we're into “Two people”, a ballad with more than a touch of “What's love got to do with it” from the previous album about it. Decent song though, with some very nice keyboards from either Billy Livsey or Nick Glennie-Smith, not sure which. The song also retains influences of Champaign's “How 'bout us”, and is light and breezy, not quite throwaway, but a bit of a letdown after the powerful track that preceded it. Not much in the way of guitar here, very synthy.

Things stay more or less light with the disco-like “Till the right man comes along”, and really up to this point I'm sure I was shaking my head and wondering what the hell I had been thinking, buying this pile of cr--- but wait. Once we get beyond the Britten/Lyle machine things start to get a whole lot better, I definitely remember that. The whole timbre, style and most importantly quality of the album changes. Which is not to say the guys can't write a good tune --- they did, after all, pen “What you get is what you see” --- but the majority of what they contribute here to what would have been basically the first side of the album is very weak and generic, and had it not been for Tina pulling in the writing power of people like Bryan Adams and Mark Knopfler, this album could have been a real turkey.

Their last contribution, thank god, is “Afterglow”, another dancy, bass-ridden throwaway, with a nice bit of funky guitar it has to be said, and a certain sense of Judie Tzuke circa “Ritmo” (whaddya mean, who? Philistine!) and then we're into the real songs. It's almost like two different albums in one. The powerful, dramatic, almost ominous “Girls”, penned by the Thin White Duke himself, shows what Tina can do when given proper material to work with. Haunting keyboard strains keep up a counterpoint behind her as the song picks up a little speed, and the intensity builds as she sings of basically how hard it is to be a woman, but without any cliché (would you expect less of Bowie?). The song powers up to a strong, passionate climax (sorry; well, it does!), with Phil Collins firmly ensconced on the drumseat, and all of a sudden you're in a totally different land, almost having to check the album cover to make sure you're still listening to the same one!

And it just gets better from there on. With the mark of Bowie's class firmly imprinted on it, what could have been a second-rate failure becomes a true winner, a donkey suddenly becomes a thoroughbred, an ugly duckling turns into... well, you get what I'm trying to say. The album improves, is basically the thing, so much so that it really is amazing. Bryan Adams' “Back where you started” delivers another well-needed kick up this album's backside and also sets fire to it for good measure. With opening organ chords then crashing guitar you know this album has finally arrived.

Okay, so in fairness, it sounds like a Bryan Adams song: you can hear him singing it in your head, and she almost imitates his scratchy croak, but man is it a powerful song! The sense of relief I remember washing over me, starting with “Girls” and continuing to the end of the album almost without pause, is again a fantastic feeling. To think I believed I had wasted my money! Just proves you need to stick in there right to the end, just to make sure. The man is on piano, guitar and backing vox, and his old mate Jim Vallance (who of course wrote the song with him) is on percussion, with Tommy Mandel going crazy on the keys, and it's a revitalisation of the album: we're well on our way!

The title track just keeps the new quality of this album going, with a great uptempo rocker featuring some superb keyboard work from Rupert Hine, who also helps out on producing and co-writes this song. It's just infectiously catchy, if that's not an oxymoron: this sort of hook could land a Great White shark, I kid you not! You try sitting still when you listen to it, and the production is totally faultless. Perfect backing vocals just add to the layers of quality on this track, and it's Mark Knopfler who steps in next to add his writing expertise to the album, and though in fairness “Overnight sensation” is something of the weakest of the “side 2” tracks --- basically a Dire Straits song --- it's still miles better than the bulk of side one.

But the album ends powerfully and strongly, on two perfect ballads. The first, penned by Irish star Paul Brady, “Paradise is here”, is a lovely mid-paced, almost uptempo ballad with some gorgeous sax from the great Branford Marsalis, and then the album finishes strongly and dramatically, on “I'll be thunder”, a real power ballad co-written again by Rupert Hine, with almost Steinmanesque phrasing, allowing Tina to really show off her powerful vocal chords, with strong, insightful piano, lovely guitar which is at once laidback and then fierce, and an emotive string section fleshing the song out to give it its full potential, and finishing the album with a dramatic flair and a real touch of class.

It's totally amazing, as I say, how different the two sides of this album are, and if I listened to it again, for purposes other than review, I'd elect more than likely to only listen to the second side, as the first is mostly just better forgotten. I got “Foreign affair” after this, and recall it not being a patch on “Break every rule”, so maybe I came in at just the right place, for me, within Tina Turner's discography. I doubt I'll listen to another of her albums again, but this was a hell of a surprise, and a very pleasant one, though I had to persevere to get to the good stuff.

Just shows you though: persistence pays off.

TRACKLISTING

1. Typical male
2. What you get is what you see
3. Two people
4. Till the right man comes along
5. Afterglow
6. Girls
7. Back where you started
8. Break every rule
9. Overnight sensation
10. Paradise is here
11. I'll be thunder

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The worm has always had something of a liking for this track from the Stranglers. It's “Always the sun”.

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Thanks. Yeah, BoP are one hell of a band! Pity they're not still around: they had some excellent stuff.
Yeah, well the thing about that is that the Styx track came as part of the "Random track of the day" slot. I have a huge collection and when something is picked out randomly it could very well be something I've never heard before. It's just luck of the draw. All I know of Styx is the two singles, "Babe" and "Mr. Roboto". I must make time to listen to some more of their material...
Yeah I love that album. Almost no bad tracks at all on it, and it really hits the spot. May do a proper review on it at some point in the future.
I wouldn't expect too much. It starts off well but generally is quite disappointing. That said, I haven't heard any of his other solo work, and his contribution to the later Yes stuff was indeed impressive.

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Terra incognita: a line in the sand --- Roswell Six --- 2010 (ProgRock)


A good while ago I reviewed Roswell Six's first album in this series --- well, their first album really, of which this is both second and, to date, last --- “Terra incognita: beyond the horizon”, explaining how the two make up a unique project which seeks to fuse the novels of Kevin J. Anderson with the music of progressive rock and metal. I promised we'd review the second album, and now, admittedly five months later, here we are, and how things have changed for volume two!

First off, there's no Erik Norlander, who so superbly helmed the first album. Due to other musical commitments Norlander was unable to participate, nor was his wife, so no Lana Lane sadly. Other people who performed on the first album are similarly conspicuous by their absence, in particular John Payne, James LaBrie and Gary Wehrkamp, but they're ably replaced by the likes of Sass Jordan, Michael Froese and Steve Walsh, with original vocalist Michael Sadler happily still with us. The album is this time around devoid of any keyboards (possibly due to Norlander's non-involvement: he is the king of keys, after all, and drove the signature sound of the first album), with rich orchestration taking the place of synthesisers.

It opens with dramatic orchestral bassoon, maybe, then a full section as the title of the album is sung and “Barricade” blasts out with power and energy, and though I'm not sure who takes the vocal line as information is relatively sketchy, and there are so many vocalists on the album, I don't think it's Sadler, whom I've heard before. This voice is rougher, not entirely to my liking but anyway. The orchestra rattles along as the track continues, with a real cinematic sense of scope, quite a hard rocker to start off the album with some great guitar from Henning Pauly, ably taking on the duties performed by Shadow Gallery's Gary Wehrkamp last time out.

I think it's Sadler then who takes the vocals for “Whirlwind”, with a very Rush-like sound circa “Caress of steel” --- I wish there was a way to get the liner notes to or more information on this album, as it really is quite scarce what's out there. Anyway, this is a mid-paced rocker with a lot of guitar, and I don't hear any involvement from the orchestra, very much a rock/metal song than a symphonic or even progressive one. The orchestra is back in full force though for “The crown”, with some more frenetic guitar from Pauly, and the introduction of vocals from Sass Jordan, channeling Janis Joplin at times, a rougher voice than Lane's, but perhaps better suited to this sort of song.

As ever, with a concept album you really need the notes to get the idea, and in this case where we're actually conceptualising a novel, it seems obvious that to get the most out of this album you really need to have the book and have read it, neither of which I have. So I can't guide you through the storyline, though I can tell you this album is based on the second of Anderson's “Terra incognita” novels, “The map of all things”. Seems Pauly looks after all instrumentation on this album (apart from, obviously, the orchestra) in a similar vein to Daniele Liverani on his “Genius: a rock opera” trilogy, playing guitar, bass and drums, as well as adding backing vocals. Impressive.

There's a break from the uptempo, racing rock for a ballad, and Sadler is back on vocals for “Loyalty”, his voice gentle and yet powerful, with some lovely guitar from Pauly, and perhaps the piano is his too, or maybe it's part of the orchestra, I don't know, but the song mostly rides along on its soft melody. There's a really intense little guitar solo from Henning Pauly, then the orchestra are back in force for “My father's son”, an ominous, urgent beat permeating the song and giving a sense of desperation and danger, hard guitar from Pauly adding to the panic. I have to say, I don't really like this track, but “When God smiled on us” is a lot better.

A pretty heavy track, it's replete with screaming guitars and churning chords, with Sadler back on vocals, and a kind of blues rhythm, then Jordan is back for “Need”, the second ballad on the album. Not as restrained or quiet as “Loyalty”, but still a slow song with a nice line in guitar and some very nice bass too. Jordan sings a bit more gently here this time around, sounding a little like Tina Turner, of all people, with a jazzy twang to her voice. It's followed by another rocker, again with a single title, and I think it's Steve Walsh on vocals for “Spiral”, an intense, heavy, dramatic tale of the desire for revenge --- ”You killed our fathers/ So we killed your sons/ How can you claim/ You're the innocent ones?” --- and with backing vocals from Sass Jordan in almost Clare Torry mode, a fine emotional solo from Pauly on the guitar, then “Battleground” reintroduces the orchestra for the only instrumental on the album.

A big, brooding, heavy monster of a track, it's helped along by frantic and intense guitar from Henning Pauly, tremendous work by the strings section of the orchestra, pounding drumming adding to the feel of a battle being fought, ending in “Victory”, the album's closing cut. With a real sense of the calm after the storm, it's guitar led, but in a laidback and upbeat way, celebratory, as you might expect with a title like that. Sadler takes the vocal for this final track, and Pauly can't it seem stay restrained for long, as he has to let out his joy and exultation with some blistering solos and runs. There is a note of doubt though as the song and the celebrations go on: ”Victory! Victory! Is this victory?”

I think I was more impressed with the first album. Whether that's due to the absence here of some of the major players, or the fact that there was a lot more keyboard work on the album, or whether I'm just confused now as to the storyline, this one didn't hit me as square between the eyes as did the first. Nevertheless, it's a fine effort and a good follow-up, just a pity they couldn't have assembled the whole team again, but then, that's rock and roll, I guess. Whether there'll be a third album or not is uncertain, but if they manage it, I really hope they can get back together the team that produced “Beyond the horizon”, as I feel they are the best combination to really nail this whole concept down.

TRACKLISTING

1. Barricade
2. Whirlwind
3. The crown
4. Loyalty
5. My father's son
6. When God smiled on us
7. Need
8. Spiral
9. Battleground
10. Victory

Suggested further listening: uh, “Terra Incognita: beyond the horizon”...?

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One of the only songs --- well, the only song --- the worm knows from Gabrielle is “Rise”. So here it is.

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2014, should we reach it (in which case we can thumb our noses at those Mayans! Yah! Up yours, long dead civilisation! If you're so smart how come you're all dead?) will be the forty-fifth anniversary of Hawkwind. That's right: the band which gave us Lemmy and set up more trips than a whole fleet of trains and buses during festival season is fast approaching their half-century, an amazing milestone for any band, much more so for a band who are so, well, how can I put this? Weird.

It's fair to say Hawkwind are not to everyone's tastes. I've never been high (unless you count my few trips in a jet airliner) in my life, though I'm reliably informed that to really appreciate this band you need to be stoned. I do remember going to see them in 1984 and being almost choked by the aroma of "freaky" cigarettes, so much so that I remember very little of the gig --- possibly high on second-hand smoke? Nevertheless, despite being what most Hawkwind fans would deem a square, or whatever epithet they choose to hang around the necks of those who “don't, sorry”, I have enjoyed Hawkwind albums. “Levitation” was a great record, as was “Masters of the universe” (okay, so it's a collection: what about it?) and even the eminently weird “Church of Hawkwind” had me nodding appreciatively, when I wasn't shaking my head in miscomprehension.

This is their twenty-fourth studio album, taking purely into account those only: this says nothing of the many compilations, live albums, retrospectives etc that have hit the shelves over the last thirty-odd years. Lemmy, of course, is long gone, but founder member Dave Brock, the brains and heart of Hawkwind, is still here, going as strong as ever, and though he has a good twenty years on him, Richard Chadwick is the next most permanent member, having occupied the drumseat since 1988. Most of the rest of the band have only been with Hawkwind since the first decade of this century, although keyboardist Tim Blake has been with them on and off for short stints in the seventies and the first years of the second (or is it third? I always get confused...) millennium.

Onward --- Hawkwind --- 2012 (Plastic Head)


It doesn't matter if you've heard every Hawkwind album since their debut in 1970 (which I haven't, far from it), it's always going to be hard to predict what you're going to come across on a new outing from them, whether it's space rock, acid rock, prog-rock, psychedelic metal, proto-metal-space-fusion-jazz-ambient-futurist-rock, or insert-genre-plus-as-many-sub-genres-as-you-wish in this space. Hawkwind are a band that have continually defied categorisation over the decades, and while one album could be fairly close to what most of us would consider “normal” rock, another could go way out on some space-opera acid-fuelled tangent which bore no resemblance to the previous album. One thing you are always guaranteed though is that it will be different, and interesting.

This album in fact comes on two discs (at least, the copy I have does), the first of which starts off with humming synth, doomy pealing bells before guitar blasts in and “Seasons” opens the album, Dave Brock's voice as powerful now as it was in 1970, the usual crazy space-rock effects Hawkwind aficionados have come to expect fizzing everywhere, but the guitar hard and heavy. The vocals and backing vocals are strongly reminiscent of Floyd, and of course the two bands were around at about the same time, though they went off on somewhat different tracks. There is a lot of similarlity between the two though. This is a little heavier than I would expect Hawkwind to be, but it's very welcome, and only the first of eighteen new tracks, so a treat in store?

Well, things stay heavy for “The hills have ears”, with an almost punk-rock sound about both the hard guitar and the singing, though the fizzling, sweeping synth in the background keeps this track firmly grounded in prog/psych land, everything in fact quickly fading down after a punchy beginning to allow the synth to take centre stage as weird little space-rock runs, odd sounds and effects all too familiar to those who have followed this band down through the years take over, then the guitar kicks back in and the music is rocking again, then “Mind cut” is a slow, acoustic guitar extravaganza with electric in the background and Brock's almost sixties-style psychedelia vocal bringing us right back to the summer of love, almost like smashing out of a black hole into a totally new universe.

Just over a minute long, “System check” is one of those intermezzos used so often by Hawkwind, with NASA-style reports and messages over spacey synth, then “Death trap” goes back to the rocky sort of song I've heard from them before, like the title track to “Levitation”, one of the few of their albums I've heard, a real cars-racing-down-the-highway song with some good vocal effects and some hammering guitar before we head into “Southern cross”, with some bongo-style drums and rising keyboards, like some sort of bastard son of Vangelis and Santana, entirely instrumental and really laidback in fact, another string to Hawkwind's mighty bow.

Back to hard straightahead rocking with an almost eighties new romantic twist for “The prophecy”, banks of keyboards providing the soundscape while guitar lays down its own groove upon this, and Brock sings like some lost poet or visionary trying to find his place in the new world. There's another short interlude in “Electric tears”, which starts on xylophone-like chimes then pulls in strings and guitar, all in less than a minute. Impressive. Well, for any other band, that is: this is just standard for Hawkwind, though no less to be praised, just expected. The squealing guitar continues, taking us into “The drive by”, with some fine drum work from longtime member Richard Chadwick, bright, breezy synth from Blake in another instrumental to close the first disc. Certain elements of Harold Faltermeyer or the Art of Noise on the synthwork here, though of course Hawkwind were doing this before those guys were even in long pants!

Disc two starts off on the heavy, gothic “Computer cowards”, with a vocal from Dave Brock that's hard to make out, almost subsumed within the music, as if he's drowning in it. Great bassline from the enigmatically-named Mr. Dibs drives the song, Brock evincing almost gutteral vocals, but sort of muttered: strange mix. Some great guitar work though, very little in the way of keyboards on this, ending on what sounds just like one of those old gas kettles boiling --- anyone remember them? If you're as old as me you will --- then it's synthery ho! as we head into “Howling moon”, another atmospheric instrumental, with Brock's guitar almost acting as a metronome, until with the odd sound of howling wolves we're taken into another straight rocker, “Right to decide” riding on the guitar line which is simple but effective, swirling keys and Brock's voice routed through some sort of vocoder or modulator to make it sound echoey, the song tripping (ahem!) along at a great pace with a really nice guitar solo adding to the many hooks in this song.

“Aero space age” is surely a typical Hawkwind song title, and this track is almost a continuation of “Right to decide”, but based more along the piano and keyboard lines of Tim Blake this time. They even namecheck with a cheeky grin their biggest commercial hit, with the lyric ”The silver machine is worth/ More than you're worth”: possibly a dig at those who only know them for that single? Very spacey song, great synth work, and yes, in places it is reminscent of the song itself. The longest track on the album comes in slowly, something of a slowburner then again emulating the great Carlos as “The flowering of the rose” rides along on boppy organ, screaming skittering guitar and swirling synth (yeah, I know that's a lot of alliteration...)

Is it going to be another instrumental? Well, we're about four minutes into its eight-minute-plus length now, and so far no vocals, just a real workout on the keys and guitar, steady rhythm section holding everything together in a fine uptempo progressive rock piece. Yeah, it's an eight-minute powerful, energetic instrumental all right, and it leads into another track whose title is just so Hawkwind. “Trans air trucking” starts off with a lot of mixed sounds --- phone message, growling, machinery --- then powers into a Vangelis-like fast synth run, running into a quick, thirty-second insert on heavy, ominous synth with spacey effects which then takes us into the penultimate track, a slow, heavy, Floyd-like piece called “Green finned demon”, some really inspired fretwork from Brock and a Watersesque vocal.

In typical Hawkwind fashion, the closer is not titled. At all. In fact, in some reviews of this album they only show seventeen tracks, not eighteen, but the one that finishes this two disc set is like something out of “Sonic attack”, with a big busy guitar sound, whooshing synth and Brock's vocal not sung but spoken, like poetry, as he pilots his own personal starship across his own personal and unique galaxy, heading for who knows where? It's a real lookback to the Hawkwind of old; whereas much of this album is almost normal, as such, this is much more weird, spacey, out-there and probably will provide those among you who indulge with more than a few trips.

There's no question Hawkwind are legend, and have already long ago stamped their mark on music history, but even so, you can sometimes expect legends to sit back and watch the money roll in, their work done. Not so this band, who are still putting out amazing albums like this at the tender age of almost forty-five, and on the strength of this offering, I would venture to say that not only is there life in the old dog yet, but there's bite and energy and vigour too, and it may be a very long time indeed before this particular dog has had its day!

(Note: there's very little of this album available on YT, and let's just say the version I have doesn't lend itself easily to making my own videos, so I'm afraid you'll have to do with the meagre content I've managed to cobble together here. It's an album well worth getting though. Hey, have I ever steered you wrong before? Well now, that can be explained, but apart from that...)

TRACKLISTING

Disc One

1. Seasons
2. The hills have ears
3. Mind cut
4. System check
5. Death trap
6. Southern cross
7. The prophecy
8. Electric tears
9. Drive by
Disc Two

1. Computer cowards
2. Howling moon
3. Right to decide
4. Aerospace age
5. The flowering of the rose
6. Trans air trucking
7. Deep vents
8. Green finned demon
9. (No title)

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