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

Coming right in the middle of the roots reggae boom and the credibility offered to it by its popularity with punk rockers, this second album from The Abyssinians is an excellent offering, one of my favourite roots reggae albums. Like The Mighty Diamonds, Israel Vibration and, to a certain extent, The Gladiators, The Abyssinians managed to combine a rootsy beat, a Rasta devotional message with really melodic, appealing vocals.  The tracks are nearly all upbeat and uplifting, like a breath of fresh Caribbean air. Despite the liberal sprinkling of Rasta consciousness, this is certainly no gruff, preachy, doom-laden album of warning. It is an optimistic album and highly enjoyable. The group pushed aside a few boundaries - more power to them for it. The album was also released on several different labels.   Oh Lord  is a delicious opener, with an infectious bass line and lovely vocal. It has a great  Catch A Fire -sty...

Well, it was 1985 after all. What did artists do in that period?  Exactly - they put out albums dominated by synthesisers and programmed drums - The Stones, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Dylan, Genesis, Paul McCartney did it, along with many others I am amazed that Joni Mitchell did too, however. She too became infected, big time. Why oh why? She had big, permed hair too.   Listen to  Good Friends  and  Fiction  as Joni goes all stadium rock with synthy drums, power riffs and echoey male soulful backing vocals. The same applies to  Tax Free . Joni now sounds like Pat Benatar, Jennifer Rush or occasionally Chrissie Hynde. Even the cover has her looking like Cyndi Lauper (if indeed it is her).  The Three Great Stimulants  is a keyboard-driven slow and very mid-eighties number, featuring that classic drum sound from the era. You would never in a million years say this was Joni Mitchell.  Smokin' (Empty, Try Another)  is a minute or so of so...

This was the last album from  The Doobie Brothers  as such. There were some later "reunion" ones, with slightly different line-ups, that appeared over a decade later, but, to all intents and purposes, this was the end of the line. That said, the three later-era albums I have shown at the bottom of this review are all really good ones - check them out, you won't be sorry. This however, in comparison, is a pretty uninspired album, played with technically brilliant musicianship and easy listening sound quality, it just lacks that certain something that had been present in their previous albums. It was solidly an AOR, late-night, polished soul/rock album. However, it was also, by now, sounding very formulaic. It is all very pleasant and you cannot object to it while listening, but the previous albums all had far more to offer. Dedicate This Heart   is a smooth, soulful opener, while  Real Love is a bit of a What A Fool Believes remake, although it features a sumptuous sa...

Willy De Ville's final album was the slightly patchy Pistola. It is not quite up to the standard of previous albums, and Willy's voice is sadly ageing, but there are still hints of what made me love him so much on there.  So So Real  is acoustically-backed, but has cadences of classic De Ville in its vocal delivery and whole structure, whereas  Been There Done That  sees Willy delving into brassy, gritty funk for one of the first times. Check out that clavinet and wah wah-driven groove.  Willy's yesterday, today, tomorrow timeless, wonderful voice is there on top form on the gently melodic  When I Get Home . knowing that this was to be his last album, there is something movingly valedictory about listening to this. Willy's ascension is near and he takes us all with him. God bless his eternal spirit. Sorry about that unprecedented display of emotion (never the best thing for a reviewer to do, but I have always written with my heart), but that's how this one ...

This was the first  Hall & Oates  album I bought and it came at a time when the pair were considered old hat. That was a shame because, after virtually a whole decade, those much-maligned eighties synthesisers and programmed drums had been thankfully replaced by the wonderful sounds of a real band again.  For me, this was one of their best albums. Coming out of the eighties resulted in so many better albums from so many artists as they re-discovered what music should be all about - authenticity, soul and rock. This was the pair's most soulful album for years, full of  Stax  feel.  So Close  is an excellent, big production rock-soul number and it was the track that inspired me to buy the album. It was so good to hear those "real" drums once more. Man, the eighties were bad for music. Up next is an absolute classic.  I always loved   Mel & Tim 's  Stax  soul number  Starting All Over Again  from the late sixties and ...

After their 1976 rootsy, eponymous debut album and 1979's slightly less heavy but still roots offering in Hulet , Aswad saw the eighties in by acknowledging in this album's title that a certain amount of change in style was underfoot. The classic roots reggae sound of "flying cymbals" and one-drop drum sounds or Rastafarian Nyabinghi drums had given way, as the decade turned, to synthesiser-driven reggae, often accompanied by programmed drums and electronic effects. The move to "digital reggae" began here. The lilting guitars were still there, though, and, lyrically, the Rastafarian devotional pronouncements hadn't gone but everything seemed considerably lighter, breezier and just less heavy .  The punk/reggae crossover years of 1976-79, that saw the nihilism of punk merge with the angry, conscious righteousness of roots 'n' Rasta had gone, to be replaced by smoother, more danceable and arguably more accessible reggae sounds such as in the musi...

Even more blatantly AOR and totally incongruous in 1977 was this easy-going offering. Once more it sounds so much like the stuff George Harrison was starting to put out around the same time. The bare-chested, long-haired cover image was anathema to much of what was going on in 1977. It was everything punk wanted to eradicate. Or so you might think. There was still a big market for summery AOR rock lite, something that is often overlooked. It starts in decidedly low-key style with the plaintive, dreamy  I'm In You , before the glorious AOR of  (Putting My) Heart On The Line  attempts to merge Baby I Love Your Way with Show Me The Way, quite attractively, actually.  The very mid-seventies-ish slow groove of  St. Thomas (Don't You Know How I Feel)  is the album's best track, and  Won't You Be My Friend ,  You Don't Have To Worry  and the excellent  Tried To Love  are all extremely pleasant AOR numbers that the US market will have swall...

I remember buying this album in 1991 and being a tad underwhelmed. I felt it didn't have as many Seger classics on it as previous albums had. I am revisiting it now, all these years later, maybe with new ears.  Take A Chance kicks the album off in fine style in its slow, brooding but powerful style. It is more intense and dour than some of his earlier material. The acoustically-driven but robust slowie The Real Love is more what had come to expect from Seger. It's a good one. Sightseeing is a pleasing and lively Cajun-style rocker, enhanced by a winsome accordion.  Real At The Time is a solid, guitar-powered gritty rocker in praise of a former girlfriend. I like it a lot. The album's jewel in the crown, though, is the wonderful piano-driven corker, The Fire Inside, on which the ivories are tinkled by none other than Roy E St. Band Bittan. Bob's vocal is superb on this infectious number. I loved it back in 1991 and guess what? Yep, I still do. Great stuff. "Dreams d...

It was the seventies, so what did everyone release? Exactly. A double album. This was the Pie's double header. I won't go into a track-by-track analysis, (double albums tend to have that effect on me!) but suffice to say the album is Humble Pie's best-sounding one thus far, full of deep, warm bass and a lot of Steve Marriott's afore-mentioned soulful instincts coming to the fore. It is not as blatantly heavy as Smokin', featuring a bit more subtlety and craftsmanship on many of the songs.  As always with their albums, they start well, with two bluesy boogie rockers in  Get Down To It  and the superbly-titled  Good Booze And Bad Women  before going soulful on the slow-pace rock/soul ballad  Is It For Love?  These are followed by the top notch riffing of  Drugstore Cowboy , which features a beautifully rumbling bassline, and the impressive flinty blues rock of  Black Coffee . The descriptions of these songs are probably enough to give an accura...

The final  Jacksons  album, then, four years after 1980's  Triumph  and including the now  Thriller -powered global mega-star  Michael , talked back in to doing one last album with his five other brothers.  It was the only Jacksons album to include all six brothers. It is very much an album of the mid-eighties and suffers accordingly due to all the programmed drums and keyboards. These are not really my thing and I find The Jacksons' seventies albums far more satisfying and authentic-sounding.  Torture  is a strong, mid-pace stomper, with  Michael  sharing lead vocals with  Jermaine  over a backing dominated by typically mid-eighties synthesisers. Some searing rock guitar features too, however, rescuing it somewhat from the eighties sound. It is probably the album's best track.  Wait   is a very eighties piece of dance pop, driven by keyboards, but attractively so. It is bassier than some eighties material and on...

This was, to an extent, a continuation of Rock 'n' Roll, as many journalists have said, but, for me, it is far more refined. It is far higher on the gloominess scale for a start and much less on the speaker-shaking. Acoustic guitar features a lot more too. Adams said of it that it was  "a lot like Heartbreaker, but better and more severe. It's complex and it's damaged" . It begins with an atmospheric, haunting number in  Political Scientist  that sees Ryan whispering his vocals over a nice bass and keyboards backing. Some of the percussion is almost jazzy at times. It is one of his mature compositions thus far. Also sombre and understated is  Afraid Not Scared . I really love the moody, slow backing on this one - the sound quality is superb. Also evocative and mature-sounding is the Springsteen/Petty-ish  This House Is Not For Sale . Some jangly guitar and incisive riffs drive along the impressive mid-pace rock of  Anybody Wanna Take Me Home . The song has ...