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Bruce Dickinson - Accident of Birth |
| April 3rd, 2005 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1997
Tracks: Freak; Toltec 7 Arrival; Starchildren; Taking the Queen; Darkside of Aquarius; Road to Hell; Man of Sorrows; Accident of Birth; The Magician; Welcome to the Pit; The Ghost of Cain; Omega; Arc of Space
Best track: Darkside of Aquarius
Tracks to skip: Man of Sorrows, Magician & Ghost of Cain are frequently skipped
This was the album that brought me back into the fold, as it were. I went through the story briefly in the Skunkworks review, so here’s the rest of it. Balls to Picasso was a disappointment and Skunkworks was outright bad (or so I thought) when I first heard it. So, I pretty much wrote Bruce Dickinson off and submerged myself in lots of new music like King Crimson and Phish. I heard that Bruce was bringing Adrian Smith back for his next album and it was going to be ‘heavy’ again. My thought was, wonderful, he knows he’s made crap for the past few years, basically since he left Maiden, and now he’s going to try to play ‘metal’ again and try to salvage his fan base, but it’s a pretty pathetic move. So yeah, I’ll admit it; I had no faith in Bruce. I should’ve. My friend Brian (to his credit, never wavering in his faith) picked this album up and told me that I HAD to get it. I was still apprehensive, so I listened to a track to see how it sounded. I heard a bit of Road to Hell and wouldn’t ya know it, Brian was right and Bruce Was Back. The next day I bought the album and was floored by how damn good it was. I think the reality of the necessity for this album is a little different from my version. Bruce did indeed see his following drop off with Skunkworks so he decided to put out something that would not only wake up the metal community, but also show to his former bandmates in Iron Maiden that they could not compete with him. I honestly think this was Bruce’s answer to Maiden’s X Factor which isn’t really so hot. Bruce blew them out of the water and everyone knew it.
For me, this is how Maiden should sound now and how they should have sounded in the mid-late 90’s. It’s definitely in the classic style of metal that Maiden is known for, but updated with heaviness that Maiden had not attempted before. From the first 5 seconds of Freak, Bruce shows that he’s not messing around on this album. Freak is a powerhouse that doesn’t let up and reminds you that Bruce Dickinson still has it. Bruce joined forces with his writing partner from Balls to Picasso, Roy Z, brought in a new rhythm section of Eddie Casillias (bass) & David Ingraham (drums), and found the missing link to the whole thing, Adrian Smith. Growing up listening to Iron Maiden, Adrian Smith was always my favorite guitar player of the group. Dave Murray is a great musician, but Adrian’s songs and his solos and his overall playing was possibly the best part of that band. Adrian put out his ASAP solo album in 1989 and he made a brief appearance on Maiden’s Live at Donnington show in ’92, but otherwise we hadn’t heard anything from him until Accident of Birth came out. His playing on this album is the tastiest part and is also a smaller example of what the whole sound of this album is about: updated and modern, but still classic. All of Adrian’s guitar solos on here are excellent, but his solo on Omega (which is a fantastic song anyway) is quite possibly the best he’s ever done. It just floors me how much emotion and power he can get out of a hunk of wood with strings on it. Adrian also contributed two compositions to the album, Road to Hell & Welcome to the Pit. Both are good songs and further expand what kind of songs he’s capable of writing.
Speaking of songwriting, they didn’t show it too much on Balls to Picasso, but Bruce and Roy Z form a lethal songwriting partnership on this album (and from this point forward, honestly). Freak, Taking the Queen, Darkside of Aquarius, Omega and Arc of Space are some of Bruce’s best songs, and that’s really saying something. I love Omega a lot, and the guitar solo is definitely the best part of this album, but as an overall song Darkside of Aquarius is the best one on here. The track absolutely kicks ass and goes to many different places including a wonderful medieval section in the middle. No, it’s not like Stonehenge! The first half of the album just rocks (Freak through Road to Hell) and the last two songs are stellar, but there is a dip in quality in the middle. Accident of Birth is a cool song, as is Welcome to the Pit, but depending on my mood I skip Man of Sorrows (semi-cheesy piano ballad), The Magician (total cheese) and Ghost of Cain (sorta decent). Man of Sorrows has a great solo from Adrian, but listening to the rest of the song is pretty torturous. OK, yes, I know about the lyrics to it. A lot of the lyrics on this album (Man of Sorrows and the title track specifically) are really a kind of therapy for Bruce; he’s clearly working out some stuff that’s been boiling up in him since he was a kid. As a song though, Man of Sorrows is pretty cheesy. So, what we have on this album is a few songs of cheese, but the rest are solid, heavy, intense and just great. This is a great album and I like it a little more than Skunkworks, but I think I’ll give it the same grade. It’s not quite a 98, but it’s most definitely a great album and a wonderful return to form for Bruce.
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. For Accident of Birth the 2nd disc is only demos and different versions of the same songs on the album. So, unless you want the Spanish version of Man of Sorrows (so comical, and horrible), this particular reissue is useless.
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Journey - In the Beginning |
| April 3rd, 2005 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1980
Tracks: Of a Lifetime; Topaz; Kohoutek; On a Saturday Night; It’s All Too Much; In My Lonely Feeling/Conversations; Mystery Mountain; Spaceman; People; Anyway; You’re on Your Own; Look into the Future; Nickel & Dime; I’m Gonna Leave You
Best track: either It’s All Too Much, Kohoutek, In My Lonely Feeling/Conversations, or Nickel & Dime
Track to skip: Anyway
This is the only Journey album never released on CD and it’s one that most people don’t know about. It’s pretty useless if you buy all the studio albums, but I guess it served some sort of purpose. In the Beginning was released in January 1980 with a dual purpose of holding the fans over until Departure came out a few months later and also to remind people that Journey made 3 albums before Steve Perry joined. I do wish they’d put this on CD, as the tracks total 76 minutes so it’d definitely fit on a CD and might be a good introduction to current listeners who also don’t know that the band existed before Steve Perry. The album draws 5 of the 14 tracks from the first album, 6 from Look into the Future, and only 3 from Next. It’s been many, many years since I listened to Look into the Future and Next…maybe 15-20 years, so I’m not totally sure if they put the best tracks from those albums on here. I’ll trust Columbia’s judgment on this. I think it would’ve been nice (and would have sold more copies) if they had put the unreleased Cookie Duster (an outtake from Next that didn’t surface until the Time Cubed box set in 1992) on here instead of Anyway, which isn’t too hot of a song. Maybe it works better in the context of Look into the Future, but on here it doesn’t sound that good.
I don’t particularly care for the sequencing on this album; I think they could have done it better. The first disc (I’m reviewing my vinyl copy here, so I actually had to flip the records! What fun!) is a mixture of the first two albums, while disc 2 is a mixture of the 2nd and 3rd. I don’t know why they set it up like this, but it’s not something I would have done. It was nice hearing this again, after years of not having a record player. There were some songs I had forgotten about, like Look into the Future and specifically the band’s reworking of the forgotten Beatles song, George Harrison’s It’s All Too Much, originally from Yellow Submarine. They really did a whole new arrangement of it and it turned out quite nice. It’s funny, Journey’s version points to how the band would sound in certain songs of the Steve Perry era. Another Beatles part of the album, this time that doesn’t work is on You’re On Your Own, which is only a decent song, but it features a part that sounds WAY too much like I Want You (She’s So Heavy).
All in all, this is enjoyable, even if it’s a little disjointed. Obviously if you have the first 3 albums then it’s stupid for you to seek this out on vinyl since there is no new material. I still think Columbia should put this out on CD, price it at around $10 and maybe it would lead some Journey fans to the albums this is taken from. Hell, it couldn’t hurt.
Rating: 84
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Citizen Lane - Lovingspaceharmony |
| April 3rd, 2005 under Album Reviews. [ Comments: none ]
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Released: 1999
Tracks: Did You Know; Epifany; Som’n Wicked; Beamin’; One Step Closer; Cupcake; Other Side; Golden Hominy; Rock and a Hard Thing; Space Love and Harmony; 20 Hundred Years Ago; Maria Jane (Live); Som’n Wicked (single mix)
Best track: One Step Closer
Track to skip: none really
As of this writing, I don’t yet have Citizen Lane’s second album, Lion’s Mouth, so my observations on the growth of the band have to jump from their 1st album to this, their 3rd one. When I saw this album, I hadn’t heard from the group in a few years and honestly had no idea that they still existed. What happened in the years after the 2nd album was that Lane Eubank (leader and primary songwriter of the group) moved to Denton, TX, went back to school in the music school at the University of North Texas and then formed a new band. This album was recorded in Lane’s house (except for the live version of Maria Jane) and it sounds surprisingly great. It still knocks me off my guard to hear ‘home recordings’ sound this good. Just goes to show that you don’t need an expensive studio to have an excellent sounding album.
The growth between the first album 4 years before and this album is just insane. This album shows how utterly comfortable the band is in the studio and they (what sounds as being effortless) play like they’re playing a show. The band is extremely tight, but loose enough so that the grooves just drip off the disc. Like I said in the review for their first album, Citizen Lane is a band to be seen live. It shocked me when I got this to hear how they just totally captured that live atmosphere on a studio album. This album has some fantastic grooves and I can’t help but shaking my ass wherever I am while listening to this. Sitting in a chair in front of my computer? Yeah, my ass is shaking. There are so many great grooves on this album! Lane’s songwriting is stellar here, but I have to make special mention to bassist Jeff Plant and drummer Paul Stivitts. These guys are the reason why the grooves are so fat on this album. It’s just a “shake your ass all over the place” kind of disc.
I love that the group brought in a keyboardist for this album; it really brings out the funk on this album. Most of the songs are really just excellent, but there are a few that rise above those and are nearly life-changing. I love it in the chorus of Som’n Wicked where *that* chord comes and it’s like the sun bursting through the clouds after not seeing it for three months. It’s such a radiant chord. Both Did You Know and Space Love & Harmony feature some nice vocals from Norah Jones, a few years before anybody heard of her. Epifany is a great funk track that changes to a ska near the end and it’s so perfect. The absolute highlight of the album is definitely One Step Closer. I get homesick for Austin every time I hear it because it not only sounds like Austin, but it name-drops a ton of Austin references. It’s such a beautiful and groovetastic song and one of my all time favorites by anyone. Lovingspaceharmony is a great album and I tend to listen to this one quite a lot. I’d highly recommend trying to find a copy of this.
Rating: 96
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