COMPILATION SPECIAL #2!

ok, so here's three more groovy compilation albums, today with a more electic taste. I think we can say that these compilation specials occur when I wake up with a hangover! I need proper focus for a regular review, but these are short and sweet.
Today's involve Daevid Allen, Funkadelic and Miles Davis:

Daevid Allen: The Man From Gong The best Of Daevid Allen

Daevid Allen is widely regarded as a musical genius, and rightfully so. From Soft Machine to Gong to a successful solo career and collaborations with Acid Mothers Temple, Daevid has never stopped experimenting and playing with his own unique world of music. This little CD serves as an excellent introduction to the man, with highlight tracks such as Floatin' Anarchy (with Planet Gong), Why Do We Treat Ourselves Like We Do, and the post-punk excitement of Pearls and Bananareggae, you'll get a glimpse at an eccentric genius from another planet. His discography is vast, and you should all dive in!

Funkadelic: You Got The Funk We Got The Funk

2 CDs of pure Funkadelic, what can go wrong? Featuring trademark tracks One Nation Under A Groove, Electric Spanking Of War Babies and Maggot Brain, you know this disc is for true funksters only. George Clinton propelled Funk into a new territory during funkadelic's early albums in the seventies, and this sampler shows us the more refined P-Funk sound of the second half of that decade, grooves in total control, and an excellent tightness in the playing, whilst still staying true to the mothership. Also included are two instrumental versions of previously mentioned tracks, which are just perfect for sampling or backing tracks for jams. A good introduction to these crazy mothas.

Miles Davis: The Very Best Of Miles Davis The Warner Bros. Sessions 1985 - 1991

It's a widely held (and widely inaccurate) opinion, that Miles Davis' eighties work is cold, clinical and lacks the emotion and skill of his previous work. This is a total fallacy. Here we have a true artist going against the contemporary jazz scene (which became dominated by the 'mouldy figs' such as Wynton Marsalis, during the eighties, and still stays true to this day) and carrying on experimenting. Hip Hop production techniques brought Davis down to a real street level, enigmatic playing brought a new unease to his music, and his rendition of Time After Time turns a good pop song into a truely emotive jazz standard, and one of my favourite recordings of all time. Pure emotion that literally brings me to tears everytime I hear it. Tracks such as Chocolate Chip, Mystery, Amandla and Summertime show how Miles took jazz in new and exciting directions whilst also creating new interpretations of classic standards. A great introduction to a much misunderstood period of a great musician.

So here you go, three good compilation albums which can expand your musical understanding. The Miles Davis disc (the first of his I got) had such a profound influence on me as a young guitarist that I still try to model my playing on his horn blowing. I'd say get em all.

COMPILATION SPECIAL!

Ok, this one is different. Compilation albums don't really require the depth of a real review, since they are literally just a collection of songs, and unless specially mixed/edited to form a new album (such as Hawkwind's Roadhawks or Bowie's All Saints) treat each component as an individual. So here's three compilation albums to enjoy!

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Legend

More people know of this album than any of Marley's albums proper. We get all the classic tracks here, No Woman no Cry(this live version is outstanding), Buffalo Soldier, I Shot The Sheriff etc, etc. As you can expect, these are all great songs, and this is a perfect introduction into the world of Tuff Gong. Chilled reggae grooves by a man who has something to say, a true icon and a true legend. The disc's title says it all. A total MUST HAVE!

Lee Perry - Reggae Genius 20 Upsetter Classics

It'd always be hard to come up with a good compilation for this man, producing so many reggae classics and introducing the world to dub, Lee 'Scratch' Perry is a true genius. Highlights include The Return Of Django and I Chase The Devil, this album focuses far more on his straight reggae side. We get some lovely phased effects on the tracks but nothing as bizzare as his dub work, there's no Super Ape Inna Jungle, here, which to be honest is a shame, but Disco Devil is still great. The fail to include Perry's dub works make this a difficult compilation to recommend. The music here is all outstanding, but it's just an incomplete compilation.

Madness - It's... Madness Too

As a previous single review may have hinted at, I am a massive Madness fan, always have been and always will be. This disk here in my hand is one I have owned since I was about seven years old! Thankfully it is not the standard 'greatest hits' style of compilation, missing out on tracks like Baggy Trousers and House Of Fun, instead we get some solid singles, and their great B-Sides. Stand out tracks are... man, these are all stand out tracks! Cardiac Arrest deserves special recognition though, a chart topping hit about a guy having a heart attack. Awesome. Anyways, this is a good collection of great songs, it doesn't contain all of Madness' best, but would still be a good introduction to the nutty boys.

Three compilation albums reviewed for the price of one!
This is also proof that I can write an album review in under 2,000 words.

Steve Vai - Alien Love Secrets

 Steve Vai is one of that motley band of guitarists who emerged in the eighties and rewrote guitar playing rules with speed, insane licks and gimmickry. However unlike the rest of them, Mr. Vai is not boring. Steve graduated from the school of Zappa after about two or so years in his band before working with Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake, and then busting out on his own properly with the groundbreaking Passion And Warfare. Vai showed us that you can have insane chops with delicate ideas and passionate emotive playing. Whilst my own guitar style could be no further from Vai's, I always look back to his work for inspiration and ideas, and when I want to learn some new techniques. Even my guitar (Ibanez Jem) and distortion pedal (Jemini) are his signiture series. Needless to say, his music has had a profound impact on my life, and is a man I respect greatly.

So, this album, Alien Love Secrets, was also released on VHS at the same time, contains some great tracks, let's run it down. Vai's wailing guitar and horse sound effects take us into the first track, Bad Horsie. A chugging train like riff with some deep distortion and a slick guitar melody showing insanely precise harmonics. It's a proper heavy steamengine track, plowing down all in it's path. Vai's use of the wah pedal here is to give total control of the tone and uses it to sculpt out his sound perfectly, as opposed to Hendrix's more experimental and freeform use of the pedal, indeed Vai's signiture wah pedal is known as the 'Bad Horsie' due to this song. Before the main solo we get some nice overdubbing, but the solo is standard Vai fare, not any of his emotive playing, but then this track is a hard rocker, so does it need it? Also nice flanger comming in. Juice is the title of the next track, a short little stunt guitar piece, fast and audatious, keeping some high octane action going, it's an all american rocker. Again this is more of a showoff piece, getting some feelgood energy going, some usual shred soloing and some unusual rhthym playing here. Die To Live is a softer more emotive track, with a distinctly nostalgic feeling to it. It sounds like a celebration and rememberance of life. It's still got a technical element to it, but this doesn't get in it's way, it's also quite fun to play, though bit of a guitar tongue-twister. The solo is delightfully beautiful, the rhythm is forward moving and all fun.

The next track is The Boy From Seattle, a softer more strummy upbeat guitar with a sense of the previous two tracks mixed into one feeling. It's upbeat and kinda fun with some decent melodic elements. A talkwah occasionally makes an appearance, with a line of daddadadaaddada, before the track starts to get quiet, and the guitaring goes into Hendrix mode, which is alright as this song is a tribute to Hendrix. We also get some nifty Vai trickery with delays and such creating a layered sound. Ya-Yo Gakk is a really fun tune, heavy metal guitar mixed with babytalk. His son would say something, and then Vai replicates it on guitar. We get some usual heavy metal soloing and riffing, but let's face it, this track is Vai just having fun, so he's allowed to. After this little diversion, we get to the real meat of the album, Kill The Guy With the Ball-The God Eaters. Some rolling drums and talkbox trickery takes us propelling forward into a really heavy riffage-filled track. It's speedy and thrashy and contains some great funk guitar (though played in metal style). It's full of menacing energy, and the drumming is almost computerised in it's precision. We get the usual Vai licks and some heavy sections we can only assume are left over from his previous album (the metal-tastic Sex And Religion) The track goes into screeching alien orgasm mode and then we enter the angelic second section, The God Eaters, a beautiful gentle guitar melody accentuated with some heavenly synth chords. It builds up and has some great releaving spirity feelings in it, kinda gentling the listener down and raising us up at the same time in preperation for the next track, the highlight of the album (and one of the highlights of his career), Tender Surrender. A sharp chord introduces us to a quiet kinda lounge jazz fusion, we have a soft silky melody and a rhythm based on a Hendrix song. The percussion just helps us plod forward, we get to the soloing section, first off a more bluesey solo, gentle and sweet, and goes for a section before hitting the proper solo, Vai's most impossible and orgiastic solo, which exudes such pleasure and passion. It's technically complex as well as emotionally complex, the speedy notes here given a smooth liquid texture as they just roll into your ears, it gets more passionate and more, until we get to the repeated shred section, the pleasure zone. The passion dies down, and we return to the tender embrace of the main melody, and the song ends  playfully and wah-filled. We have surrendered.

This is by no means Vai's best album, however it includes Die To Live, and Tender Surrender, so it's definately worth picking up.  As a major fan of his, the more purist approach to this album makes a neat break from his usual experimentation and on Tender Surrender, really lets the passion of his playing shine through. It's a good CD.

Sly And The Family Stone - Stand!

This ain't no disco chic, this is when funk got serious, this shit's dangerous. This is Sly And The Family Stone. Stand! was the family Stone's last albums of their 'psychedelic period', before they went into a much harsher, grittier, urban sound, and for a band as influential as Sly And The Family Stone, this album manages to stand tall as a masterwork. This also saw the band fracture, with drugs, ego and personality clashes, as well as their adoption by various black nationalist groups(something Sly didn't like at all) and the sense of hopelessness prevalent in early 70's black culture after a turbulent end to the sixties, Stand! was their last cry for optimism. But, does Stand! stand up as an album worthy of such importance? Let's find out!

A drumroll kicks off the title track, Stand!, a song that picks up a soul groove with an optimistic sound, and an amazing chorus of 'STAND! STAND! OOOOH!'. It's a call to stand up for your life, stand up for what's right. Lyrically, it's straight forward but pretty poetic in it's simplicity, and Sly's singing goes perfectly with his music. The track only gets funkier, branching into P-Funk style (P-Funk was heavily influenced by these dudes) and then fades out into track number two, Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey. Protesting against the racial discrimination from both sides (Sly And The Family Stone were a massive multi-racial band) over a heavy dirty beat, like Hendrix from the back alleys. There's a badass instrumental break and this dark funky dirty beat just continues, highlighting the band's future direction. The beat allows some psyche weirdness to kick in, an organic liquidic sound, a collage of singing and sounds, before that dirty chorus is reprised. "Don't call me Nigger, Whitey! Don't call me Whitey, Nigger!" I'm sensing something Beefheartian in this track, from Sly's menacing voice, to various elements in the rhythm and the heavy harmonica solo. Abba Zabba. With such an extended instrumental groove, it's in the fucking zone in this nasty way that the likes of James Brown could never achieve. It's dangerous music.

I Want To Take You Higher is a total psychedelic funk-rock track of epic proportions, and was a massive hit. The groove is totally where it's at and the guitar oozes charisma in a way that's Hendrix-y, but also of it's own. To be honest, this song is as pure funk as you'll ever get. Optimistic, hopeful, and damn right where it's at. It shows a band that's so tight and working so well, the drum beat keeps up with such a pace and the duelling male/female vocals carry such character. It's impossible to feel down when listening to this track! Somebody's Watching You is the title of the fourth track, more traditional soul like, a traditional groove with a horn section over the top. It's groovy and a neat quieter downside after the loudness of the previous tracks. It's got a nice instrumental break, but generally doesn't carry it's weight as much as other tracks. It's a good singalong though. The next track asks you to Sing A Simple Song, and a great guitar lick and female vocals kick off another great track, a neat dirty groove, a simplistic chorus carried up by amazing singing, and a wailing funkster. This brings all different elements together from awesome vocal harmonies, Arthur Brown style wailing singing, talking, great dirty vocals and a call and response approach to the verses, over an amazing James Brown beat and groove, and a great funk-meets-ska horn section in the middle eight. It's a very busy song despite it's misleading title, over a repetitive beat. It works great.

Track six is Everyday People, a soul track, with a more subdued Sly Stone, a great piano-driven repeating groove, backing vocals tacking the lead. Sly is far more soulful here yet still manages to carry his usual energy. This is a far more commercial track, again like the title track, calling for a more open and enjoyable society. It's the shortest of the tracks but still great. Guitar and drums lead into Sex Machine, a slow groove draws us in, bringing forward the staple funk staccato guitars. A very organic liquid harmonica plaing through an early vocoder returns once again, creating a surreal atmosphere. This is an extended jam over a great beat leading to such a funky guitar solo, more groovier than Hendrix could reach, similar to that of Eddie hazel from Funkadelic. I am a massive massive fan of jam tracks, so this just works fantastically for me, a nice walking beat, a funk solo what's not to like? It's so easy to see why Miles Davis took this as his inspiration for his jaw-droppingly amazing Tribute to Jack Johnson and On The Corner albums. Needless to say, this one track seems to resonate so much amongst prettymuch every instrumental funk-influenced track made afterwards, even European bands such as Can and Brainticket. Sly's bizarre sound kicks back in over the amazing guitar and then the bass takes over as the lead, something quite rare, and then a heavily distorted guitar powers and screams through the music a great dirty sound, before returning to the main rythm now accompanied with a saxaphone solo and a heavier drum beat/solo that just rolls along amazingly, almost tribal, slowing down train-like. This track lets every player shine. Aparently the band where making fun of each other during the recording, resulting in them ending the track with laughter. It's great when a band has fun while playing. The album finishes with You Can Make It If You Try, returning to the album's starting style of upbeat optimistic P-Funk-esque funk. Interlocking vocals, ace instrumentation and a great fun playfulness of the melodies. This is a fun track indeed. Again it's hard to feel down when this great groove is playing. It goes into an instrumental break carrying on with the groove, and letting the soul-chorus singers get the feeling going. The album fades to silence. Ended with some backwards speaking.

Stand! truely is an album that not only lives up to it's reputation, but totally surpasses it, as a landmark of popular music and easily one of the must have albums of all time. I love funk, and I love jams, so this just makes me so happy. The group's later sounds became dirtier and minimalist compared to this orgasmic display of sheer over-the-top creativity, but are still great. You really do have to buy this album at the earliest opportunity!

Various - Transformers The Movie OST

In 'The Real Frank Zappa Book', Frank makes the observation that the world will not end by war or global disaster, but by Nostalgia. Death by nostalgia, culturally, really is a serious issue. It's only 2012, yet people are already nostalgic for 90's entertainment, 12 years! This kinda of nostalgic sentiment provides a major problem, as it inspires people to copy what has gone on before and to avoid making anything new or exciting. Sometimes an initial nostalgic sentiment really pays off (such as 2005's relaunch of Doctor Who, which updates the classic series and modernises/simplifies it for a new audience) while others result in Status Quo continuing to drag their zombie corpse asses around on yet another bland tour of contentless music, because their fans are too stubborn to admit that new music can be good, and too stubborn to admit that Quo have never been good.
ANYWAYS... This is about a movie soundtrack, A Transformers movie soundtrack. No, not the movie with Linkin Park and over-abundant racism, the original 1986 animated movie. Like many shy/geeky children, I loved Transformers and still find it at times interesting (particularly the 1980's british comics), but however I cannot allow myself to talk about that here! This is about music! The Transformers brand is half held-up by nostalgia and half held-up by new fans, the nostalgia crew however seem rather single minded with an almost religious zeal. The singer Stan Bush's career is pretty solidly secure solely because of the aging Transformers fandom, and his role in the music for this movie.

Every film in the eighties had a feel good hair anthem, and Transformers The Movie is no exception. The soundtrack kicks it off with Stan Bush' famous (or in-famous) The Touch. All the cheese in France could not come close to even making this song's opening keyboard riff, it's terrible. Bush does his best 80's rock, yelling our dreary lines with an amazing faux-passion which makes it seem like he kinda pretends to care (though now, since this song is all he's known for, he prettymuch has to care, but being an eighties singer, you can never tell). This song is prettymuch the best example of a guilty pleasure ever. It's terrible, but makes you smile. We hear a crash, a menacing guitar line and now N.R.G join in the soundtrack with their heavy metal track Instruments Of Destruction. It must have been had being a metal band in the eighties, you kinda have the Judas Priest influence but then the ever increasing pop influence. This song sounds like it's on that crossroads, trying to souond menacing but not really getting it. Generic solos not really doing much over an 80's echoed snare beat, and the predictable falsetto vocals to end on, but the guy ain't no Rob halford, though he gives it his best shot.We next get the first of three (well if we include the next track, four) Vince DiCola tracks, Death Of Optimus Prime(gee, I wonder what scene this music is played over), it's fantastic. A soft piano piece over ghostly synths, a subtle bounce on the bass notes propells the music at a slow pace, the synthy swells move us, then the percussive section signals the final moment of the great Autobot. An arped section comes on with an optimistic softness, and a horn section, there is hope for them after all? The sad melody of a synth guitar sound kicks in, and an ominous sound emerges. To counteract that track, we are jumped right into Dare. Another Stan Bush track, literally made of a thousand cows worth of cheese, but this is kept fully in place by what is a realy decent synth sound provided by Vince DiCola. It's upbeat, go gett'em kinda music, perhaps suitable for joggers? the track breaks out into an amazing synth break, built on layers of synths bass and drums that just works so well, and sounds so cool that it makes the track itself. It must be said that Vince DiCola is fantastic throughout the film, and a convention exclusive score is avaliable at high price on the second hand market. With more of that guy's music, it's well worth a purchase!

Spectre General come in with the Twisted Sister style Nothin's Gonna Stand In Our Way, it's eighties heavy metal, it's fun fluff, nothing really noticable though, it's really really average. The guitar solo does a good job at keeping the main melody going and playing around with the heavy metal guitar cliches, but that's all. Next up however is the crowning glory of the metal part of thsi soundtrack, Lion's rendition of The Transformers (Theme). We have a steady beat comming up, then Doug Aldrich's(yes, The Doug Aldrich, modern day Whitesnake guitar hero) guitar bulds up into the the first verse, actually heavier guitars than other 'metal' tracks on the soundtrack. The chorus really jumps out with ther hair metal vocals and heavy metal guitars, it's a guilty pleasure for sure, but when Aldrich jumps in with the solo, it's really really good, it's better than this soundtrack deserves. The verses are prettymuch standard power/battle metal, and kinda suit a franchise/movie based on war. The guitar solo and licks though are just really good. Next we have another amazing DiCola track, Escape. A soft spacey playful quiet section takes us into space, broken up with a beat, a gentle melancholic melody and then we get into the track, it's eighties action track music, with the joy of Vince DiCola's synth sound and playful sense of melody. A reprise of the melody found in the Death of Optimus Prime is featured, it's a recurring motiff throughout the film. This track manages to be both playful and yet dramatic/menacing at the same time while still sounding totally synthy. Little flourishes like the 60's organ sound playing around the 80's synth and guitar sound create a different texture than you'd expect. And the rythm changes throughout reflecting the action on the screen, rather than staying on one constant stream of music. The main motiff returns and is played with before fading.

Spectre General make a return here with their consumption track Hunger, which is not at all about drug abuse/crime. It's really REALLY disturbing to hear this in the context of a children's movie, but I guess it's still not mysogynistic/racist to the point of having a harmful effect on society like the modern transformers movies, and let's face it, the few children who actually watched this film in the cinema are too geeky to have gotten into drugs, but still, it just doesn't feel right. Also it's a very average track, aided by being in one of the best scenes of the film. DiCola's final track on the album is next, Autobot/Decepticon Battle (catchy title!). It plays with the standard rythm found throughout, the main motiff, and a funky synth-bassline, the changes in music keep our ears on their toes, and when it gets into the main action element of the music, the recurring motiff is giving extra eighties guitar menace! Various other elements from the score return, unifying it in a way many composers neglect to do these days. DiCola does keep suprising us with different and exciting synth sounds throughout and interesting ways of interpreting the familiar elements, sometimes adding a more militaristic edge, sometimes drawing from P Funk influences, and constantly chopping it throughout, keeping it fresh and non-repetative despite the use of familiar elements, rythms and melodies. We end with Weird Al's classic Dare To Be Stupid, which is just pure enjoyable randomness. He keeps just listing and playing with the old sayings about being stupid, telling us to make a mountain out of a molehill, and ordering us to bite the hand that feeds us. Like the rest of the songs here, it's fluff, but has a bouncing 80's beat to just raise the corners of your mouth.

Ultimately, the only real tracks worth listening to are the theme by Lion, and the Vince DiCola tracks, however the convention exclusive soundtrack has much much more of his work on it, and I really want to get me a copy of it. He's a much underrated soundtrack composer of the eighties, and is one of the few working in hollywood where his music can be listened to on it's own without visual reference, so I'd recommend getting his score for this film. Just perhaps not the other tracks!

Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno - Iao Chant From The Cosmic Inferno

The Acid Mothers family of bands are easily the most exciting thing to happen to music in a very long time. Springing into action around 1999, they continue to weave their own brand of cosmic rock throughout the known universe. Constantly touring, no other band has the same level of devotion to music as these guys, and I would definately recommend everybody go see them at least once, because there is seriously nothing else like them on the face of the earth. Combining Stockhausen's unmelodic approach to music with Hawkwind's heavy jamming, yet taking it over the top to unheard of levels. Guitarist Makoto Kawabata says that he is acting as a radio transciever for his own inner cosmos, relaying to us the music he hears in his head. And boy... is it one hell of a cosmos!

Iao Chant From The Cosmic Inferno features only one track, a sprawling 50-so minute rendition of Gong's epic, Master Builder. The track, titled Om Riff From The Cosmic Inferno takes us fully into overdrive as we start off with some gentle meditative glissando drones, spacey beeps and boops start appearing, and then... The Mighty Om Riff kicks in, and refuses to let you go, coupled with the Iao Chant (provided below) takes you on a right proper spiritual journey. The groove locks properly in place within an instant, and Makoto's guitar launches into an insane sonic freakout of improvised glory. Trying to not sound like gushing admiration, but the man is so outside of the box, it's unbelievable, like he is to guitar what Sun Ra was to piano! Using his instrument to channel proper cosmic vibes. After several minutes, the track takes another turn, into this repeated delayed riff over a totally rockin' beat, you close your eyes, your mind travels through space and you drift away. Time becomes meaningless, all there is is you.

You and the cosmos.

The sweet glissando ambiant drones make a pleasant return here, these aren't just drones though, these are full on music of the spheres. The bass comes back in, a dirty groove takes hold, the guitar comes back, it is sweet. After several minutes in that dark, dirty, sweet place, the familiar groove locks back into place, a delayed riff appears, then we blast off further into the heavens than before, chanting returns, this is not music, it's a spiritual experience. The Mighty Om Riff thunders back, we go further and further into the universe, there is no way back to Earth now! It glisses out, and returns to the ambiant droning/chanting from the start of the track. We have been taken to the furthest reaches of the universe and back, and it was good.


IAO
(ancient pagan chant balancing male & female)
ZA EE ZAO
(invoking forces of darkness/shadow)
MA EE MAO
(invoking powers of mother love)
TA EE TAO
(invoking energies of light)
NOW

Mr. Big - What If...

Mr. Big are perhaps the best example of a heavy metal supergroup there is. Any band which includes Paul Gilbert from Racer-X on guitar and the unstoppable bass guitar juggernaut that is Billy Sheehan, has to be paid attention to. And boy, were they. In typical metal fashion though, they got the hits, then sunk into their groove and after growing tensions, eventually disbanded in 2002, reforming in 2011 and releasing What If... (and yes, that really is a pig flying on the cover...)

I love Paul and Billy's playing, as musicians they strive to just stretch the technical ability of their instruments, and while shred guitar is often written off as self-indulgent wankery, so what? Generally it's the self indulgent musicians who come up with the ideas which inspire everybody else (examples: Miles Davis, Frank Zappa). However with some players this is a valid criticism (hello Yngwie!) and I guess, should be always taken into account. Masturbatory playing is groovy as long as something comes out of it, and so does this album produce the much needed musical jizz, or the painful friction rashes on the metaphorical foreskin?

Track 1, Undertow, 80's style metal riffage takes over, 80's style singing is provided via Eric Martin and there's little else to say really. It's a very very old style track, 80's American heavy metal as it always was. American Beauty kicks things up a notch, still generic as hell. Though there is a notable Queensryche influence really creeping in if you ignore Gilbert's speed metal playing, especially in the solo, where he's really allowed to take flight. Track 3, Stranger In My Life is exactly as the title makes you imagine, a fucking power ballad. After Bruce Dickenson's 90's classic, Tears Of The Dragon, you'd have thought everybody else would have just given up on power ballads, but no. We have this nasty little turd. Skip it.

Nobody Left To Blame however is a much better track, musically more going on, some interesting textures in the sound, and some sweet delicious Paul Gilbert licks. It's very post-Pearl Jam, though I don't think mainstream American rock has really left the 90's yet. Billy Sheehan's ripping bass takes hold with Still Ain't Enough For Me, we are truely back in '89 speed metal territory here, but Sheehan's bass is so godly that we can let it live. Pat Torpey's stable drumming provides a solid groove for Sheehan and Gilbert to enjoy themselves. Best track of the album so far, deserves some headbanging. Once Upon A Time is perhaps best ignored, it's fucking dull.Hopefully, the next track isn't as far as they can see musically, for As Far As I Can See is again very very generic. Torpey's beat still pounds the same, so repetative it reveals the massive amount of variety in Kraftwerk's motorik drum lines. I get the idea that this album would just work better if everything was removed apart from the solos, which remain fun.

All The Way Up is again best ignored. Boring. Starting with a decent interlude, I Won't Get In My Way is a pretty decent if inoffensive arena rock track, I can imagine the crowd singing along at the chorus. So far, Mr. Big have taken no risks with their comeback album, it's all standard fare, Gilbert and Sheehan's improved playing provide some interesting hooks, but with just three tracks left, can they kick it up a gear?
Around The World treats us with a neat speed metal track with a catchy sing-along chorus. It keeps it's pace, it's enjoyable and you can smell the beer and hairspray! Lyrically, it's written by a five year old, but it is a good example of that kinda enjoyable 80's metal, wanking instrumental sections and all, especially at the end. Guitar playing like molten honey. I Get The Feeling is clearly about the feeling of wanting to be David Lee Roth (which naturally we all get from time to time, but the spandex just don't fit). Unforgiven returns to the speed-metal-meets-Queensryche sound to mixed results, the playing is tight, the drums still boring, the track still kinda meh. The solo can't save it.

You'd think I really hate this kinda music judging by my negative review, but it's something of a guilty pleasure, as a guitarist I love listening to players push things as far as they can go, and I think that's why I don't like this album as much as I should. Billy Sheehan has had an amazing time in Steve Vai's band, and to come from something so quirky and interesting as that, to then just providing standard bass lines is a tragedy. Likewise, Gilbert has won the respect of almost every guitarist alive during his solo career, he doesn't need this. Comeback records really are the difficult ones to do, you have to get the balance just right between doing something new and exciting, and also appeasing the fans. Judas Priest hit it perfectly with 2004's Angel Of Retribution, and Hawkwind with 2010's Blood Of the Earth, though Gong's 2032 tried to do too much, with no real substance or support behind it. Here, Mr. Big have just gone to appease the fans, and as a result, done nothing new, exciting or interesting.

Also, I really need to think of a better, quiker and easier way of doing album reviews rather than by a track-by-track breakdown!!