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Desolation Boulevard [Extra tracks]

~ Sweet
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Audio CD (17 Jan 2005)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Format: Extra tracks
  • Label: Bmg
  • ASIN: B0006SNK8K
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 66,722 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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1. The Six Teens
2. Solid Gold Brass
3. Turn It Down
4. Medussa
5. Lady Starlight
6. Man With The Golden Arm
7. Fox On The Run
8. Breakdown
9. My Generation
10. Teenage Rampage (Bonus Track)
11. Own Up, Take A Look At Yourself (Bonus Track)
12. Burn On The Flame (Bonus Track)
13. Someone Else Will (Bonus Track)
14. Medussa (home demo) (Previously Unreleased - Bonus Track)
15. Burn On The Flame (home demo) (Previously Unreleased - Bonus Track)
16. I Wanna Be Committed (Bonus Track)
17. Fox On The Run (7” version) (Bonus Track)
18. Miss Demeanor (Bonus Track)

Product Description

CD Description

Sweet originally began as a pre-packaged pop outfit for theproducers/songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. By combining the crunch of hard rock with the hooks of bubblegum pop, the pair provided Sweet with its first handful of mindlessly effective hits in the early glam soaked '70s, notably "Little Willy", "Blockbuster", "Wig Wam Bam", and "Ball Room Blitz". Underneath this teen-pop glitz however, a real rock and roll band was smoldering. Determined to make its own statement and get out from under the Chinn-Chapman control centre, the band took a leap of faith and cut DESOLATION BOULEVARD completely on its own.
What is surprising is not so much the band's desire for independence but that Sweet succeeded on all fronts with this release. Keeping the power hooks intact, the band displays its own knack for songwriting. DESOLATION BOULEVARD contains the band's biggest single, "Fox onthe Run", a telling rocker featuring the band's multi-octave vocals. The other highlight on the album is the softer "The 6-Teens", which harkens back to the band's pop formula with considerably more texture than the their earlier hits.

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Boulevard, 12 Dec 2006
By A. Jackson "DVFM" (Liverpool) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Buoyed by recording their first proper rock album, "Sweet Fanny Adams", in early 1974, Sweet returned later that year with "Desolation Boulevard".

The format and sound are different here. Long-time producer Phil Wainman was now out of the picture and Mike Chapman (manager and co-writer with Nicky Chinn of all Sweet's hits until then) takes the producer's chair. Chapman urges a sparser sound, with limited overdubs if possible, to create an album probably closer to Sweet's live sound than anything else.

That's not to say the sound is flawed - it's an absolutely gorgeous production - clean, focused giving each member of the band a chance to shine instrumentaly.

Chinn and Chapman contribute two hit singles to the set. Peaking at no.9, the first "The Sixteens" is a huge song with wildly differing tempo changes, slashing Andy Scott power chords, industrious Steve Priest bass and Mick Tucker drums, coupled with confident Brian Connolly vocals. It's also a change of style for Sweet to a more progressive rock sound than early singles potray. "Turn It Down" is a more traditional song for Sweet. Beginning with a supercharged guitar riff from Scott - it's probably the loudest song on the album. As a single "Turn It Down" bombed at no.41, too heavy for the teenyboppers and banned by the BBC for the lyric "..for God's sake.."

"Solid Gold Brass" is a band composition, and shows off Chapman's minimal production to good effect. An unexpected jazzy feel is featured here midway through the song before it returns to power-chord heaven. Already, Sweet are showing signs of expanding their basic sound.

"Medussa" has an experimental feel to it - Moog synthesiser (played by Scott) dominates here and Priest's deliberately off-key bass is another key facet of the song. Scott sings his own "Lady Starlight" - a well-structured power ballad that he did more with as a solo single in 1975. "Breakdown" is a high octane rocker, again featuring what was becoming a trademark multi-track harmony guitar solo from Andy Scott, whilst a cover of "My Generation" feels like the last-day at school as the band gleefully rip into a suitably noisy power-chord ending!

"The Man With The Golden Arm" is Mick Tucker's baby. A brass arrangement begins the song before Sweet play an instrumental backdrop with powerful Connolly vocals. But it's Tucker's five-minute drum solo that makes the song - he includes chimes, gong and timpani to good effect.

But it's an early preview of "Fox On The Run" that is the most fascinating track here. All the key elements are here but it's played in a laid-back style, the solo is quite bluesy, though the song is unmistakably a hit single. Sweet re-recorded it on their own in late 1974, whilst Chinn and Chapman were out of the country, and it gave them a no.2 hit in spring 1975.

"Desolation Boulevard" is a fabulous album, a worthy successor to "Sweet Fanny Adams". But it failed to chart in Britain at all, which is so annoying because Sweet were changing with the times and moving into a slightly-more progressive style that, if nurtured, would've stood them in good stead for the years to come.

Instead, they split with Chinn and Chapman, and probably demoralised by arch-rivals Queen with "Bohemian Rhapsody" - used their freedom to play a couple of albums worth of bland hard rock for a few years. Frustrating....
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Great retro rock album, 10 Aug 2005
By A Customer
I've got the original version of this album without the bonus tracks, so I won't comment on any of those.

The Six Teens is one of my favourite Chinnichap tracks and the opener to this album; slightly less obviously commercial than some of other bubblegum stuff they wrote. The same can be said for Turn it Down which is also featured. However, the bulk of this album is made up of Sweet's own compositions (apart from the cover of The Who's 'My Generation' and the overly drawn out 'Man with the Golden Arm').

Lady Starlight, with Andy Scott on lead vocals, is excellent, as is Solid Gold Brass, Medusa and Breakdown. The album also includes the original version of Fox on the Run, which is fine but doesn't include the wicked intro and harmonies of the single and isn't nearly as polished in general.

After 30 years, it's hard to know if my appreciation of this album is based more on nostalgia that on the merits of the music. However, I like to think it's the latter, at least to a large extent. The music is very much of the 70s, which can make it sound a little dated, but then The Darkness are doing pretty well with a very similar sound.

I'd recommend this album to anyone who likes what the Sweet did with their singles, whether it was the A sides or the B sides. Desolation Boulevard, shows what the band were capable of when left to their own devices. And as the later singles written by the band, such as Action and Fox on the Run proved, they were capable of plenty.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars REMEBER BRIAN THIS WAY!, 5 Oct 2005
By C. Bridgen "colsee" (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
This was one of my favourite albums of the 70's.
If you remember BLOCKBUSTER I am sure you will love this.
Some of Sweets own compositions alongside Chinn/Chapman gives this a good mixture of pop and rock.
Excellent stuff!

Lady Starlight has to be one of the best love songs, with style,
and would make a great cover for a modern band.
This version has a few added worthwhile bonus tracks and the sound is a good remaster.
Buy it and think back to the 70's.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Another fine collection of bonus tracks that actually improve what was only a four star album.
Published 22 days ago by R. Slee

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