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

It's 1979 - want to forget about disco, punk and new wave for a few minutes? well, you could do that right here.  Good old Quo just did it - again and again, regardless. Whatever You Want  is arguably the last truly great, copper-bottomed Quo single (maybe the next one, What You're Proposin' runs it close). Out of sync with contemporary musical trends or not, this track is simply bloody marvellous, rocking from beginning to end and in possession of one hell of a deep, rumbling bassline. Great stuff indeed. I have read reviews accusing it of blighting the album due to its sameiness. Bollocks. It makes the album.  As if it were a Quo revival show, the rocking vibe is continued on the searing boogie of  Shady Lady . I love this one too. Wanna carry on? Sure you do.  Who Asked You  gives us more of the same. As indeed does the equally pounding  Your Smiling Face .  Just when you thought the boogie was never going to end, Quo came up with one of the mo...

A virtually identical review as for 1981's Renegade can be written for this, the group’s final album, other than to say that it is a heavier creation than its predecessor and it is an album that has garnered more critical praise than Renegade did.   Either way, it doesn’t/didn’t get much attention. Seven years earlier it would have done. Phil Lynott left this world three years later in 1986 and for that reason, it always is something of a sad listen (albeit a rocking one).  Highlights here were the rock of both  Cold Sweat  and  This Is The One , the chugging  The Holy War , the punky, grungy thrash of  Thunder And Lightning  and the quiet power of  The Sun Goes Down .  Overall, both these final albums from this fine band , while not quite matching those from the glory days, are more than solid enough and extremely enjoyable as far as I’m concerned. They were just culturally a bit out of kilter in the early eighties.

This album, from precocious young Frenchman Jean Michel Jarre, was all over the place in 1977, and is generally seen as a piece of work that paved the way for so much electronic music in the eighties, even influencing post punk too. It did not appeal to me at all at the time, although several of my friends loved it. I am prepared to give it an occasional listen these days, however.  Incidentally, my main memory of JMJ was that he managed to bag himself upper-crust English actress Charlotte Rampling to aid him in his off-stage relaxation. Oh, that French charm. Back to the album. Music was not all punk and disco in 1977, much of it was still dominated by prog rock and by albums like this, which had their initial roots in that genre. Something like Tangerine Dream’s Phaedra helped give birth to albums such as this one.  It is a much shorter album (sub forty minutes) than I previously imagined and thus, it is not too wearing to listen to. Ten more minutes or more, though, and I w...

I prefer this album from Can to their more popular Tago Mago. It is more laid-back and subtly captivating in its quietly insistent soundscapes.  Future Days  is a gently rhythmic and at times rather delicious serving of ambient music, featuring subtle percussion and guitar, as well as understated keyboards and a great, deep, throbbing bass line. It never annoys, this one, it just sort of washes warmly over you. This is in direct contrast to some of the more grating parts of Tago Mago.  The vocals are, though - in true Can style - mumbling, whiny and indistinct. You can hear a bit of something about future days, but it doesn't matter, does it? The vocals somehow suit the whole thing.  Spray  is again nicely experimental, with an avant-jazz feel to it, particularly on the keyboards. As was the case on Tago Mago, I am really impressed with the drums here. The whole thing is like Kraftwerk meeting Santana from the same period and it takes electronic music ...

This is an album that takes several listens to get into, as indeed, do all of Kate Bush's albums, but this one more than any of them.  As its title would suggest, it is a wintry album. Its very soundscape carries with it a bitter, grey-skied chill that makes this most definitely not an album to play in summer. I am playing it on a cold January morning, however, so it is perfect. I read someone describe it as "winter matins" and they are dead right. It has a ghostly, frozen feel to it, both in its bleak, piano-driven backing, its sombre vocal delivery and the length of most of its songs, which somehow seem to represent a snow that will never melt.   The first three songs are very long and incredibly bleak but they contain a quiet sensitivity that gets into your system over time.  The opener is  Snowflake , which has the afore-mentioned bleak piano and vocal and Kate occasionally adding to her vocals by speaking in what sounds like a  strange old lady's croaky voi...