Album Review: Anthrax - State of Euphoria (1988)

For metal thrashing goodness there are four bands that you can really count on - Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica and Slayer.  Hell, they're the staple of the genre.  I've thrashed Metallica to death, Megadeth every now and then, I've somehow gone off Slayer, and Anthrax I play on the odd occasion nowadays.  I really should be cranking them up more often, as they've got some great material - Spreading the Disease is my personal favorite, and you can't go wrong with Among the Living, either.  It turns out that State of Euphoria is pretty damn good too.  Not quite as good as the other aforementioned two albums, but it still commands a good deal of respect.  Well, at least it commands my respect anyway.  The very first Anthrax album I bought was The Collection, and there are a number of songs from that compilation here - "Out of Sight, Out of Mind", "Make me Laugh", "Anti-Social" and "Misery Loves Company" - almost half the album, which always says something about the album when a good portion of the track list makes it to the compilation records.  "Be All, End All", "Who Cares Wins" are pretty damn good as well, and the record concludes on a high note with "Finale." A highly respectable album, indeed.  Now, go out and get it!  A-

Album Review: Bryan Ferry - Boys & Girls (1985)

Not all great songs come from great albums - the band Journey is perhaps one of the better examples of this.  Their best album is by far their Greatest Hits album from 1988, simply because it contains ALL of their best songs, and I do mean ALL. Their studio albums were nothing to rave about, they had the singles and that's all they had to go on.  If it weren't for the (great) singles the albums would be nothing.  Some great, great songs come from very average albums, and "Slave to Love" by Bryan Ferry is a good example of this.  It is one of those songs I would consider to be "perfect", a lavishly constructed love ballad completely devoid of the sloppy, pretentious proclivities endemic to many a love song.  It is art, through and through. But the album it comes from, Boys & Girls, is 45 percent great singles (OK, one of the songs is admittedly a prelude) and 55 percent filler material.  Not rubbish, but not great either.  I may some day come to appreciate "Stone Woman", but if I do listen to this album, it is of course, for the likes of "Slave to Love" and "Windswept."  It's certainly not one of my favorite Ferry albums, even if it does contain some of my favorite Ferry solo recordings. I was a bit disappointed after first listening to this album many years ago, and I'm still at best lukewarm about it.  Stay for "Slave to Love", "Don't Stop the Dance", "Windswept" and its prelude, "Wasteland."  That being said, don't let this album stop you from checking out his other material, both from his solo career and with Roxy Music, because there is many a great song, and indeed many a great album, for your listening pleasure.  B

Album Review: Icehouse - Primitive Man (1982)

Having previously reviewed Icehouse's debut album, Icehouse (or Flowers, depending on how you look at it) I found it to be an excellent album, with many a surprise and some great hits to boot.  It was a confusing album regarding the title - the band was initially called Flowers, with the album called Icehouse.  Iva Davies subsequently renamed the band Icehouse, so there's a bit of confusion here I suppose as to whether to call the album Flowers or Icehouse.  I myself tend to stick to the first one.  It's being a while since I wrote that review, and I feel the time is right to review another.  Primitive Man from 1982 is itself surprisingly good, and having "Great Southern Land" on it always make the visit worthwhile even if it turns out to be the only good song on the album.  Of course, it's not.  I've always liked "Uniform", "Hey Little Girl" and the instrumental, "Glam", but the very Bowiesque "Mysterious Thing" and the respectable "Break These Chains" certainly need a good listening to as well.  "Street Cafe" is a bit on the dull side and it won't hurt to give it a miss. Otherwise, this is a very respectable album, with of course, a great opening track in "Great Southern Land."  Very good indeed.  A-

Album Review: Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet (1986)

Some of my earliest memories of hard rock music involve the band Bon Jovi.  Back in the eighties, I never liked hard rock music - in fact, I loathed it, and by extension, I didn't think much of Bon Jovi's songs either. But like all rock music, it was a classic case of 'my, how the tables have turned.'  I never liked rock music on the whole until about 1998, when my favorite radio station, which played pop music from the eighties until the then present nineties, decided to switch to a purely contemporary playlist.  I found two problems with that - firstly, the late nineties was for me, a time when music started to suck big time, and secondly, I still wanted to hear my eighties songs, the stuff that I grew up with all those years ago. But that change in format turned out to be a mixed blessing as it forced me to embrace a style of music that I was hesitant to embrace for many years, and it was a change I will never regret, one that in turn changed me forever. I decided to switch to a classic rock station, and from there my repertoire of music that I liked increased exponentially.  I soon became a big fan of classic rock, and from there my taste quickly expanded to include harder styles of rock music (there were some exceptions to this rule - I loved AC/DC since The Razors Edge, probably because my silly sense of humor was enthralled by Brian Johnson's voice). Soon, what I used to hate, I quickly came to love. Bon Jovi is a good example of this dichotomy between the tastes of the old-but-young me and me from 1998 onward, and the album I am reviewing here, Slippery When Wet, contains two of their biggest hits, "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "Livin' On a Prayer."  In fact, these two songs were the reason I bought the album in the first place.  I've decided to go over the album in full this time, and I have to say it isn't surprisingly bad.  Not shit hot, mind you.  There are some respectable songs to be found here, aside from the aforementioned classics and the likes of "Wanted Dead or Alive", which is another well-known Bon Jovi staple.  Listening to "Let it Rock", "Raise Your Hands", "Without Love" and "I'd Die For You", and I'm beginning to understand why this album is considered by many to be their best. Do you, or perhaps will you, consider it to be their best?  There's only one way to find out.  A good album to say the least.  A-

Album Review: Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)

The Bob Dylan of today is a very different thing to the Bob Dylan who started out as a young aspiring folkie in the early sixties.  This is of course, when he was still using an acoustic guitar exclusively - no electric guitar or any other of this electrified, amplified witchcraft, as many folk puritans will tell you to this very day.  And with the very early Bob Dylan albums, it's quickly evident to hear that he's still in that very formative phase - his proficiency with the guitar hasn't quite fully developed - but his songwriting knack was just as mature and formed as it is today. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is easily my favorite of the early Dylan albums, the best of the pre-electric era records.  Some of his best known songs are found here - songs that helped to put on the map, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" "Girl From the North Country" and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" are songs that even people who have a basic familiarity with Bob Dylan should know about, and if they don't know about them then they don't know jack.  I particularly love the wide variation in tempo between tracks here - "Blowin' In The Wind" is taking its time, whereas "Bob Dylan's Blues" and "I Shall be Free" like to move through time with a rushed, yet tempered sense of pace.  If I were to recommend a Bob Dylan to listen to, I would first, of course, have to specify a particular decade, or era.  But if I were asked to recommend something from the early Dylan catalog, I would most certainly recommend this gem. Again, this album is the best of the early Dylan. But on the whole, it is also one of his all-time best.  A great album all around.  A

Album Review: Rodney Rude - LIVE - Rats Arse Tour (1995)

Think of comedians with a predilection for profanity and Billy Connolly is probably the most likely candidate to come to mind.  His prowess with the F word has enthralled and amused audiences around the world for decades, whilst simultaneously installing himself as some sort of a paragon among comedians for his combination of storytelling and politically correct humor in which no subject matter is spared from ridicule and criticism.  And whilst he may very well be one of the most beloved comics in history, there is invariably an element of society, a puritanical fringe who is diametrically opposed to profane humor in any way, shape or form, dedicated to making their objections to his choice of comedy vocation well known.  And of course, it gets them nowhere.  Closer to home, I've long found myself indulging in the anti-PC, foul-mattered dirty humor of Australian comedian and musician Kevin Bloody Wilson, who himself has carved out a rather sizable niche audience dedicated to his profanity-laced, country-themed ditties, bringing into his fold of fans and admirers the likes of famous faces such as Elton John and Prince Charles.  And from Kevin Bloody Wilson I eventually found myself becoming a fan of another Australian 'blue' comedian, Rodney Rude. Often mistaken for one another, their approach to peddling schoolyard smut to the masses differs markedly.  Kevin Bloody Wilson stuck to singing dirty ballads, whereas Rodney Rude stuck to a unique brand of stand-up comedy in which taboo jokes were fired out one by one with impeccable comedy timing and with no regards for moral constraints.  Like Kevin Bloody Wilson, Rodney Rude was all about foul language, dirty jokes, and politically incorrect subject matter.  The second album that I bought of his, LIVE - Rats Arse Tour, is one of the finest recordings he has to offer.  Taking the piss out of everyone from Michael Jackson to Ray Charles to Rolf Harris, nobody is given lenient treatment from Rodney. I listen to albums like this as a form of respite from an ever-increasing politically correct world where offending someone is near on effortless.  I am forever thankful albums like this exist to offset the turgid thin-skinned BS we are expected to accept in ever-increasing amounts, in a world where laughing at ourselves or using humor to negotiate taboo subject matter is nowadays the greatest crime of them all.  A+

Album Review: Megadeth - Rust In Peace (1990)

Megadeth is a band that I haven't been actively listening to for a long time now, and I have a good number of their albums in my collection.  Up until recently, I stopped listening to metal regularly like I used to, and every now and then I would play one of my many metal albums, savoring the moment and once again reminding myself of what makes me love the genre so much.  Thrash and speed metal are sub-genres that I'm the most familiar with, and Megadeth is easily one of the great thrash bands out there - in fact they make up part of what is called the Big Four - Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer.  I love their debut album in particular, in fact it's my favorite Megadeth album, and this album here, Rust In Peace, would be the second-in-command of my favorites hierarchy.  Some people may try and argue over Dave Mustaine's vocal style, but one immutable fact is that he is a superb thrash guitarist.  Having not listened to this album in quite some time, I'm once again basking in fast-paced, thrash goodness Megadeth style, and with songs like "Hangar 18" "Poison Was the Cure" "Take No Prisoners" and "Rust in Peace", the memories of this great record are so, so good.  And some songs just get even better.  A very good album indeed. A-

Album Review: Rod Stewart - Every Beat of My Heart (1986)

The eighties for the most part certainly weren't kind to Rod Stewart.  The phenomenon that was his career in the 1970s, as marked by hits such as "Maggie May", "You Wear It Well" and the like seemed to evaporate as he tried to reinvent himself for the new wave era, which met with limited success.  Yes, he was still pushing out hits, but nothing of course that was of the same quality of his seventies material.  Camouflage was an awful album in nearly every aspect, the only thing saving it were songs like "Some Guys Have All The Luck", which, despite being the biggest and best song on the album, was still rubbish, cheesy even, which took at best a deep-rooted nostalgia for the era that would make you bring out the album on the very rare occasion.  Foolish Behaviour wasn't much better, either.  I still play one track on the album, "She Won't Dance With Me", because to my surprise it was actually a good song.  I am, however, somewhat fond of Tonight I'm Yours.  But I'm surprised that the album that I'm currently reviewing, Every Beat of My Heart from 1986, is curiously better than what everybody else has been saying.  Of course, some of songs lean a bit too far toward the cheesy side, but still, they're much better than the disaster that was Camouflage.  Several songs on this album are good - "Another Heartache", "Ten Days of Rain", "Red Hot in Black", "Every Beat of My Heart" and "Love Touch" have been getting visited on more occasions than what I perhaps should be admitting to.  But I'm not trying to ply any trade based on my credibility as a music nut - yeah, I like it.  Who really cares.  Now, shut up!  B+