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

Misty In Roots were a multi-member “collective” founded in London in 1979 and had a few albums released with a moderate amount of success.  This is one of them.   Unfortunately, these albums seem to be pretty impossible to get hold of these days. The band seemed to be more of a live band than a studio one for many years, preferring to just play their music live. This album was a “comeback album” from 2002 - twelve years after their previous outing.  True Rasta  starts the album as it is to continue - rootsy rhythms, vibrant horns, swirling organ, toe-tapping drums and percussion and a light, harmonious lead vocal. The usual roots Rasta conceits are all here - grave warnings of  Judgement Day   and the like. Roots albums all carry the same message, to be honest, but it doesn’t really matter, it is just the groove that carries it along.   Cover Up  is an anti-racist number, referencing the murder of  Stephen Lawrence . It has meaningful lyrics ...

The third album wasn't half bad either. It kicks off with a really good one in This Is It (Your Soul) and following that up with the winsome, piano-driven soul of One Tongue. Be Good is impressive too, as is the beautiful, evocative ballad Good For You.  What a great track Isn't It Amazing is! The group sound like Bryan Ferry meeting U2. It is gloriously good. Thing of Beauty and the lovely Your Nature are exceptionally good too, as is the Bruce Hornsby-ish Spirit Of The Land. Gypsy Fair sounds like Jackie Leven, aptly.  Bloody Hell, this is an underrated corker of an album. Both of these out-do the first one, for me, yet it is the first one that has remained in the collective critical memory.

What a great underrated treat of an album this is. I previously only knew Clarence Carter from his backwoods-inspired hit, Patches (also covered by Chairmen Of The Board). As it was 1968, many soul singers were influenced by Otis Redding and Carter is no different, utilising many Redding-isms in his delivery. He has enough of his own character, however, to make the album special in its own right, including a huge, braying, deep laugh that reminds me of Frank Bruno. Carter has a fine line in humour too and many of the lyrics show that.  The songs are a mix of she's left me heartbroken lovelorn songs such as Do What You Gotta Do (covered later, successfully, by The Four Tops), Set Me Free, the bluesy punch of Part Time Love and the simply glorious I Can't See Myself and dance craze-inspired thumpers like Thread The Needle, Wind It Up and Funky Fever, all sung over a peerless, Stax backing that carries with it a simply superb sound quality for 1968.  Incidentally, Do What You Got...

Also from Doris was the follow-up to 1969's I'm A Loser,  A Legend In Her Own Time , from 1971. It is in the same vein as its predecessor, and, apparently was preferred by Doris herself.  It is full of brassy, kick-ass soul with a proud edge to the vocals and the accompanying lyrics. Doris has plenty of advice for all you girls out there - don't you go down the same road I did, no sir, or trust the man you love with your best friend.  Highlights are  I'd Do It All Over You , the upbeat Northern Soul groove of  Don't Let The Green Grass Fool You ,  He's Everything I Need ,  It Sure Was Fun  and the very Stax-ish ballad  Since I Fell For You . Once again it was an album of Heaven-sent  SOUL .  Just check out  (Oh Lord) I Wish I Could Sleep . Wonderful stuff. Oh, and Doris, I dig that crazy outfit mama....

There is not much available out there from Junior Murvin sound-alike Junior Delahaye. This six track sampler of an album is the only release remotely resembling an album. That said, it has a super sound quality to it, with a really nice, warm, melodic bassline that immediately draws me right in.  The skanking is easy on the ear and Delahaye’s high and sweet vocal equally so. The music is a mix of Lovers Rock such as I Love You For All Seasons, Sitting In The Park and Travelling Man (lovely dubby break near the end) and rasta consciousness-inspired material like All I Need Is Jah (check out that sweet, Glen Da Costa-ish tenor saxophone break). There are also hints of Gregory Isaacs to Junior’s vocals.  Overall it is extremely pleasant early eighties reggae - tuneful with a melodically dubby roots edge. From this collection, though, I get the impression that Delahaye was more of a lover than a Rastaman. All I Need Is Jah is indeed the only Rasta song. The other two, Love and Mov...

This is a soundtrack that never quite made it as big as the one for The Harder They Come had done a decade earlier.  It was 1982, Bob Marley had left this world and the punky reggae roots party was a few years into its decline. Digital reggae was on the up, for sure, but, that said, listening habits died hard and there was still a considerable appetite for roots, with roots-influenced groups like Aswad, Black Uhuru and at the commercial end of the market UB40 still shifting records. Roots reggae did not just disappear overnight, it retained much of its critical credibility and indeed it still does.  This was a double album and eight of its twenty-two tracks are Bob Marley & The Wailers ones - Natural Mystic, Rastaman Chant, Rat Race, the wonderful, evocative Jah Live, Small Axe, Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Roadblock), Time Will Tell and Pass It On. Some of them appear in slightly different versions to the ones we are familiar with from their original  albums...

This album is actually a bit of an improvement on Monster. Just. Nicely produced, there's some fine, varied rock/blues/country to be found on here, from the industrial, riffy and fabulously funky opener Ball Crusher via the blues of both Forty Days And Forty Nights and Fat Jack to the acoustic and most pleasurable country rock of Snowblind Friend. Who Needs Ya is a typical Steppenwolf serving of riffage that shows they hadn't quite lost it. It reminds me a lot of Creedence Clearwater Revival and particularly  Grand Funk Railroad from the same period. It is probably the best track on the album. I love its early seventies riffy rocking sound. Actually, Renegade its pretty good too. There's lots of hidden treasure to be discovered on this album, for sure. It seems to have become far too easy for reviewers to criticise this album and its tracks for not being Born To Be Wild. It is a stereotyped, perceived wisdom critics' trap to fall into. Make sure you don't! What do t...

From disco's rhythms, in 1979, melodic, jazz funk grooves had become a more discerning music of choice for those who found disco's poppy vibes too  lowest common denominator . Nothing summed this up more than The Crusaders's huge hit,  Street Life , although I have often wondered what those who bought this album expecting more of the same felt when they heard five instrumentals along with that track.   The album is crammed full of superb saxophone, piano and jazzy rhythm, however. It is a lovely late night, chilled out piece of work.  The sound quality is also outstanding, the sort of thing you used to hear played in hi-fi shops as a demonstration of the equipment’s quality.  Street Life , as I said, needs no introduction, of course. It is the album's only vocal track, featuring the talents of  Randy Crawford . It is presented here in its full, eleven minute plus version, with its slow, soulful introduction before that instantly recognisable horn-funky...

I don't review compilations much (or greatest hits albums for that matter), not wanting to detail track after track that many people are very familiar with.  They tend to function as something that gives you an individual feeling of satisfaction as you play them based on their choice of songs and their running order. Like a well-curated playlist does these days. With that in mind - just how damn good a compilation is this? Sure, there are more tracks I could add digitally, but this collection stands tall in its own blissful right. It is hard to get hold of 4CD set from 1998 that has to go down as one of my favourite compilations of all. I love it.  It covers the years of 1967 to 1970 and you have to say that it is a pretty definitive collection of rock and pop from that classic period for music. It concentrates on material that fitted the whole "summer of love" and onwards hippy vibe. While not all of them obviously fit that bill many of them do.  These songs were part of...

This third outing is probably the band's most complete and varied offering, as they dabble in soul, funk, jazz, r'n'b and blues to great effect. This is one that requires more and more listens to fully appreciate it, while not as instant as the first two, it has many, many hidden depths. Listen to that intoxicating, rhythmic backing to the title track, for example, along with the clever guitar phrasing. It is a real grower of a track. There is a subtlety to the band's music now that maybe they didn't quite have before. A similar groovy rhythm introduces the sumptuous and seductive Control. It is as if Sade has found her way into the studio on those lush vocals. It still has a trademark big, muscular chorus, though.  Don't Hesitate (Call Me) is a soft, soulful number with echoes of The Style Council floating around in there, as well as a jazzy mid-song break and some Santana-esque guitar.  Push Now is infectiously funky in its now typical Southern Avenue style....

Really impressive (perhaps surprisingly) is Gretchen Wilson's 2013 album of covers, titled Under The Covers . As with her live album it is really well played and there is a deep, bassy sound quality throughout the album.  The choices veer much more to the rock and blues side of things to the country. In fact, there isn't a country cut on there. Personally, I much prefer Gretchen as a rocker than a country singer. She has a strong voice that is suited to rock and she gets what is necessary to perform the songs. As with many albums of covers, the originals are not bettered, but she certainly doesn't disgrace herself.  The album comes over like a live album where the band play a load of covers in a small, intimate venue and play them well.  The highlights are The Faces' Stay With Me, Jackson Browne/The Jackson 5's Doctor My Eyes, Bob Seger's Her Strut, Derek & The Dominoes Bell-Bottom Blues, a particularly convincing version of Led Zeppelin's Over The Hill ...

Sadly, Gram Parsons didn't live to see the release of this, his second solo album, passing away from a drug overdose in September 1973. The album is almost a shared one with  Emmylou Harris , who features on vocals throughout. Initially the album was credited to both of them, but Parsons' widow changed that, removing Harris's picture and changing the credits. Harris was only credited on the rear cover.  The album did not sell well, but it has received a barrel load of retrospective kudos over the years.  I remember flicking through album sleeves in the seventies in record shops and regularly seeing it, never knowing much about it, though.   Parsons is an important artist in that he was respected by the rock cognoscenti and succeeded, mostly posthumously, in bringing country music to a rock audience.   All the material is classic country - pedal steel guitars, sad lyrics and sweet male and female vocals in perfect harmony. It's not typical Nashville rhinestone co...

I was never a huge fan of either late seventies-era Funkadelic (preferring their earlier output reviewed above) or Parliament, while I enjoyed several of their more popular tracks, overall I found them a tad too indulgent on occasions, but, as everyone knows, that was part of their whole groove thang, man. After all, that is what I like about the earlier albums, so I am contradicting myself, aren't I?  Anyway, this was their most successful album, by far, bringing their unique (well, along with Parliament, of course), brand of “black rock” to people’s attention.  The music was chock full of fuzzy lead guitar, chunky riffs, “proper” drums and extended solos.  It was the perfect merger of rock and funk, exemplified on the catchy single,  One Nation Under A Groov e  - a clarion call for a funky cross-boundary unity and getting down just for the funk of it - and the eleven minute plus rock workout of  Who Says A Funk Band Can’t Play Rock?   Also impressive...

Another slight change in style occurred on this one, as Carole followed Joni Mitchell (see: Court and Spark) in putting out an album of well-produced, smooth, easy-listening jazzy pop material.  Nightingale kicks it off with a chart hit of a number that is a breath of fresh summer's morning air. It still had that inimitable Carole King vibe about it, though, just as the gentle strains of Change Of Mind, Change Of Heart do.  Jazzman is a superb, vibrant, saxophone-powered number that made for a fine hit single that completely exemplifies the US chart sound of 1974. Conversely, it would not have been a big hit in the UK and duly wasn't. Nevertheless it should have been, surprisingly not charting at all. I think it's great. however. You Go Your Way, I'll Go Mine is pleasant piece of AOR balladry enhanced by some solid rock guitar breaks. You're Something new harks back to that bass 'n' bongos of Tapestry et al.  We're Are All In This Together is an upliftin...