Saturday, 8 December 2007

The Waifs - SunDirtWater

SunDirtWater is the recent album by Australian band The Waifs. This album finds the band in stunning songwriting, musical and vocal form, and they are joined by some impressive guest musicians. On this album they manage to fuse their Australian sound with some of the best of American roots music. I would not have thought this would be possible... without listening to this album... again and again. This is one of the finest albums in my collection.

The album opens with Pony. This is a well-paced country-ish groove with shared vocals - Donna Simpson takes the lead by just a bit. The fact that this song features a piano and has Josh Cunningham playing electric, rather than acoustic, guitar seems to signal that this is going to be quite a different album for the The Waifs.

This is followed by the album's amazing title track. Written and sung by Vikki Thorn - her only song-writing contribution for the album - this is a groovy, spirited, almost jazzy track that features some excellent lead guitar by Josh and some funky percussion. Josh has described this song as The Waifs' finest recorded moment. It is certainly very good... but, while I don't want to disagree, picking the finest song on this album is a very difficult task.

Vermillion is a dark and haunting ballad written and sung by Donna Simpson. When I saw The Waifs perform this at Tilleys in April this year the room was stunningly quiet when the song ended until Donna said "Yeah, I made all that up." It certainly is compelling fiction...

How Many Miles is a lively country-rock composition by Josh, with Vikki on lead vocals. This song reminds me of a very good Lucinda Williams track. It's deliciously laden with slide guitar, plus guitar and harmonica solos, and it just drives along. This is followed by Without You, with the same writing/vocal combination. This is a classic Josh album track - it's easy to imagine him singing it - but, as usual, Vikki turns in a fine performance.

Donna's Sad Sailor Song features a dirty guitar groove, Hammond B3 by Reese Wynans and soulful lead vocal performance. This track has a nice dark feel to it and is rockier than much of The Waifs previous material. The combination of strong arrangement and restrained vocals reminds me somehow of Cowboy Junkies.... and then, somehow, also is reminiscent of Sheryl Crow.

The Josh/Vikki (writing/vocals) combination is evident again on Get Me Some. For some reason, this feel-good song somehow reminds me a lot of the classic Everybody's Talkin'. This song features some lovely electric piano and the vocal performance is fantastic. Eternity finally finds Josh on lead vocals. Josh always seems to provide a welcome change. He doesn't pack the vocal punch of Donna and Vicki, but that's a feature. Things get relaxed in a whole different way when Josh takes over lead vocals... and the band would lose an important feature without him singing a song or 2 on each album.

Sweetest Dream finds Donna in awesome vocal form, singing a gospel-style song. This track features beautiful Hammond B3, once again by Reese Wynans, and just enough lead guitar from Josh, plus a slathering of gospel backing vocals. Vikki returns with Goodbye. This is quiet a rocky song, with song great slide guitar playing, and is actually a lot like a very good Sheryl Crow song. Yet more rocky is Stay, featuring some uncharacteristic, but interesting, vocals from Vikki... and seems to provide a subtle hints about the album's closing track. This song reminds me of someone else... but I just can't pick it right now.

The second last song on the album is Donna Simpson's Love Let Me Down. This song is an epic ballad that gets quite heavy, and has a strong Cowboy Junkies feel to it - given the Junkies uniqueness I'm surprised to be making the comparison more than once. However, the similarity comes from the arrangement, featuring an acoustic guitar, some beautiful dirty lead guitar and harmonica. I love this song.

The album closes with Josh playing ukelele and Vikki crooning on the retro Feeling Sentimental. It's a delightful touch, with splashes of clarinet filling out the song. An interesting song to finish on - almost like the closing song from the soundtrack of a 1940s movie.

This album strongly features Josh Cunningham's songwriting. He's written a lot of The Waifs songs in the past, but here he's clearly the main writer, with 9 of the 13 tracks. The quality and variation is amazing. Although the 3 tracks written by Donna Simpson are stunning and Vikki Thorn rightly earns the title track, it is Josh's songwriting that forms the backbone of this album and allows it to be great.

The Waif's previous studio effort Up All Night contained a number of modern day Aussie classics and seemed like it would be hard for the band to follow. However, SunDirtWater seems to be an effortless follow-up, containing great music performed by one of the world's best bands, with perfectly executed overdubs by excellent session musicians. This is the least acoustic and is certainly the darkest of The Waifs albums.

This is my favourite album of 2007 - I can't stop listening to it. Some albums seem to fit perfectly with some point you're at in your life and SunDirtWater does that for me might now. This one feels like it is challenging Janis Joplin's Pearl as my "desert island" album... and that's a pretty big call...

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Tuesday, 24 July 2007

Lucinda Williams - West

West is Lucinda Williams' current release. I bought this after greatly enjoying 2 of her previous albums and have been listening to it a lot.

Three of the first four tracks (Are You Alright?, Mama You Sweet, Fancy Funeral) are fairly straight country-folk and appear to be about the recent death of Williams' mother. Mama You Sweet has a bit of the country hip-hop style that Williams has explored previously. The other track of the opening group, Learning How To Live, has a subtly different lyrical theme, but is equally subdued and matches the same country-folk style.

The next track Unsuffer Me is a brilliant cry for help - a heavier, moody ramble with gripping lyrics and Williams' signature gut-wrenching vocal style. This is followed by Everything Has Changed, which an equally negative song done in a much prettier style. Then, on Come On, things get heavier again and Williams takes aim at a guy who has obviously let her down. I'm not sure I've ever heard a nastier song - this one uses up the album's language warning with a single line... although the rest of the lyrics aren't exactly subtle. The sneer in Williams' voice on the this track almost reaches out and grabs you. I like it!

The rest of the album features a bunch of very good country and folk songs. Wrap My Head Around That differs in that it is another hip-hop style track.

West certainly isn't a positive album. It is one of the darker albums I've heard in a while. Williams explores a some negative experiences from some interesting vantage points, making this album an excellent listening experience. I really like West.

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The Tragically Hip - Road Apples

Road Apples is the 2nd full album by Canadian band The Tragically Hip. This is one of those albums that makes me wonder how I survived for so long without any albums by this excellent band. Recorded in New Orleans, Road Apples combines the indie-rock sound of their eponymous EP with American southern rock creating a great rock album.

There's no point running through the track list here. Time is better spent covering the elements that make this album so good. The guitar playing rocks - most songs have a combination of strong riffs and inspired lead guitar playing. Gordon Downie's lyrics and vocals are inspired - I'm not sure why he isn't considered one of rock's finest vocalists. The rhythm section is solid and serves every song. There is a nice combination of up-beat rock songs and sensitive ballads.

Road Apples is a great album - one of my favourites. It's a very long way from being horse dung... and these days The Tragically Hip are one of my favourite bands.

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Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel Of Love

I think I've said before that I'm a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. However, Tunnel Of Love, his studio follow-up to the mega-huge Born In The USA, turned me off and stopped me listening to him for quite a few years.

There are a bunch of excellent songs on this album, such as Ain't Got You, Spare Parts, Two Faces, Brilliant Disguise and One Step Up. Unfortunately, the album isn't all goodness. The production on much of the album leaves it firmly back in the 1980s. For example, I think the title track could be good... but this rendition isn't... and it feels like a failed experiment. Personally, I think Cautious Man doesn't really work on this album. Songs like this work well on Nebraska where most of the album is quite down and the 1980s synthesiser is absent, but with this mixed arrangement the song gets lost amongst a bunch of similar sounding songs. They also work well when Springsteen has the E Street Band to provide some up-beat contrast. However, the E Street Band are noticeably absent on this album. Drummer Max Weinberg appears on most songs but his drum sound in the mid-to-late 1980s isn't my favourite feature of the E Street Band during that time. Springsteen's lead guitar playing also sound thin, whiny and over-produced - there's too much 1980s style delay.

Unfortunately Tunnel Of Love still isn't close to being my favourite Bruce Springsteen album.

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Secret Machines - Now Here Is Nowhere

I've written about this album before. On this uninterrupted listen of Secret Machines' Now Here Is Nowhere several things struck me:

Now Here Is Nowhere is a very nice album to drive to...

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Live - Secret Samadhi

On Sunday I went for a fairly long drive by myself and loaded up with a few albums to help get me there and back. Most of the albums I chose were selected to keep me awake but some others were just things I felt like listening to. I thought I'd run through them...

Secret Samadhi is Live's 3rd album, released in 1997 as the follow-up to their hit 1994 album Throwing Copper. This album is a heavy rock/pop album with driving drums and guitar, and classic heavy rock vocals. Although this album seemed to disappoint some of the fans Live had attracted with Throwing Copper, I loved Secret Samadhi the first time I heard it. This is one of those albums that seems to feature no stand-out singles, even though it spawned 4 US Top 20 singles.

Overall Secret Samadhi seems to head-bang along quite nicely! However, there is quite a bit of variation on this album. Rattlesnake opens the album and builds things up quite quickly - it is a well done opener. This is followed by Lakini's Juice and Graze, two of the heavier songs on the album featuring nice distorted guitars and some stand-out vocals. Turn My Head is an excellent ballad, complete with mellow chorused guitar and strings, with a build up to a lovely guitar solo and anthemic drumming - this is definitely the most mainstream song on the album. Heropsychodreamer is reminiscent of early U2, although done quite a bit heavier.

I think those who don't like Secret Samadhi would probably have 2 main objections. Firstly, there is a bit of a formula where many songs begin quietly and build up once or twice into big rock anthems with big guitar solos. Personally I think the contrast between heavy and light is one of the features of this album. Also, the lyrics are generally more abstract and harder to relate to than some of the songs on Throwing Copper. I've never bothered tried to work out what many of the songs are about...

However, I still really like this album. It's all about drums, guitar... and vocals... I like that! I think Secret Samadhi is Live's best album.

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Wednesday, 20 June 2007

Kate Miller-Heidke - Circular Breathing

My first exposure to Kate Miller-Heidke was in August 2006 when she was part of Broad, a touring concert featuring 5 Australian female singer-songwriters. Although all the performers were exceptional, Miller-Heidke stood out as... ummm.. different... dressed in a fluffy dress, possessing a phenomenal vocal range and singing quirky, observational songs.

Circular Breathing is Kate Miller-Heidke's second solo EP, released in 2006. 3 of the 6 songs are written by Miller-Heidke, while the others are written by collaborator Keir Nuttall, who presumably also plays guitar on the EP. The music is hard to categorise but is probably best described as pop-folk. Miller-Heidke has a typical modern Australian female folk voice, only better. Her voice is strong, bright and a little edgy. Very occasionally she shows off her operatic training but certainly doesn't overdo it... unlike her live performances where she sometimes enjoys overdoing her vocals to great effect! Miller-Heidke is also a very good pianist.

Apartment is the stand-out track of this EP. It is a song about Miller-Heidke's experiences of living in an apartment, as compared to a house, for the first time. The lyrics are quirky and clever, and contain one of the best lyrical bait-and-switches I've ever heard. This song alone is worth the price of admission.

The other songs on the EP are very good. The opening track Out and In is a beautiful piano and acoustic guitar based ballad, reminiscent of Kate Bush at her most pleasant. Nuttall's River Of Dreams also stands out and closes the set nicely.

On Circular Breathing Kate Miller-Heidke shows a lot of promise. She is one of the most unique solo artists I've heard in a long time. I'm looking forward to catching a full live show and hearing her first full album Little Eve, which was released earlier this week.

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Thursday, 7 June 2007

Lucinda Williams - World Without Tears

I have a confession to make... I like country music...

I first heard Lucinda Williams' song Sweet Side while hunting through the music options for something bearable while on an international flight. I was intrigued by the blues and country that was infused into this hip-hop style track. I asked a fellow music fan about Williams and he suspected I might enjoy her music, but thought she might be a little bit too country for my liking. I did some research and added the albums Car Wheels On A Gravel Road and World Without Tears to my to-buy list. Several months later I found both of these albums at a CD sale - total price $15.

After several listens I was adding both albums to my CD catalog and was forced to choose a genre. `Americana' is an obvious description for this music. However, I like to choose from the standard dozen genres that most software offers. Neither rock nor blues really fit so for the first time ever I chose country, having previously denied any affection for country music... and I really like these Lucinda Williams albums.

World Without Tears opens with Fruits Of My Labour, a country-blues track with evocative, throaty vocals and moody tremolo guitar. This song is all about restraint and sets the mood brilliantly. Righteously, which follows, is a bit more up-beat and rocky. Just a bit though - the restraint is still there. However, there is a fat, delayed lead guitar that helps things start to rock out a little. Where to next? Ventura is acoustic country rock full of steel guitars and has an obvious mellowing effect. This is closely followed by Real Live Bleeding Fingers And Broken Guitar Strings, an Exile On Main Street era Rolling Stones style romp. I'm a sucker for this type of blues rocker and find this track to be one of the highlights of the album. Follow this with Overtime, a country-folk song laden with more tremolo guitar and you're starting to get an album that is quite mixed up... in a nice way...

The album progresses through more occasionally rocky country-folk (Those Three Days, Minneapolis, People Talkin', World Without Tears, Words Fell), blues (Atonement - although with a psychedelic guitar solo) and country-blues-hip-hop (Sweet Side, American Dream). In fact, although I've obviously tried above, I really don't like trying to categorise these songs. Lucinda Williams is a singer-songwriter who arranges her songs based on numerous influences. The strongest of these influences on World Without Tears is country but the album doesn't descend into simple songs about being abandoned by a lover or having your dog die. That said, Williams' lyrics on this album aren't exactly positive, but they are consistently interesting.

I really like this album and want to hear more music by Lucinda Williams. Her new album West is meant to have a similar sound to World Without Tears. I think I'll add it to my to-but list... Hmmm... more country music?

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Wednesday, 30 May 2007

Damien Rice - Live Concert

I saw Damien Rice live in concert on 26 April 2007 at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon. A friend had seen him live in Melbourne several months earlier and pronounced it to be the "best concert ever"! I thought that, since I would be in town and had loved his first album O, I'd go along with a friend and check out Damien Rice live in concert.

After waiting too long for food we walked into the theatre during the 2nd or 3rd song. Rice was roaring through a microphone that distorted his voice and the band was going full tilt. After a few minutes of this we decided that he was mad, yet strangely compelling. For the next song he switched into quiet mode and used a clean microphone. The contrast was absolutely stunning - one of the most amazing contrasts I've ever witnessed during a live concert. This was especially due to the quality of Rice's voice during the quiet moments. He used this "contrast device" continuously throughout the show to good effect but as the show went on it began to wear thin. That said, one of the finest "loud" moments was during the final pre-encore song when cellist Vyvienne Long suddenly walked away from her cello, to the piano that Rice had occasionally played, and added even more volume when it didn't seem possible.

Another oft-used effect was delay loops. Rice used almost endless delays to layer his vocals and guitar over themselves. This was almost always during the "loud" moments and it was difficult to tell whether Rice was controlling the delays or whether is was being done from the mixing desk. At the end of Amie he used the delay to build the phrase "I saw a spaceship" over itself until it became a rumbling cacophony, before he sat on the stage and the rumbling transformed into the sound of a spaceship that zipped up into the "sky". I'm not sure if any of it was synthesised... but it was incredibly well done. However, the best use of delay loops was during the first encore, when Long's cello was layered over itself producing wonderful chords, underneath an Irish rap on which she took lead vocals.

The show ended with Rice downing 3 or 4 glasses of red wine while telling a witty version of the story of how Cheers Darlin' came to be written. By the end of the song he staggered from the stage, waving to the audience. Done by someone else this might have looked like a cheap trick. However, in this case it fit perfectly with the emotion and intensity of the show. Damien Rice is clearly a talented, creative lunatic.

Was this the best concert I've ever been to? Sadly not. It was very good and Rice performed most of the excellent material from both of his albums. It was also one of the more compelling performances I've seen. However, Rice's screaming and the "loud" parts became repetitive by the end of the show. The contrast that began as an intense experience became formulaic. Damien Rice is brilliant but the show needed something else... and that something else was probably vocalist Lisa Hannigan, who Rice had recently, and unfortunately, ended his artistic partnership with. Hannigan had previously been such an integral part of Rice's music that hers is the first voice heard on his second album 9.

Given all of that, I think I'd like to see Damien Rice again in a year or two, especially if he partners with another talented female vocalist...

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Tuesday, 30 May 2006

Rainbow - Rising

Rainbow was a 1970/80s band centred around former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Rising was Rainbow's 2nd album, release in 1976. It is a good heavy rock/metal album, featuring some good playing by Blackmore and some excellent vocals by Ronnie James Dio, who also wrote all of the lyrics.

This album is good but not brilliant. It alternates between boring and interesting, often within a single song. For me Dio's vocals make the album interesting. The best song on the album is Stargazer, an 8.5 minute fantasy/heavy metal epic with phased drum fills and the whole 1970s treatment. However, when I recently played Stargazer to someone they described it as "going on for a bit too long", which is certainly accurate. This is self-indulgent heavy rock at its best!

I'm certainly not planning on buying an more albums by Rainbow. I used to have a 2 tape set comprising Rising and another album. I was never able to get excited about the other album. It was only when I recently discarded the last of my tape collection (since I no longer have a tape deck) that added Rainbow's Rising to my list. I'm glad I bought it... although it certainly isn't one of my favourite albums.

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Shawn Colvin - Fat City

Shawn Colvin plays reasonably upbeat folk with pop and country tinges. I've spent a long time avoiding admitting that I like anything remotely country but it is getting difficult to avoid - my collection is full of stuff with a country influences. I first saw Colvin opening for John Hiatt at the Anaheim House of Blues on 17 August 2006 and enjoyed her performance, possibly more than I enjoyed Hiatt's. The Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music recommended Fat City, an early album (1992), as probably the best place to start listening to her music, so I picked up a copy.

Although one of Shawn Colvin's biggest influences is Joni Mitchell, the songwriting and playing Fat City reminds me of a very good John Hiatt album. I'm a pretty big John Hiatt fan - see, I just can't escape that country tinge! Either way, it's a nice mix of influences - basically good folk music backed by a full band. Thoughtful lyrics too...

This is a really good album. Actually, one of the nice things about this album is that nothing really stands out. It is consistently good. Polaroids and Round Of Blues are great songs, and I really like Set The Prairie On Fire... but it is nice and consistent.

I'll eventually add more of Shawn Colvin's albums to my collection. I just have to figure out which. Fat City received Grammy nomination for "Best Contemporary Folk Recording". Cover Girl received a similar nomination but the followup A Few Small Repairs was nominated for "Best Pop Album". Now there's an interesting choice...

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The Juliana Theory - Deadbeat Sweetheartbeat

I read a review of The Juliana Theory's Deadbeat Sweetheartbeat in The Canberra Times quite a few months ago. It was a very positive review that emphasised the band's credentials as a straightforward rock act. A few weeks ago I saw a copy of Deadbeat Sweetheartbeat in a CD store and decided to give it a try. Yet again, my first listen left me a little cold but things improved...

The Juliana Theory are indeed a rock band. The opening track This Is A Lovesong... For The Loveless virtually explodes out of your speakers. Deadbeat Sweetheartbeat is a tad heavier than most of the music I listen to these days. That said, it is laced with emo-pop-rock (e.g. Live), pub-rock and indie jangle. Hard to categorise... interesting and pleasant listening...

Interesting that I should mention Live, since there is a tenuous connection. Jerry Harrison (of Talking Heads) who produced Live's Throwing Copper also produced The Juliana Theory's previous studio album Love. There are definitely similarities between the 2 bands.

Strong songs? This Is A Lovesong... For The Loveless is a great opener. I like My Heart Is A Soldier and 10,000 Questions. Actually, to draw another parallel these 2 songs remind me of Collective Soul, although somehow more interesting and less commercial than that band. Anyway, there's nothing on the album that I dislike.

I really like this album. It's quite different to most other stuff in my collection, so it is getting a lot of listens lately when I'm after something a bit heavier. Would I buy another album? Not sure... I'd have to have a listen. Apparently The Juliana Theory have now disbanded so it'd have to be something out of their back-catalogue...

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Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

Note: Back to short reviews, until I get time to do detailed ones again... wishful thinking... :-)

Although I had heard of Sarah McLachlan it was her presence on the Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music that prompted me to try buying an album. So, I bought a copy of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. I was there reading up on Cowboy Junkies, hoping to find something similar. My first impressions weren't extremely favourable but, after a couple more listens, I'm feeling more positive about it...

McLachlan's voice often has a similar inflection the one possessed by Sinead O'Connor and Beth Orton - it's that weird little up-and-down, breaking thing that Alanis Morissette doesn't seem to get. From my limited exposure to all of these artists, McLachlan seems to fit relatively comfortably into the same mellow, intelligent, soft-pop genre as O'Connor and Orton (for example, Possession, Good Enough, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy). However, she seems to be missing some of the interesting "edge" they seem to possess... but I'm happy to suppose some of the edge his hidden under the extremely slick production. In this respect, some of the album is a little too Enya-like for me (e.g. Fear).

In fact, parts of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy wouldn't sound out of place on a Richard Marx album. Believe it or not, I mean that as a complement - I pulled out Marx's Repeat Offender a while ago and was stunned by how good a pop album it was! Some of the more upbeat parts are reminiscent of Repeat Offender and the softer stuff is not unlike Marx's (later?) softer pop, although McLachlan clearly has a much better voice...

McLachlan is an extremely talented songwriter and performer. Am I planning to add her entire back-catalogue to my collection? Probably not. Fumbling Towards Ecstasy will keep its place in my collection along with the occasional Sinead O'Connor, Beth Orton, Alanis Morissette and Richard Marx album. Although my search for things similar to Cowboy Junkies led me here, I'm moving towards the view that the Junkies are unique, with their combination of mellow, dark and heavy, fused with roots music and progressive rock. I didn't find that on Fumbling Towards Ecstasy but I'll listen to it every so often when I'm in the mood for some very good mellow pop music... and enjoy it a lot.

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Thursday, 16 March 2006

The Angels - Face To Face

Another "golden oldie". The Angels' Face To Face entered my home in 1978 not many days after its release. This was one of several Australian rock albums that I immersed myself in during by pre-teen years. Three events conspired that caused me to own a copy again:

So, when an online CD store listed Face To Face as deleted but still in stock I put it on my Xmas list.

Face To Face is late 1970s rock, reasonably heavy, full of cool guitar playing and interesting lyrics. This is pub rock during a very strong period for Australian music. The Angels were contemporaries of AC/DC but somehow never seemed to make it huge on the world stage.

The first "side" of the album features 5 songs. The strongest are After The Rain, Take A Long Line and Marseilles. The last of these is one of the great Aussie rock songs - a huge performance centred around a big vocal performance from Neeson and mountainous guitar playing from John and Rick Brewster.

The second "side" opens with Live It Up a live track vaguely featuring "the Bo Diddley riff". The next track Be With You is one of the albums slower songs and feels very reminiscent of The Rolling Stones. Outcast is a weird tale of a drug-taking homeless person. The closing tracks are 2 of The Angels' best know early songs: I Ain't The One and Comin' Down - both heavy and anthemic - the latter wouldn't be out of place on an AC/DC album.

The verdict? This album is still very impressive. Some of Neeson's vocal performances aren't as strong as I remember but the tremor in his voice lends the album a nervous edginess. Vanda & Young are listed as consultants and probably had an influence on the strong, catchy arrangements. Producer Mark Opitz was one of the great Australian producers of the late 1970s and 1980s, and it would be interesting to hear what he would do with this band if he recorded them today. I'm glad this album is in my collection and I'll listen to it a lot. However, I don't think it is one of my absolute favourites.

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Monday, 19 December 2005

AC/DC - Let There Be Rock

I spent many of my pre-teenage years listening to early AC/DC, but tend to shy away from their later efforts: I believe AC/DC produced a lot of boring, formulaic music after Bon Scott's passing. Originally released in 1977, Let There Be Rock predates the formula. This album features some very well produced recordings of some of AC/DC's best songs. There are songs that aren't so great but in those cases the performances more than make up for the average songwriting.

I've always found the opening track Go Down slightly average. It is a nice, big start to the album, so I guess it does its job. Dog Eat Dog is where the album really starts to groove and Let There Be Rock is a great effort at an anthem. Bad Boy Boogie is a good, solid effort.

This album really hits its stride on "Side 2". Overdose is hugely underrated and gets me every time. Crabsody In Blue is a slow blues-style song and, while a little crass, the humour is still obvious and the guitar playing is hot. After this Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be explodes out through your stereo system. This is one of AC/DC's great songs. The album finishes with Angus Young's guitar anthem Whole Lotta Rosie, which features some of the finest guitar playing by anyone, anywhere, anytime.

While, these days, I tend to question a reasonable subset of Bon Scott's lyrics, you wonder how he sings some of the lyrics with his tongue firmly in one cheek. There's a lot of humour in there that has lost currency in more politically correct times. However, given the emotion in the recordings and the musicianship shown by the band, the less appealing lyrics can be ignored. This album needs to be listened to.

Let There Be Rock is a powerhouse of raw, heavy rock. The guitars are huge and dirty. Bon Scott is in supreme vocal form. From beginning to end this album is simply uncompromising. Listen to it loud...

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