CD Albums - Reviews by JPGR&B

CD Albums - Reviews by JPGR&B

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
JPGR&B SUBS 17th Aug 2023		CD Album The Fraternal Order Of The All [Andrew Gold] - Greetings From Planet Love (2023)	Review Review by Phil Aston. [YouTube Video] ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 20th Jul 2020		CD Album Rumer - Nashville Tears (2020)	Review Review by Nicholas John from RnR Volume 2 Issue 82 July/August 2020. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 20th Jul 2020		CD Album Rumer - Nashville Tears (2020)	Review Review by Nicholas John from RnR Volume 2 Issue 82 July/August 2020. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 27th May 2020		CD Album Rumer - Nashville Tears (2020)	Review Review by Alan Cackett, former editor of Maverick magazine and 47th Member of the British Country Music Hall of Fame. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 27th May 2020		CD Album Rumer - Nashville Tears (2020)	Review Review by Alan Cackett, former editor of Maverick magazine and 47th Member of the British Country Music Hall of Fame. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 6th Feb 2020		CD Album L.E.O. - Alpacas Orgling (2006)	Review From AllMusic: Review by Stewart Mason Alpacas Orgling is the sort of record that drives people who dislike the contemporary power pop underground scene absolutely out of their heads with rage. If those three letters look familiar, that's entirely by design: LEO is an unabashed re-creation of the sound of vintage late-'70s Electric Light Orchestra on an indie rock budget. The album's mastermind is Boston-based power popper Bleu McAuley, with key contributions from Mike Viola (formerly of the Candy Butchers), Papas Fritas' Tony Goddess, Andy Sturmer of Jellyfish and members of Hanson, Chicago (!!) and Self. The ELO lifts are subtle but unmistakable, with direct nods to tunes like Telephone Line and Mr. Blue Sky mixed in with bits that cleverly nod to Jeff Lynne's creamy pure pop goodness without actively ripping him off. It could possibly be the most clever album-length evocation of an established band's sound since the Rutles. "But that's all it is, right?" sneer the non-believers. "It's nothing but a baldfaced ripoff of the sainted Jeff Lynne, and with a silly album title besides!" Well, there's little defending the goofy album title other than the fact that it's fun to say, but here's the thing: Alpacas Orgling knocks McAuley's polite, pedestrian solo albums into a cocked hat. In fact, with the possible exception of Papas Fritas' unjustly overlooked second album, Helioself, a lost indie pop treasure of the late '90s, Alpacas Orgling is the single best album any of its major participants have ever taken part in. And yes, that includes the hugely overrated Jellyfish, a band much more interesting in concept than in practice. Given the self-limiting task of channeling their own pop sensibilities through those of an earlier generation of craftsmen causes all concerned to step up their game: the songs are gorgeously arranged, with instantly memorable melodies and lyrics generally far less pretentious than the sort of claptrap Jeff Lynne himself often came up with. Of course, the most logical next step is for McAuley, Viola and company to take the lessons learned from this project back to their primary careers, but as long as one is clear on the album's artistic intentions and is willing to approach this kind of wholesale imitation on its own playful level, this is an album any true lover of '70s AM radio pop fluff should treasure. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 6th Feb 2020		CD Album L.E.O. - Alpacas Orgling (2006)	Review Extract from PowerPopAholic: 4 October 2006 L.E.O. (Bleu) "Alpacas Orgling" This is basically a Jeff Lynne lovefest by a huge group of accomplished Power Pop artists, like Andy Sturmer (Jellyfish) and Mike Viola (The Candy Butchers). This entire recording was a labor of love by Bleu McAuley (Bleu), who did most of the heavy lifting here. I swear you will hear every single Electric Light Orchestra production technique crammed into these songs. Distracted is the big single and my favorite tune. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 6th Feb 2020		CD Album Cupid's Carnival - Everything Is Love (2016)	Review From I Don't Hear A Single: Sunday, 9 April 2017 The Garden Of Earthly Delights Cupid's Carnival - Everything Is Love Although the album's cover might lead you to expect some Psych Pop, Everything Is Love is very much Beatlesque and when it's not, it's very much in that late 60s melodic pop that we know and love. Cupid's Carnival used to be Cherrystone who released the excellent Our Life in 2008, although London based, the sound hails from further North. Girl with its George Harrison-like slide is so Beatles, I Was The Boy and Summertime are Badfinger to a tee. Sunny Days is an ELO pastiche, a sort of Mr Blue Sky II, very much in L.E.O. territory. There's even a cover of A Whiter Shade Of Pale with Matthew Fisher on Hammond Organ. Edison Lighthouse, Christie and some of the better mid 70's Pop Rock bands spring readily to mind, the whole album is a blast. The Right Time is perhaps a bit too Oasis for my liking, but Everything Is Love is great Summer Pop. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 19th Jan 2019		CD Album Matt Owens - Whiskey And Orchids (2019)	Review From CDbaby: Early 2019 will see the release of Matt’s debut solo album. It is an album that oozes Americana with its campfire storytelling told mainly on acoustic guitar and piano, reflecting the songwriting skills of some of Matt’s favourite artists Ryan Adams, Jason Isbell and Warren Zevon. Guest appearances include Thea Gilmore, Rob Vincent, Michael Blair and Paul Beavis. Acclaimed musician and producer Nigel Stonier (Thea Gilmore, Joan Baez, The Waterboys) has produced the album. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 19th Jan 2019		CD Album Matt Owens - Whiskey And Orchids (2019)	Review Review from Fatea Magazine, 8 January 2109. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 10th Jan 2019		CD Album The Beatles - Live At The Star-Club: The Executive Version (2018)	Review A review, dated 4 December 2018, from Collectors Music Reviews. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 12th Dec 2018		CD Album Rumer - Boys Don't Cry (2012)	Review On Boys Don’t Cry, the follow-up to her million-selling 2010 debut Seasons of My Soul, Rumer has recorded versions of tracks written by men in the 1970s. It doesn’t quite have the subversive qualities that Tori Amos’ similarly themed 2001 album Strange Little Girls had – with the possible exception of her take on Neil Young’s A Man Needs a Maid, where the sense and meaning of the original are somewhat altered by its being performed by a woman in 2012. Often, with its covers of songs by Todd Rundgren, Hall & Oates, Stephen Bishop, Paul Williams, Clifford T Ward, Gilbert O’Sullivan and Jimmy Webb, Boys Don't Cry feels like Rumer’s deep immersion in the pantheon of arcane US and UK MOR rock prompted her to construct an alternative canon of commercial tunesmiths requiring critical rehabilitation. In almost every instance she inhabits the songs to such an extent that they feel like her own compositions, even when the titles at first seem inappropriate. Williams’ Travelin’ Boy is one of two tracks here by a songwriter formerly covered by Karen Carpenter, whose voice Rumer’s resembles to an uncanny degree. Not for nothing did she recently receive the approbation of Richard Carpenter to go along with her plaudits from Elton John and Burt Bacharach. The object of the project was, she says, to make a record that described the solace and anguish she’s experienced since achieving success and fame. Hence all the songs – including Travelin’ Boy, Ward’s Home Thoughts From Abroad and Flyin' Shoes by Townes Van Zandt – about rootlessness and longing to be home. It goes without saying that Rumer’s performances are uniformly technically flawless and models of restraint. Boys Don't Cry works superbly as a companion piece to Seasons..., the harmonic richness of the music and lush chord sequences showing exactly where her allegiances lie: Be Nice to Me is Rumer doing Rundgren doing Laura Nyro doing Bacharach, and Travelin' Boy suggests an album’s worth of collaborations with the composer of Rainy Days and Mondays would be no bad thing. Boys Don’t Cry posits Rumer as a throwback, albeit a glorious one, to a bygone era, when the songwriting verities of the Brill Building were transposed to LA’s Laurel Canyon. Fabulous stuff. Reviewer: Louis Pattison, BBC 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 11th Dec 2018		CD Album Los Pacaminos - The Early Years (2016)	Review Check out this review. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 11th Dec 2018		CD Album Los Pacaminos - ¡Viva! Los Pacaminos Live (2018)	Review Various reviews. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 17th Feb 2018		CD Album Flyte - The Loved Ones (2017)	Review A crafted, finely honed, and hugely impressive debut... Read this review by Lewis Lister at clashmusic.com from 25 August 2017. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 28th Jan 2017		CD Album Rumer - Seasons Of My Soul (2010)	Review BBC Review ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 23rd Nov 2016		CD Album Rumer - This Girl's In Love: A Bacharach And David Songbook (2016)	Review A review by Ludovic Hunter-Tilney in (British newspaper) the Financial Times. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 23rd Nov 2016		CD Album Rumer - This Girl's In Love: A Bacharach And David Songbook (2016)	Review Rumer expertly cuddles Bacharach & David catalog - a review from (British newspaper) the Daily Mail. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 23rd Nov 2016		CD Album Rumer - This Girl's In Love: A Bacharach And David Songbook (2016)	Review A review by Liz Thomson at theartsdesk.com. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 23rd Nov 2016		CD Album Rumer - This Girl's In Love: A Bacharach And David Songbook (2016)	Review A review by Francesca D'Arcy-Orga at drownedinsound.com. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 6th Mar 2016		CD Album Gilbert O'Sullivan - Latin Ala G! (2015)	Review As a teenager in the 70s I bought several Gilbert O'Sullivan singles but never an album. The years have passed and I have never followed Gilbert's career, but my interest in him was awakened by the recent heavy rotation on Radio 2 of his [digital] single No Way. I've always liked songs with a Latin American / Spanish Guitar feel to them so I thought I would take a chance with the album. And what a surprise! All songs written by Gilbert O'Sullivan, and an album full of great melodies in a Latin style - one that I know I shall listen to over and over. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 7th Nov 2015		CD Album Michael Carpenter - Baby (2000)	Review Great Australian power pop. If you like The Beach Boys, The Beatles and The Raspberries, check out Michael Carpenter. ✔︎ Helpful Review?