Category: Reviews
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Sir Lord Baltimore: Complete Recordings 1970-2006
Hailing from New York, the splendidly-named Sir Lord Baltimore are one of those legendary proto-metal bands; a band that are much more listened to and significant decades after the fact. Do they live up to their own legend, I would say so. Their 1970 debut album Kingdom Come, is extremely heavy, and will appeal to people who like Blue…
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Laura Branigan – Self-Control: Expanded Edition
Self-Control was one of the defining hits of the 80s, and is a fine pop song in any era. But, the album that featured it is worthy in its own right, and well worth assessing on it’s own merits. The real attraction here, beyond the original album, is an extra additional CD of rare tracks, re-mixes…
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Pere Ubu – By Order of Mayor Pawlicki
Pere Ubu are justifiably famed for their live albums (eight prior to this I believe). This album features early songs from the period 1975-1982 and comes across with a pleasing mixture of intensity and delicacy. Dave Thomas, it has to be said, is a true original. No clichéd stage banter here. There is a bonus disc of…
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The Residents – It’s Metal, Meat & Bone: The Songs Of Dyin’ Dog
I was watching an episode of Cities of the Underworld yesterday evening, set in (or to be more accurate-under) San Francisco. It made me think of how the environment they developed in must have had a profound effect on The Residents. But, The Residents are actually refugees from the South, and this too must have had an…
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Dirty Vicar – Plague of Demons
Bred out of the pandemic and isolation, Dirty Vicar comes screaming from the depths of hell like a choir of tortured souls led by a demonic conductor. Each track on Plague of Demons brims with chaotic ferocity led by the vocalists tortured wails. Driven by raw NWOBHM power, Plague of Demons has got to be my standout…
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Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks…
The problematic thing about albums which come to be regarded as “culturally significant” is that, after it has been released and that cultural significance presents itself on a larger scale, EVERYONE whats to get their hands on it and tool around with it in order to put their fingerprints on it and make it their…
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The Drowns – Under Tension
While we could easily start this review of The Drowns debut album discussing the disparity between looks (the album cover – which is terrible) and content (the music on the album), let’s just start with this endorsement: no matter how much praise Under Tension receives, it deserves more. There are plenty of flaws in the packaging,…
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Young Canadians – Hawaii
Punk bands have been called dangerous and have been accused of challenging every establishment with which they come into contact, but the truth is that such claims are often pretty overstated. Really think about it, reader – as rough and tumble as The Ramones, Richard Hell and the Voidoids and Television may have looked, there wasn’t…
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X – Wild Gift
As good as Los Angeles was and as important as that album would ultimately prove to be in the presentation of X, the band’s debut album will ultimately always play a supporting role to the band’s sophomore long-player, Wild Gift. Now, it’s important to note that Wild Gift would not, could not have happened had…
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X – Los Angeles
It might not be the first thing that fans think of when they’re looking at punk rock and trying to decode how the genre has evolved, but the fact is that the breed which was borne of Los Angeles in the late Seventies and early Eighties drew from a very deep well of inspiration – arguably a…