Motörhead: Motorizer

It would be a mistake to assume Motorhead to be a spent force, with their 15 minutes of fame with 1980’s Ace of Spades. If you liked the original formula then there’s no reason not to stick with them. There no Quo styled sell out, and they’re still maintaining their level of quality and simple winning formula. I am however surprised that its taken over 30 years before Lemmy finally came up with the following lyric from album highlight Rock Out: “Rock out, With your cock out, Impress your lady friends”. Quality Indeed.

Jackson Browne: Time The Conqeror

Any musician who sues John McCain and the Republican Party for using one of his songs without permission is at the very least worthy of a place in my annual album roundup. “Time the Conqueror” is typical grown up American light rock and the lyrics clearly voice his frustration with Bush’s policies over items such as Iraq and Katrina. A typical such example is “The Drums of War” where Browne asks the question; “Who will live with the sacrifice of our best and brightest hopes, the flower of our youth, the freedom and the truth?”

Glasvegas: Glasvegas

Notice how this Glaswegian band have subtly mixed the name of their home town into the name of the band. Clever stuff. The orchestral build up at the top of the album is overtaken as expected by guitar, bass and drum but I had to listen to it 3 times in quick succession because the vocals reminded me of something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. The best answer I could come up with was a Scottish version of the late Joey Ramone produced by Phil Spector. “Stabbed” stands out from the rest of the album, although not necessarily in a good way as it simply consists of a rambling Scottish monologue over a backdrop of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, which caused the wife to stick her head into my study and ask what the hell I was listening too.

The Kings Of Leon: Only By The Night

The Kings of Leon seem to be building on their solid musical foundation as I have found each of their albums to be better than their last. As this is now their 5th studio album and the first one was pretty good, then by applying some simple logic we can deduce that this must be a damn fine album. Album opener, “Closer” has the distinctive vocals accompanied by a pulsating siren sound behind which a noise of guitars gradually cranks up. The album continues with “Crawl” and its mix of heavily distorted fuzzy guitars with crisp overlays and rhythm section. “17” kicks of like a Christmas single with its chiming bells but soon settles down into the habitual Kings of Leon sound.

B.B. King: One Kind Favor

At the ripe young age of 83 I will be happy if I’m still able to appreciate great blues albums, let alone be able to record them. B.B. King carved out his own peculiar blend of piano and slow guitar blues nearly 60 years ago so it’s no time to start changing direction now. With a little help from producer T. Bone Walker (Raising Sand) and of course Lucille, B.B. revisits blues classics from other blues giants.