Grace Potter & The Nocturnals " The Lion The Beast The Beat" Deluxe Edition

I must admit that I am disappointed with this album.  I set the bar too high.  After learning of GP through fellow music lover Greg A., I've become a big fan, going back through old live footage and guest appearances with Joe Satriani, Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, etc..  That's some heavy duty company to keep and I suppose I expected a heavy duty blues-rock record because of those names.  What I got was a drippingly blatant commercial effort, you know the type, with the over-produced, major label hit blueprint that brings on board the musical flavor du jour (Dan Auerbach). 

The title track opens the record and it's a winner, sounding like I had anticipated, a Heart-styled energetic romp.  Then (insert sound byte of needle dragging across a piece of vinyl), it's as if I had turned on the radio.  Track #2 is the first single and one of the Auerbach-assisted songs.



I don't know if it has charted (doubt it) but it should be a hit.  I dare you to play this song three times and not find yourself singing along on the fourth.  The same can be said for the following four tracks, all potential hit singles with some fine lyric lines throughout...

"We had a skydive love affair, Doomed from the very start"

"I lit a fire with the love you left behind"

"So choke the dawn and damn the daylight, Time is just an invisible line"

OK, so track #6 doesn't contain a great line.  It's another of the Auerbach contributions...that should explain it.  But then we hit the track entitled "Turntable."  GP sings, "I will be your record and you will be my turntable."  Well now, isn't that a tad suggestive?  Then (cue the scratched record sound effect again) she tells me to..."Shut your mouth and put your hands on my high thigh.  Put your needle in my groove. Now watch the way you make me move."  I damn near wrecked the car...



That should make a young man weep and an old man cry... 

I guess for these TV appearances she leaves the micro-minis and short shorts at home. Go ahead, search for these songs live and see for yourself.  You will also discover that "live" is the proper vehicle to deliver the tunes.  GP & The N's are a tremendous concert experience.  The band ROCKS and GP commands the stage in a way that would give Stevie Nicks a heart attack.  Her voice is phenomenal, no treatment needed.  On the studio album she's more Bonnie Raitt, live she's some sort of Ann Wilson/Pat Benetar hybrid with that sexy visual and yowling vocal instrument.  

Of the four remaining tracks on the standard version of the album, two are of the commercial variety :(  and two are winners, including the album's best track.  The vocals may not be mixed well on this live version but the video angle and quality are good.  Give me a barefooted, blonde bombshell who can actually play a Flying V any time...



Whether it's .50 or $2 more, the additional four tracks on the Deluxe version are worth the money.  The first two are again of the commercial classification, one of which makes the keeper cut.  The final two are aimed squarely at the Country market.  GP gets her tequila drinkin' partner, Kenny Chesney, to guest on her song this time.  This version of "Stars" should be a #1 hit later this year on the country charts.  There is an unfortunate line about a fire racing up a mountainside that should force this back to a fourth quarter release at the earliest to let those western wildfires die down.  At its core, "Stars" is a country song and gets the full twangy treatment on this version.  The one found in the main body of the album is too pop-glossed up trying to mask the real roots of the track.  This is a nice example of the intent...



The final song is one she wrote and recorded for her first album back in 2005, but here she has propped up Willie Nelson in the studio to duet with her.  Meh...

I suppose I'm going to keep this record in its entirety just in case it doesn't receive the multi-genre success it so desperately seeks and deserves.  It cracked the Top 20 with the current fan base but has slipped every week since.  By the end of this year, Grace Potter should be a household name and I should not have to play this album again, allowing mass media to do it for me.

Joe Bonamassa "Driving Towards The Daylight"

What else can I say about this guy that I haven't said before, and yet, there are still many who do not know who JB is.  I had a friend come over last week for a craft beer tasting (drinkfest) and had music concerts (Widespread Panic, Kansas, David Gilmour) playing on the TV and through the house system.  My buddy requests Stevie Ray Vaughan but I have JB's Royal Albert Hall DVD out for easy access and pop it in.  My friend says, "Wow, this guy can play and what a great voice!  Who is he?"  It takes all the control I have to not spit out my mouthful of Stone Brewery's Russian Imperial Stout.  "This guy is the next generation of SRV," I tell him.  And a new fan is born. 

"Driving..." is textbook JB, smokin' guitar and those great vocals.  He gets the same knock on his singing as SRV did.  People say, "shut up and play that guitar!"  That I understand when you have Glenn Hughes to sing instead, as in Black Country Communion, or Beth Hart on their collaborative album a few months ago.  And there lies the potential problem.  JB may be spreading himself too thin.  He's averaged an album a year since going solo at the turn of the century, not including the live recordings, of which there are several, and he's guesting on this guy's album, that guy's album, the other guy's album, and even this legendary band's latest release.  Producer Kevin Shirley is the link to many of them (that's how Jimmy Barnes was enlisted to reprise his track which closes this record) and has been quoted as saying that Joe has to be challenged with new stimuli so that he doesn't get into a rut.  Keep riding that horse that hard, Kevin, and he's going to break a leg/finger... 

It's not such a bad rut to be in when you've just achieved your eighth #1 Blues Album and highest peak position on the Top 200.  Why the man hasn't received recognition from NARAS is beyond me, especially as a blues artist.  Maybe the old farts at the Grammy's can't grasp his take on the blues.... "that's rock, Waldorf, not blues,"..... but how can you not understand that songs by Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon and Robert Johnson are blues?!  OK, so they are obscure, not the ones you know, but they are written by those legends.  Other composers featured on "Driving..." are Tom Waits, Bill Withers and Bernie Marsden of Whitesnake fame.  These covers make up seven of the eleven tracks and have raised the bar over previous JB solo releases.  I usually find that the self-penned tracks are the best and have asked for an entire record of Bonamassa compositions, but "Driving..." is on an even keel this time with the covers.  Here is the official title track, written by JB...

There are Page-isms prevalent early in the album and the Marsden composition is an homage to Gary Moore (R.I.P.).  It may not be his best album, but it certainly is the most steady, and maybe a Grammy nomination will finally come his way.

Garbage "Not Your Kind Of People" Deluxe

Have to respect Butch Vig, though I wasn't a fan of most of the bands he worked with.  Liked Shirley Manson in Angelfish before she joined Vig in Garbage.  Absolutely enjoyed the first two albums, thought the third record skewed toward too much pop, and completely missed the fourth release seven years ago.  Bought into the hype for this new record and made the purchase sans sampling. 

My bad.

The opening track sounded like a song more fitting to the Backstreet Boys.  OUCH!!!  
During the second song I dictated, "could be a bad Berlin album."  Now some of you may consider that redundant but I happened to love Berlin from the start.  At least Terri Nunn bothered to learn how to sing after her initial success.  A couple of tracks late in "...People," it's painfully obvious that Manson hasn't.  Hey, Butch, who's idea was it to leave those vocals untreated? 

They got it right by releasing the third track as a single...



Track four was a keeper, too, and it provided hope for a turnaround.  Didn't happen.  I retained uno more song from the album proper though I noted one as a Blondie wannabe.  The four songs which comprised the "Deluxe" additions are collectively better than any four you want to put together from the main release.  Here is an outstanding fan video for my favorite song of the entire package...




That's more of what I expected, not the overwrought, heavy-handed, splashy production that mars the album.  I understand why a major label wasn't involved. 

Angus Stone "Broken Brights"

I must have received a leaked copy of this back in May.  Why?  How?  Maybe Angus remembered me from Bonnaroo a couple of years ago.  There weren't very many festival attendees at their set.  Who am I kidding?  His sister, Julia, was the one who stayed and conversed with those of us who so desired (I'll be posting on her solo effort soon).  So I've been enjoying this album for seven weeks and it doesn't even bow in his home country of Australia until Friday!  It's actually coming to America next week, and let me say that it is easily among this year's best releases so far.

One of my entries on the Stone siblings has recorded the second largest number of hits out of the 200+ posts on this blog.  That should give you American readers some insight into how much international juice these kids have generated behind your backs.  Now they both have solo releases available domestically on indie heavyweight Nettwerk Music Group.  Time to catch up America!

On my first spin through "Broken Brights" I noted that I was reminded of any number of solo albums by members of The Church, the Australian band you Americans know as an "Under The Milky Way" one-hit wonder.  When I tally my Church albums, solos and spin-offs, the number reaches twenty-five.  Not bad for one-hit wonders.  Obviously, the comparison of Stone to a Steve Kilbey solo, for instance, is a very good sign, indeed.  The album has plenty of mid-tempo numbers like this...



That has to be sister Julia on bg vocals.  Since the album hasn't been issued yet, there isn't much info out there to research, so I have to guess.  Instrumentation includes flugelhorn, harmonica, banjo, trumpet and piano, with lots of wah-wah pedal, some phase shifting and other old-school psychedelic sonic effects on the electric guitars found among a couple of tracks that rock more. 

Stone has a breathy delivery to his vocals reminiscent of Ray LaMontagne.  I posted the video for "Bird On The Buffalo" to my personal FB page and recommended it also to fans of Civil Wars and Neil Young.  Another track brought to mind a Bob Welch (R.I.P.) likeness while the following song screamed Syd Barrett with all the sound effects sprinkled throughout.  And it's good to the last drop, as the album's closer is a throwback to the late 60's with its Wurlitzer organ and echoed guitar.  If I didn't know better, I'd think it was Richard Ashcroft singing. 

"Broken Brights" sixty-one minutes is more than worthy of the $10 purchase price.  I highly recommend it.  Sister Julia's record is $12 for thirty-eight minutes.  Only one spin for it so far, and based on that....................... (to be continued)

Santana "Shape Shifter"

The man has nearly thirty studio and live albums to his credit and my inventory amounts to seventeen of them.  So it was of great interest to me to see an instrumental release, especially since he wasn't on a major label anymore. 

The record opens with a bang...



You will also notice that this is from a live show four years ago.  Turns out that most of the tracks from this album have been laying around for some time, no doubt given the thumbs down by Arista for any of their releases.  After a couple of spins, I believe the label got it right.  The songs just aren't very good, and it pains me to say it.  I suppose I had set the bar too high.

The recurring notations I made while listening to this album were "re-tread song snippets," "drum loops?(!)" and "ultra-cheesy synthesizers."  When employing a real Hammond B-3, as in the above title track, Carlos' fretwork has a fire to it.  But damn, those dated synth lines and drum programming ='s "Santana Does Muzak." 

Not a total loss, though.  Two of the opening three tracks are keepers and then late in the album we get two winners in a row.  One has the only vocals, en espanol, claro (?), and the other is a six-minute classic. 

These days it seems everybody has five-star ratings systems.  I'll give this a 1 1/2.  My Santana inventory remains at seventeen.

Julian Cope "Psychedelic Revolution"

I had no idea who this guy was until we opened the first ever Music 4 Less store in Orlando, 1989.  The album was "My Nation Underground" and it had hit the US charts, making it a stock item.  We sold a few to British tourists and my interest was piqued.  I asked our PGD rep for a promo and liked what I heard, an alternative Brit-pop/rock sound with a unique voice in front.  I didn't have time to investigate further as our little guinea pig store/chain was growing beyond any reasonable expectations.  The next two albums, "Peggy Suicide" and "Jehovahkill," arrived a couple of years later and were brilliant, two 70-minute slabs of powerful musical and lyrical ramblings, ranging from lo-fi to blues, from dreamy pop to LSD-fueled psychedelia.  "What?  He was in a band before becoming a solo artist?"  That was my exasperated gasp when I spotted "Floored Genius-The Best of JC and The Teardrop Explodes" in a Tuesday delivery to the store.  "How the hell did I miss them?"  That was when the investigating started.  Found the band existed for only two records during the early 80's, a time for me between leaving college and entering the music retail biz.  "Genius" was fitting terminology, especially for those who enjoyed "wacky tobaccy" and/or various hallucinogenics. 

The following solo Cope effort in '94 was a major disappointment, so I never gave any subsequent releases much attention.  I can honestly say I haven't heard anything by him in at least fifteen years.  When I saw "Psychedelic Revolution" on a New Releases page back in April, I just had to see what it was.  Sure enough, new music.  Two "phases," he calls them, one about Che Guevera and the other about Leila Khaled.  That's right, revolutionary political figures.  So guess what the tone of the work is?  If you don't talk politics with friends, this isn't for you.  If you don't like passionate, dramatically visual songs that feature death/suicide/Grim Reaper in some lyrics, don't bother.  However, if you love an expressive voice, one who sounds like Jim Morrison here, Francis Dunnery there, even Ringo Starr in another, you will love Cope's "mad bastard, bass playing, pagan space warrior" compositions. 

I only kept the final one of the Guevera-inspired tunes, "Hooded & Benign."  It is simply a nine-minute masterpiece.  If you only have $1 to spend, get it.  There is the Mike Scott/Waterboys-sounding opening track and another called "As The Beer Flows Over Me" that should become a staple of future Irish wakes.  The Kahled "phase" is far less pissy and much more restrained.  There is precious little of this record to be found on the web, so here is a link to one of the finer tunes about the "poster girl of Palestinian militancy."  Man, that is so English 80's in sound.  Twenty of the thirty minutes of music about Kahled is absolutely outstanding, enough so that I will buy the companion release that is set for later this year. 

"Psychedelic Revolution" has been available in the States for ten days now via digital download only.  I cannot say that I've ever written about such a widely known artist with a record that is flying this far below the international radar.  Do yourself a favor and start your own investigation. 

Paul Weller "Sonik Kicks" Deluxe

I became a fan of Mr. Weller when the Style Council introduced themselves (get it?) in 1983...

 

Little did I know that he had just broken up his previous group, The Jam (arguably Britain's most famous punk band), to do this style of music.  I had an aversion to all things "punk" in those days and couldn't believe such a directional shift was possible, but it happened, it was good, and I developed a respect for the man who would throw away a very lucrative career at the age of 23 to play the music he had in his head. 

Style Council lasted the remainder of the 80's and then Weller went solo... 



...but has never ceased changing it up musically over the twenty years since.  Now 53, he's still as viable today as ever, and I can safely say I will anxiously await subsequent releases.  "Sonik Kicks" is his eleventh studio album and first to ever crack the Billboard Top 200, if my research is correct.  I find that incredibly difficult to believe because he has issued better records than this one, but not by much.

SK opens with the anticipated curveball on the first pitch, a synth-heavy, spacey/punky/futuristic psychedelic sound that amazes in the "where did that come from" category.  From there Mr. Chameleon morphs through soul, rock, ballads, punk, goth-y new wave, doo-wop, and British reggae.  Be sure to play that link and then check out this video for the track that's getting him press in Japan...



Same guy, same album.  Those two tracks are sequenced in that order midway through.  Told you he was a musical chameleon. 

The Deluxe version I obtained was music only, not the one with the DVD second disc.  The two additional tracks are worth owning.  "Starlite" should be a dancefloor classic, not in a 900 bpm dance style but in a subtle, sexy manner.  It's ripe for a remix and/or extended version. 

"Sonik Kicks" will need a couple of spins to grow on you.  Hell, it's taken twenty years for Weller to educate Americans to his intellectual aural fashion.  I always said he was too smart for us...