Rock Around the World

Green Day
Insomniac Reprise, NR

The sophomore effort defies the jinx. This is a very good album, drawing on the energy of the 70's that propelled the Clash, The Sex Pistols, and The Ramones.

Internet Listening Pleasure: Brat, Bab's Uvula Who?, Panic Song, Brain Stew, Jaded, Westbound Sign.
Rating:

AC/DC
Ballbreaker EastWest, NR

Rick Rubin is back to producing like he did on The Cult's Electric. I like the way Mike Fraser mixed this album...he's been getting a lot of work lately. AC/DC is like New Castle Brown, consistent flavor bottle to bottle. Nice brew on this album.
Burnin' Alive sounds like Leslie West and Mountain.

Internet Listening Pleasure: Burnin' Alive, Caught With Your Pants Down.
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In From The Storm
The Music Of Jimi Hendrix RCA Victor, NR

I've always felt that Jimi Hendrix was a one man orchestra that played in front of a formidable batterie that constituted his rhythm section. Hendrix was an Artist who wrote dreamy, often dramatic lyrics and elevated his words with singular guitar tones from a parallel universe somewhere. Hendrix had Mojo Hand and then some.

This project, headed by Producer/Engineer-legend Eddie Kramer, has captured the intention of placing Hendrix's music into an orchestral setting. For the better part, Kramer and a cast of extremely gifted musicians have pulled it off.

Like dropping an atom bomb on a small atoll in the ocean somewhere, not just any orchestra can handle Radioactive material dropped upon it. The London Metropolitan Orchestra and the Bootzilla Orchestra have done sterling work keeping the music Rocking while adding to the essence of Jimi's Vibe symphonically.

My impression of the orchestral arrangements by Michael Kamen, Joe Mardin, Nick Ingman, and Bernie Worrell are that they are dramatically reminiscent of soundtracks to Steve MacQueen and Clint Eastwood movies. Meaning, there is a strong nod to Lalo Schifrin, Elmer Bernstein, and Jerry Goldsmith in the orchestration. Listen to the strings in Spanish Castle Magic, for instance. Drifting, on the other hand has a sort of London Festival Orchestra/Moody Blues, Days of Future Past vibration, which is contemporary with Hendrix's mind set at the time since Are You Experienced and Days of Future Past both broke to the streets in 1967.

I've got to tell you that Hendrix was so DEEP that he probably could mentally transport himself to the bottom of the sea and visualize watching the sunrise from there. This album, if you're "like a child who's mind hasn't been handled too many times by man" (JMH) will thoroughly put you in touch with a part of Jimi's Depth. I listened to this album for three weeks before I could even begin to write about it.

The personnel assembled for this album are among the best in the business, although I would have found some way of including Robin Trower and Yngwie Malmsteen here and there.

Vocal appearances by Taj Mahal, Paul Rodgers, Buddy Miles, Brian May, Corey Glover, Doug Pinnick, and Sass Jordan were shrewdly chosen. The Howitzers gathered to handle rhythm section are some of the hardest hitters in the Biz. Tony Williams, Cozy Powell, Dennis Chambers, Tony Beard, Dave Abbruzzese, and Vinny Colaiuta keep time to the legacy of Miles & Mitchell. Bottom duty was shared by Stanley Clarke, Sting, Noel Redding, Bootsy Collins, Bob Daisley and Neil Murray.

Electric Guitar on this album has got to be one of the greatest assemblies on a single album in terms of sheer Fire Power. Carlos Santana forsakes his trusty Paul Reed Smith for a Fender Strat...Only Jimi could make him do that. Steve Vai leaves his Ibanez signature behind in favor of a Fender Strat...Hiram Bullock plays a beat up Fender Strat. Steve Lukather, one of the most under rated Monsters of the Electric Guitar, plays an Ernie Ball Music Man, which is a souped up Strat, really. Brian May plays his Fireplace guitar and really lets it rip on One Rainy Wish.

Sentimentally, my favorite tune on this album is Rainy Day, Dream Away, because of Robben Ford's faithful Cry Baby work and Mike Finnegan's essential B-3, which he also played on the original cut.

Internet Listening Pleasure: Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland); Rainy Day, Dream Away; Spanish Castle Magic, Drifting, Bold As Love, Purple Haze, One Rainy Wish.
Rating: Third Stone From the Sun

The Smashing Pumpkins
Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness Virgin, NR

Lots of Ear Candy for your head. This album is gonna run for a while, since it contains lots of cuts for airplay. Lots of material for the avid listener to discover on this one.

Internet Listening Pleasure: Jelly Belly, Zero, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, An Ode To NoOne, Cupid De Locke, Muzzle, Thirty-Three, Thru The Eyes of Ruby, X.Y.U., We Only Come Out at Night, Beautiful, By Starlight.
Rating:

Tripping Daisy
I Am An Elastic Firecracker Island, NR
I asked for this album in August, and I'm just getting it now...

Internet Listening Pleasure: Trip Along, Raindrop
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Seven Mary Three
American Standard Mammoth/Atlantic, NR

Internet Listening Pleasure: Cumbersome, Headstrong, Margaret, Favorite Dog
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Oasis Epic. NR
What's The Story, Morning Glory?.

This is pleasant music good for when you have to sit down and write checks for bills that have piled up for a month, or so. It kind of helps cut down the pain of watching all those eagles fly away from you. Or, better yet, this album is excellent for a real good cup of coffee at The Kings Road Cafe.
Internet Listening Pleasure: Wonderwall, Don't Look Back In Anger, Some Might Say, Cast No Shadow, Champagne Supernova

Tears For Fears Epic. NR
Raoul And The Kings of Spain.

I remember when Songs From The Big Chair struck my ears for the first time. That rich, crisp, lush tone has carried over to this album.
I suggest you listen to this album when you have someone over for dinner and you're preparing it in front of them.
If it's pasta, by the time the sauce is ready, you'll find you've already had dessert.
Internet Listening Pleasure: God's Mistake, Sketches of Pain, Los Reyes Catolicos, Humdrum and Humble, I Choose You, Me and My Big Ideas.

Korn Epic. NR
Korn.

Internet Listening Pleasure: Ball Tongue, Divine, Shoots and Ladders, Fake.

The Songs of West Side Story RCA Victor. NR

Every New Yorker is expected to be familiar with West Side Story, the classic-modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set in the area that now defines Lincoln Center. This album has music for everyone.
My favorite cuts are Chick Corea's Prelude To The Rumble, and The Rumble, which pits Corea's Elektrik Band against Steve Vai's Monsters- which is kind of a modified version of Los Lobotomies, a powerful L.A. band that I have not heard in a while.
When Corea establishes his musical territory, the sound is full stereo, as it is for Steve Vai.
Only when the two bands are at war do your ears get the treat of hard panning to the left or right, depending on which band is playing. Solo battle highlights include a short percussive duel between Lenny Castro and Joe Porcaro, an interesting drum war between Simon Phillips and Dave Weckl, and, of course, the dexterity of Steve Vai and Chick Corea trying to cut each other with different instruments.
Look for this album to break to the street on January 30th.
Internet Listening Pleasure: Something's Coming, The Jet Song, I Have A Love, Prelude To The Rumble, The Rumble, Somewhere.