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

Would-be punks, white imitators of authentic reggae, pretentious poseurs.....ex-teacher Sting (Gordon Sumner), sixties veteran guitarist Andy Summers and unpredictable American Drummer Stewart Copeland aka The Police were arguably all of those things. What they were also was damn good at times. We kick off with the group's first hit - the now iconic Roxanne with its captivating Sting vocal and sparse backing from Summers and Copeland.  Can't Stand Losing You was another hit single, (despite its shocking picture sleeve cover of someone having hung themselves) probably the most "reggae" of the three that start this collection, with a dubby backing before the rock chorus kicked in. Up next is  the reggae meets rock chorus of the irresistible So Lonely, a track I loved at the time and still do. It is their best early single for me.  The massive hit single, Message In A Bottle had tinges of reggae behind a driving rock beat and an instantly recognisable introductory riff.

By 1998, the influence of Oasis was everywhere in the BritPop genre, no more so than on this, the debut album Embrace. Music nerds describe the album not as BritPop, but as Post BritPop. Oh for fuck's sake! They're British, they play guitars loud, they sneer on their vocals, they have two brothers in the group (the McNamaras) and the year was 1998, so in my ignorant, sixties and seventies-reared, non-pedantic world, they're certainly part of the BritPop era.  At the time, would you believe this was the fastest-selling debut album by a British artist. That statistic surprised me, although, to be honest, I don't give a Liam Gallagher cuss about statistics.  Like Oasis's Be Here Now, the album seems to go on forever. I enjoy it in short bites, but a whole hour of it tests my resolution somewhat. I was brought up on thirty minute albums in the sixties and the seventies, remember. I tend to prefer Embrace popping up as part of a BritPop playlist here and there.  Anyway,

Who were Dodgy? I knew some of their songs from the time, but not that it was them who released them, or who they were. I just, as so often with BritPop bands, vaguely knew the songs, largely due to their catchy hooks. Dodgy were from Hounslow, West London were a four piece - vocals, guitar, bass and organ. What were they like? They were lads, I think - "geezers" and they revelled in telling everyone how many drugs they took. This debut album was released in 1993, the year of BritPop's supposed genesis and they suited the genre down to the ground - guitar band, unprepossessing-looking members, sixties influences, punk influences, post punk influences. They ticked the boxes. They could pen a catchy tune or two as well. As BritPop bands went (there were so many of them, weren't there?) they weren't bad at all.  Water Under The Bridge is solid and muscular, with typical jangly guitars and pounding drums. There was a lot of conventional rock meets punk about this. Sev

Here I am doing another BritPop album. What has come over me? I guess there was so much stuff released in the early/mid-nineties that completely passed me by that I feel strangely compelled to explore. Guess what? I'm liking a lot of it too. So there you go.  A year after their acceptable but not outstanding debut, Dodgy upped their game considerably for their (album reviewers' cliché alert) sophomore offering. While it is considered one of the archetypal BritPop releases, for me much of it is actually quite conventional, retro in places rock. A lot of the its predecessors slight introspection, musically, has been replaced by a catchier, poppier sound. While the first album was a good one, I have to say that this one is really much more instant and has something about it that The Dodgy Album lacked. Just that certain something.  The album's cover sums up that whole getting a cheap camper van and going off to a festival thing that was becoming so popular. Anyway, it begins w

This has long been my favourite David Bowie compilation. Yes, it ends in 1987, but then, my "golden years" with Bowie ended there too. Of, course, I have all the subsequent stuff, but that was the classic era. This collection covers that wonderfully.  A well-known track that needs no introduction, Space Oddity capitalised on the fascination with the moon landing and achieved tremendous success. This song also marked the first significant recorded use of the stylophone, a playful instrument that contributed to the slightly electronic, morse-code-like sound in the background. It possesses a profound atmosphere, hauntingly depicting the solitary journey of poor old Major Tom floating endlessly in space. Interestingly, after this massive hit, Bowie seemingly vanished for almost three years before reemerging in 1972 as a new artistic entity in the eyes of many fans. While the album can be considered uneven, there are other hidden gems worthy of recognition. The Hunky Dory album st

We re-convene on my unexpected BritPop journey, then, for Dodgy's third album, one that is considered their best by many. I have seen the album described as "underwhelming". Bollocks. Just maybe, in the age of CD, the group overstretched themselves with over an hour of music and several numbers over minutes in length, however. It is not as poppily concise as Homegrown had been. The problem BritPop bands had, like sixties poppers, punks and new wavers before them was that after a few albums of guitar pop what else could they do? If they attempted to diversify slightly they got slated for pretentiousness. If they stuck to the formula, then they were boring. Dodgy experienced this problem and it eventually saw their demise, only periodically releasing further albums. This was their Imperial Bedroom.  To the album. It starts with a bit of ambient drums and guitar sounds before a muscular acoustic strum leads us into the superb In A Room. The moment when the drums and electric

I have written quite a lot about Blur on my individual album reviews and my lack of knowledge of them back in the nineties (and indeed up to recently) so I won't repeat myself here, other than to say that probably the best way for me to listen to Blur is via this pleasingly collated collection. I have read commenters who have stated - to its detriment - that it doesn't include much from their first two albums - only three tracks to be precise - but that doesn't worry me much, as there is certainly some good stuff here from the "once they were big" offerings.  I'm talking about the Beatles-inspired psychedelia of Beetlebum, which, although grinding and somewhat dour, has a hook that sticks in your head. It is one of the songs of theirs that I remember back from its time of release. That sort of applies to Song 2 as well, but largely because its instantly appealing instrumental riff has been sampled to death on TV sports commercial/trailers. etc. The catchy, rhy

As I have said many times, BritPop "wasn't my time" but when assessing its output I have come to the conclusion that James were damn good. There is seriously not a bad track on this album - every one has a killer of a hook. I have to say that it is a most enjoyable listen, whether you know any of the songs or not. You can get into them instantly. The vaguely funky groove of Come Home taps into the contemporary Happy Mondays/Stone Roses dance rock vibe - full of programmed drum loops and similar keyboard dance music ones. The track is an intense, dense one, interjected by some searing, industrial guitar and topped off with a gritty vocal. If I didn't know it was James I would have thought it was The Happy Mondays or Black Grape.  Sit Down is the track that went totally stratospheric for James, guaranteed to get those "uni" students jumping around at halls-of-residence parties or summer festivals. I have to say that it a completely irresistible singalong numbe

In 2005, what did young groups do? BritPop was long gone, dance was too, well dance, punk was the music of their parents, or even their grandparents, roots reggae was definitely retro too. So, a band like Hard-Fi donned hoodies, looked like teenage drug dealers off the estate and mixed myriad influences from punk, roots, dub and indie guitar bands into a reasonably acceptable whole. The Clash and The Ruts met Oasis here to go to Notting Hill Carnival. They attracted a bit of undeserved derision due to leaning on their influences too heavily, but I don't give a fuck myself. I like the album in the same way that I liked a couple of albums from the sort of similar Dead 60s . It remains one of those albums I find pretty impossible to categorise, however. Here is a bit of background information to the album. I don't normally do this but it is interesting and relevant. I could write it out myself but what's the point, I'd be saying the same thing - The majority of Stars Of CC

This is an energetic and effervescent capture of one of the British R'n'B boom's main acts live. Although the recoding has been remastered, it is still pretty much "warts 'n' all", with some hissy bits here and there, but it does have that authentic 'live" feeling, complete with crowd hubbub,  that makes you think you are there, at Kooks Kleek, Hampstead, London in 1966. The essential bass parts of the sound have been cleaned up and it carries a deep, warm bass thump to it. George "Zoot" Money's Hammond organ leads the sound, but the drums, from Colin Allen, are excellent. The Police's Andy Summers is on guitar in one of his early gigs, showing that he was certainly not the young punk many presumed him to be in 1978.   The rollicking organ riff-powered Chauffeur and the Chris Farlowe-ish horn-driven Your One And Only Man are solid openers to the set.  Curtis Mayfield's I've Been Trying is soulful, as you would expect, alt

Beres Hammond, known for his lovers rock material, was also there at the beginning of the "dancehall" sub-genre, but while his material often has digital dancehall beats and rhythms, he also merges a strong seventies soul influence into his material and those lovers rock poppy sensibilities too. It is very much the accessible side of dancehall, as opposed to the heavier, toasting vocal, "ragga" stuff. Hammond has a clear, sometimes light, sometimes gruffly soulful and melodic voice and he is a singer rather than a toaster. He is one of the best reggae/soul crossover singers around and his material often crops up on the many internet "reggae radio" stations that play (relatively) contemporary summery, commercial reggae continually. This was an album he recorded on the legendary Greensleeves reggae label I can always rely on them to deliver quality music and sound. Try If You Want is a very soul-influenced, upbeat number with a thumping, metronomic beat. Ham