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

EPs. What a sixties phenomenon they were. This was The Beatles' first one. It was released in the UK in July 1963 and contains four tracks that were previously released on the band's debut album Please Please Me. It was rush-released to meet the public's burgeoning appetite for "The Fab Four", no doubt attracting cash-strapped teenagers who couldn't afford the more expensive album. It duly topped the UK EP chart for twenty-one weeks, making it the biggest-selling EP of all time in the UK up to that point, and it became so successful that it registered on the regular NME Singles Chart, peaking at number four.  As the sleeve notes explain, the EP was designed to showcase each Beatle track by track - firstly Lennon, then McCartney, followed by Harrison and finally Lennon and McCartney in unison but with a prominent drum contribution from Ringo.  The EP's cover photograph, featuring the Beatles jumping in a London bombsite, has been described by The Telegraph

This was The Rolling Stones' second EP and dated from August 1964. Empty Heart and 2120 South Michigan Avenue were credited to "Nanker/Phelge", which was, of course, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards surprisingly and self-consciously not wanting to use their own names. EPs were a short-lived phenomenon from this period that both The Stones and The Beatles utilised, to great effect. This is a superb five song EP, showcasing the young, ebullient bluesy Stones at their best. Listening to it is a real pleasure. While the original EP was recorded and released in an impressive, speaker-shaking mono, all the songs subsequently appeared on the US-released  12 x 5 album in glorious stereo, so the best way to play this EP's material is by sourcing the stereo versions and you get a real aural treat. I can't praise these versions enough, and indeed I carry on doing so throughout the review - yawwwn! Around And Around is the EP's most commercial and instantly appealing song

This is the UK version of the group's second compilation album, and again, as with High Tide And Green Grass, it is the best one.   It was also the first Stones compilation I had access to - my friend owned it and we all shared around our records back then due to our lack of money. He had this, Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies and Lou Reed's Transformer. I had Mott the Hoople's All The Young Dudes and Ziggy Stardust. So it was like I owned it, seemingly living in my bedroom for weeks on end. It was the look of The Rolling Stones that first did it for me - the cockiness, the laddish (but pretty harmless) sexism, the sneers, the long hair. A general wilful grubbiness that appealed to many young boys such as myself. I let my hair grow Stones-ish. No mop-top for me, thank you very much. When The Stones really started to resonate with me, sonically, was in 1968 when Jumpin' Jack Flash hit the number one spot. Wow! What a devilish brew of a song. What an accompanying

This review covers the UK release of The Rolling Stones' first compilation. It is two tracks longer than its US counterpart and the song selection is superior too. Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow? -   Motown was huge in 1996 and big brass breaks were everywhere - The Beatles used one notably on Revolver's Got To Get You Into My Life and Keith Richards freely admits that he wanted to get a sort of Otis Redding Stax-ish sound to this odd choice for a single. While that was most laudable in that his influences were impeccable, the song wasn't actually that good. Beginning with some jangly guitar, the brass then arrives in punchy style but the overall sound is really muffled and indistinct. Jagger's vocal is hurried and the whole thing seems just too damn frantic to me. There is a bit of punky energy to it but it is the impression of sonic murk that has always remained with me. No amounts of remastering seem to have improved things. The best bit is

Paul Weller was once  described as a "spokesman for a generation", bristling with a cynical, youthful ire, singing of "youth explosion" and "golden faces under twenty-five". Life is a drink and you get drunk when you're young, he told us, joyfully. He even scathingly referred to a man who was now "bald and fat" - finished, basically. Weller's "young and full of ideas" world didn't need the old or the experienced. It was for the young and that was it. Well, guess what, the years have passed (I should know, I'm 65 as I write this) and Weller has named his album in wryly amusing Adele style "66", referencing his now venerable age. He now speaks (on A Glimpse Of You) of finding a peaceful old wooden bench to sit on for reflection as he shuffles through a gloriously blooming garden in May, contemplating his mortality in true Bob Dylan fashion. He is now a spokesman for the realistic, sensitive and appreciative old.

Skull Snaps were a mysterious soul/funk group that released this one album in 1974. No-one knew the identities of their members at the time, although they have become known over time. While it has some gritty, urban Blaxploitation funky moments, there is also some decidedly low-key soul material on here too, particularly at the album's outset. Therefore I am left with a bit of an ambivalent feeling about it, initially, but its earthiness grows as it progresses. The album starts in retrospective soulful fashion on My Hang Up Is You, which has a definite Levi Stubbs-style vocal and a You Keep Me Hanging On Morse code bleeping bit in the backing. It has a very mid-sixties Motown feel to it. I am sure it would have gained a Northern Soul following too (indeed it did). The tempo slows down now, however, markedly - Having You Around is a slow, sombre ballad and the Marvin Gaye-influenced Didn't I Do It To You is a rhythmic but slow burning piece of string-backed sweet soul. It is qua

  In  the spring-summer of 1978, this was rarely off my turntable. The Rubinoos flourished somehow, briefly, while the flames of punk burned around them. These weren't no anarchists, no nihilists, no blank generation. They were clean-cut Southern Californian kids brought up on mom's cookies and ice cream while watching Saturday morning cartoons. They were the well-brought up children of The Monkees and The Beach Boys, cousins to The Archies and Tommy James And The Shondells.  Strangely, they were accepted by a fair amount of the punk-new wave following and gigged regularly on the same circuit. I saw them play at my local club - Friars, Aylesbury - a couple of months after seeing The Clash and a couple of weeks before The Buzzcocks. They caught on with the "power pop" audience. Indeed, their version of  I Think We're Alone Now  was regularly played over the PA at Friars at the end of the evening after the main band had gone off stage as we all trooped out. Jon  Ru

  This was  Michael Jackson 's first studio album. In places it is a remarkably mature performance from Jackson, such as on the wonderful cover of  Bill Withers '  Ain't No Sunshine . His voice is still considerably in "transition", shall we say, (not quite there yet) but he has a great ability to deal with whatever song he is asked to sing.  He nails it. Berry Gordy  brought in lots of Motown big hitters to play on the album and the backing and sound quality is excellent. At the time, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder were releasing seriously credible, socio-political and adult romantic material, but it has to remembered that Jackson was still just a twelve year-old boy and they were grown men. There was still a huge market for teen pop, and this was teen pop-soul of the highest quality.  Obviously,  Ain't No  Sunshine   is the stand-out track, but  I Wanna Be Where You Are  is lively and soulful, with a great bass line and solid groove. It has a nice funk-lite a

This is a really good, somewhat little-known compilation that is 24 Motown tracks strong, but contains no "hits" as such. Those looking for well-known Motown tunes will be disappointed, of course, but surely no-one would find any fault with the material. It is all high quality and goes to show just how deep down the Motown mine went. It is deep cut heaven for those like myself who lap up this stuff like a hungry kitten. The songs are mainly sixties ones, with a few early seventies cuts, and there is very much a Northern Soul vibe to the collection, although the last five tracks end it on a funky note. Yes, big names are here, such as  Tammi Terrell, Jr. Walker & The All-Stars, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight & The Pips, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Eddie Kendricks and Edwin Starr, but their songs are all lesser-known ones, of the sort that formed the staple diet of Northern Soul DJs. They are mainly 'b' sides or

  This was  Hot Chocolate' s debut album, from 1974, and that was somewhat surprising as they had been having hit singles for three or four years, intermittently.  This was when they started to prove themselves as a serious band, however, and it is a bit of a shame that the group are always thought of as just a singles band, because this was actually a pretty credible funky soul album. Also, as albums seventies chart acts go, it is also up there as one of the best. Issues of race, social deprivation, dangerous urban living and even suicide are dealt with. For a British multi-racial group this was quite ground-breaking. The album is really quite underrated.  The opener,  Cicero Park , is a haunting number concerning urban decay and ecological decline. It features what was to be an archetypal Hot Chocolate rumbling, almost tribal drum sound. There was also some  CCS -style flute. Indeed, the CCS horns ( RAK  label stable-mates) were employed on this album.  Could Have Been Born In Th

"The band split profits four ways, no one was on a salary and each member paid for his own expenses" - David Bowie    Bowie’s 1989 Tin Machine experiment, where he formed a “democratic” band with guitarist Reeves Gabrels and the rather odd Sales brothers, Tony and Hunt was roundly mocked and derided by the music media and fans alike, which is actually extremely unfair. The intention was to strip things down, become a “band”, as opposed to a David Bowie vehicle, and return to some raw, hard rocking, guitar-driven rock music. All good so far, nothing wrong with that. The problem came maybe because of the seemingly endlessly hype from Bowie about how glad he was “just to be one part of a democratic band” and how good it was to be back on the road again, playing small flea pits. Unfortunately it all seemed just a tad pretentious and it would have appeared to alienate a lot of people. “I love Bowie, anything but Tin Machine though” was an often heard statement at the time, and ove

Imagine Ian Hunter, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, eighties-era Rolling Stones, Joe Strummer, Deacon Blue, Willy De Ville, Bob Dylan, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lucinda Williams, Lou Reed, Graham Parker and maybe even The Boomtown Rats got together to write some lyrics and come up with some perfect, inspirational feel good rock songs - then you've got Willie Nile. He really is one of rock's music's great conundrums. Just why in the name of Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard didn't he make it? Why is that only a handful of the cognoscenti (it seems) know of him or his remarkable body of work? It is a mystery to me. Equally perplexing is why it has taken until now for me to discover him. Listening to his many albums I feel I have had some sort of epiphany. They are all just superb - streetwise, earnest, moving and clever lyrics, killer guitar, captivating, emotive melodies that lift you skywards the moment you hear them. Just a few minutes of Willie Nile and my sp

1967 saw some great albums released - The Doors debut album and Strange Days ; Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced; Big Brother And The Holding Company ; oh, and Sgt Pepper , of course.  Then there was this one -  The Velvet Underground  - Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker abetted on three tracks by the mysterious  German chanteuse ,  Nico . It is never mentioned as much as other albums of the time. Yes, it had critical acclaim and certainly has done in retrospect. However, in many ways, its influence has been greater, maybe, than the album itself. David Bowie, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Roxy Music, Mott The Hoople, Magazine, Oasis, U2 and so many punk and post-punk bands owe this album so much. It is also probably one of the most drug-addled albums of all time.  It starts strangely, however, with the wistful, reflective and melodic  Sunday Morning  featuring Reed’s gentle, unthreatening vocal. He almost sounds like a college boy next door.  Come the next trac