Howling At The Moon - The Punk Panther's Album Reviews

After two different but equally excellent albums in 1979's  Nightout  and 1981's  The Spirit of St. Louis , and one subsequent patchy album in 1983,  Another Breath ,  Ellen Foley , the voice of  Meat Loaf 's  Paradise By The Dashboard Light  made an unlikely comeback in 2014. Over thirty years later - but she still sounds great. It does, however, sound a bit "retro", which is probably not surprising. I quite like it, which is also not surprising, but I am not sure if it would appeal to anyone other than those like me who had her albums in the late seventies-early eighties.   If You Can't Be Good  has a  Searchers-Byrds -style jangly guitar riff, with a hint of  Tom Petty  about it and Ellen's vocals show she hasn't lost her power in all that time.  Nobody Ever Died From Crying  is an upbeat, riffy number with Ellen once again soaring above the music with her quirky but authoritative voice.  All Of My Suffer...

The same general overall comments from my previous review can be applied to  this release , whose vocals are almost like spoken poetry over a gentle backing (although  The Futur e is more upbeat and Mark Knopfler-esque and the excellent  Closing Time  has an attractive Cajun feel to it.  The politically-motivated  Democracy  is a fine track too, as is the gruff  Light (As The Breeze) . Of these these three albums, this latter one is probably my favourite - I enjoy the robust, often bluesy backing and the vibrant backing vocals a lot.  So there we have a toe-dip into Leonard Cohen's music - it is sensitive, intelligent, thought-provoking but also very much an acquired taste. After half an hour or so of it I tend to want a bit of livening up. I know that's not the point of his music, but it is still the way it is, for me.

  After 1974's slightly patchy, not quite there Stars and 1975's superb Between The Lines, Janis Ian followed up with an album that was somewhere in the middle between the two. As with all the albums, it is immaculately played, with an infectious bass and an often rhythmic, understated backing. Ian's lyrics are brutally honest, self-searching, sometimes a bit saucy and acutely observational, particularly with regard to the minutiae of relationships. Imagine a relationship with Janis - yes there would have been some fun, but boy, all that analysis!   Aftertones is a gentle, acoustic number, with Janis singing in a plaintive, breathy style rather similar to some of the folk singers of the time. As I mentioned earlier, the bass line is sumptuous, as are the strings. After a bit of a reflective beginning to the album, it soon kicks into a lively ambience with the fun, jazzy strains of I Would Like To Dance. It features some intoxicating rhythms and a fetching flute solo. It is ...

This album, from 1982, saw  Paul Rodgers  call it a day after its release. Recording sessions had been strained, with Rodgers and bassist  Boz Burrell  fighting at one point. It proved to be the last straw, and the last album for the original line-up, that had lasted since 1974. The band tried to throw in a few new sounds - a bit of funk, some brass, some keyboards and piano but, unfortunately, it didn’t really catch on.  Electricland  is an atmospheric, brooding number that is not typical Bad Company at all, really, despite some powerful riffs.  Untie The Knot  is an appealing piece of funk/rock.  Boz Burrell’s  Nuthin’ On The TV  is a catchy,  Lynyrd Skynyrd -style rock groove that even used the Skynyrd spelling of  “nuthin’” . It sways along nicely, though, despite its somewhat hackneyed lyrics about nothing in the telly in the hotel room.  Painted Face  has an appeal to it, strangely in its synthesiser riff a...

This album from 1978 saw Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina were joined by Neil Young for this 1978 album that saw a return to the more solid rock style of the group's first album, albeit with country tinges.  Influences abound from The Band on tracks like  Lost And Lonely Feelin'  and cuts like  Going Down Again ,  She's Hot , the brassy  New Orleans  and  Dancin' Lady  are typically mid-late seventies West Coast-ish riffy rockers.  End Of The Line  is a fine country rock ballad  too. Neil Young influences are clear as well, unsurprisingly,  as he appears on half the tracks. It is very much a US album, however, and it would have had no effect on the UK music scene in 1978.

After a career so intertwined with New York City, quintessential wry New Yorker  Lou Reed  finally put out an album dedicated to the city.  It was a wonderful album, possibly the best of his solo career, and yes, that includes the ever-so slightly overrated  Transformer . It is full of muscular guitar riffs, strong, confident vocals and an ear, as always, for a killer melody. All manner of subjects are covered - ecology, the environment, corrupt politicians, AIDS, parenthood, urban street life, abusive relationships and many more. It was as if after years in the comparative wilderness, Reed had undergone a renaissance. Personally, I hadn't bought a Lou Reed album since  Berlin , but I bought this, and loved it.   It was a solid, powerful rock album dealing with serious matters. Remember this was 1989, this was no throwaway vacuous pop album, and, thankfully, there was no synthesiser to be heard. Things started to change with the release of this album....

After earlier in 1974's proto-punk bubblegum rock of  Sweet Fanny Adams ,  Sweet  returned with another album that attempted to show off their credentials as a "serious" rock band, not just a vehicle for those great  Chinn-Chapman -written glam rock hit singles.  Again, it was certainly not a bad effort and is a credible solid rock album, full of heavy riffs but with those trademark hooks as well. The album gained The Sweet a huge following in Germany and Scandinavia, who treated them seriously, whereas in the UK, it was their singles that characterised them in people's minds, and their many  Top Of The Pops  appearances.   The Six Teens   was a hit single. It is a glorious, singalong rock anthem with an absolute killer of a chorus. It was one of only two  Chinn-Chapman  songs on the album.  Solid Gold Brass  was written by the members of the group, and it is an  impressive rocker, with some cute guitar-drum interplay...

After these two decidedly oddball albums, Sparks tinkered with the formula once more and went jazzy, big-band and swing influenced in places on this once more acquired taste of an album.  Some of it was, as with much of their material, incredibly appealing and catchy, such as the excellent  Hospitality On Parade , the singalong  Happy Hunting Ground , the amusing  Tits , and the two fine singles  Looks, Looks, Looks  and  Get In The Swing .  Miss The Start Miss The End  isn't bad either.  Indeed, there isn't as much rubbish on here as on the previous two. Sparks were always a bit too wacky for my liking, though, and never quite as good as the cognoscenti thought they were, either.