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

The last of Suzi's glam period albums was this formulaic offering from 1975, by which time the glory of glam was fading - fast.  It is redeemed by the presence of a harder, funkier-edged single in the title track, the equally funky grind of both I Bit Off More Than I Could Chew and Can't Trust Love as well as the chunky Strip Me but other than that, it is ok, but pretty inessential. I always loved those sexy groans Suzi injected into the title track, though. The problem was that now the big rolling drum sound of glam was officially deemed no more, glam rockers like Suzi had to go heavier (as she and The Sweet did) or mess around with clavinet-driven funk as she also did here, Mud did too and even Slade indulged in. That meant that this album was not a bad one, musically, but it just didn't have that catchy glam appeal. Tracks like Paralysed and Prisoner Of Your Imagination are acceptable heavy-ish rock tracks but Devil Gate Drive or Can The Can they ain't.

The Glitter Band  and their producer,  Mike Leander , have become unfortunately and unfairly besmirched by their obvious association with their disgraced erstwhile “leader”,  Gary Glitter .  He has effectively been written out of music’s history and they have gone down with him. You don’t hear Gary Glitter songs on the radio and neither do you hear Glitter Band ones. A t the time, at the height of glam’s preening, stomping power in 1974 ( maybe a little too late) the band behind the big G decided to release some music of their own. They utilised the double drummers with their pounding beat, the blaring saxophones and the glammy singalong sound of their work with Glitter.  They produced a whole series of glam singles and they weren’t bad either - from the stomp of  Angel Face  and the very similar (but ordinary)  Just For You  to the slightly more rocky but still chanty  Let’s Get Together Again  (one of my all-time favourite glam singles) to the perfect rock/pop of  Goodbye My Love  an

There are some excellent compilations in this RAK series -  CCS ,  Suzi Quatro  and  Hot Chocolate . The sound quality is excellent on all of them and they are a chronological document of singles, 'b' sides and a few rarities near the end.  Of all of them, this is probably the least credible, mainly because of the quality of the 'b' sides.  Mud 's self-penned efforts cannot hold a candle to those of CCS, Hot Chocolate or even Suzi Quatro. In fact, they are pretty awful, I have to say. Glam rock groups were notorious for self-penned, poor quality 'b' sides. Sweet were another offender.   That said, Mud's singles from the  Nicky Chinn-Mike Chapman  songwriting team were excellent, from the slightly strange, Kinks-influenced early hit singles -  Moonshine Sally ,  Crazy   and the excellent, little-mentioned  Hypnosis , which saw the group dressed up in dandyish 1920s gear before their classic glam rock period, when they adopted the teddy boy look and the bi

After T. Rex, Sweet and Slade had exploded glam rock all over the place in 1971-72, together with credible glam-influenced rock acts like David Bowie, Roxy Music, Mott The Hoople, Cockney Rebel and Elton John along came the second division of glam acts. Here are some of them (Suzi Quatro, Wizzard and Mud were part of this sub-genre, but they have qualified, due to album releases, for a section of their own. Only just, in the case of Mud). These artists featured below we all very much singles-orientated groups.  We are looking at the years of 1973-75 here.  For some reason, rock and roll revivalism (or at least, rock and roll influence) was popular during these years and  very rock and roll-influenced were nostalgists  Showaddywaddy  - also wearing teddy boy drapes and shoes  - who combined those trademark stomping glam beats with a clear rock and roll instinct on hits like  Hey Rock And Roll , a cover of Eddie Cochran's  Three Steps To Heaven ,  Dancin' Party  and  Trocadero .

I always thought The Climax Blues Band were a US band (they were originally called The Chicago Climax Blues Band), but they were actually British and had a fair old career putting out no-nonsense blues rock albums before their big 1976 chart hit   Couldn't Get It Right . I have dabbled in a few of their albums here.   The first,  Plays On , from 1969, is pure, straight ahead blues rock in the style of Chicken Shack and Jellybread from the same era - lots of harmonica, searing guitar, throbbing bass and solid drums.  The album does have one rather odd excursion into some proggy space rock and almost atonal keyboard indulgence on  Mum's The Word , which does sit most incongruously with the rest of the album. The  second album,  A Lot Of Bottle , the band's third, is from 1970 and is more of the same, minus the space rock. including a couple of standard blues covers. Indeed, the band's seventies output continued in this bluesy vein until I guess they felt they they ha

In the same vein as the band's debut, but far better produced, was this follow up, an album that was the last that was released at a time when T'Pau were "big".  It wasn't a bad effort at all, actually and its sound quality is a lot better than the woeful murk of its predecessor, thankfully! I bought the album at the time and loved it. I haven't listened to it much since, though. Highlights were the three hit singles  Secret Garden ,  Road To Our Dream  and  Only the Lonely  as well as  Arms Of Love ,  Between The Lines  and  Taking Time Out .  Although T'Pau recorded some good stuff, there was a certain homogeny to their sound that meant that after one more album (I think) that was it, which was a shame, but at least they got their couple of years and, as long as there are "Gold hits" radio stations around, China In Your Hand will be played.

This  was a really impressive debut album from Billy Joel-ish singer-songwriter Marc Cohn. Unfortunately, he didn't do too much more after this, but this stands as one the great, underrated debuts.  Walking In Memphis  is the first of the album's three classics, for me. It is packed full of atmosphere, great lyrics and a soulful, gospelly power that blows you away. Cohn's voice is great, ideally suited to the song and eminently better than Cher's  "walking in MOM-PHOS"  appropriation. I love the final verse when Cohn is asked by Muriel  "are you a Christian, child?"  and he replies  "ma'am I am tonight"  and the gospel choir kicks in. Love it.  M y favourite track of his is the Springsteen-ish  Silver Thunderbird , a tale of his father in his pride and joy of a car -  "Son you must take my word - if there's a God up in Heaven - he's got a silver thunderbird" . Bruce himself could not have penned a better  couple of lin

Formed in the early 1970s (around 1971-72) by Patrick Paterson and Steve Scipio in London, this multi-member band never got the success their absolutely unique brand of soully, funky reggae tinged music deserved. Even now there is nothing really that sounds like Cymande.  They were/are totally impossible to categorise.   The sound quality and playing on this, a compilation of all three of the band's seventies albums is top notch, full of atmosphere. As for the individual albums, they are -  Cymande - 1972 Zion I/One More/Getting It Back/Listen/Rickshaw/Dove/Bra/The Message/Rastafarian Folk Song Second Time Around - 1973 Anthracite/Willie's Headache/Genevieve/Trevorgus/To You/For Baby Ooh/Fug/Crawshay/Bird/Them And Us Promised Heights - 1974   Pon De Dungle/Equatorial Forest/Brothers On The Slide/Changes/Breezeman/Promised Heights/Losing Ground/Leavert/The Recluse/Sheshamani A Simple Act Of Faith - 2015* Everybody Turn Rasta/Do It (This Time With Feeling)/Crazy Game/Sea Of Te

This was the second, and so far, latest album from the somewhat unique psychedelic soul/funk band from  New York City. It is the more accomplished of the two, for me. As I mentioned on my review of their first album, I saw them live in 2011 in London, supporting Bryan Ferry and they were very, very good. Since then I haven't heard or read much about them, which is a shame. This is a very interesting and unusual album.  Following   is an impossibly catchy opener with real echoes of  Tom Tom Club   in its deadpan female backing vocals. The same slightly bored-sounding (or maybe cool and sexily detached) vocals continue on the spacey and futuristically funky  The Right One . Yes, there are influences of the eighties art pop of  The Human League  and  Heaven 17 , but there are "proper" drums here and and rock-ish bass sound.  A track like  The Written Word  has hints of  Roxy Music  about it in places, with some also quite prog rock instrumental stylings in there. While the m

I have four Jamiroquai albums from the nineties/early 2000s  -  Emergency On Planet Earth  - 1993  When You Gonna Learn (Digeridoo)/Too Young To Die/Hooked Up/If I Like It, I Do It/Music Of The Mind/Emergency On Planet Earth/Whatever It Is, I Just Can't Stop/Blow Your Mind/Revolution 1993Didgin' Out The Return Of The Space Cowboy - 1994 Just Another Story/Stillness In Time/Half The Man/Light Years/Manifest Destiny/The Kids/Mr. Moon/Scam/Journey To Arnhemland/Morning Glory/Space Cowboy Synkronized - 1999   Canned Heat/Planet Home/Black Capricorn Day/Soul Education/Falling/Destitute Illusion/Supersonic/Butterfly/Where Do We Go From Here?/King For A Day A Funk Odyssey - 2001   Feel So Good/Little L/You Give Me Something/Corner Of The Earth/Love Foolosophy/Stop Don't Panic/Black Crow/Main Vein/Twenty Zero One I find it difficult to write any detailed analysis of them, track by track, in that a) they are albums I dabble in every now and again as opposed to listen to regula

This was a strangely unappreciated album from Aswad, having slipped under the radar considerably.  This is a shame, because it is an excellent surfing of melodious roots reggae, which highlights the group’s talented musicians. It is not just thumping bass and Rastafarian conscious lyrics, although they are here, it also includes some really attractive, lilting lead guitar parts, fresh, punchy brass and that distinctive “boing boing” synth drum sound that was so popular in the late seventies/early eighties.  Aswad were more than just a “beat and righteousness” band, they were prepared to jazz it up a little, a bit like Third World and Steel Pulse did.  Aswad  were able to merge reggae with both rock and jazz rhythms and they do this to great effect on the opener,  Behold , which features some infectious slow jazzy rhythms, together with some excellent lead guitar. and percussion. Their songs were often lengthy workouts, and this one tops six minutes without ever getting tiresome.  Track

1979’s “comeback” from gin-soaked old cigarette puffer Marianne is not at all bad. Her voice, ravaged by years of smoking had developed a throaty sensuality to it that gives the album a real character.  The original CD master is perfectly acceptable, sound-wise. I do not have the deluxe edition so I cannot comment on whether that is an improvement or not.  The album’s content somehow suited the punk milieu of 1979. Woman who had been round the block a lot singing in that afore-mentioned croaky, drink and smoking ravaged voice about why her lover let another woman..., well you know. (That refers to the at-the-time controversial track  Why D'You Do It  by the way).  The solid mid-pace rock punch of  Guilt  explores a life that hadn't been much fun for Marianne for a few years. Angst is all over this song and, indeed, most of the album. That is perversely what makes it so good. Her soul is stripped bare, but not in an indulgent or self-pitying way. It is just full of honesty. It i

More of the same, then, from Gerry Rafferty.  Days Gone Down (Still Got The Light In Your Eyes) kicks things off in low-key fashion, which is admittedly still quite attractive, and I like the bit where it cranks up to sound like Jackson Browne and starts to rock some. Nice track. Night Owl is the best known track on the album and it is one that almost equals Baker Street for subtle atmosphere. It is sort of impossible to analyse it, though, other than to say that I like it in its quiet way. That’s the best I can do. The Way That You Do It is a nice mid-pace soft rock (very soft) number. Incidentally, the drums were played on this album by Liam Genocky, who went in to play with Steeleye Span. A bit of trivia there.  Why Won’t You Talk To Me is a slightly Parisian-sounding, folky song with brief airs of Van Morrison too. I have realised that I had forgotten about Get It Right Next Time, which is an attractive chugger of a track, with a catchy, soulful vibe to it and some more great saxop

I  always liked The Carpenters throughout the seventies even during my "punk years". I bought Goodbye To Love and Yesterday Once More as singles in the mid-seventies. I loved them then and I do now. So what. They're songs of the highest quality.   Yesterday Once More  is lovely. A melodic, nostalgic lament for rock 'n' roll days gone by with Karen Carpenter's honeyed tones at their absolute finest. What is often forgotten, as her voice was so good, was that the instrumental backing on Carpenters records was always top notch, led by brother Richard. The sound quality on this compilation is simply superb. Lovely and bassy.  Leon Russell and Bonnie Bramlett's   Superstar  is just gorgeous. The bass, the oboe backing, Karen's vocal, the build up of the plaintive verses and the glory of the chorus. Great stuff.  Rainy Days And Mondays  is another killer, with its  Bacharach -sound melody and sumptuous saxophone solo.  Then there is  Goodbye To Love , one of

After an excellent album in 1973's Loving And Free, which was largely populated with Elton John-Bernie Taupin songs, thus follow up, from 1974, and credited to The Kiki Dee Band was a bit of a disappointment.  Despite a superb rocking lead-off single in the title track, the rest of the album is pretty unmemorable, unthreatening soft rock fare.   Nothing on the album matches up to its title track in either quality or sound. It rocks, big time, but the rest of the album doesn't at all. People buying the album on the back of the single would have been sorely disappointed, I'm sure. They would have been waiting for the next rocker and they wouldn't have got it.   I've Got The Music In Me  is an absolute barnstormer of an opener, from its bass and percussion slow burning beginning through its piano, rock guitar and brass-driven big chorus to its false ending. It rocks all the way and Kiki's vocal is positively stratospheric.  Someone To Me  is an easy-going piece of