Scars --- Scars --- 2002 (Sanctuary)
Another side project for Gary, Scars was conceived in 2002 and featured Darrin Mooney of Primal Scream, who would later go on to drum on some of Gary's solo albums, and Skunk Anansie's Cass Lewis on bass. Again, like G-Force twenty years earlier there was only the one, self-titled album released, but unlike the much lighter and almost poppier G-Force effort, this one rocks all the way. It opens on squealy guitar and thumping bass as “When the sun goes down” gets things underway. There's a certain sense of grunge about the guitar work, at least on this track, which may mark this album out from Gary's solo work.
Half of the songs are written by Gary on his own, the other half by the trio. Lewis' bass is very much in evidence here, as you might expect, and although Mooney's drumming is unremarkable for the moment, I expect it to get a bit more pronounced as the album goes on. As I said before, good drummers vs bad drummers is a hard call for me: how do you drum badly? Or well, for that matter? But in any event, “Rectify” keeps the rocking hard, though there's for the moment none of the frenetic, fast power of the likes of “Rockin' every night”, “End of the world”, “Out in the fields” or “Back on the streets”: again, it's hard rock mixed with a certain amount of grunge.
“Wasn't born in Chicago” is again driven on Lewis' strong bass, with some hard and heavy guitar work from Gary, and Mooney getting a lot more animated behind the drumkit. Gary racks up the guitar ampage bigstyle then for “Stand up”, but there's still a certain sense of restraint about these songs, as if he's not being fully given his head, and without doubt there's a Nirvanaesque sound to his guitar. Finally, we get a decent blues ballad, in the expected style of Gary Moore, though it gets a bit hard and heavy in the middle, which is a little off-putting. “Just can't let you go” does however give us the first real Gary Moore sound on the album, I believe, and not surprisingly it's one of his own compositions, and indeed one of the longer tracks, at just short of eight minutes.
The next one up is one of his too, a real blues strider, in “My baby (she's so good to me)”, which could as easily have found a home on “Back to the blues”, “Still got the blues” or any of his blues-orientated albums, and yes, it's another one written by him. It's one where Gary really gets to cut loose as we know he can, then “World of confusion”, the third solo Moore composition in a row, is a harder and heavier proposition, with none of the grunge evident in Gary's guitar prior to “Just can't let you go”: it's almost as if the album has now switched directions and become a completely rock one, leaving the previous influences behind. Is this because it's only Gary writing the songs?
Well, let's see. The final Moore/Mooney/Lewis outing is a monster, almost thirteen minutes of what appears to be slow heavy blues in “Ball and chain”, and so it proves to be, possibly the standout of the album. A slowburning, down and dirty, big grinding mess o' blues with some sterling work from Gary, but also some fine basslines from Cass Lewis, and just the right sort of drumming from Darrin Mooney. Nice! So together they
can write a decent rock song, and more, a great blues track. Good to know, and the initial lukewarm reception I was giving this album has certainly heated up a lot now, and I'm really beginning to enjoy it.
Now it's interesting that the next track, credited as a Gary original, is called “World keep turnin' round”, when he included a cover of Peter Green's similarly (almost identically) titled “World keep turning” on his “Blues for Greeny” tribute album. Strange indeed. Also, it sounds very close --- almost too close --- to Hendrix's “Crosstown traffic” for comfort, but it appears to be his own song. Derivative? Certainly. I must listen to Mr. Green's song and see if it bears any resemblance. At any rate, this is a hard rocker, with some great guitar work, but the riff is very much taken from the abovementioned Hendrix classic without doubt.
The closer is another long one, almost ten minutes, and another written solo by Gary. It's another slow blues ballad, really nicely handled with some lovely touches. “Who knows (what tomorrow may bring)” kind of echoes the sentiments in “I can't wait until tomorrow”, the closer from “Corridors of power”, but it's very laidback, almost though not quite acoustic, with soft percussion from Mooney. A little in then it rocks out with hard, edgy guitar, then drops back to the quiet, introspection of the opening, with a lovely little smooth solo from Gary. The song then settles down into a nice easy blues ballad groove to the end, carried on Gary's always expressive guitar.
A definite improvement over the somewhat embarrassing “G-Force” project, it's a pity Scars didn't release more albums, and notwithstanding the annoying grunge element of the first few tracks, this could almost stand as a Gary Moore solo album on its own, so fits well into the catalogue. Nice one, Gary.
TRACKLISTING
1. When the sun goes down
2. Rectify
3. Wasn't born in Chicago
4. Stand up
5. Just can't let you go
6. My baby (she's so good to me)
7. World of confusion
8. Ball and chain
9. World keep turnin' round
10. Who knows (what tomorrow may bring)?