blackleatherbookshelf | Entries tagged with guilty pleasure

The Improbable Reunion
3 Out Of 5 Stars

"Just for the record, we never broke up. We just took a fourteen year vacation."

With those words, the Eagles kicked off their first concert in over a decade for an MTV broadcast special titled "Hell Freezes Over." The band took it all in stride, playing a tight set, leaning heavily on their most popular album (5 of 11 live tracks are from "Hotel California"), and adding four new songs to the disc as a bonus. The best of those four, "Get Over It," is the hardest rocking song the band has ever produced. Based on a Chuck Berry riff and Don Henley's annoyance with "a whole lot of people saying don't blame me," it's an epic rant.

But no one is fooled by the new material. It's the classics they came to hear, and Eagles bests are as good as classic rock gets. The band does keep it mostly mellow, with favorites "Tequila Sunrise," "I Can't Tell You Why" and "Wasted Time" all being mid-tempo to downright slowpoke, while it isn't till the end that the electric guitars come out for "Take It Easy" and "Life In The Fast Lane." In fact. there is little straying from the original arrangements. The exception is the Spanish guitar version of "Hotel California," which significantly alters the opening of that song.

But throughout, the Eagles are in fine voice, with the ever so pristine harmonies fully intact. They turn Henley's solo song "New York Minute" into an Eagles song and the longing of the closing "Desperado" sounds as good as it did in 1973. Henley remains the band's dominant voice, singing the bulk of the material and two of the four new songs. That matters little to the audience, who cheer enthusiastically after classic after classic. Pretty much a souvenir of the band's unlikely reunion and subsequent tour, "Hell Freezes Over" is a polished document of that new beginning.

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Current Mood: chipper
Current Location: Philadelphia
Current Music: "Get Over It" Eagles

How the Breaking Point Sounds
3 Out Of 5 Stars

After an album that all but screamed "experimenting with our new found maturity," Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington have taken Linkin Park back to the basics. Lots of rap-rock hybridization, short blasts of industrialized guitar fuzz, and co-producer Rick Rubin's less is more zen-philosophy of record making. I do mean less; "Living Things" clocks in under 40 minutes without an ounce of filler. But that makes me something of a dissenter here, as I really enjoyed "A Thousand Suns" and the wild experimentation that went on with the album's suites and social commentary.

That makes "Living Things" a good, if basic, Linkin Park album. There's not much you haven't heard them do before, with two exceptions. First is "Castle of Glass," an almost folkish number that lets Mike sing without screeching. He proves he can carry a melody for a whole song without going to cookie monster vocals, and does a good job on "Roads Untraveled." Then there's the slab of noise that is "Lies Greed Misery," which comes close to being a dance-rock track and plays with the vocal track a fair amount. If you're looking for what you've expected from LP, that's here too. "Burn It Down" could be from any point in LP's timeline, and showcases what the group has always been best at; fist pumping anthems that blend hard rocking with electronic muscle.

The remainder is a mixed bag. Nothing here wallows in the sewer, nor does it rise to the level of "Meteora." However, when they sing on "Burn It Down" 'we're building it all to break it back down,' then maybe "Living Things" is the transitional album I thought "A Thousand Suns" was meant to be. Either way, it's a middling album from a band that I count as one of my guilty pleasures.

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Current Mood: artistic
Current Location: Philadelphia
Current Music: "Castle Of Glass" Linkin Park

Wayne Hanson's Smashing Trick
3 Out Of 5 Stars

A most unlikely supergroup, Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger asked pal pop singer Taylor Hanson (who'da thunk?) to team with him and James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins and then hauled in Cheap Trick drummer Bun E Carlos to pound the skins. So you have a multi-generational and multi-stylistic team who cranked out a one shot (so far) album under the moniker "Tinted Windows." Not surprisingly, with Hanson's and Schlesinger's affinity for power-pop and Carlos used to backing the glammy rock of Cheap Trick, the album is a power-popper's dream.

What is so funny about this is just how teen-pop this sounds. Rack up Jonas Brothers' "B-B-Good To Me" with "Kind Of a Girl" and you'll be hard pressed to tell which cut is the Disney act. James Iha is all but a reformed jangle popper this time around, and the whammy he puts into "Messing With My Head" or "Nothing To Me" is going to make you wonder why he didn't ditch Billy Corgan years ago. It's also easy to tell Carlos is having a ball when he digs into "Can't Get a Read on You."

"Tinted Windows" is by no means a brilliant album, at best it will make Dwight Twilley, 20/20 or fans of The Knack get nostalgic for their skinny ties. Or fans of any of TW's respective members (and frankly, there were a couple moments where I found myself wondering what FoW's Chris Collingwood would have done with a few of these. However, for straight-up four-piece power-pop rock with no synths, the Tinted Windows' debut makes me hope for maybe another go-round.

Current Mood: creative
Current Location: Philadelphia
Current Music: "Messing With My Head" Tinted Windows

The Black Hole Comes On

4 Out of 5 Stars

Linkin Park seem to be stuck in a hard spot. "A Thousand Suns" sounds wildly ambitious, but they also can't seem to escape their ways of old. For every stunning "Burning In The Skies," you get sledgehammered by the juvenile "When They Come For Me." You get arty segues with sampled speeches, which denotes the band's old angst without using slashing guitars. "A Thousand Suns" is an arty album from a band that hasn't quite let go of its youthful arrogance.

Granted, that arrogance is well deserved. Their debut sold over ten million copies and many of their rap-rock peers (think Korn or Limp Bizkit) are struggling to remain relevant. Pity Mike Shinoda; as an aging rap-rocker, he sounds stuck in a band that is outgrowing him (although he sounds fine on "Blackout"). Chester Bennington fills the void with brooding, screaming and actual singing, albeit often processed beyond recognition. He also has continued the "Minutes to Midnight" themes of Man V Society here, which may alienate some of their old audience. I happen to like it.

"A Thousand Suns" is LP's second Rick Rubin produced album, and I wondered just how much he shepherded the band into experimenting. He makes Linkin Park sound big but moody, with chilling synths and lots of processed effects. Between the group's willingness to push themselves and Rubin's mastery of the studio, "A Thousand Suns" could easily be Linkin Park's best yet and the album that once again saves them from rock and roll's trendy dustbin.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: Philadelphia
Current Music: "Burning In The Skies" Linkin Park

Take your medicine
4 Out of 5 Stars

Poison was one of those 'love to hate' bands of the 80's and 90's, racking up one glam rock hit after another, yet seemingly earning no respect with their double platinum. Yet they came from the same LA Street Scene that pulled up Guns and Roses, Ratt, and was essentially ruled by Motley Crue. Heck, the first Poison album, "Look What The Cat Dragged In" was on Indie label Enigma. It's not like they were handed their success, or got put together like the Monkees or something.

But there you have it. It's taken decades for Poison to get the credit they deserve and lately it's because of Brett Michaels having a stroke and/or being one of the hardest working front men in show-biz. When you crack open the Poison "20 Years Of Rock" and listen minus the hubris of the times, these songs have withstood the test of time. Then you look at the stats in the liner notes. From 1987 to 1991, Poison racked up an incredible ten Top 40 singles, 6 of these top ten and "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" hitting number one. Not bad for a bunch of guys with big hair and eyeliner.

At the same time, Poison has a workmanlike charm to the best of their songs. Call it 'blue-collar' or 'working-man' rock, but a party anthem like "Nothing But a Good Time" rates up there with "Rock and Roll All Night" (which they covered for the "Less Than Zero" soundtrack). When they got ambitious ("Something To Believe In"), they were a bit over-stretched, and unfortunately, the more they tried to break the glam-mold, (the album "Native Tongue"), the party hard audience drifted off - and only one song from that album is here. (And none from "Crack a Smile").

I am Ok with that, at their best, Poison were a singles band. They were a posturing, prancing and preening singles band, but why should that make a difference? Most bands would sell their souls to come up with the riff for "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" or "Talk Dirty To Me." It was more about the fun. So when Michaels yelped "CC, pick up that guitar and TALK to me!", you can tell that the party was on the way. 20 years on, it still feels that way.

Current Mood: curious
Current Location: Philadelphia
Current Music: "Talk Dirty To Me" Poison

White Hot and Cool,
3 Out of 5 Stars

This was Angel's fifth album and their commercial high water mark, peaking at 55 on Billboard. It is just a bit slicker than On Earth As It Is In Heaven (my personal favorite Angel album), but shows that Angel wanted desperately to be a huge rock band along the lines of Kiss. They even dusted off a Rascals' cover as a Top 40 contender, "Ain't Gonna Eat My Heart Out Anymore." The strategy worked as far as sales were concerned, but it was Angel's last grab at the brass ring.

If you have a shelf full of 70's rock that leans heavy on the Styx, Queen or Kansas albums, "White Hot" will make you happy. The under-rated Punky Meadows lets fly with some great guitar and keyboardist Gregg Giuffria's great old school playing on "You Could Lose Me" or the opener, "Don't Leave Me Lonely." And before the term "Power Ballad" became a standard term for every MTV Hair Metal band, the great "Winter Song" and "Flying On Broken Wings" could have been hits had they shown up a decade later.

PS: For pure holiday glamrock cheese, Angel re-cut "Winter Song" as "Christmas Song" which can be downloaded NOW off of the Angel Antholgy.

Current Mood: angelic
Current Location: Philadelphia
Current Music: "Winter Song" Angel

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My Amazon Reviews: Eagles "Hell Freezes Over"
My Amazon Reviews: Linkin Park "Living Things"
My Amazon Reviews: Tinted Windows "Tinted Windows"
My Amazon Reviews: Linkin Park "A Thousand Suns"
My Amazon Reviews: Poison "20 Years of Rock"
My Amazon Reviews: Angel "White Hot"

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Tim Brough's Black Leather Bookshelf

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Entries tagged with guilty pleasure

My Amazon Reviews: Eagles "Hell Freezes Over"

My Amazon Reviews: Linkin Park "Living Things"

My Amazon Reviews: Tinted Windows "Tinted Windows"

My Amazon Reviews: Linkin Park "A Thousand Suns"

My Amazon Reviews: Poison "20 Years of Rock"

My Amazon Reviews: Angel "White Hot"