CD Albums - Reviews by Juke Jules

CD Albums - Reviews by Juke Jules

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
Juke Jules SUBS 27th Nov 2024		CD Album Wanda Robinson - The Soul-Jazz Poetry Of Wanda Robinson: The Perception Sessions (2000)	Review Wanda Robinson usually combines her poetry with jazz except on John Harvey's Blues which is spoken unaccompanied. All poems are excerpts from her book "The Daze of Wine...Without Roses". The Meeting Place, and all tracks from Tragedy to The Final Hour, form a segue of deep tragic thoughts about the despair she has felt in her own life. In these she is accompanied by 'The United Chair', Julius Brockington organ, piano and synth, Ralph Fischer percussion, Steve Turner alto and flute, Garry Langston guitar, Jim Wilson trumpet, and Marcell Turner bass and tambourine. [YouTube Video] 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 14th Apr 2024		CD Album Vernon Building Society (Poynton) Brass Band - Together At Christmas (2006)	Review This album is a credit to Poynton Brass Band and its director Alan Lawton. One number that caught my ear in particular was Praise Ye The Lord, which is an arrangement, Carol 66, taken from the Salvation Army 1994 carol book "New Christmas Praise", of the hymn Hail, Smiling Morn, composed by Reginald Spofforth. You can find some good examples on YT of this being performed by various brass bands. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 5th Nov 2023		CD Album 9Bach - Anian (2016)	Review Rather strange coupling; CD1 is fully Welsh-language 'Breakbeat/Electro', with vocals and piano by Lisa Jên with guitars, bass, drums, harp and hammer dulcimer, while the 'companion' CD is English narrative, as explained in the booklet. I note that Real World divides their output into global regions, with UK CDs designated as 'Europe' - see realworldrecords.com/artists, but as they are catering to the WOMAD audience, they are all effectively 'International' releases. [YouTube Video][YouTube Video] [YouTube Video] 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 5th Oct 2023		CD Album Johnny Hallyday - Cadillac (2010)	Review Playright 1989 but copyright 2010 suggests that the tracks date from 1989 when Hallyday was 46. Nine of the ten tracks are hard rockin' numbers, and the brief "Testament D'un Poète" is a romantic ballad with orchestral backing. The title track seems to have a different, or an additional bassist: Phil Soussan may have been bassist on this set, but the fretless bass on Cadillac sounds so like Pino Palladino. [YouTube Video] The live version from a concert at Bercy in 1990 shows the bassist for a full second at 4:22, and he looks so like Palladino to me, while the brief appearance suggests there were contractual reasons not to shown more. This live version is identical to the album track, complete with some gorgeous BGVs, so I think the entire set was recorded live. [YouTube Video] The typical hard rock style can be heard on Possible En Moto, complete with instrumental motorcycle effect, Yves Sanna is credited as drummer for the set: [YouTube Video] "Si J'étais Moi" is a powerful ballad, and the duet seems to be with Vanessa Paradis, who by then would be 27: [YouTube Video] The orchestra on (Le) Testament D'un Poète was apparently the Symphonic Orchestra of Europe, conducted by Olivier Holt: [YouTube Video] Altogether a powerful and emotional set with Hallyday at his very best, ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 12th Mar 2023		CD Album Various Artists - Musiques Traditionelles (1988)	Review Mostly undifferentiated "Traditional African music", but the two "Old Women" tracks demonstrate a vocal virtuosity that transcends expectations [YouTube Video] ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 9th Jul 2022		CD Album Simon Mayor And Hilary James - When Summer Comes Again (2021)	Review Produced during the lockdown of 2020 and 2021, Simon and Hilary's new studio album - with a couple of live tracks for good measure - is a mix of English folk song, settings of English poetry, original instrumentals and poetry, all spiced with a little Tchaikovsky and JC Bach. This album is also available as a DIGITAL DOWNLOAD. (From the Acoustic Records website) The artists are new to me, but they have a Wikipedia page each, showing that they have been working for 45 years as multi-instrument players, vocalists, authors and artists. Their style is eclectic and based on the contemporary folk style, with rich production and multi-tracking. They also have the website mayorandjames.com [YouTube Video] 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 28th Jul 2021		CD Album Sons Of Butcher - Sons Of Butcher (2005)	Review Loved this from when it came out and first appeared on YT but hadn't seen a CD until now Canadian Heavy Metal parody band who feature butchery and mysoginy, liberally embellished with the F and S words At that time there was also a cartoon version of F The S in which the band are headlined to play at a local PTA sports day, and when they come on stage and launch into F The S all the parents and children are stupified with horror until the headmaster comes over and unplugs the PA whereupon there is a "Zzz" and silence is restored Please don't watch this if you are easily offended [YouTube Video] 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 19th Dec 2020		CD Album Jacob Collier - In My Room (2016)	Review Collier's first album was recorded, arranged, performed and produced in the small back room of his family home in Finchley, so the Beach Boys song had to be the title track of the album. Quote: "In My Room is the 2016 debut album of crackerjack arranger, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and Internet sensation Jacob Collier. Collier began uploading videos of multi-track solo performances -- often presented in a grid layout so that each vocal and instrumental take was visible -- as a 17-year-old in 2011. These performances, some of which approximate complex group a cappella, evolved over time to use a vocal harmonizer, part of the multi-media set-up he developed with MIT's Media Lab to enable solo, multi-track live performance. A key component of his sound, the device allows him to sing a pitch into a microphone and get simultaneous vocal harmony as dictated by the chords he plays on a keyboard, all on the fly. Fans of his videos will recognize his hyper a cappella take on the theme to The Flintstones that's included here. While Collier's done video renditions of "Isn't She Lovely" and "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing," Stevie Wonder is represented on the LP by a reverential, well-harmonized version of "You and I." Another cover is the title track, a likewise respectful version of the Beach Boys classic. "In My Room" is highlighted by an elegant jazz piano solo -- Collier's principal instrument -- though its persistent fluttering bassline may draw the most attention. Speaking of bass, funk is, perhaps surprisingly, a defining element of the album. The opener, "Woke Up Today," is a wildly funky kind of make-or-break track, especially for first-time listeners. It plays like a frenetic tour of Collier's music room and a demo of his studio skills. In general, the technical prowess on display on In My Room is impressive. However, listeners will find something more organic in nature in "Hideaway," an atmospheric wash of acoustic guitar and related stringed instruments, along with an udu-type drum and acoustic percussion, accordion, and, at its center, a refreshingly intimate, single vocal line. With Collier still a student at the Royal Academy of Music during the album's creation, one can only imagine what the young musical polymath's potential may hold in store. For now he now has, at the very least, a dazzling production reel of a debut..." [YouTube Video] 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 28th Nov 2020		CD Album Various Artists - Original Brit Pop (2008)	Review This is a strange album, not least because while none of the tracks are original 'hit' versions there are no details of where and when they were recorded. Some are live recordings, mostly in the later age of the artists, some seem to be by 'tribute' bands who have bought the rights to work under the name of the bands who had the hits. It starts with "Eric Burdon And The Animals" playing Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, and my natural instinct was to skip this old blues number as we know it so well with Alan Price on Hammond and Eric Burdon on fuzz guitar, but I got a surprise: it starts quietly with an etherial piano part, leaving you wondering who is the accomplished pianist. A hint of strings (synth) joins in, the pace remains very slow, and Burdon eventually joins in as a duet with the piano, singing as if struggling with his emotions. Then in comes the Hammond, joined by the drums. "If I seem edgy I just want you to know" is taken in a Blue-Beat style. Then comes a guitar break, played in the style of Eric Clapton, then back into Blue-Beat, leading up to a very slow ending. Total track length is 6:30 - I'd love to know where and when this was recorded. The Applejacks here have a singer in his later years. White Plains with My Girl however is on YouTube, from a 2009 album, though it doesn't sound like any of the 70s bands put together for the road by John Shakespeare [YouTube Video] The Troggs tracks sound like a tribute band playing through the repertoire, all except for "Black Bottom" which turns out to be the same track as released on a French 45, another terrific track with some unexpected humour! So don't buy this CD if you want to hear the original hits, but do buy it if want some interesting re-takes of the "Brit-pop" material. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 17th Nov 2020		CD Album Various Artists - Celtic Tradition (1996)	Review Behind the blurry Celtic knot on the front lies an unexpectedly fine collection of contemporary Irish Folk music, this being a sampler for 13 albums from the Tara label O'Farrell's Welcome To Limerick starts the compilation in thoroughly traditional style with Irish Pipes, Bodhran, guitars and synth drone [YouTube Video] The Deer's Cry is a thoroughly traditional setting of the old hymn Saint Patrick's Breastplate though newly composed by Shaun Davey for Granada Television [YouTube Video] The Gale is also a Shaun Davey composition, which introduces the album Brendan's Voyage in a symphonic contortion of the Irish-Trad style before sailing into a storm while the music grows unexpectedly modern-Classical and violent. The single track is not on YT but the whole of Brendan's Voyage is, beginning with The Gale [YouTube Video] Causeway is a fast violin reel accompanied by drums, Hammond and guitars which deconstructs into syncopation before joining up for a traditional ending [YouTube Video] This is an arbitrary choice from the many fine tracks on this compilation which will send me out searching for several of these Tara albums 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 30th Mar 2020		CD Album [no artist listed] - Little Blessings (2017)	Review The tracks are all popular hymn tunes set as instrumentals in a suitably soporific style by Steve Wingfield using keyboards for piano, xylophone and other instrumental parts, with plenty of tinkling cascades of bells. Close on two hours in total. Very soothing for adults too. Are they on YouTube? Yes and no, there are several Fisher Price lullaby videos, none with hymns but otherwise in exactly this style, with the same instrumentation, presumably also by Wingfield. This one is a single non-tune which repeats for two hours. [YouTube Video] 7 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 24th Dec 2019		CD Album Pentatonix - PTX Presents: Top Pop, Vol. 1 (2018)	Review Silky-smooth harmonies enlivened with restrained beat-boxing on this, the 6th album. No shortage of composer credits here! Havana is the best-known track of the album but my favourite is the relatively open sound of Stay [YouTube Video] 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 20th May 2019		CD Album Various Artists - Spring Harvest Praise Mix: Quatamala (1997)	Review Committed Christian rock, but not too in your face or Evangelistic, and so it should be acceptable also to confirmed agnostics, much in the style of Hooters Spring Harvest was set up as a charity, but from the Charity Commission website, they transferred all of its activities, including the running of the Spring Harvest Christian teaching event, to a new charity called Essential Christian on 31 December 2008 following the merger with International Christian Communications. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 19th Mar 2019		CD Album John Langstaff - Sing We Now Of Christmas: Six Centuries Of European Christmas Music (1991)	Review Langstaff is credited only as artistic director on this album, but he can be heard clearly singing in his clear baritone voice on several tracks. A large number of individual singers, instrumentalists, bellringers and conductors are credited in the notes, including those in the Revels Chorus, Youth Pro Musica, and Cambridge Symphonic Brass Ensemble. Carols and Christmas songs from Britain and France predominate, but there are examples from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Russia and Israel. Here is a lovely example from France, the pavane by dance collector and music publisher, Thoinot Arbeau [YouTube Video] 7 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 1st Mar 2019		CD Album Emily King - Scenery (2019)	Review Heard Can't Hold Me on the radio, ordered it pre-release, and when it came I thought "Remind Me, why did I buy this, it's twee and inconsequential", but by the time I'd listened through the album I had an understanding of what King is doing here. All the tracks are on YT and are in the same style. Can't Hold Me has the strongest hook line, and does everything I want in pop music, and Caliche is another strong track. [YouTube Video] 7 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 4th Jan 2019		CD Album Texas Radio Band - Baccta' Crackin' (2004)	Review The title track is a languid tale of love gone wrong: "I'm overloaded with emotion as I'm back to crackin'..." with the sort of slide guitar sound familiar from Ry Cooder (Paris, Texas) which I like to think may explain the band's name. Half the tracks are in Welsh, some are quiet with acoustic guitar, others are more full-band and rocking. The band website shown on the folder is accessible only on the Internet Archive, but there are brief details on cy.wikipedia which also links to the label. slacyr.co.uk likewise can only be found on the Archive and seems to be related to the Eisteddfod Tirwerfa introduces the album with brief snatches of radio-speech, concluding with the speeded-up tuning signal of Trans World Radio which could be heard strongly in the 60s from the powerful Bonaire transmitter. Chwaraeon is full-on rockin' - I don't know what he's singing about but the video shows the typical adolescent preoccupation: [YouTube Video] 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 28th Nov 2018		CD Album John Paul II - Abbà Pater (1999)	Review This is a record in three languages, with titles and texts in Italian, English and French in the booklet. The 'Good Father' of the title, Pope John Paul II, speaks mostly in Italian, to soothing musical backing, but also in English on some tracks. The use of English for the credits page of the booklet persuades me that it was an 'International' release. The title track (4) [YouTube Video] 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 20th Oct 2018		CD Album Christine And The Queens - Chris (2018)	Review In the past 8 years or so, Chris (Héloïse Letissier) has had a meteoric rise to fame, accompanied by her (Drag) Queens. She appeared on British TV for the massively popular New Year's Eve show of 2016/17 compèred by Jools Holland. She has worked with producer Nile Rogers and she credits herself as producer on "Chris", but the Rogers influence is writ large throughout. The same feel is maintained through all the tracks, but "Girlfriend" and "What's-her-face" have rather more intensity than most of the numbers. Girlfriend is the radio hit, and like most of the tracks is offered here in both English and French versions, recorded to the same instrumental and FX tracks. Chris is also experienced in dance, and it is worth looking on YouTube for some of the choreographed videos from this album. "Girlfriend" is quite my favourite number in either language: this video has the exact track from the album, while the dance videos add some Foley effects. [YouTube Video] 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 10th Aug 2018		CD Album Klaus Nomi - Encore! (1984)	Review Composer typos: Schmuan aka Robert Schumann, Lou Cristy, Herbert better known as Lou Christie, Twiler Herbert Klaus has a magnificent counter-tenor voice, which he sometimes uses to good effect on his pop tracks. For his operatic and classical tracks he makes me think uncomfortably of Florence Foster Jenkins. I think he could have perfected a fine technique if he had devoted himself to a period of study and tuition, but his prime motivation was one of flamboyant theatricality. You Don't Own Me is a good track for a video, not least because Lesley Gore eventually came out as LGBT, and has said she first became aware of her wishes about the time the song was a hit. Note that Klaus starts "You don't know me, I'm not just one of your little toys" [YouTube Video] 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 29th Jun 2018		CD Album Beverley Martyn - The Phoenix And The Turtle (2014)	Review Before getting together with John Martyn, Beverley Kutner had recorded as just Beverley, giving us the lasting treasure of "Happy New Year", so when, almost a half-century later she records a solo album comparisons are inevitable. The material here gets off to a good start with Reckless Jane which she had previously performed with Nick Drake. Drake is uncredited on this album but his compositional style is in evidence. "Levee Breaks" is, to me, the strongest composition here, and represents an acknowledgement of her first, student, band The Levee Breakers. It is hard to define the genre of this, but maybe Country and Folk Blues. The guitar breaks are very powerful. [YouTube Video] 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 9th Apr 2018		CD Album Lonnie Mack - Second Sight (1986)	Review Lonnie Mack had taken a break from touring and frontline recording but emerged again in 1985. On this 1986 album he picks up some of the pieces, but also took a new, more reflective direction. Camp Washington Chili is basically a re-take on Lonnie On The Move and will appeal to the main body of his admirers. [YouTube Video] A Song I Haven't Sung is much more interesting: it keeps a hard Rock feel but by contrast is Christian Rock of the best kind, with thoughtful lyrics about his experience of revelation. I am delighted to find Lonnie's voice is as strong as it ever was [YouTube Video] 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 30th Sep 2017		CD Album The Jackson Five - 5 (1998)	Review Play this CD and the All Media Guide comes up with both this title and "The Steel Town Sessions" so it may have two releases on Bellevue. It sounds as though Joe Jackson had paid for a recording session to showcase his boys in a professional studio with session musicians. Little Michael, then aged ten, sounds at times quite appealing, and the others provided, at times. competent backing vocals. 'Big Boy' was their first released record, see 45cat, by comparison with which we find that Bellevue have faded the intro for no obvious reason. They had been performing My Girl for over two years before the session, probably two years longer than the session musicians, and they sing it well. Michael the Lover works well with the musicians enjoying it and quoting from my particular favourite here, The Tracks of My Tears which they do with a harp thrown in to the mix. The studio balance is noticeably unpolished, with some tracks lacking badly. Stormy Monday is quite dysfunctional, with someone banging on a bongo and glaring speed-change edits. Jam Session is a tuneless lively chant which could have been based on I Do by The Marvellos. Collectors of the group will find this a fascinating insight, and it gives them the four tracks from the Steeltown singles. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 10th Sep 2017		CD Album Miró - The Grain Of The Voice (1992)	Review Pleasant acoustic folky style with a philosophical approach to love songs [YouTube Video] Track 13, not shown on the rear cover, has 2 minutes of silence leading into a minute of violin and cello duet 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 29th Jun 2017		CD Album Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh - Ar Uair Bhig An Lae · The Small Hours (2013)	Review A contemporary continuation of the Irish Folksong tradition, accompanied by traditional and contemporary instruments as shown on the credits. Muireann introduces herself on one YT video and her name sounds, to English ears, like Maureen Nic'Auleaf No Catalogue No. is shown; the disc is etched with 34781 Another Day is a wistful tale set to a rollicking tune, and is the only track at present on YT - it would be good to find a video for The Bold Fenian Men too [YouTube Video] 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 4th Jun 2017		CD Album Gráinne Holland - Teanga Na NGael (2011)	Review Gráinne Holland comes from Belfast and sings in Irish Gaelic, singing songs from the Irish, Scots and Manx traditions. The songs here are romantic, bucolic, political - everything you want of a contemporary folk tradition [YouTube Video] 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 30th Apr 2017		CD Album Fredrik Forsberg - Welt Als Wille Und Fiktion (2012)	Review I rather like Ein einziges Mal with its allusions to Strawberry Fields Forever. It would have been interesting to see some musician credits but there are none. Forsberg seems to have put all the tracks on YT but made them all 'private', but this lively rocker escaped: Gib alles [YouTube Video] 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 24th Apr 2017		CD Album Various Artists - Neuklang Kirchenlied: Bearbeitung Deutscher Kirchenlieder (2007)	Review New versions of German hymns: the title is appealing but the degree of restructuring of the hymns is unexpected. Most tracks are in the industrial/metal rock style The track by Workshop is on YT and gives a flavour of the compilation: Lord, give me courage to build bridges [YouTube Video] 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 11th Apr 2017		CD Album Perry Como - Juke Box Baby (2005)	Review A compilation of Perry Como's tracks dating from 1945 to 1962. Looking at some of the track titles you could be forgiven for thinking that Como started out in his solo career by singing blues and rock'n'roll, but listening to them will belie that idea: he had come out of the dance-band era and continued in that style of singing, not quite a crooner but a smooth singer and sophisticated performer. The first-recorded of this set came only a few weeks after the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the lyrics sound what we would now call a little 'Trump-ish', but everything thereafter upheld the safe family values for which Como became so respected. The title track was released in 1956 as the B-side to Hot Diggity, with the Ray Charles Singers providing the vocal backing: I presume it is the Ray Charles Singers who appear in this video with Perry, lip-syncing to the record: [YouTube Video] 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 31st Jul 2016		CD Album Eg - Adventure Man (2009)	Review Over a decade after Turn Me On I'm A Rocket Man, this album is full of the kind of thoughtful songs that have made White such a successful writer of hits for other singers. I particularly like My People, Broken, If You Run and Pull Me Through [YouTube Video] 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Juke Jules SUBS 19th Jun 2016		CD Album Susanna And The Magical Orchestra - Melody Mountain (2006)	Review Susanna Karolina Wallumrød and "Magical Orchestra" Morten Qvenild gently deconstruct several popular hits. Hallelujah rests on the strength of Cohen's writing which barely survives this massively slowed version [YouTube Video] It's A Long Way To The Top is a long way from AC/DC but does get going rather splendidly [YouTube Video] She also does an imaginative re-interpretatiion of "Jolene" which you slowly begin to recognise only as the lyrics unfurl: unfortunately it is not on this album [YouTube Video] 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?

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