"Nothing but the rain"
Wow.
Just wow.
It doesn’t seem fair to leave this to three words but seriously, that’s all that is necessary. This album contains my favourite AC/DC song – If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It), the heavy metal clashing of the opening riff makes my spine shiver. That and Night Prowler, the creepiest song ever, and this is just . . .
wow!
1976.
AC/DC.
Debut international album.
This album. Is. Awesome.
I’m not sure if I’ve gone into my relationship with AC/DC before. My attention to them was first awakened by the song “That’s The Way I Wanna Rock n Roll” off the Blow Up Your Video album. When I found out there was a back catalogue of about 12 albums I was so excited. All that music to be consumed.
This album is their first major release. I believe that the track listing is different in Australia along with the cover. I have owned this on cassette tape, CD and now digitally. I didn’t buy much AC/DC on vinyl because I couldn’t carry around a record with me to listen as I moved.
AC/DC are masters of riff driven rock with a dirty guitar sound, perfectly crafted rude lyrics and brilliant accompaniment to balance out the sound.
It’s A Long Way To The Top If You Wanna (rock and roll) – fucking bagpipes.
Rock ‘n’ Roll Singer – includes the lyric “yes I are”, which I maintain is lyrical genius.
The Jack – better live as the lyrics are truer.
Live Wire – AC/DC Live video opens with this song. It’s a great sing along tune.
T.N.T. – riff-tastic.
Can I Sit Next To You Girl – pace change in the rhythm guitars is great.
Little Lover – “Killed me when I saw, The wet patch on your seat, Was it Coca Cola?”
She’s Got Balls – Opening riff just floors me. Lovely bass work. Beautiful.
High Voltage – Still played. Still loved. Like every song here.
This is an album to horrify the elders. To rip fear into grown ups. The lyrics are rude without being offensive [kind of] and the sound is pure dirt. Put it on. Play It Loud. Really Loud.
This is the second album released by Def Leppard and the first by them to be reviewed in these communications. Of the four albums by Def Leppard that I know this is probably the weakest. It does have a lot of reasonable songs and the sound of the guitars is a decent 1980s sound which I like. I’m not quite sure what’s missing.
All the songs have good energy [apart form the ballads]. The beat is up tempo. It is well produced. But it lacks. Especially when comparing to the albums either side in release order. It’s probably the Def leppard last album I would choose to play unless I really want some quality 80s rock. You’ll have to wait for my review of On Through The Night but given how anthemic it is this album leaves me wanting.
This is the first Rammstein album I have reviewed in these communications and I will tell you that it leaves me feeling quite excited. I was first given this album and another in the early 2000s. Listening to the heavy German sound was so different, so exciting and refreshing. The clear crispness and utter heaviness was astounding. I didn’t care that I couldn’t understand what was being said, I’ve listened to English speaking singers and not had a clue!
Rammstein are a band where you can start right at the beginning and just keep working through their albums. There isn’t a bad album.
Herzeleid came out in 1995. It doesn’t show. Buy this, give the band some of your money and enjoy.
This band a is dangerous and great fun.
I originally had this album on vinyl. I can remember looking at it in the shop and wondering if it will be any good. It had an odd double jacket which I think was just because the branding of the band had changed over time. That was all I knew when I got it.
I think this is a great album. It’s very operatic hardcore German metal. If you like Helloween then you’ll love this. Largely because one of the Helloween members went on to create this band. The whole album has operatic themes and great riffs and remember-able hooks to the choruses.
Lust For Life, Heaven Can Wait, Space Eater, Money, Freetime and Heading For Tomorrow are all great songs. Just bloody brilliant.
Every now and then I buy a Motörhead album and pretty often I am disappointed. There is a good reason for this. “No Sleep ‘Till Hammersmith” is a live album that will [eventually] be reviewed here. I will let you know now it’s the dog’s bollocks, an absolutely brilliant album. And that’s where the problem lies. All other Motörhead albums are going to pale in significance.
As far as I can make out this is a compilation album, probably to make a quick profit for those liking the whole “Ace Of Spades” thing. The track listing has some very good songs, but when you have already heard them on the aforementioned live album these songs seem a little bit tame.
I suggest you just get No Sleep ‘Till Hammersmith.
I actually bought this on CD. I remember liking the song being played on TV and the radio and thought I’d get the whole album. I did like the characters in the videos and how they looked quite anime.
I think if I played this album I would recognise a couple of songs but I’m pretty sure I’ve only ever used it as background music, it’s not something I’ve listened to actively.
Isn’t some Blur member in the band?
These two albums are instrumental calming albums from the beast that is Nine Inch Nails. I listen to these when I’m writing reports at work or marking stuff. It makes a very good background noise to block out other distractions. I would recommend these albums to anyone. It’s just good stuff.
I grew up in the 80s. I remember the 70s but from the age of 8 to 18 the primary decade was the 1980s. Those formative years when music tastes settle in and I was living through the 80s! You know when you get a “Greatest Hits Of The 80s” album or CD or stream that stuff now and you think, “Wow, what a decade to live through music”. Well, I’d like to remind you that you have 30 of the very best songs and maybe a couple that are a bit shit. If that’s the best a compilation compiler can come up with then it really is evidence that the rest of it was shit. As an example, Vienna by Ultravox didn’t make number one in the once relevant charts. It was held off by John Lennon (which I guess is fair enough) and then Joe Dolce’s song “Shaddup You Face”. You see, it was shit.
Music tastes change bit by bit but the stuff that still affects us is the stuff we obsessed over as teenagers. People ten years older than me at work love Pink Floyd and easy 70s rock. People ten years younger than me look back in fondness at the utter shit that was Oasis. And so it’s clear I can’t help liking 80s rock. I’ve written about my descent into metal. It started with Bon Jovi, headed through Mötley Crüe into Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer.
I have change recently and it’s weird. I’ve headed to industrial. Electronic stuff with a nasty edge. I wouldn’t be too fussed about attending a metal festival although I’d go if the right bands were playing.
Looking back at the 80s rock scene now and thinking about what they were actually saying about women and I am horrified. You could argue that it was just the scene and in reality they were nice people but the misogyny was rife and that enters culture and then behaviour. Perhaps the world was more misogynistic then anyway, I don’t know, whatever it was it shouldn’t have been. I don’t think I ever really thought I was sexist, or that I could be like that but I endorsed a culture of that behaviour by buying the music and playing the songs and liking the music.
I really like this album. I can’t help it. I’m programmed to like it. It’s such a part of my youth. I saw the Crüe once at Wembley Arena and it was a great concert. See this page for the concert list. I love the sound of the guitar, I love the galloping bass, the drums and even Vince Neil’s voice. It’s just a fucking shame it’s all sexist. I still like it. Damn [exasperation].
Wild Side – fantastic, upbeat, riff-tastic.
Girls, girls, girls – so good and so bad. In the video they had a hot tub in the back of a limousine.
Dancing on glass – good.
Bad Boy Boogie – good “rocky” song, but AC/DC already have a song called this and it’s better.
Nona – There is ALWAYS an incredibly shit song on every Crüe album. This is the one here. Perhaps they let the butler write a song?
The rest are all pretty good songs although the ballad they wrote for the charts is pretty poor “You’re All I Need”, bleaugh.
So, when I saw them at Wembley Billy Idol came on at the end, clearly off his face, and they sang Jailhouse Rock. There’s a live version of it on this album and it seriously starts with Vince saying:
We’re recording live right here tonight. And I think you’ve got to fucking jive. ‘Cos we’ve got some bad beat boogie woogie for you boys”
They actually kept that on the album! Metal it isn’t. 80s rock it is. I wish forgiveness for the decade in which I matured and the shit I like listening to now.
Last night I took a little journey to The Garage in Islington to watch Aesthetic Perfection. Now, Mesh were the headline band and I had listened to them in advance and I didn’t like it or find it particularly interesting. I was primarily there to see Aesthetic Perfection and to take my niece out for her birthday. It is a good thing that AP tend to tour once a year because that makes her presents easy to organise. This is the second time she has seen AP and my fourth.
The first band on were called Empathy Test, which I have a suspicion is a reference to Blade Runner and Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? However, they weren’t much to my liking. There was a singer, two keyboard – programmer types and a drummer. All their songs were well constructed and perfectly fine but not enough to get me going.
Next up were Aesthetic Perfection. I like the Garage as a venue, the roof is nicely curved and I remember seeing Front Line Assembly here a few years ago. The sound was impressive and clear with a stage and rig more suited to music production than Electrowerkz, although Electrowerkz wins in coolness of a venue.
Because this was an acoustic set there wasn’t a drummer and I missed that a bit. I do think that a live drummer adds quite a bit of organic sound to a set. Now, I know they started with Antibody and played more songs but I can’t remember what all the songs were. I should have written them down as they played. The set was good, but missed Spit It Out and Motherfucker, which are songs I do enjoy.
Final band on last night were Mesh. Obviously many of the crowd had come to see this band, there were lots of Mesh t-shirts being worn. I decided to listen to a couple of songs. The first was OK and the second was just OK. I didn’t think it was anything special but I did like the stage set up. They had four 1m square LED screens made to look like a mesh of wires which was quite clever. It wasn’t enough to keep me there. We left.
In the picture you can see two of the large LED mesh based displays.
It was a very nice evening. We will hopefully see Aesthetic Perfection again next year.