Trollheart

Rules are made to be broken. Especially when they're my rules, and this is my journal. So, when I began this one I made it a strict criterion that I would only listen to albums I had never heard before here. Now, with the Tom Waits discography going on in my main journal, and not wanting to interrupt that, I find this is a good place to drop in short reviews also of albums I do know. So that's what I'll be doing from now on: a mixture of old and new, current and classic, and anything in between. With that in mind...

Any direction of the compass you look, it's solid gold!


Artiste: Gerry Rafferty
Nationality: British
Album: North and south
Year: 1988
Label: London
Genre: Rock
Tracks:
North and south
Moonlight and gold
Hearts run dry
Tired of talking
A dangerous age
Shipyard town
Winter’s come
Nothing ever happens down here
On a night like this
Unselfish love

Chronological position: Sixth album
Familiarity: Night owl Snakes and ladders, Sleepwalking
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: n/a
Best track(s): North and south, Shipyard town, Tired of talking, Winter’s come, Hearts run dry, Moonlight and gold, A dangerous age
Worst track(s): Nothing ever happens down here, Unselfish love
Comments: One of my very favourite Gerry Rafferty albums, it’s one of those that keeps giving up until about the last three tracks, when it dips slightly and ends badly, but what goes beforehand is enough to solidify its status among his albums for me. It kicks off with the title track, a real celtic atmosphere built already thanks to the uilleann pipes of Davy Spillane and soon becomes a boppy mid-tempo track as Gerry recalls ”I was born a poor man’s son following tradition/ When I came of age I hit the road/ And followed blind ambition” while horns and fiddles paint a background to a great opener. Really gets you in the mood. It’s followed by Moonlight and gold, a semi-ballad with some really nice keyboard and percussion, Knopfleresque guitar too, though he’s not on the album.

Tired of talking kicks up the tempo with the help of fine whistles from Spillane and a thumping beat, while thick brass backs up Hearts run dry, one of the true ballads on the album, super little guitar solo too, then there’s a beautiful runup to one of the other standouts, A dangerous age, which has everything in it you ever need to realise that Gerry was rock and not pop as some people who have only ever heard a certain song about a certain street would have you believe. What a lovely line: ”We stood on the motorway shoulder/ The moon rose over the rolling hills/ And my heart broke down/ When I looked at you.” The connection to being broken down in a layby and the failure of a relationship is just so well observed. Wonderful sax outro just completes this amazing song.

And it keeps getting better. For now. A look back to youth and high hopes, Shipyard town was the single from this album, and deserved to be, even though there are deeper, better songs on it (almost the whole album if I’m honest). It kicks off with the same uilleann pipes intro that started the album, then jumps into a rockin’, uptempo song driven on striding sax and jangly guitar. Despite its upbeat tone, the song actually deals with the ending of a relationship, rather like the previous one. And the one before that. And the one before that.

You know, it's something I never really realised before, but now that I listen back to this album I don't think the title has to do with geographical locations at all. I think "North and south" may refer to woman and man, or even north representing the beginning of the relationship when everything is fine, the romantic side of it, and then south (when it, literally, goes south) the ending of it. Interesting. I never thought of it that way before. May not be the case, but still, something to think about.

Winter’s come fades in on what sounds like pan pipes but is surely synth-created, with an ambient, atmospheric rendition of the intro just used on Shipyard town and becomes the second ballad, with quite a tinge of Country in it, accordion and fiddle adding to it. After this though is where the album begins to nosedive. The pure fifties rock-and-roll of Nothing ever happens down here is okay but very much inferior to all the tracks that have gone before, and it comes as something of a shock, the album having been so perfect up to this point. There’s a slight recovery with the beautiful classical piano introduction to On a night like this, but it quickly becomes an accordion-driven but fairly nondescript semi-ballad, and the album ends on the reggae-infused Unselfish love. Quite a disappointment.
Overall impression: I loved this album right up to Nothing ever happens down here, and was quite annoyed at the fact it never really recovered from there, but that apart I love this album to death, one of my favourite Rafferty recordings.
Hum Factor: 9
Surprise Factor: n/a
Intention: There are still some of Gerry’s albums I need to listen to, especially his more recent ones. A sad loss to music.

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Trollheart

He's (not quite) dead, Jim!


Artiste: Meat Loaf
Nationality: American
Album: Welcome to the neighborhood
Year: 1995
Label: Virgin
Genre: Hard rock
Tracks:
Where the rubber meets the road
I’d lie for you (and that’s the truth)
Original sin
45 seconds of ecstasy
Runnin’ for the red light (I gotta life)
Fiesta de las almas perdidas
Left in the dark
Not a dry eye in the house
Amnesty is granted
If this is the last kiss (Let's make it last all night)
Martha
Where angels sing

Chronological position: Seventh album
Familiarity: Bat out of Hell, Dead ringer, Bad attitude, Bat out of Hell II, Bat out of Hell III, Hell in a handbasket
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: Good solid opener, very Meat Loaf but a little derivative.
Best track(s): Original sin, I’d lie for you (and that’s the truth), Left in the dark, Not a dry eye in the house, If this is the last kiss (let’s make it last all night), Where angels sing
Worst track(s): 45 seconds of ecstasy, Fiesta de las almas perdidas, Runnin’ for the red light (I gotta life)
Comments: Though I’m a pretty big fan of Meat Loaf there are several of his albums I have yet to hear, and this is one of them. Is it just me, or does the woman on the cover look like she’s pregnant? Anyway this is another of his almost-Steinmanless efforts, with only two songs written by the man who, it could be argued, put him where he is today. But since their falling out Steinman and Meat Loaf have not worked together, with the main man hiring in people like Diane Warren to help fill in the gaps, and duetting with some star names. In fairness, the songs here written by Steinman are old ones, not specially written for this album, covers of his own solo material.

The opener tries to fool us into thinking it’s a ballad, with a soft piano opening and a gentle vocal from Meat Loaf, but with a title like Where the rubber meets the road nobody’s fooled, and indeed it becomes a swaggering rocker. It’s decent but a little tame for Meat. I’ve heard of course the single I’d lie for you (and that’s the truth) and to be honest it comes across as something of a rip-off of I’d do anything for love (But I won’t do that) off the previous album, even down to the piano intro. Good song, but a little derivative, which is odd, as it’s written by goldmaker Diane Warren. Good duet with Patti Russo, one of two on the album.

One of my favourite tracks off the album of the same name, Steinman’s Original sin from the Pandora’s Box project gets the full Meat Loaf treatment next, and it’s a decent effort but lacks the drama and theatre Steinman put into it on the album. It’s a bit annoying that about half that album has been covered now by other artistes, but yet nobody has heard of Pandora’s Box. Pah! Peasants! It’s a much shorter version here too. I believe this is the first album Meat Loaf has released on which there’s a track featuring another singer, but to be honest though Susan Wood does a good job on 45 seconds of ecstasy, it’s more like sixty-six seconds of torture, a poor reggae-led pop song that really does not belong here at all.

Things get rockin’ again quickly though with Runnin’ for the red light (I gotta life) --- what is it with Meat Loaf and parenthesised subtitles to his songs? --- a basic rock and roll track that while it’s okay is nothing terribly special. Neither is the annoying little salsa instrumental that precedes another cover of a Steinman song, this time the closer from his “Bad for good” album, which now makes three songs from that album that Meat Loaf has covered. Left in the dark stands, so far, head and shoulders above everything else on this album, and that’s not a good thing to be saying, but it is the truth as I see it.

Warren tries to work her magic again and rescue the album, and to be fair, yeah, Not a dry eye in the house pulls the quality right back up to where you expect it to be, both for a Meat Loaf album and for a Diane Warren song. Amnesty is granted is a good enough song, but it’s a duet with Sammy Hagar and sounds more like one of his songs. Another Warren tune is next, and another bracketed title, with If this is the last kiss (let’s make it last all night). It’s a decent song that you can detect right away as the songstress’s work, then of all things there’s a Waits cover, which unfortunately is one of my least favourite early songs from him, though Meat does a very passionate version of it, dare I say, better than the original? Put down those torches, people!

Good, strong ending then with Where angels sing which at least leaves me with the typical Meat Loaf power ballad/epic song that I like him to end one of his albums with, and almost makes up for some of the truly substandard material earlier. But not quite. Must do better, and hopefully did, after this.
Overall impression: A decent enough album, but quite below par for what I expect from Meat Loaf
Hum Factor: 6
Surprise Factor -3
Intention: It certainly hasn’t turned me off Meat Loaf’s music, but I’d be interested to see what the other albums I haven’t heard yet are like.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Urban Hat€monger ?

have you been storing these up, I feel like I've approved a whole novel today.
(This is not a criticism)

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Trollheart

I realised I'd neglected this journal, and the other one, for quite a few months and since I'll soon be busy with Star Trek Month I thought I may as well get them updated a little. Yes, I also started a new journal and I'm having fun with that too. Wait till March begins!

Seriously though, if it's too frequent let me know. I appreciate all the fast approvals but I know you've a lot on your plate. I just don't like to see my journals languishing on the third or fourth page...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Urban Hat€monger ?

You keep posting them , I'll keep approving them

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Trollheart

Sometimes it's better not to take that step...



Artiste: Don Airey
Nationality: British
Album: All out
Year: 2011
Label: Music Theories Recording
Genre: Progressive Rock/AOR
Tracks:
The way I feel inside
Estancia
People in your head
B’cos
Running from the shadows
Right arm overture
Fire
Long road
Wrath of Thor
Tobruk
Chronological position: Third solo album, thirty-fourth overall
Familiarity: I know his work from Deep Purple, Gary Moore, Whitesnake and Rainbow among others
Interesting factoid: Don’s second name is Smith, as in Donald Smith Airey
Initial impression: Big rocky keyboard sound that definitely recalls the heyday of Purple
Best track(s): Estancia, B’cos, Running from the shadows, Right arm overture, Long road, Tobruk
Worst track(s): The way I feel inside, People in your head, Fire, Wrath of Thor
Comments: I had originally been saving this for my series (of so far one) about keyboard players, “Keyboard Wizards” but god knows when I’ll get back to that, so let’s give it the “Bitesize” treatment here. As it kicks off it’s almost more guitar driven with The way I feel inside, but it’s a little offputting to hear this sort of seventies rock on a current album, even given that Airey is in Purple and was in Rainbow, as well as a lot of other big bands. Still, you know, if I want to hear Purple I’ll buy a Purple album. Not a great start. Estancia is better, with big mellotron and rumbling drums, an instrumental, which is sort of what I expected. Still very seventies sounding though. Some great keyboard histrionics though. Better. Then we’re back to a real Purple groove with People in your head, but the vocalist is even imitating Gillan’s woos and waahs. Sigh. Liking this less as it goes on.

For an album made by a guy who carved out a living sitting in front of a bank of keyboards, this has way too much guitar on it. Not even any piano yet, though the rising chords opening B’cos certainly give me some hope. Mind you, here comes that guitar again and the keys are kind of fading into the background. It is a nice instrumental though. Very reminiscent of the kind of stuff Airey did with the late Gary Moore. The first vocal track I really like is Running from the shadows, which eschews the seventies hard rock feel for a more eighties AOR idea and it really works. Like this a lot. Very keyboard-driven too, as it should be. As is Right arm overture, though it also features some peerless fretless bass, another instrumental --- is it? I look and see it runs for seven minutes…

Yeah, looks like it is. And finally Airey gets a chance to really flex his muscles on the keys, showing us why he’s one of the most in-demand keysmen in the business. Great organ work, mellotron, some piano. Lovely stuff and very progressive rock too. Unfortunately there’s a massive step backwards then with his frankly awful cover of Hendrix’s Fire, which at over five minutes is way too long, but thankfully we can forget about that with the lovely Mooresque ballad Long road, with its stupendous guitar intro thanks to Joe Bonamassa, another instrumental, then Wrath of Thor has a dark, ominous opening before it crashes into another seventies Gillan rip-off. Oh lord save me! I don’t know about Thor, but much of this album is feeling the wrath of Trollheart!

I see the last track is ten minutes long! God I hope it’s a good one; I’ve not listened to an album in quite a while that had this many bad tracks on it but wasn’t total rubbish. I’m hoping for a strong ending. And it certainly starts that way, with a big throaty synth and a piano introduction that really hits the spot. Then it pounds along in the best tradition of Dio, which is heartening. It’s not an instrumental, so I wonder if it will be the second vocal track on the album I like? Sounds like it could be. Yeah, looks like he saved the best for last. Epic. Why couldn’t the rest of the album be like this?
Overall impression: An album of two halves, where the good don’t quite balance out the bad. Not enough keyboards for an album by a keyboard player and not something I would be intending to listen to again.
Hum Factor: 4
Surprise Factor: -8
Intention: Think very carefully before approaching Airey’s solo work again. I see he had a new one out last year. I won’t be rushing to listen to it.

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Trollheart

As 2015 is supposed to be the Year of the Discography (or was, I haven’t seen anyone else yet take one on hint hint!) I’m already as you know deep into my Tom Waits reviews in the Playlist, with Genesis and Marillion to follow later in the year. Rather than try to do too much there --- and as each discography is being granted exclusive access to the journal, with nothing else posted while it’s going on --- I thought I’d try a few smaller ones here. Unlike the main journal though, there will be other albums reviewed in between, which is why I’ll be signposting the discographies with this

And the first one I want to look into is a band I know well, but have not really listened to all their albums through at length. Often vilified for “selling out from their Country roots” --- even by my idol, Waits --- I still think they made some incredible music and will leave you to make your own judgement.

Starting, of course, at the beginning, which is always a good place to start...



Artiste: The Eagles
Nationality: American
Album: Eagles
Year: 1972
Label: Asylum
Genre: Country/Rock
Tracks:
Take it easy
Witchy woman
Chug all night
Most of us are sad
Nightingale
Train leaves here this morning
Take the devil
Earlybird
Peaceful easy feeling
Tryin’
Chronological position: Debut album
Familiarity: Very familiar with the Eagles. I’ve heard all their albums, though some more than others.
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: n/a
Best track(s): Take it easy, Witchy woman, Train leaves here this morning, Most of us are sad, Take the devil, Peaceful easy feeling
Worst track(s): Chug all night, Tryin’
Comments:Interestingly, given the great songwriting partnerships that would come out of the Eagles, it’s a collaboration with Jackson Browne, he having released his own debut album that year, that kicks off this album and it became a huge hit. “Take it easy” rocks along gently with a great sense of freedom as Country meets rock and the two get on just fine, thanks. What would become the trademark vocal harmonies of the band are very evident here, as is the banjo work of Bernie Leadon that would characterise their first few albums. “Witchy woman” is a slower, more broody affair, with almost Native drumbeat, electric guitar more to the fore and the first chance for Don Henley to show what he can do behind the mike, with Glenn Frey having taken the previous track. This kind of sharing of vocal duties would also become a feature of the Eagles, allowing both men to rise to almost equal stardom within the band.

There’s an undeniable sense of the US West Coast here, with the laidback melodies and soft crooning vocal harmonies, the references to cities and towns on the west coast, but sadly for Frey’s first solo-penned tune, “Chug all night” is a low point on the album. A pointless drinking song that says little but temporarily reinforces the idea of Country musicians being all rednecks. I really hate it, though it does push the rock element more to the front, so there’s that. Next up we have the third vocalist, and though Randy Meisner would not sing on too many songs, his voice is a nice change from the smooth tones of Frey or the gravelly drawl of Henley. The slow, acoustic folky ballad is also a great antidote to the previous track and shows that the Eagles were just as at home on an acoustic tune as they were rockin’ along. Again, the close vocal harmonies are just too sweet to be true and help to make the song so much more than the sum of its parts. In addition, there’s a fine slide guitar solo from Frey.

“Nightingale” then revisits slightly the setup of “Take it easy”, kicking up the tempo and rocking along with great energy, while one of the standouts on the album is next, as Bernie Leadon takes the mike for “Train leaves here this morning”, which is pure laidback Country, with elements of Simon and Garfunkel at their best, a gentle acoustic guitar pulling the song along. Meisner then gets his chance to really step it up on the smouldering grinder “Take the devil”, a song that should shut anyone up who says the Eagles are only country boys and can’t rock, before Leadon is back for “Earlybird”, a banjo-driven bluegrass tune you just have to nod your head to. Another song that would turn out to be a hit is “Peaceful easy feeling”, which is just California laidback with a capital L. Lovely song. “Tryin’” is okay but it’s a little flat for ending the album. Not a bad song but a little generic perhaps. Rocks well though and I guess it’s a good sentiment to end with: “We gotta keep on tryin’”. And they did.

Overall impression: For a debut this was chock-full of great tracks and three hit singles. Can’t say fairer than that, can you?
Hum Factor: 10
Intention: n/a

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Powerstars

Year of the discography you say? Might have to do something for that...

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Trollheart

There's hope for new music yet!


Artiste: Natalie Prass
Nationality: American
Album: Natalie Prass
Year: 2015
Label: Spacebomb Records
Genre: Hard to say really… I guess singer/songwriter kind of covers it. Kind of.
Tracks:
My baby don't understand me
Bird of prey
Your fool
Christy
Why don't you believe in me
Never over you
Reprise
It is you

Chronological position: Debut album
Familiarity: Zero
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: Lovely voice, orchestral backing, smooth and aching...
Best track(s): Everything
Worst track(s): Nothing
Comments: I’ll be the first to admit, when I read this woman auditioned using her iphone I groaned, but you know, maybe it’s time for this old dog to accept that the world is different now, and perhaps not everyone who uses the new tech is necessarily a popstar wannabe. Certainly, from the opening track I hear a very mellifluous voice with keys, guitar and even violins, and not a sign of autotune, so that has to be good. Looking at the little information I have to hand, seems like she writes or co-writes all of her songs, so that’s another plus. Definitely not a pop diva then. Looks like she may be in this for the long haul.

Shades of a young Kate Bush or Beverly Craven here, and a lot of brass which is interesting. A very good start certainly. Nice to see also that she didn’t overload the album: there are only nine tracks here. “Bird of prey” is more uptempo, with some lovely clarinet and flute, recalling sixties and early seventies soft rock tunes, yet her voice holds court over everything, strong but not shouting as so many female vocalists seem to think is the way to go today. I definitely hear elements of songstresses of yesteryear such as Carole King and Carly Simon, who honed their craft over years and are still relevant and played today. A swinging bluesy roots song is “Your fool”, which dances along on a tapping piano line, backed by again beautiful orchestral sweeps. Very impressed so far.

I must say, I also like the slightly-cartoonified picture of her on the album sleeve, a clear indication that she is not trading on her looks but intends to prove her worth through her music, as should be the case. Substance very much over style. “Christy” is dreamy and dramatic all at once, even has some harp, while there’s a lovely slow strut to “Why don’t you believe in me”, and I just love the way the clarinet soars and dips, swoops and dives. There’s something so gloriously seventies about it. “Violently” is oddly enough a swaying ballad driven on piano and cello, with pedal steel and French horn. The vocal is so low-key that you just don’t expect it with a title like that, and yet she injects so much passion into it you can’t ignore it. Staying relaxed in a sort of Country style for “Never over you” with very Eagles-style backing vocals.

There’s a spoken vocal (mostly) with some incredible instrumental backing for “Reprise”, a rearranged version of “Your fool”, including some powerful trumpet (or is it trombone? Never too sure about that), flute and violin. Comes very close to being the best track. Fuck it. Is. Just an amazing track. Closing then on a truly sumptuously orchestral “It is you”, almost like something out of a musical. Breathtaking.

Overall impression: A new star is born?
Hum Factor: 8
Surprise Factor: 10
Intention: I’ll be watching her very closely. We need more artistes of this sort of calibre in music.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Key

That picture in your Eagles review looks familiar :p