CD Albums - Comments by biffbampow

CD Albums - Comments by biffbampow

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
biffbampow 16th May 2015		CD Album The Hollies - Rarities (1988)	Then celebrating their 25th anniversary, The Hollies had a surprising time in late 1988 when thanks to a TV ad, "He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother" became a number one hit 19 years after it was first released. With it came a double CD "All The Hits and More" and this excellent compilation of rare tracks, mostly unreleased material, with one side (or half on CD) being devoted to the Terry Sylvester era and the remainder the Graham Nash era. It was the pair of "Relax" and "Tomorrow When It Comes" that were the real revelations as we had a couple of glimpses from the aborted album that was set to follow up "Butterfly" which judging from these two songs was gonna move further into psychedelia... "Relax" was a great lazy short number with daft leslie organ effects on Nash's voice in one channel and a great overall dreamy vibe. "Tomorrow When It Comes" by contrast is an explosive freakbeat/psych rock track that I absolutely love. Sadly, for a variety of reasons, they were left in the can as the band fell into disarray wondering which direction to go in next... Nash was coming up with many new songs which the band rejected to his anger, flirted with MOR, gigged in cabaret then decided to do the Dylan album... no wonder Nash left.
biffbampow 16th May 2015		CD Album The Hollies - Staying Power (2005)	After over 20 years since their last album - the awful reunion album with Graham Nash - The Hollies finally got round to making a new album. Oh dear... Original lead vocalist Allan Clarke had "retired" in 1999. His singing had seriously declined over the previous ten years and he was finding it impossible to sing like he used to hence the live show became rather peculiar as they dug out strange tracks from their past like "After The Fox" and 1969 B'side "Not That Way At All" to try and lessen the load on Allan, but things came to a head twofold in 1999 when Allan's wife fell seriously ill so he took time out to care for her during which it also appears Allan may have also been pushed out of the band he formed as criticisms about a tour in Germany had resulted in promoters telling the band that if Allan stayed, they would never be booked again... Allan left and was replaced by Carl Wayne formerly of The Move. Carl quickly proved popular with fans and many demands for a new album were ignored and that line up cut just one song for a greatest hits compilation and sadly, it was a stinker. Carl sadly fell terminally ill and with rather insensitive timing, no sooner had Carl died, the band announced new lead singer Peter Howarth who also worked as a backing singer for Cliff Richard... and continued to do so, hence The Hollies could only work when Peter was not working with Cliff. With Howarth the band finally got down to recording their first studio album in over 20 years and unfortunately this was it. It completely split Hollies fans down the middle as some loved it and others like me, loathed it. One of the problems was, The Hollies were a fine rock band but during the 1980's became over-reliant on keyboards... unfortunately they stuck to that sound so this had a very 80's feel about it and worse, Bobby Elliott's drum parts were more or less all sampled... he barely played any drums at all which is insane given what a fine drummer he is... so the album felt... sterile. Bobby also did much promotion hailing this as the bands best ever album which given their catalogue and pedigree is most definitely not the case. I remember getting this and being rather excited to finally get to listen to it only to find myself listening to something so bland it angered me and I swiftly got rid of it. The Hollies tour to this day and remain a popular live draw still able to sell out shows and Howarth has grown on some fans but sadly, as much as I've tried, he completely lacks personality and command and I cringe at the many YouTube clips of them live in action. Sure, they may still be able to do those harmonies but it simply isn't the same.
biffbampow 12th May 2015		CD Album Marc Bolan And T. Rex - The Alternate Takes Of Classical Hits (1999)	I do recall these came out in the UK - or some variant of them - one of my pals who was a huge Bolan freak bought one since he was a completist and he was scathing in his opinion of it. He put on one track for me and after the first chorus (can't remember nor care which song it was) I told him I'd heard more than enough... we then spent the next hour having a long discussion wondering how on Earth Bolan's legacy and music kept getting f*ed over in such senseless ways. You just don't fk about with music like this and unfortunately Marc's music has been tampered with a little too often for comfort.
biffbampow 24th Mar 2015		CD Album Cracktown - Songs In The Key Of Fuck Off (2003)	Any band or act these days that covers songs by Phil Ochs definitely have something endearing about them... good taste being one!