Four on the Floor – Volume 3.

Gasoline – Gasoline – 9/10

This album is a blast and I promise you I won’t waste time as I wax lyrical, its everything that you need in an album its fun with a capital F! I will admit to knowing 50% of the band although it’s been I while since I have enjoyed their company although (part of) their alter ego band (The mighty Bessie and the Zinc Buckets played my hometown whilst me and the wife were away on a short holiday, it’s a conspiracy I tell you) the band is ¾  French but that is not apparent, it rolls with a good old fashioned swagger, I won’t bore you with all of the tracks, but I will say that if Love train was released and got some airplay on Radio 2 I reckon it has “HIT” written all over it, I can just see the video now, at least we won’t have Kev in a wedding dress! the album was my go to album for about a fortnight going back to and from work its just the right timeframe, the playing is tasteful and not too flashy the playing supports the material, I really can’t wait for another album this is sooooooooooo good!

 

Journey – Freedom – 5/10.

I do Like this band, I like 90% of all of their recorded material and the various line ups, but this just left me feeling Meh! I had about 6 attempts at getting into it, and I struggled, its well-played, well written but ultimately it simply feels bland, I couldn’t get motivated about it, there’s 15 tracks maybe that’s the problem, just pick your 10 best and put that out, some tracks seem to last forever, the biggest hits they have released got in got out and did the job, these kind of don’t, it feels like a totally joyless exercise, the complete opposite to the Gasoline album, they should have called the album Serious instead of Freedom as there is a complete lack of FUN in this slab of (alleged) rock. No doubt at some point I will attempt to play it again and you never know it may blow my mind (I have my doubts) but if I listen to it again anytime soon, I may just blow my mind out using both barrels of a bloody shotgun, file it under Meh!

 

Ted Nugent – Detroit Muscle – 2/10.

An artist I truly loved right up until about 2010 when his weird political rants seemed to take over, the last decent effort from Uncle Ted was Craveman 2002 you had to go all the back to 1980 to Scream Dream for the last totally consistent record, after that he has chased every fashion going, with piss poor line ups and poorly conceived albums, the last 10 or so years its like he has lost his mind and then its like his mouth is in overdrive spewing buckets of bile, I don’t care if he hunts, owns guns drives cars fast, he has turned into a dick and the music has as well, gone are the days of the whiplash bash, he should retire and just play with his toys, he no longer tours stadiums it looks like small clubs, there’s a reason for that it’s your mouth, playing the same riffs over and over again, can he play hell yeah, can he sing, not really bring, back Derek St Holmes (oh I’m sorry you don’t like having to pay him)  I hope he doesn’t release any more sub standard albums like this, he has killed his own reputation.

 

UFO – Obsession – 9/10.

After the last two out pouring's of drivel, I felt the need to go back to the 70’s for some feel good vibes, I can remember quite vividly the day that my brother bought this album as if it was yesterday and I can remember listening with my jaw hanging  loose, I liked the previous albums but this one simply blew me away, it had the songs, the production, the band were firing on all six cylinders, ask a fan to name their fave studio album and I bet they would just about all say this album, there is nothing wrong with this album, so why the 9 scoring, well simply its no Rainbow Rising which to me is the greatest rock album ever recorded, this is a pretty close second in my eyes, go on play this and just feel the soaring feelings of joy that you get whilst listening to this, I think why I struggle with most modern albums is they try and fill it up with 70 + minutes when in reality we would be happy with a cracking album that clocks in at 30 odd minutes of class, UFO went on a decline after this all be it a slow decline, have they made good albums since this, yes they have but this is the pinnacle, oh those glory days!

 

I have listened to tons of great music since the last musical excursion, I thought I had to be honest, I don’t intend to simply put on good reviews, I will put up how I feel after I have played them, Gasoline is the album of the month for me, buy it, from streaming services or try and get a physical copy, I’m hoping to get to see them live at some point because I reckon there will be more mayhem than at a Buckets gig, oh the sheer wonder of a live gig! These have done good numbers I don’t expect them to do the same numbers as the proper blog, but I like how its going, onwards, watch the skies for more incoming and until the next time………………Toodles

 

By the way these are my opinions you don’t have to agree with me, it’s how I feel on the day 6 months from now I might love and album I hated and vice versa its only a bit of fun so suck it up buttercup!

Message From a Self-Destructing Turnip.

No, I haven’t lost my mind, the name game is in play it’s what I am listening to at the moment so google it if you have to cheat.

Life as always bimbles on and I seem to bimble along with it, good news or bad news I seem to shrug my shoulders and simply keep trying to move forward. The Four on the floor blogs seem to have found a niche and they are trickling with good days and bad days sometimes nobody reads them then other days you get 13 hits in 22 minutes, I have no idea why, that is why I am simply bimbling along, I am preparing the next four on the floor but its not set in stone just yet, as I am indeed playing a lot of music.

So, what have we been doing of late, well we had a brief jaunt off to the north of the country, yes we crossed the border and headed to bonny Scotland , the weather was unseasonly warm, we hired a small cottage between haddington and Dunbar and kicked back just a little, a slow drive up the military road to avoid the traffic on the direct route we took the old military road the only thing that spoilt that journey was the possibility of a traffic cam flash as we overtook a slow electric car (the driver must have been about 90 and could have hardly see over the stirring wheel) we wait with baited breath to see if a notice arrives in the post.

We kicked back the first night and did what we like to do most, which is very little if we can, I read a biography on Cozy Powell (meh) and the wife played with her switch. The next morning I was up with the larks (no surprise there then) the wife was up quite early for her I didn’t have to poke her with a stick, cunning plans were afoot, typically we didn’t follow them, we headed off down narrow country lanes and found a Deer farm, then managed to get into Dunbar (where I had my first ever holiday at the tender age of 5) and we dawdled went to the harbour and looked out to sea, shame really as it has a fantastic beach but the tide was in, we dawdled along the opposite side of the street and the wife spotted a record shop (heaven) we had a good sort through and I was a good boy I only bought 4, it definitely lifted my spirits we called into a garden centre for a spot of lunch and had a fab meal, we could have split either meal between us and still have been stuffed, cracking meal and it kind of stopped us in our tracks, we wandered a bit further afield but the grub had really stifled us, so we headed back to base for another quiet night, I know we are getting old, the next day the same process, except this time I had a slight lie in, please note a lie in for me is anything past 5.30 in the morning, this was 6.10 I was happy, a late breakfast for us, and then time to head out again this time to Haddington were walked around the village a little but headed to our fave “Bistro” the waterside the clock struck 12 and we walked through the door for lunch, the food as per was out of this world a starter a full Sunday lunch and a pudding we waddled out of the place across the bridge and collapsed into the first available seat.

We did venture further afield, which was good when you consider what we had eaten, but we did eventually throw our hands in defeat and head back to base, another glorious day and after we had settled, we decided to start the job of packing up, a little less to do in the following morning, I finished the biography (a 5 out of ten for me) then off to bed and to sleep. We were up about the same time I let the wife snooze a little longer as I finished the packing, we had a light breakfast and then set off, we headed back via the motorway and the traffic was crap we finally got home and decided we need to do that some more, I just have to find a bank to rob, as it was bloody expensive, and all the banks in Gimpsville have just about closed. I had had a couple of great ideas for a blog but had to neglected to bring the infamous black book so they were lost to the ether, you think I would learn, I seem to have gotten out of the habit of being a blogger (something I must rectify) as I lie awake at night trying to remember the structure of the snowflake of an idea, I rarely do, so its back to carrying a little black book, don’t say that you haven’t been warned!

Then back to work I miss the old place of work simply because I could play bus seat bingo just about every single journey, my current place of work, I’m not the first on the bus anymore, but sometimes I do manage it and boy does it piss people off, it’s the simple things in life! One thing that doesn’t change is the pain my knees on the walk to my bus connection and because of the weight of my bag that I carry my hips have decided to join in, its not good, it lets me know that I am a mere mortal, I really am too old for all of this shit! To make matters I fell onto my knees at work from a height onto a stone staircase, thankfully nobody saw but the rest of this week was crippling with little chance of recovery.

The trip to Scotland by now seemed like a lifetime away, there was some sad news as a lovely person from work passed suddenly, there was a chill and subdued vibe for the rest of the week, I hobbled to the finish line on Friday, but the wife insisted that we needed supplies so I was dragged around but we didn’t stay long when I’m in pain I always have a cunning plan, we went to the nearest shop scooted around and then headed home. I continued with the iPhone treachery by adding new “old” albums but I am being careful as I don’t want to break the first new phone, I have had in 4 years, there’s time enough for that. Last night I was checking on the blog as I tend to do, since I started blogging on here 11 years ago I have had nearly close to 85000 hits, that does thaw the frozen brick in my chest.

Going forward there are some rocks in the road and I need to be able to support the wife as she supports a member of her family, there will be some dark times ahead, but I will be there to help here every step of that journey. The Hurricane is still with us and is great for about 98.5% of the time, we are trying to help him, we are trying to make sure that life can be a little easier for him bless him he’s 11 and all I want to do is help him steer his ship, he has been good company, although I swear he is trying to kill himself on that bloody scooter, its only a matter of time before we have a broken bone, he has the safety gear we just need to make sure he wears it.

The new cooker has an issue that has had two visits to fix and we have been warned that it could happen again, I thought that the wife might strangle the engineer, thankfully she didn’t, he was simply trying to give some good advice,  as I gather my thoughts whilst taking notes for this blog I’m looking around the office and because it’s a Friday its like the Marie celeste (look it up  if you don’t get the reference) and no matter what happens life goes on, another week crawls to an end, no matter whether its been a good week or a bad week.

My addiction to the internet appears to be broken, once and for all I seem to only go on twice a week to check any email, and to post a blog if I need to,  I can hear the wife shouting at me to come back and join the real world, I will finish up the longest blog this year,  I will head off to interact with real live people, you never know I might get to like it, as I said earlier Four on the floor is next after this and some damn good music is going to get reviewed, lets just see what tomorrow brings!

And so as this blog draws to a close remember to spread the disease, click like share whatever lets see if we can do another 85000 hits and for it not to take another 11 years, onwards take care and stay alive, until the next time…………. Toodles!                                AND YES, THE NAME GAME IS IN PLAY!