The Alarm began as a punk band from Wales, then became a kind of an acoustic U2 lite. Mike Peters is active as Alarm MM++ today...although it's doubtful that many really care. An average album by an average band.
lol. completely! I forgot all about them, but owned a few of their early albums. Great review, Rom!
Thanks, Tilly. I'm glad that you read these things! _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
WILLY DEVILLE
BACKSTREETS OF DESIRE
1993-FORWARD
VARIOUS PRODUCERS
1. Empty Heart
2. All In The Name Of Love
3. Lonely Hunter
4. Even While I Sleep
5. Voodoo Charm
6. Come To Poppa
7. Chemical Warfare
8. Hey Joe
9. I Call Your Name
10. I Can Only Give You Everything
11. Jump City
12. Bamboo Road
13. All In The Name Of Love (Salvation Army Version)
The artist once known as Mink DeVille, Willy had his entire catalog gutted by his record company due to drug use and poor sales. Backstreets Of Desire is his comeback under his real first name, and it's a surprisingly good effort. Not as New Orleans or R&B as his previous work, the album nonetheless includes cameos by his Nola friends (including Dr. John). The highlights are "All In The Name Of Love", "Chemical Warfare" (which features background vocals by a children's choir that includes Tia and Tamera Mowry, the future stars of "Sister Sister"), and a ragged version of "Come To Poppa".
DeVille, the king of the mullet, gets a little boring at the middle of the album, but it gets stronger at the end. Overall, not his best work, but still a good record. DeVille died of cancer in 2009.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
FOO FIGHTERS
1995-RCA
Produced By BARRETT JONES & FOO FIGHTERS
1. This Is A Call
2. I'll Stick Around
3. Big Me
4. Alone + Easy Target
5. Good Grief
6. Floaty
7. Weenie Beenie
8. Oh, George
9. For All The Cows
10. X-Static
11. Wattershed
12. Exhausted
Barely 6 months after the death of Kurt Cobain, tapes of songs written and performed by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl began making a huge splash in the music industry. The result was the first Foo Fighters album, which is really a Grohl solo album...he plays everything except for one guitar part. The entire recording took about a week, and after the release, Grohl began assembling the actual band.
Songs like "Big Me", "This Is A Call", and "I'll Stick Around" are great, and while the album loses a little bit as it goes on, it's still a fine effort. Who knew that Nirvana had two quality songwriters? Foo has gone on to a great career...this is where it all started. Well worth owning.
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'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
PINK FLOYD
THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
1973-CAPITOL
Produced By PINK FLOYD
1. Speak To Me/Breathe In The Air
2. On The Run
3. Time
4. The Great Gig In The Sky
5. Money
6. Us And Them
7. Any Colour You Like
8. Brain Damage
9. Eclipse
After spending years fumbling around for the right formula, Pink Floyd hit it big in every way with their 1973 release, The Dark Side Of The Moon. The album is a seamless song cycle, perfect in nearly every way. The band has a throw away nothing ethic, and it works completely. The album must be heard in its entirety to be truly appreciated, and almost 40 years later, you still get great rewards for taking the time to do so.
Floyd released the equally as good Wish You Were Here, then began a slow spiral before egos burst them apart. Dark Side stayed on the album charts for a ridiculous number of years for good reason...one of the best albums ever made.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
THE CHARLIE DANIELS BAND
A DECADE OF HITS
1983-EPIC
Produced By CHARLIE DANIELS, JOHN BOYLAN & PAUL HORNSBY
1. The Devil Went Down To Georgia
2. The South's Gonna Do It Again
3. Stroker's Theme
4. Uneasy Rider
5. Let It Roll
6. In America
7. Still In Saigon
8. Long Haired Country Boy
9. The Legend Of Wooley Swamp
10. Everytime I See Him
During the 70's and early 80's, The Charlie Daniels Band was one of the leading lights of Southern Rock...behind, of course, The Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd. They were also the most country of the three (in large part because of the fiddle), and, unfortunately, the most political (VERY far right good ol' boy redneck Republican). You can't help but chuckle at the obvious influence songs like "In America" had on the "'Murica" crowd. It all got a bit silly, really.
However, there is also the huge upside to Charlie Daniels. "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" may be the most thoroughly country AND rock song ever recorded. "Uneasy Rider" is a hilarious period piece, and "Long Haired Country Boy" is a pure classic...and in direct contrast with his later born again beliefs. And you can hear exactly where Mike Cooley of Drive By Truckers got his mojo (he's known as the Strker Ace)..."Stroker's Theme" and "The Legend Of Wooley Swamp" could have been Cooley tracks right off of a Truckers album. This was an important piece of the Southern Rock history. An affordable and very good career spanning (at least the important years) document.
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'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
DR HOOK & THE MEDICINE SHOW
REVISITED
1976-COLUMBIA
Produced By RON HAFKINE
1. Sylvia's Mother
2. Acapulco Goldie
3. Freakin' At The Freaker's Ball
4. Makin' It Natural
5. Penicillin Penny
6. Cover Of The Rolling Stone
7. Get My Rocks Off
8. Carry Me, Carrie
9. Queen Of The Silver Dollar
10. Roland The Roadie And Gertrude The Groupie
Before sinking into the schmaltz of "Only Sixteen" and "Sharing The Night Together", Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show were actually one of the more hilarious bands in rock & roll. All of the songs on this compilation were written by Shel Silverstein, and there could have been no better interpreter than Dr. Hook. "Sylvia's Mother" is actually a beautiful tune, and "Cover Of The Rolling Stone" got them just that. The rest is pure comedy, with "Acapulco Goldie" being by far the finest of the lot.
Of course, an album from the 70's about smoking pot and skanky women gets old fairly quickly, no matter how well it's done. When I was 15, this was the greatest album in the world. Now? Not so much, although the best moments still shine like gold.
PIXIES
SURFER ROSA
1988-4AD
Produced By STEVE ALBINI
1. Bone Machine
2. Break My Body
3. Something Against You
4. Broken Face
5. Gigantic
6. River Euphrates
7. Where Is My Mind?
8. Cactus
9. Tony's Theme
10. Oh My Golly!
11. Vamos
12. I'm Amazed
13. Brick Is Red
At the end of rock's strangest transitional decade (the 80's), the Pixies delivered one of the best one-two album punches ever with Surfer Rosa and Doolittle. Surfer Rosa sounds like nothing else from the 80's...dark, hilarious, scary, fun, and rocking all in one package. Definitely not pop or music for the masses in any way, those who discovered The Pixies in 1988 were in for something new and exciting. Black Francis was like no one else in rock, and Kim Deal (who was credited on the album as Mrs. John Murphy) became the coolest girl in music ever.
"Bone Machine" and Deal's "Gigantic" are the highlights, but the rest is very good as well. An almost perfect album from an almost operfect band, The Pixies were never better than at the end of the 80's. You should have both this and Doolittle in your collection.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
PINK FLOYD
THE WALL
1979-COLUMBIA
Produced By BOB EZRIN, DAVID GILMOUR & ROGER WATERS
1. In The Flesh?
2. The Thin Ice
3. Another Brick In The Wall Part 1
4. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
5. Another Brick In The Wall Part 2
6. Mother
7. Goodbye Blue Sky
8. Empty Spaces
9. Young Lust
10. One Of My Turns
11. Don't Leave Me Now
12. Another Brick In The Wall Part 3
13. Goodbye Cruel World
1. Hey You
2. Is There Anybody Out There?
3. Nobody Home
4. Vera
5. Bring The Boys Back Home
6. Comfortably Numb
7. The Show Must Go On
8. In The Flesh
9. Run Like Hell
10. Waiting For The Worms
11. Stop
12. The Trial
13. Outside The Wall
After the great back to back releases of Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd stumbled ever so slightly with Animals, then released the bloated and egotistical (on the part of Roger Waters) The Wall. Hailed at the time as a masterpiece, the album has not aged well, with a few exceptions. "Another Brick In The Wall" stands as their biggest hit. "Comfortably Numb", "Hey You" and "Nobody Home" stand among the band's best work, and there are stretches where it's still very good.
But the fact is, the head of Roger Waters keeps this from being what it was once hailed as being. He seemingly never stops singing (not his strong suit, anyway), and some of the songs seem to drag much longer than they actually are. The concept is tired, and many of the between song affects sound out of place and overly clever. But still, this is an important album, especially if you were just coming out of high school in the early 80's. And it is the very last gasp of the classic Pink Floyd lineup (one terrible album after this, then Waters left with his ego). Not nearly as strong as it once was, it's still a big rock document.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
TALKING HEADS
REMAIN IN LIGHT
1980-SIRE
Produced By BRIAN ENO
1. Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
2. Crosseyed And Painless
3. The Great Curve
4. Once In A Lifetime
5. Houses In Motion
6. Seen And Not Seen
7. Listening Wind
8. The Overload
The 1980's were the strangest musical decade of the rock years: don't tell Talking Heads. They came into the decade with a bang, dropping Remain In Light like a bomb. Better than its predecessor, Fear Of Music, this album is a tightly wound, frantic, quirky and almost frightening work. Brian Eno gets the most out of the band (and guitarist Adrian Belew) and a perfect group of songs. The sound is almost disco but more structured and faster, and with David Byrne sounding more confident than ever, the record surprisingly rocks harder than anything else in their catalog.
"Once In A Lifetime" is the band's defining song, and the entire album stays true to its hypnotic rhythm. From the opening of "Born Under Punches", it never stops. This is a truly classic album, bringing everything that was good about Talking Heads into one neat little package. A must have.
Link _________________ May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...
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