Trollheart

Undeterred by your lack of interest, on I go! Nelson are two brothers, the sons indeed of the legendary Ricky Nelson, and with this album they're keeping the family tradition alive and flourishing!


Nelson --- Lightning strikes twice

It's an AOR treat, just crammed with hooks, smooth guitar solos, raunchy punching choruses and more great songs than you can shake a stick at, though why you'd want to do such a thing is beyond me....

This is "How can I miss you"


and the great ballad "To get back to you"


And then there's "You're all I need tonight".



Antimatter --- Planetary confinement

I have to admit, this is not the sort of music I usually listen to, and it was with some trepidation that I approached Antimatter's third album. A collaboration between Anathema's Duncan Patterson and singer/songwriter Mick Moss, this album frankly amazed me with its bleak, tragic beauty. It's sort of like having a butterfly in your palm that slowly decomposes. Horrible image, yes, but the dark and melancholy nature of this music is almost at odds with the hauntingly beautiful melodies these two guys create.

Though technically a duo, throughout the album Patterson and Moss switch songs, one written and sung by the former followed by one written by and sung by the latter, and so on. This is one of Moss's, "Portrait of the young man as an artist"

while this is Patterson's, with Amelie Festa on vocals, it's "Line of fire".

Another of Mick Moss's compositions, this is "Legions"

and finally, another one from Patterson's songbook, this is called "Relapse".

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Jadis --- Fanatic

I don't know what it is about Jadis, but I just love everything they do. There's just something about them that defies explanation, to me anyway, and the only real way you can appreciate them is by hovering your mouse over the YouTubes and opening your ears. I imagine their music should appeal to prog rock and AOR fans equally, or just anyone who likes good, intelligent, well-structed and well-played songs.





I for one am delighted to hear that Jadis are working on a new album, which will hopefully be out later in the year. Expect a review of that in my journal soon as I have my hands on it.

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Forward To Death

I just got some great suggestions out of this. Keep it coming.

Trollheart

Hey, cool! I didn't think anyone was bothering with this. Nice to know someone's reading...

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Trollheart

Mama's Boys --- Plug it in

One of THE most underrated and overlooked heavy rock albums of the 1980s, the official debut from three brothers from Country Fermanagh in Northern Ireland hit the shelves in 1982, after their "Offical Bootleg" demo had been doing the rounds for a year or so, and on the back of a support slot for Hawkwind. Mama's Boys never made it big, but are still revered by rockers in Ireland as almost the poor man's Thin Lizzy. Sadly, the youngest brother, Tommy, died of leukemia in 1994, a blow the other two siblings never got over. They officially disbanded after that but they both continued on in the music biz separately.

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The Alan Parsons Project --- Eve

Fourth album by the progressive rock outfit led by the guy who engineered Pink Floyd's seminal "Dark side of the moon", "Eve" was a loose concept based on the way women are viewed and treated in a male-oriented world. Many of the songs would seem to ring as chauvinistic ("You lie down with dogs", "I'd rather be a man", and so on) but in fact are empowering songs which show that no matter what men think of women, it is the latter who are the greatest power in the universe, being the only ones able to bring life into the world.

As usual on APP albums, the vocals are shared out, but this was the first --- indeed only --- one to feature female lead vocals on some of the tracks. It's a great album, from the opening instrumental "Lucifer" to the closing ballad "If I could change your mind", with some great rockers in between: one of, in my opinion, the finest and most cohesive albums from the Alan Parsons Project.

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Screen13

Great thread. I'm also a reader as ell.

To add on a small bit of trivia, since the System is one of my favorite Detroit area bands of the legendary Grande era, Noah was the album that almost stopped the band, with Seger planning to go to college to study Criminology by that time. Released around September/October, 1969, it featured a number of fine Seger songs including the Beatles-styled title track (a Top 20 in Detroit), "Innervenus Eyes" which was the follow up single that hardly made it anywhere, and the closing "Death Row" - although the mess that wound up Side One called "Cat" certainly remains one of those songs hardly anyone talks about unless one's a fan of the Early Seger (yes, I am). Although his writing was still great, there seemed to be a slow down in his contributions, with some of the spaces taken over by a Guitarist named Tom Neme who's work was seriously weaker than that of the band's leader. The fact that the standout "Death Row" was an B-Side to an earlier single (The classic 2+2=?) was also worrying to those who followed his career since the days of "East Side Story," but thankfully Seger returned in '70 with Mongrel and "Lucifer" to continue his long ride to the top, which finally was rewarded with Top 40 Albums in The Late 70's starting with Live Bullet.

Trollheart

The Adventures --- The sea of love

One of the very best, and again overlooked, albums to come out of Ireland in the late eighties, "The sea of love" is just a gem, packed with hooky, memorable songs, lush production and some stunning lyrics. Their follow up to this was almost as good but slighly less epic and more on the pop/rock side of things, whereas this I feel has something more of a progressive feel, (Progressive Celtic Rock?) particularly these two tracks.



and the title track ain't bad either!

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Trollheart

Ha ha! Thought I'd gone away, didn't you? No chance! You'll NEVER be free of me and my interminable album selections! BWA HA HA HAAAAA!

Ahem.

Rather good this, if you haven't heard it before (and if not, why not?): debut from one of the most talented and still underrated female singer/songwriter/poets ever.



Suzanne Vega --- s/t

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Geekoid

Nice choices. She's one of my favorite lyricists of all time! Definitely underrated.