Reviews

Weekly Reviews For February 4th, 2007

Review Index

I am Managing Editor at Metal4Life

I also contribute reviews to getreadytorock

I am also featured reviewer at spacerock.co.uk

I was Editor & reviewer at MetalUK.

New Reviews

Myrol - Myrol


If you find yourself in the mood for something a little rootsy, then may I point you in the direction of Canadian mother / daughter duo, Myrol, comprising Joanne and Hayley Myrol.

Although this is their debut release, Joanne has a solo album to her name, "Dance The Rodeo Round". And this CD is pretty much hers as well, what with her having solo writing credits on the vast majority of the eleven tracks and taking care of the lead vocals.

But when the harmony vocals kick in they are an absolute delight to listen to. Like all the best music, it's hard to categorise, taking in elements of folk, country and bluegrass, leading to the Canadian Juno music awards calling them "Fusion Country". Myrol come from a long line of prairie farmers and, in common with other Canadian roots artists, engender a feeling of wide open spaces in their music. The songs themselves flit between storytelling and self revealing, although it's the former that takes my fancy most. The vignette that is "Southrailway & Second Street" being a splendid example of the storytelling art.

However, wherever you look there are songs that grab you where it hurts like "Somewhere Inside" and "Paper Thin Walls". Only "Quintessential Cowboy" lets the side down as it teeters on the wrong side of twee.

Mad Staring Eyes - Walking In The Streets

If you got to a gig early last year, chances are you'll have heard Mad Staring Eyes, as they toured with the Guillemots (hurrah), The Automatic (boo), The Fratellis (hurrah), The Subways (boo) and just about anyone else with a definitive article.

And this is a very good tune, urgent without being frenetic, melodic without being mawkish, and spiky enough to give the student hordes summat to hold onto. Promising, veeerry promising

Kev Carmody - Mirrors

Sometimes records are just plain odd. What on earth possessed Kev Carmody to follow Dylanesque opening track "Dirty Dollar" and it's folk protest with a left field electronic trance mash up in the shape of "Are You Connected?". Then we're off into a sweet sounding, seventies acoustic slice of West Coast, with "Moonstruck".

Then it's time for a slice of world dub on "Refugees" before a spirited Ghost Riders style rant against the President of the United States of America on "Dubya Love Ya?" I've always suspected there was a good reason for Australia being at the scrag end of the planet, and madness like this is as good as any.

Kev is a man listening to the beat of his own drum while playing a hacksaw (yes, really) and railing against the injutices of the world through whatever medium he sees fit. If Bob Dylan had grown up dropping E instead of acid, he might have ended up like this. If that sounds like the kind of thing that tickles your fancy, then best of luck. You'll ned that to go with your medication.

Jam Camp - Live

I got a tad over excited when I clapped ears on the last Jam Camp album "Black Hills Jam", wittering on about how 'it's as if the Allman Brothers Band got together with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and had themselves a little jamming baby'. I really did say that, so when this popped through the letterbox I promised myself I wasn't going to skip around like a little girl. No, I was going to be a proper, bewhiskered grown up reviewer. I would speak of minor chords and flanges.

But, there I was, half way through opening number "Echologic", and the neighbours were at the door asking why I had an elephant running amok in the house. I explained it was me skipping like a little girl, something which suddenly made them wish their initial elephant theory had proven correct.

For this is music that makes the heart sing out as an array of accomplished musicians set out to explore just what they're capable of. And Jam Camp can sit proudly at the top table with the finest jam bands with their heads held high.

Unusually, the saxophone is lead instrument alongside the guitar which means that just when you think a tune like "Westside Highway" has gone as far as it can, along comes the sax to blow it even further. I don't like to play favourites with my adopted children, but if you promise not to tell, then it's probably the more reflective "Paper Walls".

Blueganu - Running With The Herd

When it's good, it's very good, but there is a but. When album opener "Numb All Over" kicks in, one part shuffle and one part Fabulous Thunderbirds, it leaves me all geared up for a rare treat.

But when it's followed by the countrified blues of "Penny For Your Thoughts", I'm left flat as a pancake. Then they get all funkified on "Take Me Back To Memphis", and I'm high as a kite again. Then the downbeat "Driving Rain" arrives to take my spirit with it. You'll be getting the picture by now!

Now I don't want you to think this album isn't worthy of your attention, because it is. It just so happens it had me up and down like a fiddlers elbow. They may just be trying to fit in too much, from boogie shuffles to straight country, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of ambition.

Al "Coffee" McDaniel - A Shoe Is A Shoe

I don't approve of double albums. They're scary, and usually a result of poor editing. But I'm making an exception for Floridian bluesman Al "Coffee" McDaniel. For there are only seventeen songs here, easily fitted onto a single CD. No, Al has your best interests here, and has rather nicely split the album into a blues disc and a soul disc. So, whatever your mood, you know exactly where to go.

The blues disc is a wee cracker, conjuring up Freddie King and, maybe, Joe Louis Walker. Al has a rough and ready voice which takes hold of the original material like "Every Now And Then" and "Ever Since I Met You", and gives it a good shaking. He also wields a mean guitar, and there are some sparkling blues runs and solos on a thoroughly enjoyable disc.

Over onto disc two and it's time for Al to turn soul man. And if this were 1985, then it would be just fine. The songs are good, but there is some horrendous keyboard work at play. A few songs escape the curse with "You Be You" and the funky "Your Return" the best of the bunch.

There's no doubting Al is a talented man. He's maybe just spread himself a bit thinly here. But the blues half is a delight and Al is also giving a buck from every CD sold to the Breast Cancer Foundation.

JoJo - Too Little Too Late

The PR bumph is at pains to point out that 2 years have passed since JoJo had her break out hit with "Leave (Get Out)", which led on to a playinum album in the UK, and that grown up JoJo is back woth another smash! That would be 13 year old JoJo who is now all of 15. If that's grown up, then God help the rest of us.

Anyway, this is actually a cracking slice of pop r'n'b, nearly but not quite as good as her debut. An insistent hook and a swirling melody which, despite never actually getting out of mid tempo mode, still manages to give you the urge to shake a tail feather out on the dance floor. Or whatever it is the kids are doing these days. The album has dragged in Scott Storch and Timbaland amongst others to produce, which means it will be either brilliant, or a mish mash of half baked ideas. Here's hoping the former.