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

This is another fine album, this time concentrating on folky and r'n'b covers, some of which are in the vein of Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions, some are Delta blues interpretations others just drip with a muscular sixties bluesy, r'n'b attitude.  Jones, as if it would ever not be the case, let's be honest, copes with everything the songs throw at him like the big old Welsh, coal-fired powerhouse that he is. The man has the blues running through his veins, along with a huge dose of instinctive soul too. Top notch stuff.  Covered here is The Rolling Stones'  Factory Girl , two country rock standards in  He Was A Friend Of Mine  and  Why Don't You Love Me Like You Used To Do?  and Billy Boy Arnold/The Yardbirds/David Bowie's rocking  I Wish You Would . 

Despite being heralded as a “transitional album”, which saw a swing away from the blues-influenced covers and self-penned songs of the first two albums, there were still just a few examples of those type of tracks on here. Far less, though, it has to be said. It is still a bit Stonesy, but in a mid sixties Stonesy way, as opposed to a bluesy Stones one.   Milk Cow Blues   was a robust cover of a classic blues, and the single  Till The End Of The Day  is, in many ways, a rehash of  All Day And All Of The Night , while  Gotta Get The First Plane Home  and  When I See That Girl Of Mine  are still very mid-60s  Rolling Stones -ish in both sound and delivery. However, they remind me of The Stones’  Aftermath , which was recorded over a year later, so maybe The Stones were Kinks-ish!  Dave Davies ' wistful  I Am Free  was surely an influence on The Stones'  I'm Free , lyrically and musically, or was it the other way around? Both would seem to date from the Autumn of 1965.  Ray Da

The hugely successful Raise! was released in 1981 and to an extent takes in contemporary gritty street funk vibes of the sort that artists such as Rick James, Kool & The Gang and The Brothers Johnson were putting out, while not straying too much from that unique EW&F dramatic brassy funk sound.  The group were at the height of their popularity in the late seventies-early eighties and this commercially-successful outing exemplifies that. Maurice White and Philip Bailey’s different yet complimentary vocals are showcased perfectly, along with some great saxophone, some searing rock guitar in places and, of course, that poppy funkiness that they specialised in. Shalamar would be heavily influenced by this. . .and there was another ancient Egyptian-inspired cover too.  What was strange was that retrospective and indeed much contemporary criticism has been harsh on the album, a lot of it adopting a sniffy "they've had they day....more of the same..." tone. I am not sure

I prefer this one to the previous release, though, as Stevie kicks off by resurrecting an old 1976 song in Secret Love, which, despite a contemporary backing is still dripping with the feel of Fleetwood Mac, albeit slightly updated. It is one of her best solo songs, although it ends in strangely abrupt fashion.  She even re-unites with old squeeze Lindsey Buckingham on Soldier's Angel. The sensual country rock-ish groove of For What It's Worth is a really impressive number too as is the catchy, riffy, Tom Petty-ish rock of In Your Dreams. Wide Sargasso Sea is lustily muscular too while New Orleans and Moonlight (A Vampire's Dream) are both packed full of atmosphere.  I really like this album, it showcases a great name from the seventies doing what she does best but still managing to sound relevant and up-to-date. It is the most Mac-sounding of Stevie's solo albums and that can't be a bad thing. Of these five solo albums I have briefly covered, it is this one and Str

This was an interesting and oddly-titled release, which contained one half of vibrant, chunky and powerful live performances which include a sixteen minute plus jam version of  Eight Miles High  that, oddly, contained no vocals and a studio half which began with the excellent country rock of  Chestnut Mare .  The remaining studio material - such as  Truck Stop Girl  and  All the Things  - is generally excellent too, as the group develop a more solid rockier seventies country sound.  The laid-back  Yesterday's Train  is a fine track too as is the ecologically-aware and Dylan/CSNY-ish  Hungry Planet .  Just A Season  harks back to those heady but carefree 1965 days and the solid bucolic rock of  Take A Whiff On Me  has the group sounding like The Band.  The album is a bit of an underrated gem in the band's canon, superior to the two more homegeneous predecessors and well worthy of a listen. Critically it was well received too, both at the time and subsequently.

This, the last  Steely Dan  album for many a year, has always suffered as a supposed poor relation to its illustrious predecessor,  Aja .  While there is no doubt as to Aja's luminescence, I have always had a lot of time for  Gaucho.  There is some excellent material on it, for sure. The problem with Steely Dan albums is that they are all so good, that some get criticism they don't deserve, just for being maybe slightly inferior to another brilliant album.  Babylon Sisters  is a superbly evocative opener, with its lightly funky guitar underpinning it and an infectious backing vocal chorus part. It is a great piece of jazz rock perfection. Lovely saxophone and the usual perplexing lyrics enhance it even more.   Hey Nineteen  is an instantly recognisable classic Steely Dan piece of music. It is a quirkily appealing number, with a commercial, breezily soulful ambience and a great harmonica solo too, plus its lyric references to Aretha Franklin.  Glamour Profession   has an easy, a

Who would have expected that Jethro Tull would return in 2022 with their first proper album in nearly twenty-three years? Certainly not me.  Apart from the seemingly ageless and now bald Ian Anderson, it is an all-new line-up, but one that plays totally in the Tull tradition. It is really well produced, with a warm but crystal clear sound that my  Sonos  system delivers really impressively. Mrs Tibbets kicks the album off superbly, with Ian Anderson's flute whistling, fluttering and trilling all over the place like a deranged songbird - a real blast from the past and some quality, solid rock riffs are present throughout the song and there's a killer fuzzy guitar solo near the end. Indeed, you would have thought Martin Barre was still there.  I love this. It plays with a totally unexpected vitality. It is my favourite track on the album, and not simply because it's the first one. There was always an essential folkiness to Tull, and Jacob's Tales is a short acoustic gui

This was Michael Jackson's last album and it was a strange one.  Critically-panned (partly due to its content and partly, one suspects, because of the unsavoury scandals he had become tainted by), it was, firstly, way, way too long at a bloated seventy-seven minutes, and, secondly, it was a somewhat failed attempt to produce something relevant to contemporary club culture while still living up to the (admittedly ridiculous) title of "king of pop".  Therefore, many of the good songs, such as  Cry ,  Unbreakable  and  Heartbreaker , are blighted by a huge, no a truly massive, thumping "beaty" club sound. This was also the era of "loudness wars" so there was a double whammy here for those who like their music more nuanced and subtle. Playing this makes your entire room shake with buzzy, vibrating reverb, which is why I rarely, if ever, play it. Now, I like my music loud, but there is loud and there is barnstormingly unlistenable. This is the latter.  You

After the vast soundscape of  Sign O' The Times , Prince returned in 1988 with a genuine oddity - an album with no distinction between tracks. I have listed the tracks as nine distinct entities, which is in effect what they are, but they are not separated otherwise and flow into each other, playing as one whole. It replaced the hastily-binned  Black Album  for reasons that nobody ever really knew. It is pretty much played by Prince with help from various musicians from track to track.  Eye No  is a brassy, funky and lively introduction to the album and  Alphabet Street  was the album's most obviously poppy section. It was a single. It is driven along by infectious, funky percussion and I have to say at this point as well that there is clear improvement in sound quality from earlier albums. It does go on a bit too long, though.  Glam Slam  is sort of psychedelic, with sounds swirling all over the place. Its production is frustratingly muffled compared to the previous track.  Ann

2003 found  Madonna  again employing contemporary dance sounds and rhythms and blending them with pop hookiness and lots of acoustic guitar plucking to produce another very enjoyable album, just as 2000's  Music  had been. It was getting fashionable to slag her off as an old has-been by now, but it was difficult in the face of stuff like this. It was a good album. End of. As they said back then.  American Life  is addictively jerky with its stop/start walking pace beats. They can be a bit off putting, the same with the flamenco guitar parts but it is still a strong, captivating and adventurous song. Madonna raps on the track too, quite convincingly.  I love  Hollywood . It is a delicious blend of acoustic and electronic sounds. Again, Madonna's vocal is strong, far better than it ever used to be. More rap features and the lively dance beat ensured its popularity in that field.  I'm So Stupid   again finds a slow strummed guitar integrating with a solid, bassy dance beat ove

Amazingly, this, from the same year as Americana, 2012, was Young's first double album, and it contains some whoppingly long numbers, including the (actually excellent) twenty-seven minute  Driftin' Back , - it never gets tiresome - the sixteen minutes of both  Ramada Inn  and  Walk Like A Giant .  Because of this, a lot of the album's Crazy Horse-inspired brilliance gets overshadowed by meandering overkill. This is only on occasions, though, as I can quite happily stick the whole lot on and let it happily grind away.  There is a nostalgic feel to the chugging seventies rock feel of much of the music (give the fine, catchy title track a listen) and the lyrical content supports that as well. Young is now playing his role as grizzled old veteran perfectly.

  To be honest, despite the presence of seven  Springsteen  compositions and one  Steve Van Zandt  track, this is a bit of a patchy, underwhelming album.  The previous one is the better one.  The standout tracks are  Out Of Work , the soulful  Club Soul City , the uplifting, muscular soul of  The Box Tops '  Soul Deep  and the fairground rock of  Angelyne .   Springsteen's  Rendezvous  is competent enough, but was done better by him, performed live on his  Tracks  box set.   The opener,  Hold On (To What You Got)  is ok, as is  Van Zandt 's heartbreaker,  Last Time . However,  Bring Her Back ,  All I Need  and  Love's On The Line  are certainly nothing special.  Turn The Music Down  is a bit of an embarrassment, it has to be said.   One can't help but feel, however, that these are a bunch of Springsteen rejected songs. There were to be no more albums, either, so the venture had run its course.

Blind Faith was a short-lived "supergroup" consisting of Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker from Cream and Steve Winwood from Traffic, with additional help from Rick Grech of Family. It was a short, six-track album of quality blues rock, as you would expect, that achieved notoriety for its original cover of a topless barely pubescent girl. Quite what the intention behind that was is unclear. It has since been replaced by a cover with a picture of the group on it (as shown here). The group actually only lasted six months, yet this album was a critical success and remains highly thought of, often making "greatest albums of all time" lists. Funnily enough, although it is only forty-two minutes long, it seems much longer, probably because of the length of some of the songs.                           Had To Cry Today is a chugging, Traffic-influenced mid-paced blues rock number. It features some solid bass and drums. Winwood's vocals just remind me of Traffic, unsurprisin