This album went into different directions for me. This starts off with a psychedelic 1960’s Pink Floyd sound, then as the album continues, it goes off into a John Lennon sound. At first I wasn’t quite there with it, but, as the album went on, I became more interested. Each song gets better as the album continues. This is a rare gem, that you should give a listen to. I think you’ll be happy that you did. I give this 4 out of 5 Music Guru stars.
I am a big fan of the Tangent. This album did let me down a bit. It was mostly the song where Andy has a conversation throughout the song. The music in the background is very well done, as is expected from this band. The talking throughout that song really seemed to have bothered me. This one song takes what could have been a 4 or a 5 & brought it down to a 3.5 Music Guru stars out of 5. The music, as I’ve said is always good. Along with Andy Tillison, you have Jonas Reingold on bass, Luke Machin on guitars, Theo Travis on saxophones, & Steve Roberts on drums. With a band like this, how could the music not be great. I think I just need possiobly to give more thought to what Andy was trying to tell his listeners. This is also the same line up as the last Tangent album. That is something new for Tillison. Give it a listen & tell me what you think about it.
Another band with that live garage band sound, that has that vintage classic sound. The distortion is turned up high, the drums are right in your face & the bass is doing what bass is supposed to be doing…keeping the rhythm, letting the drums fly all over. The vocals are OK. Not bad, not good. It does fit the group however. I wasn’t sure whether I liked this or not, but, as they went into the longer songs, I started to feel the groove. This was recorded live in the studio, which may explain the rawness of the album. I give this 3.5 out of 5 Music Guru stars. Perhaps 4, with more listenings. A bit too raw for me.
This hard rock with a classic vibe band has just come out with their debut album. I do love the classic feel of it. It has that 1970’s distortion sound, at at times, even a wah-wah pedal. “Black Top” has a bass solo with drums playing along. This made me feel as if I was sitting in their garage, listening to them play live. The vocals were decent as well, although I did have a hard time hearing the lyrics. I give this 4 out of 5 Music Guru stars. What do you think?
For those of you who love hard metal, this will probably be the album for you. For me, this was OK. The music was really good. I loved the way that the bass & drumming played off of each other. The guitars did well. The vocals did absolutely nothing for me. It was difficult for me to hear most of the lyrics. For a metal band, there seems to have some progressive rock floating throughout the music. The band, in the 1980’s went by another name. That name was Carrion. They had a modestly sucessful stint back then. Perhaps they can do it again in the 2020’s. The music gets 3.5 Music Guru stars, the vocals get 2.5 out of 5 Music Guru stars. Sorry, Poltergeist, I give you 3 out of 5 Music Guru stars.
Harvey Dalton Arnold was a member of the Outlaws from 1976-1980. This album is far from the Outlaws music. It is more blues, but does have a twinge of that country-rock feel about it. This is not a great album, or as Harvey would say, it’s not a perfect album, but Harvey is very proud of this album. The music wasn’t bad. It has a heavy garage feel to it. I don’t say this in a bad way. I say this in the fact that it sounds a bit raw, which to me gives it a bit of charm. I give this 3.5 out of 5 Music Guru stars. Possibly more, with a few more listens.
This beautifully put together album is a wonderful thing to hear as you can hear the real way David Sancious would really want to play. This NJ native use to play with the original E Street Band, for the first 3 albums. He also played with Peter Gabriel, Stanley Clarke, Eric Clapton, Sting & more. Now he brings you this jazz gem. Sancious is a multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing keyboards & guitars. The album is very solid throughout with the exception of music at the end of the album. The song “War In Heaven” really left me flat. If it wasn’t for this song, the album would have rated higher, but, with this song, I give it 4 out of 5 Music Guru stars.
This is the 2nd album that I’ve reviewed from the band Professor & The Madmen. The first album was really good. It made 4 out of 5 Music Guru stars. This album does even better. Every song is a gem. Not a bad song on the album. With diffeerent genres floating all over the album, made it even better for me. Giving you some progressive rock, pop, rock, psychedelia, & even some funk floating throughout. As I said on the last review of this band, give this a listen, you won’t be disappointed. I give this 5 out of 5 Music Guru stars.
John Mitchell, whose name you may associate with Frost*, Kino, It Bites, & Arena, is a very talented multi-instrumentalist. On this album, you can hear this. His vocals remind me of another vocalist named Mark Truack of Unitopia. This is a good thing, as I really like Mark’s vocals, as well as John Mitchell’s vocals now. Most of the past Lonely Robot albums were space based. This one stays earth bound. The songs are more John based upon his memories, emotions & things similar to that. I’ve liked the previous Lonely Robot (John Mitchell’s solo work) albums, but this one, to me was better than the previous three. Once again, I give this 5 out of 5 Music Guru stars.
Blues fans are going to love this. There are different versions of blues all over this album. This album has it all. Fast, slow, hard, soft, etc. Usually when I hear a blues album, most of the album feels the same, but, not with this album. The album starts off with a rocking hard blues song, then is followed by a nice bluesy slower song. There are a bunch of A list guest stars on this album. They are Keb Mo, Eric Gales, Lee Oskar, Albert Lee, Jorma Kaukonen, Jesse Johnson, John Sebastian, Dion DiMucci, Mitch Ryder, Carla Cooke, Juma Sultan, Waddy Wachtel & more. Give this one a listen. I think that you’ll like it. I give this 5 out of 5 Music Guru stars.
