Much to my astonishment, copies of this 2004 comeback album from the Chadwick/Bickers House Of Love line-up are still available if you look for them. Ten really strong tracks are here, although the album only clocks in at 37 minutes. Favourite tracks are the single "Gotta Be That Way", "Love You Too Much" and "Kit Carter". The latter song seems to be about the Lennon assassination. Bickers has returned to the fold after his psychedelic band Levitation. He is even on the front cover, looking full of mischief! The track "Maybe You Know" seems to be about the band, the split and the reformation. The crisp recording is by Pat Collier of Vibrators and Soft Boys fame.
I saw this line-up of the band in London in 2005, since when I think they have played just one more date there, based around their Creation-era output. What has happened to them since? Maybe you know. At the moment I can only direct you to theWiki and say watch this space! They are fantastically tight and melodic - true heirs to the Beatles And The Stones.
Iced Earth are a metal band who have been around for years. Led by guitarist Jon Schaffer, the band have been plagued by frequent changes of lead singer. Their albums can be quite heavy going, so what better way to sample them than by this wonderful 4-track EP or Mini-album (depending on your point of view). This features the fantastically heavy single "Ten Thousand Strong" - check out the video link. Singer on this release and the video is Tim "Ripper" Owens, sometime Judas Priest stand-in, and with the untimely death of Dio, probably the best metal singer around. I saw this band supporting the Heaven and Hell tour (Dio's penultimate UK show, I think). Two weeks later Tim had been dumped from the band in favour of returning vocalist Matt Barlow. A bad mistake in my opinion.
All four tracks on this release are strong - the others are "Prophecy", "Birth Of The Wicked" and "The Coming Curse". If you look around you can easily find recordings of these songs featuring Matt Barlow singing. He has now left the band (again). As with all Iced Earth releases, it's great fun to count how many credits "Jon Schaffer" gets in the blurb. I recommend this release highly. As the band have left SPV/Steamhammer for old home Century this particular release may become hard to find. Snap it up now if you like the video!
WooHoo! All the Pink Fairies Polydor-era albums are available again, in expanded CD editions. Gorgeous booklets and bonus tracks tempt you to purchase. Once again, Mark Powell (now of Esoteric Records) has coordinated these releases. My favourite from the proto-punks is "Never Never Land" from the days when "Just Do It" was referring to something rather more exciting than sportswear.
The album features the classics "Do It" and "Uncle Harry's Last Freakout". I first heard a take of the latter on the "Glastonbury Fayre" album donkeys years ago. On this CD, you get 4 bonus tracks: a longer, first version of "Freakout", a divine, longer "War Girl" and early single mixes of "The Snake" and "Do It".
The band followed an anarchic career path, staples of free festivals and alternative happenings. At times you could almost believe they were Hawkwind. The songs haven't dated, just the odd unfortunate boogie-ish moment indicates the '70s vintage rock here. I never got to see them live (I guess I was too young) and despite one or two attempts at relaunch the band are now gone forever. There are some entertaining videos on YouTube but for various reasons, I'm not linking to them here. The band lives on through releases such as this and the semi-official live album "Finland Freakout". My advice would be to snap up copies of the albums now as I can't see them being around forever.
OK, first up a confession. This was going to be a review of the fantastic 3CD and book set "Play It At Your Sister" by the Damned which I bought recently. However, that seems to have been deleted already, so there doesn't seem much point in rambling on about it. Damned good though!
So instead I have plucked this recent album by Manic Street Preachers from my shelves. This is a really strong album. I sometimes find the Manics a bit hard to take, too earnest and worthy. But this is very much a mood thing - at times they can move you like almost no others.
This has to be their most commercial album to date. The lush arrangements add an extra dimension to the songs. There are orchestras, choirs and backing singers. In fact the strings on "The Descent" remind me of ELO at their pre-disco best, but I suspect the Manics won't thank me for saying that! I'm not sure how this album is selling stateside (or even if it's been released there) but I could see this being a breakthrough for the band.
Mac from the Bunnymen makes a welcome vocal guest appearance on "Some Kind Of Nothingness". His voice goes back a long way for me, and it was a nice surprise to hear him here. Talk of vocals brings me to the thing that loses this album half a star. And that is the dreadful flat singing of Nicky Wire. Fortunately he is only lead vocal on one track here - "The Future Has Been Here 4Ever". He should stick to Forbsian bass at which he is great. He should never be allowed anywhere near a microphone! This track even features "more cowbell" - yikes! When Nicky sings it reminds you that in James Dean Bradfield the Manics have one of the great rock voices!
Editionwise, there is a double CD with demo versions but be warned this has more Wire vocalising than the "finished" album. There is a vinyl version and a deluxe CD boxset for those with a lot more money than sense.
The album features the singles "(It's Not War) Just The End Of Love" and "Postcards From A Young Man". I love it to bits. Update: seems to be available as an import only in the USA. What a missed opportunity!Wake up Sony! Pull your finger out!
Here's a chance to get a free download of the brand new Simple Minds track "Stagefright".
Just register on the band's official website www.simpleminds.com and you can download a 6MB mp3 of the song. It's a bit compressed but this is the only way of getting hold of the song at the moment. Hopefully we will all get a chance to buy an uncompressed version on CD or as a FLAC format download.
The website also offers some other free downloads - including a wonderful update on "Mandela Day" - so is well worth a visit or two. Jim's diary is also there and is usually a good read whether you are a fan or not.
What's the song like? Infernally catchy. A little bit retro as the guitar sound is a total throwback to their early eurodisco classic "I Travel". The excellent female backing vocals should be much higher up in the mix as this would give it an awesome Heaven 17 "Temptation" vibe.
This will be great live. The "It's You!" hook is strong and audiences will love it.
