New Album Reviews
In memory of John Stewart 1939-2008, Harry Chapin
1942-1981, Dan Fogelberg 1951-2007 - Three great American
singer-songwriters
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Join
With us - The Feeling - The difficult second album but just
how did they cope? Pretty well is the answer |
kd Lang -
Watershed - More songs about love and relationships as kd
navel gazes once again and this time it gets rather tedious. |
This Gift - Sons
and Daughters - There is some talent in this Scottish foursome
but it doesn't really surface here. |
NY75- The Strawbs
- Released last year this concert was recorded in 1975 and
features one of my all time favourite groups
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Ringo
Starr - Liverpool 8 - On
first hearing I disliked Ringo's latest offering. Then I cast
aside my prejudices against the guy and realised I was actually
enjoying it
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British
Sea Power -Do You Like Rock Music? - BSP
from Brighton write literate intelligent rock songs and this album
is full of them
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Tom
Baxter - Skybound - Record of the week on Radio Two, Tom grew
up in Suffolk and has produced my favourite album of the year so
far.
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Rufus
Wainwright - Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall - A strange
offering where our gay icon tries to reproduce a Judy Garland
concert from 1961.
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Peter
Cincotti - East of Angel Town - Billy Joel meets Elton
John meets Jamie Cullum in this fine jazz/rock/fusion album firmly
rooted in the streets of New York City
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Marc Almond - Stardom Road - An
excellent album of covers that takes us through a musical journey
of Almond's life.
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Chrome Dreams 2 - Neil Young - Young
has the ability to confuse fans and critics alike. Much of this
album harks back to the 80s and the aborted Chrome Dreams project
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Jimmy
Webb - Live and At Large in the UK - Jimmy has slowly developed a
wonderfully easy going style over the past few years as is shown
on this new live album
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Re-visited Album Reviews |
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From the
Witchwood - The Strawbs - An embryonic folk rock band prepares
to rip into the crazy world of rock. We revisit this 1971 offering |
Grave New World -
The Strawbs - One of the most powerful albums ever as the
Strawbs find their feet and find their style - a classic |
An
Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down - Rod
Stewart opened his long career with this rocker. There was better to
come.
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Gasoline
Alley - Rod Stewart. Gasoline continued the road to rock stardom
and was a more confident offering than the previous.
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Every
Picture Tells A Story - Rod Stewart. One of the classic rock
albums of all time where all the promise came to fruition |
Never
A Dull Moment - Rod Stewart. The last of Stewart's rock
quartet of albums. Had the downward spiral begun? |
Wednesday
Morning 3 am - Simon and Garfunkel. S and G first album is a
beautifully understated collection of traditional songs and Paul
Simon originals.
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Sound
of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel. Paul Simon comes of age,
writing 10 of the 11 tracks on this album as he turns into the
world's great folk/rock poet
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Parsley,
Sage, Rosemary and Thyme - Simon and Garfunkel - Some have
likened this to Sergeant Pepper and Pet Sounds. Is it that good? |
Bookends
- Simon and Garfunkel - S and G tread the well worn path of
folk stardom with a further selection of excellent songs |
Bridge
Over Troubled Water - Simon and Garfunkel - A sublime collection of songs that have a
lasting and important place in the chronicles of Folk and Rock
history.
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Neil
Young - Neil Young - A quiet and reasonably efficient solo debut
album that hinted of the glories to come
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Everybody
Knows This is Nowhere - Neil Young. This first effort with
Crazy Horse was a rather rambling affair |
After
the Goldrush - Neil Young - Young comes of age with a
vengeance and records one of the great folk/rock albums |
Harvest
- Neil Young - Another groundbreaking album full of atmosphere
and sublime tunes
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Twelve
Stops and Home - The Feeling- Sussex seems to have produced some
excellent Brit-pop bands. Here is one of them
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In Memoriam
Classic albums by artists sadly no longer
with us
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Innocent Age - Dan Fogelberg
- A great album of childhood, manhood and life itself with
some classic songs |
California
Bloodlines - John Stewart - Timeless country rock and one of
the greatest albums of its genre |
Lonesome
Picker Rides Again - John Stewart - Cowboy Stewart comes of
age with some timeless material. |
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The reason
for my music review section is partly one of self-indulgence but hopefully
it will be of interest to a few people who pop by either intentionally or
purely by chance.
It has been set-up to reflect my love of music. The object is not to
educate the reader about the bands/artists with in depth biographies. They
can be found in proliferation elsewhere on the internet and in reference
books by the thousands.
The object is to review individual artists from my existing record
collection along with important new releases. The reviews will reflect the
part the music has played in my life rather than academic assessments.
Music has managed to somehow keep me sane for more years than I care to
remember. Simply listing artists takes me on a journey through my past.
This review section is my attempt to analyse my own music journey
through albums that have had some affect on me - whether it be good or
bad.
It is not my intention to compare albums with those by different
artists but to take each artist individually, comparing tem against their
own output. I am also much more likely to comment on the album from my own
views and experiences. Each album will be given a mark out of 10 which
will be based on a number of factors. Again the ratings should only be taken within that artist's output and not
used to compare with albums by other artists.
Each artist will also have a page divided into four sections to
highlight essential albums, albums well worth investigating, average
albums and handle with care.
Obviously I will be building the reviews over a period of time. So bear
with me and please return. If you want to make any comments about my
reviews or review the albums yourself please e-mail me by clicking
here and I will include them alongside my own. Click on the links to
read the reviews. The number in parenthesis after the review refers to the
number of albums by each artist reviewed.
To see a full list of ratings go to here
Current number of albums reviewed - 92
A
Almond
Marc (1)
America (2)
B
Barclay James
Harvest (16)
Baez Joan (1)
Baxter Tom
(1)
Bowie David
(7)
British Sea
Power (1)
Byrds (2)
C
Cash
Johnny (1)
Chapin
Harry (5)
Chapin-Carpenter Mary (1)
Cincotti
Peter (1)
Clapton Eric (1)
Colvin Shaun (1)
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
(1)
D
Divine
Comedy (2)
F
Feeling
The (2)
Fogelberg
Dan (1)
H
Harris Richard (1)
J
Jones
Aled (1)
L
Lang kd
(1)
Lees
John (1)
Lewis Leona
(1)
Lennon
John (2)
M
McCartney Paul (9)
Mitchell Joni (1)
Moody Blues
O
Oldfield
Mike (4)
P
Pulp (1)
R
Chris Rea (1)
S
Simon and
Garfunkel (4)
Smith Patti (1)
Sons
and Daughters (1)
Starr Ringo
(1)
Stewart
Rod (4)
Strawbs
(3)
V
Various Artists (2)
W
Wainwright
Rufus (1)
Waits
Tom (1)
Webb
Jimmy (1)
Y
Young
Neil (5)