Four on the floor – Gary Moore.

It’s been a while and music has been overflowing of late, I was going to do some of his early work (maybe another time) but I have gotten snarled up in albums that I dismissed at the time of release, but I have since gone back to relisten and see if the opinions of them stayed the same.

 

Gary Moore – Dark Days in Paradise 7/10.

Actually I’m disappointed with my score for the album, but I do have good reason, there are some fab moments on here, which I hated simply because it was so different (at the time to what he had been doing) I will be honest I like most of his stuff, and the fact that he chopped and changed so much is probably why I like him so much, but why the low score, well simply down to his vocal performance, there’s a couple of bits where its like he’s auditioning for Oasis,  it simply doesn’t suit, he was never the best singer but when he tries to sing softer vocals he warbles a bit (I’m not a fan of his vibrato) but there are some lovely Beatles drop ins, in style not as in rip off and the strings are fantastic they really do lift the tracks that they are on, there some longer songs and some lovely guitar playing however the vocals on  this album do leave a little bit to be desired.

Gary Moore – A Different Beat – 8.5/10.

I hated this when I heard this on release, my fault not his as the album is that bit more experimental, but so good with it, loops and drum machines that were massive at the time, again the vocals don’t suit all of the songs but it’s a much better attempt than the last album, it’s the ballad style material where he suffers, he’s trying to hard to be a “proper” singer just do what you do best and belt it out, The track Fat boy seems to be more of a B-side than an album track, but his playing is simply sublime on it, there’s even a Jimi Hendrix cover and I quite like it, he suits the song, all in all pretty damn good, if only I’d been mature enough to understand it at the time of release.

Scars – Scars – 8/10.

Yes a Gary Moore album, and an album that although I liked at the time, he himself wasn’t sure about as when he played the monsters of rock tour he only played two songs and a boat load of covers, he didn’t know what he wanted to do, rock out or play the blues, well we all know that he went back to the blues, but this is well worth a listen, yes there is a few longer tracks (13 minutes the longest) but there is some great playing by all of the band, it’s a shame he didn’t last it out a little longer, he always did go down some wonderful paths, this is definitely one of those, it won’t please everybody, but give it a try you might just like it.

Gary Moore – Power of the Blues – 8.5/10.

I knocked points of this because he could do albums like this in his sleep, and although its very good, it almost feels like he thought he needed to pay the rent, now I don’t mind him playing stuff like this, but he was just starting to get interesting, he had moved as far away as he could as a rock guitarist, but he was still playing like a dervish, this was a wonderful return to (Blues) form, with decent vocals (belting it out) and a great band once again including Bob Daisley on bass, there’s nothing obscure here the album is just over 40 minutes long, back to his bluesy best, this feels like a master of profession putting on his work clothes and saying “right I’ll show them” and boy does he!

So, there we a quick blog whipped up on the bus home while finishing listening to the last album reviewed, in all honest I got a feeling of Francis Dunnery on some of the way out there tracks, only just. It was said he was going back to doing a “Black Rose “type of album now that really would have been something, shame he died when he did, I have just realised that he died at the age of 58 on holiday, hang on I’m 58 and about to go om holiday YIKES! This is the last blog in a while because by the time the next blog is due we should be (fingers crossed) on our way on holiday, so gird your loins as there will be a couple of monstrous blogs ready for when I come back, and when I come back ho ho lets wait and see! And no, I’m not saying here where I’m off to (all will be revealed) I have been advised not to say (fair enough)lets just say its not Bognor Regis, enjoy stay safe, stay alive and I will see you all soon enough, until the next time……………..Toodles!