Another month, another cd assortment. I have been displaced for awhile now (as in no permanent home to call my own) so my music listening time has been drastically butchered. Trying to squeeze in a little rock here and a bit of roll there has been an uphill battle, but hey, when there is Lande at hand nothing is ever impossible. When the place clears out it is time to ROCK! And fortunately that has happened more as of late. The only real disadvantage is when I get a song terminally stuck in my head (We Brought the Angels Down) and get constant strange looks when I am singing it without thinking about it... and feel like smashing the TV blasting the stupid lame sitcoms and reality shows so I can listen to some music again. Oh well. We all have a right to rock, it is just sad that not many actually choose to.
Jorn Lande - The Duke
When there is a new Jorn Lande cd out, everything else just seems to fall by the wayside, like the great Sea parting. On one side you have the sparkling, fantastic JORN disc, and then there is like...everything else. Unfortunately for everyone else, this has happened once again with The Duke. It is not my favorite disc by Lande but hearing his spectacular voice on such an array of tracks as the epic We Brought the Angels Down to the bluesy naughty swing of The Duke of Love is just ecstasy.
Whitesnake - Slip of the Tongue
For some reason hearing Jorn belt out a duo of tunes that copy David Coverdale right down to his slick, lady woo-ing seductiveness kind of fired me up for the real thing. SotT always seemed to be cut a bad deal from the Snake catalogue. Sure, Vai was a little overboard, and I would have prefered Adrian and his more down to earth guitar style but some of these songs are just mindblowing. Sailing Ships strikes such a chord and others like Fool For Your Loving, Now Youre Gone, Wings of the Storm, The Deeper the Love, and Judgement Day are must-listens. Too bad the rest of the album is more miss than hit.
Edguy - Rocket Ride
The more one indulges in this Cd the more they seem to warm to it. I prefer the guys when they are buckling down and trying to be a little more serious, but you can hear how much fun they are having on stuff like Fucking With Fire (Hair Force One). So catchy, so tongue-n-cheek, so cool. All the Edguy way.
Edguy - Hellfire Club
It still stands up with Rocket Ride, and tracks like Lavatory Love Machine, King of Fools and Forever keep me tuned in. Tobias is a great singer and his delivery keeps things interesting, not to mention the rest of the band.
Helloise - Polarity
An often forgotten about Dutch outfit that put out two killer hard rock albums before fading from view. They walked the same roads as other great bands from the Netherlands such as Vandenberg, Vengeance, and Bodine yet never found popularity really. Oh and forget about their supposed *return* to the fold a few years back. That was just a pathetic attempt to cash in on the power metal craze and had nothing to do with the *real* Helloise that 80s fans came to know and love. The re-releases of this and Cosmogony have lots of bonus stuff to keep you busy too.
Ambition - Ambition
Probably the best true AOR cd of the year so far, and boy is it ever a doozy. The songs get better and better on repeated listens and that voice! Griffin is absolutely a master at the genre despite the fact he has been absent so long from the recording industry. Makes me pine for my old Trillion CDs but cannot locate them. For shame.
Axel Rudi Pell - The Masquerade Ball
This was likely the last ARP disc that kept me fascinated throughout. Oh don't get me wrong, I love ARP and his Malmsteen clashed with Blackmore style. His music is like battling dragons with arpeggios while standing on the tops of rainbows and its all good, but this disc had...more. More than that... or perhaps I am just blinded by Night and Rain which became one of my personal most beloved songs ever.
TNT - Transistor
Will this ever come off of my rotation? Will the sun ever stop shining? For some reason Mousetrap and Because I Love You keep bringing me back. Love my Harnell, I do. Even when I am in the mood for absolutely nothing else, these two songs just creep their way in. Catchy as hell and very different than what the guys have done in the past, it is another cd that just gets no respect.
Warrant - The Best of Warrant
That commercial for the 80s Monster Ballad CD compilation holds my attention with rapture everytime it is played. Hard to say why, it just *does*. Perhaps it is because I know every song by heart and annoy everyone in the room by singing the little clips they feature in the TV ad. Well, point is, it forced me to think about Warrant again and just how much I loved their music when I was but a wee one. Heaven, I Saw Red, Sometimes She Cries, Mr Rainmaker... the best stuff is here. Or most of it, my personal selection would have included In the Sticks... and for some reason 32 Pennies on here just doesnt seem right. After hearing it a gazillion times over the course of almost 20 years, the version they put on Best Of is close but not quite the real deal... something bugs me about it. Ah well...
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