Specter At The Feast
by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

From RockyRaccoon TOP 100 COMMENTER 07/09/2013 19:52 | #80722

In all honesty, there are about three or four songs on this album that I wasn’t too fond of. It was BRMC experimenting, changing things up a little bit. Usually, when I think of BRMC music, I think of something gritty, like the soundtrack to the violence of the old west, and a few of the songs on this album just sounded like BRMC trying to be quieter, and typically, they are anything but quiet. I appreciate bands trying something different, but the experiment in this case just didn’t work too well. But, the rest of the album is absolutely phenomenal, enough to more than make up for the few songs I wasn’t too fond of. Seriously, songs like “Sell It" and “Rival" are just absolutely awesome BRMC songs, what you would expect from them. Powerful, loud, heavy bass, heavy guitars and some powerful vocals. Great album.

"Night Beat" from 1963 is considered one of Sam Cooke's best albums. Since the album does not contain any of Cooke's hits or best known songs, the cause of the album's reputation is rather achieved through its overall casual late-night blues mood.

Cooke has written three of the twelve songs, and all three are among the album's strongest. Best known is probably "Mean Old World", which has both elements of blues and pop. "You Gotta Move" is also figreat with its light arrangement that allows room for a fine acoustic guitar.

A young Billy Preston also helps to put his stamp on "Night Beat" - listen for example to his somewhat unconventional organ playing on "Little Red Rooster"

The traditional "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" is also given a refreshingly simple arrangement, again, the acoustic guitar clear in the soundstage.

Some of the songs are perhaps a little too neatly arranged to be really interesting, but of course all numbers are well produced with Cooke's voice as the focal point.

I really like the fact that they were trying something a little different here with a few slower tracks. Sometimes it works sometimes not, but there is some ambition here to go outside their comfort zone. I really like this album. Lullaby is gorgeous (Edited)

From Cymro2011 06/11/2013 22:00 | #78628

Disappointing this one. It has some great tracks but on the whole there just isn't much enjoy and some tracks are just downright boring. I really wanted this to be as good as its predecessor.