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Content by Mr. H
Reviewer Rank: 80
Helpful Votes:
2356
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Reviews Written by
Mr. H "the-rocker.co.uk" (Embra)
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...rawk, rawk, till you drop..., 19 Nov 2009
Hey everybody! It's Tommy Heart. You know. The singer out of Zeno and Fair Warning. Well, now he's back with album number 5 (already?) from Soul Doctor. And it's really good.
Original drummer Zacky is back for the ride, and this is an excellent mix of their earlier rawk material, and their later, more melodic work. Naturally, it's the former that gets me all hot and bothered, and tunes like 'Lightning And Thunder', 'Love Crashed Down (Boom Down)' and 'Welcome To The Party' are already firmly lodged in my cerebral cortex.
The big, killer, ballad is 'Times Of Yesterday', a guaranteed number one in 1987, but wherever you look, this album is an absolute rock belter.
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Defiance
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| Price: £11.69 |
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| Availability: Usually dispatched within 4 to 6 weeks |
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...competent electro-goth..., 17 Nov 2009
Lahannya started off life in the underground world of industrial rock, but recent releases have seen her moving in an electro-goth direction, something that continues on this latest release.
Delightfully, it's a futuristic (ish) concept album telling the tale of a resistance leader fighting against the enslaving technology he helped create. Something, the guys behind Twitter should be thinking about sharpish.
Musically, it has a lot in common with bands like my beloved Collide, and the musicians make an enjoyably loud racket on tunes like 'Dying Inside' and 'Burn', as well as more evocative numbers like 'Open Your Eyes'. Shame then that Lahannya can't sing. At all.
But, apparently, you can't have everything, and as she mainly sticks to talking here way through the material, it's not really a complete passion killer.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
...nearly but not quite..., 13 Nov 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
Well that took some doing, but I've finally got to the end of my first Ruth Rendell novel, all eight CDs of it. Obviously, I'd heard of both her and Inspector Wexford, but I'd never taken the plunge before. However, in the end, this was worth it.
The first half of the book I found to be quite slow and uninvolving as Wexford reacquaints himself with a suspected murderer from years gone by. There's also a subplot about arranged marriages that feels as though it should be in another story, and could easily have been removed, with no great loss. However, with Wexford reminiscences about his younger days quite endearing, and a story that picks up the pace in the second half, Ms Rendell manages to pull the story round.
I'm not entirely convinced I'll be rushing back into this world, but it was an enjoyable sidestep.
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...tainted tales..., 13 Nov 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
Arthur Ransome is best remembered as the author of a series of childrens books, the most famous of which was "Swallows and Amazons". Not really my cup of tea, but millions of people around the world bought into the image of him as an elderly storyteller, telling tales of kiddywinks messing messing about in boats. However, what I did not know, prior to this, was that Arthur Ransome had spent ten years living in Russia, caught up in the maelstrom of the Russian Revolution.
I also did not know of his time as an apologist for the worst excesses of the Bolshevik leaders, publishing articles of praise in the Guardian, a time that saw British intelligence regarding him as a traitor who should be banned from returning to Britain. This book is always interesting, but it shows Ransome to be a weak, craven, impressionable fool. Sometimes its best to leave things alone, and were I fan oh his writing, the truth about him would taint his tales.
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Babylon
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| Price: £7.98 |
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| Availability: In stock |
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
... as classic metal goes, this is as good as it gets..., 13 Nov 2009
With a couple of exceptions, W.A.S.P.don't make bad albums. And when frontman Blackie Lawless gets his dander up about something, then it usually results in something special. Like this. The former shock rocker has been looking at the state of the world, flipped open his Bible at Revelations, and decided that this time, it's all over.
His curmudgeonly growl / howl is wrapped around some classic heavy metal as he tries to prepare us for the end of days, through the power of rawk. Songs like 'Babylon's Burning' and 'Godless Run' hark back to the glory days of "The Crimson Idol" and show that the 53 year old has lost nothing of his rage.
There is some excellent riffage on offer with the tale of The Rapture and destruction on the aforementioned Babylon's Burning' absolutely outstanding. For extra listening pleasure, there's a couple of cover versions thrown in for good measure. Chuck Berrys 'Promised Land' is a poor end to a really good metal album, but W.A.S.P's rampaging assault through Deep Purple's 'Burn'.
As classic metal goes, this is as good as it gets. Add in the end of days, and you've got a very special album.
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...if you see them walking down the street, walk on by..., 12 Nov 2009
Really, it's like taking candy from a baby sometimes. Calling your band The Banshee. I mean, it's an open invitation to InsultFest '09.
Fortunately, I'm a bigger man than that (literally). I'll just confine myself to pointing out their musical inadequacies, while shaking my head slowly, and sighing. After all, it was bad enough when Franz Ferdinand tried to make the world think that Wire were in any way good. Now we have Wire impersonations, once removed.
However, if you are one of those misguided fools who think you can actually, really, genuinely, dance to Talking Heads, then tunes like 'Kicks Up!' will get your pecker perky, as you shuffle gamely but spastically, around the dance floor. The rest of us will pretend that nothing is happening, look away, and walk on by.
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...pottymouthed punky sleaze..., 10 Nov 2009
Sometimes, life is just good. Not very often, mind. I didn't get to be this bitter and twisted on a diet of fairy dust and buttercups. But when a record this ludicrous (in a good way) is blasting in my head, then the world can just go play with itself, because I'm alright.
Now this record isn't for the faint of heart. You won't be surprised to learn that they suffer from the odd bout of pottymouth. But then they are Cowboy Prostitutes, so you really have to blame their upbringing. The opening track, 'Outrageous', certainly makes sure that you know they can curse with the worst of them. Naturally, this Swedish mob claim that they belong to no genre other than their own, but, really, they're Hanoi Rocks mixed with The Damned.
Which apart from being a frighteningly ugly mental picture, guarantees you hard hitting yet melodic, sleaze rock with some punky riffage. And oh, it's good. Nearly as good as Belgian truffles. The Asda ones. They're rubbish at ballads, mind, but so were Motley Crue, and look at them.
Stick to songs like 'Outrageous', 'Not That Pretty' and the ludicrously rifftastic 'Girls Like You', and you're guaranteed a time so good, you'll trash your own front room just for the hell of it. Me like.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
...if only there was an oompah band..., 6 Nov 2009
Hey everybody! It's Nerina Pallot. You must remember her. You know. The kooky singer / songwriter with the video. You know, the one that was a bit Tori Amos, but without the suffocating worthiness. Yes, you're right. That doesn't really narrow it down much.
Anyway, she's back, and has discovered the power of a good tune and a fancy dress shop. Two things you really can't go wrong with. Apparently, she was far too chirpy to write songs after her last album, so her record company packed her off to write with hacks for hire, Linda Perry, Rob Davis and Rick Knowles, squillion selling songwriters to a man (and woman). If you want to know how that went, none of the songs appear here, and she's put the album out herself.
But stranger than all that put together is the fact that this album is absolutely fantastic. I can only think of one thing that would have improved this record, but the lack of an oompah band on 'Real Late Starter' isn't that much of a passion killer. There are a couple of tracks I'm happy to skip over (hello, 'Human'), but as long as there is a perky, poptastic tune like 'I Don't Want To Go Out' round the corner, then I'm as happy as a pig in poo.
In a fair and just world, 'When Did I Become Such A Bitch' would be number one for a couple of months minimum, but no, you're all busy buying that bloody awful Black Eyed Peas record. The one where the transvestite hoor and her three pimps gatecrash their grandkids party. Well, stop. Buy this instead.
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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
...was that it..., 4 Nov 2009
To say I know absolutely nothing about the Gypsy Pistoleros would be a gross understatement. But I reckon we know too much about people these days, so I declined Mr Googles kind invitation and decided to proceed on the basis that Messrs Lee J, Denny, Iggie and Jet are both bona fide gypsies and, indeed, pistoleros.
However, this five track mini-album seems to indicate that they are actually very confused boys who're unsure whether they want to punks or sleaze rockers, resulting in something that falls between stools, with the opening, title, track an unholy mess.
'Living Down With The Gyspies' is an improvement, with some excellent howling and a passing acquaintance with a tune. Shame then, that the ballad, 'Sangre De Las Rosas' sounds like something that Andy McCoy may have scraped off his shoe on his way into a Hanoi Rocks session back in 1984. Which means that 'Walk Through The Shadows' comes as a blessed relief.
The best is saved for last in the shape of 'Son Illusiones', a song that comes across like a Trust out-take and, on closer inspection, turns out to be a cover version. So The Mystery Of The One Good Tune is solved.
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...high on the hog..., 3 Nov 2009
It's a strange old world, the world of rock'n'roll. See, it would never have crossed my mind to hunt down a copy of a solo album bu the original vocalist in Tigertailz. I mean, c'mon! I used to share a flat with a Tigertailz fan / looky-likey, so was all too familiar with their oeuvre.
But then I chanced upon an interview with Mr Jaimz in which he professed his love for all things Black Oak Arkansas. Which made two of us, and that was enough for me. Even more remarkably, this is a really good album. Of course, the fact that the legendary Chris Laney is producing, writing and playing with his guitar, alongside his partner in crime, Anders Ringman, pretty much guarantees that it sounds great.
Now I'm not going to pretend that Mr Jaimz is the greatest singer in the world, but when you've got a bunch of addled sleaze rock anthems on your hands, it's Stephen Pearcy you want, not Celine Dion.
There's half a dozen tunes here that I'll be happy to hear over and over again, with 'Something Good Something Bad', the crushing 'Still Crazy', the Crue-like 'Kikk It Down' and the anthemic title track, my current choice selections.
I never expected to enjoy this so much, but it just goes to show you can't keep a good ole Black Oak Arkansas fan down.
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