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Kiss - Destroyer |
| May 12th, 2004 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1976
Tracks: Detroit Rock City; King of the Night Time World; God of Thunder; Great Expectations; Flaming Youth; Sweet Pain; Shout it Out Loud; Beth; Do You Love Me
Best track: Detroit Rock City
Tracks to skip: God of Thunder & Great Expectations
Destroyer is Kiss’ most famous studio album and rightly considered the best one that doesn’t have “Alive” in the title. Clearly it’s the most consistent studio album they ever made. After the success of Alive and especially Rock and Roll All Nite, they felt they had something to prove and they honestly set out at making the best album they could. The band got aboard producer Bob Ezrin (who had worked with Alice Cooper a lot) to help them in their task. Looking at the liner notes just now, I noticed how Ezrin had a hand in writing nearly all of these songs, the exceptions being God of Thunder and Sweet Pain. For this album (and only for this album, as far as the Early Kiss goes) the band significantly focused on production and not just writing songs about females. Yeah there are the usual female ones, but at least they’re from a different point of view.
The album starts out with this strange introduction of a kid (we assume) leaving his house and driving around listening to Alive on his car 8-track. And of course, since Detroit Rock City is so intense, he ends up crashing his car at the end of the song. Actually, I think Detroit Rock City is a really cool song and probably the best song Kiss ever wrote. It has a great chorus, really cool middle bit with harmony guitars, and a nice bass line from Gene Simmons. I’ve always liked his basslines to tell you the truth. Yeah, DRC is a kick ass song. Thinking in terms of ‘album’ here, the song segues nicely into King of the Night Time World, which is definitely the 2nd best song on here. It’s a great 1-2 punch to start off the album. And then…children screaming? Ugh, see, I like God of Thunder as a composition (see Alive II to hear how it should be done), but this studio version is SO stupid and just it just plods along at the slowest pace ever. The kids at the beginning of the song (and all the way through it, actually) are confusing and really stupid. Why??? I still don’t get what they have to do with Kiss or the song or anything. It’s not a bad song since they clearly want to be comic book characters (check them out on the album cover; first drawing of the band instead of actual photos…and Gene looks pretty damn cool) and that’s what the song really is. It just comes across as pretty stupid on the studio version.
I think the band did go over the top sometimes concerning the production. The large chorus on Great Expectations makes a bad song 10 times worse. There are also the infamous strings and brass on Beth. OK, I honestly kinda like this song. Yeah it’s cheesy, but as a song it’s not bad. However, instead of the super orchestra and piano coverage they have on it, what they SHOULD have done is done it acoustic…like they finally did on the Unplugged album. Maybe it was cooler in 1976 to have huge orchestras than it was to do a simple acoustic rendition; I don’t know. I know I would still prefer some acoustic guitars to syrupy strings and cheesy brass. As for the other songs on here, Flaming Youth is a good song, but the chorus is silly. Sweet Pain doesn’t affect me either way. Do You Love Me has some nice riffs but the lyrics are stupid. Shout it Out Loud is for me a better “anthem” than Rock and Roll All Nite. I think it’s a better song and it rocks more. However, RNR All Nite is better to sing along with and having “I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day” is a better chorus than “shout it, shout it, shout it out loud”. Whatever. I still like the song. It all boils down to this; Destroyer is the best non-compilation studio album. If you want the best Kiss album, go with Alive. You have to admire them for their attempt to make a serious and well-produced album. I wish they would have continued with the idea and possibly gone further with it. Unfortunately, for the next ones they went back to just doing records that were collections of songs.
Rating: 83
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Bruce Dickinson - Skunkworks |
| May 9th, 2004 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1996
Tracks: Space Race; Back From the Edge; Inertia; Faith; Solar Confinement; Dreamstate; I Will Not Accept the Truth; Inside the Machine; Headswitch; Meltdown; Octavia; Innerspace; Strange Death in Paradise
Best track: Innerspace or Strange Death
Track to skip: none
I have a strange history with this album. When this first came out, I listened to it and was extremely disappointed. To me, it sounded like Bruce was trying to be trendy by sounding all grunge-like. I honestly thought it was awful. And after two bad albums in a row (so I thought) then I kinda gave up on Bruce. It was a period of my life where I was discovering a bunch of new music anyway. I was getting past all the Iron Maiden and related stuff that I listened to so much, and discovering King Crimson, Frank Zappa, and jazz players like Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Years later when I got back into Bruce’s music after hearing Accident of Birth I decided to show the man some faith and give this album another shot. As you can guess, I was blown away by it. I automatically loved it and I’m totally confused why I didn’t love this album a few years before. I guess I wasn’t ready for it, or maybe I was still in my “Iron Maiden can do no wrong” phase or whatever. Whatever the reason, once I bought this I came around to thinking that it wasn’t Bruce who went into different (and bad) directions, but Iron Maiden. Yeah, Bruce made a bad album for Balls to Picasso. Maybe he knew that as well. So what he did was form a new band and come close to having that band not be his backup band, but *the* band that he just happened to be a singer of. It didn’t totally work out as he’d like, and this band would only make one true album (plus Alive in Studio A).
Bruce teamed up with a new songwriting partner and guitarist Alex Dickson and formed the core of the new group. Rounding out Skunkworks is Chris Dale on bass and Alessandro Elena on drums. Bruce has always seemed to write with great guitar players and have the results nearly always be excellent. First with Adrian Smith in Iron Maiden, then with Janick Gers on Tattooed Millionaire, and on to his partnerships with Roy Z and Alex Dickson. I love these songs that they wrote for this album! It seems to me like it’s a bit of a concept album, having to do with space travel. Reminds me of an updated version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity in a way. Either way, it’s definitely a Science Fiction type of lyrical album, but not so much that is would turn people off. That’s the lyrical part. The music part of Skunkworks is still heavy, but without the ‘metal’ attached to it. It’s obvious Bruce had been listening to a lot of Soundgarden prior to this and it shows. Some songs actually sound like Soundgarden out-takes. He isn’t screaming as much as he did in Maiden and that’s one of the reasons I was thrown off in the beginning. Without the screaming, there leaves more room for actual singing and that’s a welcome change.
One major thing that is a welcome change from the last two albums is that there are no bad songs on here. The album starts out absolutely fierce with Space Race and Back From the Edge, continues on with more great material and ends up on an extremely high note in Innerspace & Strange Death in Paradise. These two songs are killer. I absolutely love the calm bit in Strange Death. Even in listening to this right now I’m still just floored by how excellent it is. I still love Accident of Birth and Chemical Wedding a lot, but Skunkworks might actually be Bruce’s best album so far. I don’t know, I love all 3 pretty equally. I know there are some people out there who probably didn’t give this album a chance because it was different than what we were used to, but there’s no reason to ignore it forever. This is an excellent album.
Rating: 97
*****
In 2005 all of Bruce’s albums were remastered and reissued with a bonus disc of all B-sides associated with the particular album. This Skunkworks reissue has some pretty cool B-sides (and some really goofy ones) and the entire Japan-only Skunkworks Live EP…which has a great version of Iron Maiden’s The Prisoner. This Skunkworks band was pretty great and the bonus disc further shows it. Highly recommended, even more so.
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Megadeth - Rust in Peace |
| May 9th, 2004 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1990
Tracks: Holy Wars…The Punishment Due; Hangar 18; Take No Prisoners; Five Magics; Poison was the Cure; Lucretia; Tornado of Souls; Dawn Patrol; Rust in Peace…Polaris
Best track: Holy Wars or Rust in Peace
Track to skip: Poison was the Cure isn’t that great
Rust in Peace is a big improvement over the last one. This is Megadeth’s 3rd album in a row with a different band. Of course Dave Mustaine and David Ellefson are still here (always the case) and now they’re joined by Nick Menza on drums and Marty Friedman on guitar. Menza and Friedman bring in a huge leap to the quality of the musicianship. Yeah, Mustaine & Ellefson are great, and Megadeth always had good musicians, but Nick and Marty raise the bar even higher. Nick’s drumming is monstrous all over this disc and Marty can take on Mustaine’s guitar playing any day. My favorite bit of this friendly competition is the solo section on Hangar 18. Mustaine and Friedman trade off solos like an old jazz cutting contest. Who wins? The listeners probably…that whole section is possibly the best guitar playing on this album. The overall musicianship on this whole album is probably my favorite aspect. Everyone is absolutely great.
It’s obvious from the first notes of Holy Wars that this album isn’t a drug-induced sleep-fest like the last one. I *think* that Mustaine got clean between So Far So Good and Rust in Peace. Also having Marty Friedman and Nick Menza are more than enough to inspire you to make better music. Whatever the case, the attention to detail is obvious all over this recording. All of the songs are very tightly composed with everything having a purpose. The only song on here that’s not too great is Poison was the Cure. I usually don’t skip it, but it’s actually just a pretty boring song. The rest of the songs are all great. They cover a lot of ground and show Megadeth wasn’t just about playing a million miles an hour. I say that Holy Wars and the title track are the best songs, but truthfully you could put Hangar 18, Tornado of Souls & a few others in the same spot. Whatever the best song is, it doesn’t matter. All of these songs & musicians contribute to Rust in Peace being Megadeth’s best album. It’s getting the same grade as Peace Sells, but this one is slightly better. Great album.
Rating: 95
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Mike Keneally & Beer for Dolphins - Dancing With Myself |
| May 6th, 2004 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 2000
Tracks: I Was Not Ready For You; Lonely Man; Friends and Family; Joe; Live in Japan; We’ll Be Right Back; I Will; Apple Pie; Backwards Deb; Ankle Bracelet; Dancing; Lhai Sal; Pretty Enough For Girls; Only Mondays; Kedgeree
Best track: maybe Lonely Man, maybe Backwards Deb/Ankle Bracelet, maybe Kedgeree…
Track to skip: none
Dancing With Myself is the bonus disc from the limited edition of Dancing. This is only available at Mike’s website. This is a very interesting disc as it not only gives skeletal versions of the Dancing songs, but also a glimpse of how the songs evolved. DWM is all ‘live and acoustic’ recorded at the Baked Potato in Hollywood in May of 2000. The first 4 songs are Mike solo on piano, the next 7 just Mike and his guitar and finally the last 4 are with the full band, although still acoustic. Let’s see, of the 15 songs on here, 3 are not on Dancing. The tag team of I Will & Apple Pie (the comedy numbers) were previously found on Boil That Dust Speck and Hat respectively, while Lonely Man gets its debut here. Lonely Man was planned for Dancing, but wasn’t included, probably for time reasons (Dancing clocks in at just under 80 minutes). Lonely Man is a great song and I can’t wait until we finally get the studio version.
Hearing these songs in their basic form you really understand how cool they are. Even in a stripped down version, there’s still so much going on within the songs. Plus, he’s singing while playing them, and they’re not exactly simple songs. The crowd on this is extremely responsive and clearly had a great time. The crowd singing on Live in Japan & I Will is wonderful and a lot of fun. I like the full band tracks, esp. Kedgeree. Mostly though, I prefer the solo stuff. There’s the intimacy of them, but also how great they sound in their bare form. I really see this as being essential and the perfect companion to Dancing. There are enough differences in the songs to keep everything fresh.
Rating: 90
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Mike Keneally & Beer for Dolphins - Dancing |
| May 6th, 2004 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 2000
Tracks: Live in Japan; Ankle Bracelet; Poo-Tee Weet?; Backwards Deb; We’ll Be Right Back; Joe; Pretty Enough for Girls; Taster; Dancing; Selfish Otter; Only Mondays; Lhai Sal; The Mystery Music; The Brown Triangles; MM; I Was Not Ready For You; Ragged Ass; Skull Bubbles; Friends and Family; Kedgeree
Best tracks: changes every time I listen to it, usually goes between Joe, I Was Not Ready For You, Japan & Kedgeree
Track to skip: Brown Triangles, it’s mostly just a noisy improv. Thankfully it’s short
I’ve been listening to music for a long time and I’ve more than reached that point where I know what I like. I’m at that point where I’m pretty discriminating in my musical tastes. True, I love hearing new music and although it may not seem so, I like discovering new stuff. For the most part though, most of my favorite albums are things I’ve been listening to for years (Iron Maiden, Journey, King Crimson, Phish, Beatles, etc.). It takes something pretty massive to rock my world these days. The only other albums by “new” bands (for me) I’ve bought recently that blew me away are things like OK Computer, Lateralus and Skylarking. And of course, Dancing. This is one of those strange albums, like XTC’s Skylarking, that instantly became one of my favorites on the very first listen. I mean, this album was and still is an instant top 5, Desert Island Disc & absolute favorite album for me.
After hearing some of this material live, and the sound clips on the website, I was sold on buying this album. From the first chorus of Live in Japan (like give, not dive) I was hooked not only on the album, but also Mike Keneally as well. One thing that I really love about Dancing is how everything comes together. To me, Mike’s entire career had been leading up to this album. The stuff before this was great, but this album was really the crowning of Mike Keneally as the king of good music or whatever. I don’t know! I love this album, OK! The songs are excellent on here. Live in Japan is a fantastic pop song (that should have been all over the radio) with some great prog-guitar playing on it. Any time I’m depressed or sad I pop this song in and boom, instant big smile. The songwriting is consistently excellent on Dancing and also Mike’s guitar playing is at its best. Check out the excellent solo on We’ll Be Right Back; probably my favorite of his. He’s a better singer on here, better arranger, better bandleader…all of it.
The cool thing is, honestly, this isn’t a “Mike Keneally” album. It’s a Beer For Dolphins album. The band is stellar on this. There’s keyboardist Marc Ziegenhagen, percussionist Tricia Williams, drummer Jason Harrison Smith, sax and flautist Evan Francis, trumpeter Chris Opperman, guitarist Rick Musallum (check out his lead on I Was Not Ready For You…damn) and especially bassist Bryan Beller. OK, I said how this album as a whole rocked my world. Beller rocked my bass world (and thus, my whole world). He has got such perfect tone on this album! Oh, it’s amazing. He comes up with fantastic and unpredictable basslines all over this thing. It’s just perfection. He automatically jumped into my group of favorite bassists after hearing this album. Yeah, it was a life-changing experience, this album. And, it hasn’t lost one bit of its importance or excellence in the billion times I’ve listened to it since I bought it. As far as current bands go, Mike Keneally’s is at the top…and this is the best place to go to hear it.
Rating: 98
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