Category Cd Reviews

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Bangalore Choir were formed over 20 years ago by former Accept frontman David Reece. After releasing just one album, the band split. After an 18 year gap though they reformed to release the album ”Cadence” in 2010. Now in April 2012 they’re back with their third album, Metaphor.

The album was recorded in a way that has only become possible in recent years with the spread of high speed internet access. Andy Susemihl recorded all his guitar parts at his home studio in Germany and then sent them to Minnesota for David Reece to record his vocals. After that they were sent to Carson city, Nevada for Curtis Mitchell to add his guitar parts and Danny Greenberg to add the bass...

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According to the press release, Universal Music Catalogues new ”Re-presents” label takes well known and loved albums from decades gone and re-releases them in a fresh new form.
My first reaction on hearing that they have chosen to re-release ”Writing on the wall” the fifth and final album from Bucks Fizz was – Why? On its original release just over 25 years ago, the album was hardly a success, reaching number 89 in the album charts and crashing out of the chart altogether after just one week. Given that its hardly well known and surely it’s not well loved either?

After listening to the album though, I can totally understand why they’ve chosen to re-release this album...

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On the 7th May, Universal is re-issuing 4 classic albums from The Small Faces which were originally released btween 1965 and 1969 – Small Faces, Immediate, From the beginning & Ogdens nut gone flake. The albums are being released as deluxe editions, and as with the other albums Universal have released as deluxe editions recently then there are plenty of extras.

Surviving Small Faces members Kenney Jones and Ian “Mac” McLagan have been involved in overseing and approving these new editions, including the re-mastering and artwork. All related non-album singles and alternate versions of the album session recordings, many of which are previously unreleased or released for the first time on CD, have also been added...

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The compilation album Northern soul: 20 Original Classics, was released in July 2010, and now the team behind it are back with a second volume of Northern soul classics.

The tracks have been compiled by Johnny Chandler, with sleevenotes by Paolo Hewitt author of books on Oasis, The Jam, Small Faces and The Beatles.

The album is slightly surprising – but in a good way. While there are some household names included – The Supremes, Dusty Springfield, Ray Charles & The Temptations, the tracks chosen arent the ones you’d expect. Usually you’d expect a bunch of their hit singles but instead the album opts for lesser known gems from the back catalogue of these artists...

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The Cult are due to release their new album ”Choice of Weapon” on 21st May. The album is being produced by Bob Rock who produced previous albums by The Cult – Sonic Temple, The Cult and Beyond Good and Evil.

Ahead of the album release, the band have released two singles so far – ”Lucifer” and ”For the animals”.

As a fan of The Cult since the ”Love” album then I’ve been looking forward to the new album, but also wondering if it will live up to hopes and expectations. Well after listening to these two singles I can definitely say that I really can’t wait for the album.

Both the songs are excellent – The Cult on top form...

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American rock band Counting Crows have sold over twenty million albums in their twenty year career, and are about to release their first album for over four years – ”Underwater sunshine”. The album is their first independant release, and they’ve chosen to do something a little bit different. Rather than just writing a new album, they’ve decided to let their love of music loose and have chosen to release an album of cover versions of songs they love. Singer /songwriter Adam Duritz says ”If you wonder why we didnt just write our own record, it’s simply because we wanted to do THIS one. We now have the creative freedom to release albums like this and offer our fans more music than ever”

The songs come from a very diverse range of bands both young and old, well known and obscure...

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The band name Luley may not be familiar, but it is the band of a man with a great track record – Klaus Luley. In the early 80s he was the front man of German melodic rock band Tokya. Following the demise of Tokyo he formed the band Craaft and again enjoyed considerable success in the melodic rock field, including touring with bands including Queen, Bon Jovi, Meat Loaf, Level 42 and Rod Stewart. As a songwriter he’s written songs for a number of artists including Meat loaf and has been found in sudio vocal sessions with artists including Donna Summer and Jennifer Rush.

His new album includes ten new songs as well as a remake of a song by his old band Tokyo, their hit single and self titled song, Tokyo.

There’s plenty of of great guitar work on the album, particularly on ”Take me today”, ...

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This DVD/Blu-ray release is a live concert. Filmed at the historic Genessee theatre in Waukegan, Illinois the concert includes songs from Ringo’s solo career as well as hits from The Beatles. 

The first thing to strike me is how young Ringo looks – he certainly doesn’t look anywhere near his real age, and is in great shape. 

For his cover of the Men at work hit ”who can it be now” Ringo takes to the drums and vocals are handled by Men at work singer Colin Hay. It’s a great performance and with Ringo on one drunkit and his drummer on another drumkit I’m amazed how well it works.

Ringo is great in concert – I must admit to being pleasntly surprised how much I enjoyed this, even though I dont know much of his solo work...

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”Holiday at Lake Bodom (15 Years of Wasted Youth)” is a new ”CD+DVD career retrospective” – in other words its a greatest hits package from Finnish metal band Children of Bodom. It’s hard to believe but its true – Children of Bodom have been with us for fifteen years. The band took their name from the infamous unsolved ’Lake Bodom Murders’, which took place in Finland in 1960, and the album title is a clear reference to this.

”15 Years of Wasted Youth is the sound of Children Of Bodom working hard, partying hard, being relentless and stubborn,” says the band’s superstar guitarist / vocalist Alexi Laiho...

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Stalingrad is the latest album from German metal legends Accept. It’s the bands second album with their current singer Mark Tornillo (formerly with TT Quick) and one of their few albums without their longtime singer Udo Dirkschneider.
Obviously there will be plenty of people who would rather they had kept Udo as their singer but in my view theres no point going on about this – Mark Tornillo is the bands current singer so live with it and give the guy a chance. Mark TOrnillo has a great voice that is well suited to Accept – it’s got some of that same coarse raspy quality of Udo’s voice, but Mark has a higher vocal range and it really does work well with the songs on this album – and he also does a great job with the older material in concerts.

The album was, like the previous album – 2010’...