Ok so you
know the drill, three relatively new releases and a classic, strap yourselves
in it’s been a while! This blog is a lot later than intended simply as I have
spent a lot longer reviewing/playing these releases and consequently the scores
have changed a number of times with the exception of one of them, here goes.
Anthony
Gomes – Praise the Loud. 9/10.
This is the
one that the score never changed, from the get go I liked it a lot, I’m late to
the game and even missed him when he played over here earlier in the year, I won’t
make that mistake again, but lets get to the album, it’s by a man who can sing
and play the guitar, it’s nothing new, but I like it, I like the songs, I like
the playing, I love the production, its an old fashioned album, and that’s probably
why I like it so much, 12 songs clocking in at 42 minutes, it gets in it gets
out and he even wipes his feet as he leaves, if you were to look in the
dictionary under Power trio, there would be a picture of Anthony and his band! Is
it going to change the world? No, it isn’t but it will bring a smile to your
face because this is what music should be about……FUN! In the coming weeks I shall
be having his back catalogue on in my headphones in heavy rotation, so far this
year this is the top of the pile, I mean I know its only May but let’s see
where we are at, at the end of the year!
Samantha
Fish - Paper Doll. 4/10.
The disappointment
of the year so far! I found about this young lady with her last album Faster, a
cracking album again old school blues/rock, I liked it and I followed her
career with a lot of interest watching live stuff on YouTube whenever something
popped up. I saw the adverts for this album and waited with baited breath, and
then it felt like my balloon had not been popped but deflated, I have played
this album most out of the four being reviewed, and I simply don’t get it, I simply
don’t like it, the score that I have given it is a damn lot better than I first
did, primarily because I have seen a couple of numbers pop up online, and they
work well live, the thing that I simply cant get my head around is the
production, this is why I have gone back to it so much simply to see if I have
missed something, I still like the artist, but this is 9 songs and 36 minutes I
doubt I will go back to, I have played it around about twenty times since its
release, its just not for me, hey what do I know I’m only reviewing it, I will definitely be playing her back catalogue
more than this unfortunately, a great artist but this to me is a misstep.
Candice
Night – Sea Glass. 7/10.
Another
album I have played quite a bit to get my head around, not that I was expecting
a Blackmore’s Night type of album, well its kind of is, but not! Let me explain,
I love her voice it’s like honey, and after seeing live her a number of times
live I think she is quite a nice live performer as well, at ease on stage friendly with the audience and takes no crap
off Mr B, yes it’s not what I would call a rock album, but it could have been,
the score for this album has gone up by one, down by one, in the end I decided
to go with the middle ground, what’s missing from this album is a guitarist, go
figure, I get why Mr B isn’t doodling away, it’s to let Candice have her own
identity, not everybody is going to like the album, but its well-played,
produced and sang with sincerity, she believes in the album, however the song Last
Goodbye is a classic and it helps save the album from being one dimensional,
there’s not a lot of variety style wise and there’s nothing wrong with that,
and the instrumental Dark Carnival is screaming out for some bloody riffage,
hopefully they will add some words and guitar and add it to the next Blackmores
Night album, if it was a school report it would say could try harder, I know
there’s tons of people who like her voice as she has guested on quite a few
albums, go on get some guitar on the next one! Will I follow her career after
Mr B finally? yes I will but it has to be something a little more special than
this, its close but not quite there!
Dio – Holy Diver
Remastered. 8.5/10.
I’m
suspecting I might get some grief for this one, but before you jump in and bite
my head off let’s see what my reasoning is. I am a fan of the album always have
been however I hated the original production/mix of it I always thought it sounded
“muddy” for the want of a better description, I also didn’t like the last song “Shame
on the Night” it had filler stamped all over it, a couple of the other songs
were not helped with the production, but hey that was just my opinion, so I was
travelling to work looking for something to calm me down before heading into
the new work space we were being moved to, and what was sat there? Well, it had
been a while and so I decided to play it just a little bit loud (in headphones
on the bus) it needed to be loud as I have explained as the sound was “Muddy”
well this certainly wasn’t it was off like a whippet strapped to a motorbike,
ye gods what has happened here, after a bit of research (Apple isn’t the best
at putting the info on its pages) I discovered this was the 2012 edition
remastered by Andy Pearce, and its like a brand new album, I was surprised but
understood why Martin Birch wasn’t the man for the album (he was producing a
young punk band called Iron Maiden at the time of recording) all of the songs
have benefitted from the new spit and polish, well nearly all I still think “Shame
on the Night” should have been relegated to a B Side like Evil Eyes was at the
time, but what do I know a couple of million people bought the album (guilty as
charged), I’m glad I came back to it, its still not my favourite album by Dio, I
feel more grief coming for that but you know what, opinions are like arseholes,
we all have one!
Enjoy the
first of more musical and historical ones on the horizon, honest I get
distracted easily …ooh look a butterfly, until the next time……. Toodles!
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