"Unearthed vol. 1" is celebrating
Y&T's return to the stage in an almost original line-up.
Y&T has recorded 16 albums and this album compiles unreleased stuff from the band's thirty year career.
Shout It Out was originally written for the brilliant "Ten" record. After giving this song several spins it really should have made the album. It has all the characteristic Y & T elements - lots of full vocals, crunchy guitars, sing along melodies lines and really great guitar solos.
Premiered on this year's Sweden Rock festival
Wild If I Wanna is another really strong Y & T anthem demoed in 1986.
Standing In The Fire keeps up the high standard, both music and sound quality wise from an album mainly compiled of demo material. Meniketti proves to be an excellent lead player with a long tasty solo on the outro.
In The Name Of Love is one of my favorites. The bombastic ballad has very emotional vocals complemented by fantastic lead playing.
In The Name Of Love could easily been a hit on Y & T's records in the late eighties/early nineties.
Dirty Love is among the newer tracks and it is an energy packed kick ass rock song. Written right before the disappointing "Musically Incorrect" album,
Dirty Love would have improved the album.
Play By Play is driven by a funky guitar with a quite boring chorus.
Short Arms is a mediocre song, but with a great chorus. Not a bad song, but pretty ignorant compared to Y & T standards.
Fast Track has a great groove to it. The chorus has funky undertones like
Play by Play.
Very thick and drenched guitars dominate
Love Gone Wrong. Again the song is built around a melodic chorus.
The boogie rocker
16 Tons was recorded in mid eighties and in the words of Phil Kennemore "Fun, straight-ahead rock a la Barroom Boogie".
I Make Believe is among the really cool inclusions on "Unearthed vol. 1". It was recorded as an unfinished demo in 1982 without vocals. For this record
Y&T finished the song 21 years later by writing lyrics, melody line and adding a solo. It really has a vintage
Y&T touch.
Another cool inclusion is
Hard Times, which originally appeared on "Ten". This is the original version of the song and it is quite different from the album version. This version is much more laid back till the chorus kicks in, which isn't that far from the original album version. Funny how you get another prospect on a song that you listened to for many years and certainly a thing that makes this album worth buying.
Driver is a straight ahead rock song - a bit primitive.
Give Me Rock is another song from 82 finished in the summer 2003. Again a bit primitive and marked by the ravages of time.
Shake Down is plain fun Hard Rock with heavy inspiration from AC/DC, for whom
Y&T opened for in the eighties.
Trigger Happy is among the highlights of "Unearthed vol. 1". The song is driven by a powerful riff and Dave's vocals sound great. There is so much power compressed into this song even though it's a demo from 1988 recorded on analog tape. A song too good to be forgotten and
Y&T fans are blessed that this gem now is available on CD.
As a special inclusion for the die-hard fans,
Rockazoid Rollaroid is from
Y&T's first demo tape. It's from 1974 when
Y&T was experimenting with space rock. You miss Dave's great vocals as Phil and Leonard Haze sings (or what you call it) on this one. Poor song - but funny inclusion.
Overall "Unearthed vol. 1" is a really cool CD packed with excellent quality recordings of unreleased material from 1974 right through to 2003. The booklet has liner notes by the band about each track. As mentioned in the track by track review there are some standard tracks, but surprisingly this CD works as a consistent album and definitely ranks up there with the best
Y&T albums in my collection. Some of these tracks are way better than the ones that made the albums.
Written by
Michael Wednesday, October 6, 2004
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