1979 was the year my interest in music went
into overdrive I did lots of part time jobs so I went from buying the odd
single every now and again to buying an album a week, on these “Four on the
Floor” blogs I simply pick four random albums and give an honest opinion of
them, some I might like, some I might not, even if it’s a band I like you will
always get an honest review!
Motorhead – Overkill 1979. 8/10.
I will be honest and admit to not being a
huge of the band at the time, this album appealed to me as I was a huge fan of
the Dickies at the time, I like it loud and fast was my motto for music back in
the day. And this fitted the bill perfectly, I loved the album cover, I love
the title track, and it does exactly what it says on the tin it rocks big style,
it gets in, slaps you around the face and then gallops off into the distance,
with tracks like Capricorn and Metropolis and Stay Clean, I still don’t how
they didn’t get sued for the riff to No Class, but it does the job that its
designed to do, I love Lemmy’s Lyrics and while I do have a couple of albums in
my collection, I wouldn’t say that I’m their biggest fan, when they rock they
do it better than most!
Bad Company - Desolation Angels 1979. 9/10.
The first album that I bought on the day of
release by the band and I was praying that it wasn’t as crap as the previous
one Burning Sky, which I hated, I loved the first three albums, Running with
the pack is still my number one go to album by them but this is a close second,
believe it or not it loses a bit because of the very polished production, there’s
not a bad performance or a bad song on the album , pure class every single step
of the way, it was a shame that they tried to recreate the magic with the same
formula with the next album Rough Diamonds and got it so wrong, good old
fashioned Rock N Roll best played loud.
ACDC – Highway to Hell 1979. 9.5/10.
Again I had albums by the band but I was
sat in my local record shop to buy this on the day of release, and I loved it
straight away, its hard to guess which one I prefer to this and the Back In Black
both albums firing on all six cylinders and the production on both albums were
polished beyond belief (hence the slight markdown on the rating) I will be
honest as good as the title song is I don’t think it’s the best song on the
album, and if I never heard it again I wouldn’t miss it, its great I’m just
sick of hearing it, lots of people will say I’m a godless heathen, hey its just
my opinion, you can have yours I’ll have mine!
For the record Beating around the bush is
my favourite, although I rarely flick through the album, I always play it from
the start right through the end (nano nano – shazbat).
Led Zeppelin – In through the Outdoor 1979 8/10.
Everybody who knows me knows that I am not
a fan of the band, I get why people like them (although it took until Coda for
me to get it) I had no interest in them at all, didn’t like them, I didn’t care
for Jimmy Page (still don’t) but this was left at my house by a friend of my
brothers and I wanted to see what the fuss was all about, it took a couple of
listens before I kind of got it, I even covered (only in band rehearsals ) Hot
Dog (we called it “I’m Pissed Again” I won’t take the credit for the lyric rewrite)
it was a laugh, but by the time I had finished playing the album a couple of
times I have to admit to having enjoyed it, probably because there’s not a lot
of Jimmy Page influence in the song writing, I’m still not a fan of the band, I
can take them or leave them, I still don’t care for Mr Page his guitar playing,
his production methods or his plagiaristic attitudes to old blues players, but
hey ho he’s still rich and I’m not, I became a fan of Robert Plant and his solo
stuff because he doesn’t try and copy this formula, at least he tries different
things, this is still the only album by the band that I can listen to all the
way through in one sitting!
