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Multi-Platinum Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Sammy Hagar aka "The Red Rocker" will release his eleventh solo album, Cosmic Universal Fashion, on November 18th via Loud & Proud / Roadrunner Records. At times this album will bring you back to the earlier "Van Hagar" stuff we were used to in the eighties. I´m not talking about the singles, just mainly the songs that weren’t used as singles from that era.
Hagar definitely strikes a resemblance to those Halen guitar tones at some points in this record and also climbing a genre of his own solo material as well. The title track and first single, Cosmic Universal Fashion, was written in an online collaboration between Hagar and a young Iraqi band in Baghdad, with the music video produced in the same spirit as the classic Van Halen video for "Right Now." The vocals on the record do not sound anything like Van Halen, so don’t get your panties in a bunch, this is not a revisist to the Van Halen days. Think of it as Sammy Hagar in 2008 loving what he is doing and releasing good music (not great) but good overall music that we can all enjoy. The album also features a rousing cover of the Beastie Boys´ (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party). Why? I´m not really sure but the man does love to party! A new version of the Van Halen tune Dreams named Dreams/Cabo is also featured on the album which is a pure delight. Former Guns N´ Roses drummer and current Velvet Revolver drummer are featured on the song LOUD, along with The Cult´s Billy Duffy.
Hagar has led a storied three-decade career that has established him as one of America´s most beloved hard rockers, selling over 20 million albums and winning two Grammys. From his trailblazing early work with Montrose, to his prolific and popular solo career, his massively successful time with Van Halen, and currently as front man for his band Sammy Hagar. I honestly expected more but this is a decent record with some good qualities to it. Looking forward to his next Led Zeppelin sounding project Chickenfoot with Michael Anthony, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and guitarist Joe Satriani. |
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Released in 1979 Street Machine is Sammy Hagar's fifth solo studio release for Capitol Records, The recording is tight, thanks to essential backup members Bill Church (bass), Chuck Ruff (drums), and, last but, certainly not least, Gary Pihl on guitar, and for the first time Sammy had control over the whole production. "Street Machine" is filled with good songs like the fantastic "Child To A Man", the first single "Plain Jane", "Growing Pains", "Feel Like Love", the rocker Planets On Fire with the classic guitar-riff and the lovely ballad "Falling In Love". (And then I havent mentioned the bonus track "Ive Done Everything For You" which is awesome AOR.) But I must admit that there are also material on "Street Machine" that doesn't sit on the same high level in the songwriting that Hagar spoiled us with during his Capitol-era. Perhaps some of you readers will "kill" me for this, but I think it's a pity to hear boring tunes like "Trans Am (Higway Wonderland)", "Woman In Love" and the boogie woogie-track "Straight To The Top" on the album. They don't give me nothing. But Sammy sings as good as always and that means world class and the main part of the songs on the album are more or less awesome, so don't get me wrong here... The album is of course worth buying because Hagar was unique back then combining AOR with the more classic early 70's rock-sound.
The collection contains extensive liner notes, photos and bonus tracks from a 1979 non-album single, "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay" and "I've Done Everything For You". And The track "Falling In Love" features backing vocals by Brad Delp, Barry Goudreau, and Sib Hashian of the group Boston. |
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Shane Harper is an American actor, singer-songwriter, and dancer. He is best known for his role as Spencer Walsh in the Disney Channel sitcom Good Luck Charlie. A talented guy, in other words, which also has his target audience in the lower age groups. You can really hear that on this debut, which is as a radio-friendly trip with playful pop in a lightweight format. Personally think it is catchy, but too impersonal and produced for my taste.
Tracks like "One Step Closer" and "Rocketship" is good pop in true spirit of Jason Mraz, but overall is this album one you easily forget.
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Vancouver based singer/songwriter Stephen Hedley takes the listener on a journey through indie pop land with a 70´s soulpop flavor.
He can carry the songs alone with just his voice, it´s remarkable how good this man sings.
Some singers just has it and Stephen Hedley´s voice sound warm and natural, like he´s never had to practice to get this good - I bet he sounded like this when he was a new born.
My thoughts go to artists like Daryl Hall, Andy Stochansky, Tal Bachman and David Usher when I listen to his full length album "Scenes".
The songs are filled with intelligent melodies, great lyrics, pro-musicianship and a wonderful falsetto on top of it all.
Highlights: Unlike another, Scenes, Go about things |
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| Ted Hovis sits on a really good voice and the album starts out with a great soft modern rock-tune called "Let It Shine". I thought - geeh - here I'm gonna have a great hour in front of me with fine new music, but unfortunately the album doesn't keep up to the same class as the opening track. There are a couple of good tracks on here like the acoustic-based "Until It Fades" and "Foolish Pride". But there are also a bunch of songs in the vein of a "groovy" John Mayer sort of style that I doesn't think suites him as good as the rockier side. And that is a pity as the guy sits on a really good voice. |
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The Haunted is back with their brand new studio album entitled Unseen. It starts off with a furious tempo and the song Never Better. But overall this album has a lower tempo than the average Haunted album. I guess some of the hardcore fans will be displeased but I kind of like it. . The sound is quite similar to the latest albums by Soilwork and In Flames and if you like those bands you should like this album as well.
The vocal performance is really good and there is a lot of singing on these songs. Just listen to Motionless, there are hardly any growling on that song. This is the kind of song that you cannot ignore as a good song, if you like this kind of music. Other songs worth mentioning are No Ghost and the title track Unseen, really good songs! Sure there are some dips here and there but I can live with that when the good songs are as good as these are.
With all this said, if you like the old-school The Haunted with blistering thrash songs this album is not for you. However, f you like a good metal album this is very much for you. This is one of the best albums of the year so far. I will listen a lot to this album in the future. |
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The Illusion of Safety is the second album released by London synth/indie/new wave-pop band The Hoosiers.
The album is not as successful as the bands 2007 debut album, The Trick to Life, which peakead at #1 on the UK Album Charts. The Illusion of Safety only managed to debut at #10 on the UK Album Charts when it was released earlier this fall. But that doesn't matter for me cause I think this is a better album. It's filled with lovely synthbased atmospheric beautiful pop and if I should compare their music to you I would say that it is a mix between The Feeling's pop and the "atmospheric pop melancholia" from bands like Athlete. This is a damn good album and it will end up high on my top 25 list over 2010 years best albums. 4 really strong stars. Just listen to "Who Said Anything" and "Glorious" and you will agree. And that is just two songs... |
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Toby Hitchcock is the man, former Survivor founding member Jim Peterik chose to be the lead singer for his project Pride Of Lions, they have three studio albums under their belt. Now Toby is on his own and has released his first solo album. Mercury’s Down has been written and produced by Swedish Erik Martensson (Eclipse) , most known for his work with W.E.T which saw the return of singer Jeff Scott Soto to melodic rock/AOR.
Toby’s album sounds like a follow-up to the W.E.T album and its filled with well-crafted songs with big hooks, catchy choruses and plenty of fantastic melodies. Toby shows that he can even sing tougher rockers than Pride Of Lions had to offer and does it with bravura. Highlight on the album is the hook laden This Is The Moment with a classy chorus. The mid-tempo AOR-rocker Let Go is wonderful with stunning melodies. The ballad One Day I’ll Stop Loving You is huge with a powerful chorus with great harmonies. Summer Nights In Cabo is pure magic with great riffs mixed with lovely keyboard/piano sound in the background and the chorus is a winner.
Mercury’s Down ends the album in a fantastic way, this is an awesome rocker with big hooklines and a sing-a-long chorus, best song of the album. Erik Martensson has managed to come up with great bunch of songs in the same style as W.E.T, First Signal and Eclipse. Mercury’s Down don’t come up to the same level as W.E.T but not far away. So if you got those mentioned bands in your collection, then this is an MUST buy. |
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| Does anyone remember Tommy Henriksen? If you dont? Either havent you heard of him before or you have a weird melodic modern pop taste. His major label debut from 1999 is one of the best modern pop records in my collection and should be on all the melodic.net readers wanted lists after having been reading this. This second album was released in 2000 and I have totally missed it of any reason. Can you ever me Tommy? One good reason for having missed is that its released on the indie label ZuZu, but its no excuse. Cause this is almost as good as his Capital release. This is magnificent experimental pop in the higher grade with samples from India, The middle and hundred of other things. Add then crunchy guitars and the most important thing of it all, good melodies, and we have a new "must" album from this New Yorker. Remember also that he also has written all the song, produced, engineered and played all the instruments on this album. The opener "Radio Zoo" feels like a new "I see the sound" and is one of best on the album. But "Find forgiveness" and the fifth one which has sound very close to Bran Van 3000s "Drinking in La" are two other killer tracks. Buy this one his website or at amazon.com as soon as possible folks. Tommy rules!!!! |
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Missouri native Tracy Huffman moved to L.A and made music like Lynyrd Skynyrd jamming with Neil Young at Bob Dylan´s homestudio.
We´re talking bluesy folkrock with southern rock vibes and he´s got company by Kip Boardman on piano and background vocals.
In some moments I think Huffman´s songs lean more towards Tom Petty and Randy Newman while on other songs, he goes country and then falls back to the southern rock album "Ever notice a crow" mostly is.
This is not one of the best albums in the genre but it will certainly please fans of these artists. |
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| Trevor Hall is the musical son of 3 different fathers, Bob Marley, Sting and Paul Young. His new album "Everything Everytime Everywhere" gives the listener a huge dose of reggae but also a bit of street jazz, groovy pop and hip hop. The closest we get to the hip hop factor are the tracks "Fire" and "Dr Seuss" which both arereally cool, Trevor likes to take a musical trip to Jamaica with songs like "The return", "Different hunger" and "Good rain". The best stuff is ofcourse the Sting-like pop of "Brand new day" and "The love wouldnt die" that makes you wanna singalong in no time, I could bet a 1000 bucks that it was Pino Palladino on bass but it´s Brian Lang that has the same fretless sound like Pino on Paul Young´s records. A really bright sounding album. |
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| Matt Nathanson, John Mayer, Howie Day, Dave Barnes, John DeGrazio, Shane Nicolson, Rod Davies, Joe Firstman... the list is longer than that with new modern singer songwriters... and the whole damn bunch of them are more or less good... and yes there are more of them to come... And this guy I write about here is one of the absolute best Ive heard in the last twelve months... Good damn what a great album this is. Very good acoustic driven songs with TONS of refrains all over the eleven tracks. Not one percent of originality, but who the hell cares when it is this good. Listen to the first song out, "When It Comes" and get stunned. What a refrain! And the album just continues in the same strong way of being. Phew. There is an eclectic group of producers that includes Rick Parker (Joe Firstman, Miranda Lee Richards), Paul Fox (10,000 Maniacs, The Wallflowers), Geza X (Meredith Brooks, Black Flag) and Scott Austin (who doubles as Tylers A & R representative at Maverick) delivering their best to the result. Do yourself a favour and listen to this man and his album if you love modern singer songwriters like your belowed editor in chief does. As I said, Tyler Hinton has not one percent of originality, but when you hear a song like "Rollin Home" you wont give a shit about that. The album is one of the better Ive heard in the genre for a long time. A top 15 contender for the Winberg top 20-list over 2004 years best albums. Without a doubt. The album will be released the 17th of August. Be at your recordstore the same day. Heureka. |
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| Tyler Hilton released in 2004 a very fine album in ”The Tracks of Tyler Hilton” with a sound close to Howie Day, John Mayer and Dave Barnes. Then it was pretty quit around him until he last year (2009) released this digital Ep “Better on Beachwood“on Reprise Records. And this follows the debut with a smooth and very catchy pop/rock sound in a singer songwriter format. The opener "Tore the Line" is the highlight here and shows the best from Tyler and why he got signed. The follow ing "Don't Forget All Your Clothes" and "I Believe In You” are ok tunes, but not candidates for a full length album if you’ll ask me. Had higher expectations after a five absence, but he got probably more and better tunes when it comes to an album release. |
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Ladies & Gentlemen out on April 20, 2010 is the latest Ep from Tyler Hilton taken from his upcoming album “The Storms We Share". Wasn’t that impressed by the short 2009 Ep “Better on Beachwood”, but this one is a lot stronger and shows that the album will be very good. Is a bit surprised that he has gone away a bit from his Americana sound into a more U2 kind of style. The sound is much clearer than before and the production signed John Alagia (Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Lifehouse) and Matt Serletic (Matchbox Twenty, Collective Soul) is big and technical. Some might think that he have lost a bit of identity since this is very, very produced and totally perfect in its sound. But I dig a lot and think that the first three tunes here might be the best he has written so far in his career. “The Storms We Share" doesn’t have release date yet, but will be a very nice moment of pop/rock when it’s out for sure sometimes in 2010.
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There is small piece of sadness with the title of Tyler Hilton's new album "Forget The Storm". He released in 2004 the very nice debut “The tracks Of” , but got dropped after that from Maverick Records. He then got a well-deserved contract with Warner / Reprise and worked on a new album with producers John Alagia (Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Lifehouse) and Matt Serletic (Matchbox Twenty, Collective Soul). The title of was "The Storms We Share", so I guess that you can understand what happened with the album and that it’s really stuck at the label.
Very, very unfortunate since the Ep Ladies & Gentlemen was really good and the album certainly would had been just as good.
However, he is now back, and in an unexpected good shape. Had not really counted on that this independent album would sound so good as it with a very fitting production and a bunch of great tracks.
May not think that it comes up in the same level as the best from Reprise the Ep, but it's very well done and fans of contemporary singer / songwriter pop, should immediately check "Forget The Storm".
Highlights: Kicking My Heels, Prince Of Nothing Charming, I Belong
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Did you know that?
STING is partially deaf.
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latest reviews
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