BRYAN ADAMS - UNPLUGGED
Summer of 69
[4:23]6.7 Mb
Cuts Like A Knife
[5:14]8 Mb
I'm Ready
[4:38]7 Mb
Back to You
[4:27]6.5 Mb
Fits Ya Good
[3:22]5.2 Mb
When You Love Someone
[4:22]6.7 Mb
18 Till I Die
[3:37]5.7 Mb
I Think About You
[2:36]4 Mb
If You Wanna Be Bad You Gotta Be Good
[2:18]3.8 Mb
Let's Make A Night to Remember
[2:11]3.4 Mb
Wanna Be Your Underwear
[1:24]2.3 Mb
A Little Love
[3:25]5.2 Mb
Can't Stop this Thing We Started
[3:17]5 Mb
It Ain't A Party if You Can't Come
[1:19]2 Mb
Heaven
[4:39]6.9 Mb
Ill Always Be Right There
[4:34]7.1 Mb
Bryan Adams "Unplugged" Album Review
Pretty good Bryan !
I am please with this cd, it offers a different sound of many very well known songs, Bryan Adams and friends offer a top notch perfermance.
The sound is very good and the choice of track is perfect for this kind of performance, it helps us discover a different side of Bryan Adams.
Video Bryan Adams - Back To You: Version Unplugged
Music video by Bryan Adams performing Back To You: Version Unplugged with Bryan Adams, Eliot Kennedy (C) 1998 A&M Records
ELVIS COSTELLO - THE DELIVERY MAN
Button My Lip
[4:54]7.6 Mb
Country Darkness
[3:59]5.2 Mb
Theres A Story in Your Voice (with Lucinda Williams)
[3:44]6 Mb
Either Side of the Same Town
[4:01]5.9 Mb
Bedlam
[4:49]7.4 Mb
The Delivery Man
[4:40]5.9 Mb
Monkey to Man
[4:28]7.4 Mb
Nothing Clings Like Ivy (with Emmylou Harris)
[4:17]4.9 Mb
The Name of this Thing is not Love
[2:50]4 Mb
Heart Shaped Bruise (with Emmylou Harris)
[4:07]5.6 Mb
Needle Time
[5:07]8.1 Mb
The Judgement
[3:54]5.3 Mb
Scarlet Tide (with Emmylou Harris)
[2:25]3.1 Mb
Elvis Costello "The Delivery Man" Album Review
Best since King of America
Clean out your ears. Listen to this cd five times and try and tell me it's not better than Spike, Juliet Letters, Useless Beauty, and even Brutal Youth. I won't believe you.
Video Monkey To Man
Hilarious music video by Elvis Costello from album, The Delivery Man - lotsa sexy bikini girls and people in gorilla suits and a lesson in evolution so if your not careful you might learn something before it's done, hmmmph!
ELTON JOHN - 16 LEGENDARY COVERS AS SUNG BY ELTON JOHN
Yellow River
[2:32]4.4 Mb
Travallin Band
[2:14]4 Mb
My Baby Loves Lovin
[2:42]5 Mb
Cooton Fields
[2:45]5.4 Mb
I'm A Natural Sinner
[2:47]4.2 Mb
Lady Dearbanville
[3:39]5.4 Mb
Come and Get it
[2:11]4.1 Mb
United We Stand
[2:45]4.1 Mb
To Be Young Giftet and Black
[3:01]4.8 Mb
Spirit in the Sky
[3:33]5.8 Mb
Neanderthal Man
[3:31]6.2 Mb
In the Summertime
[2:49]3.9 Mb
Up Around the Band
[2:36]4.2 Mb
Good Morning Freedom
[3:05]5.3 Mb
Love of the Common People
[2:30]3.6 Mb
I Can't Tell the Bottom Form the top
[3:41]3.8 Mb
Elton John "16 Legendary Covers as Sung by Elton John" Album Review
Put your bellbottoms on and git on the dancefloor!
"My baby loves lovin'..."
Yes, I give this thumbs up; being generous cause I appreciate Rock 'n' Roll; I find this to be a well rounded collection of songs; some of my favorite collectables are those sorts of historic recordings, little known recordings, this is in that vein exactly.
Historic it is; but indeed, I believe this does not actually predate some other Elton John releases like "Empty Sky"; but rather recorded during the same time period, even after.
These are covers of top 40 songs; but Elton has an excellent groove in some of them worth the cost alone; others probably don't work as well, i.e. in other words, so funny, I was reading in one of the reviews for this release, Elton shouldn't ever sing John Fogerty, even in the shower as there are two CCR songs included in the songs, "Travelin' Band" and "Up around the bend" but the renditions of the Creedence songs are still novelties.
"Yellow River"; you know, I listen to it and think, that probably influenced Elton's sound and on some editions of this CD; leads off the collection.
"To be young gifted and black" well; this might be a Jamaican early reggae/ska type of song and Elton does it well.
Speaking of; this is a cool collection because these are a number of American top 40 songs; and it must reflect a view of what songs were played in London in the day; how about "Lady D'Arbanville", I don't know it originally but it does well.
"United we stand" is an excellent inspiring rendition of a sort of civil rights anthem; this collection really gets me moving.
Everyone is timid to give this a five star rating but I easily could and it certainly is at the lower price.
Good show Elton.
MIKE AND THE MECHANICS - REWIRED
One Left Standing
[4:31]6.7 Mb
If I were You
[4:19]6.4 Mb
Perfect Child
[5:13]7.9 Mb
Rewired
[5:34]9.4 Mb
I Don't Want it All
[5:07]8.7 Mb
How Can I
[5:06]7.6 Mb
Falling
[4:55]7.9 Mb
Somwhere Along the Line
[3:49]5.7 Mb
Underscore
[5:04]7.9 Mb
Unkown (bonus track)
[3:45]3.7 Mb
Mike and the Mechanics "Rewired" Album Review
While Mike + The Mechanics reinvent their sound, ultimately not a strong end product
It is hard to believe that it was some two decades ago when Mike + The Mechanics were formed. The group was considered a supergroup as it was formed as a side project by Genesis Guitar and Bass player Mike Rutherford and featured vocalists Paul Carrack (formerly of Squeeze) and Paul Young (formerly of Sad Cafe). This side project would lead to commercial and critical success in the 1980s, but in the 1990s, their commercial sales would decline. By the time their fifth studio album "Mike + The Mechanics - M6" was released, it would only be available as an import and not distributed on a U.S. label. The 1990s also saw Mike + The Mechanics go through lineup changes, but the nucleus of Rutherford, Carrack, and Young would continue to be maintained. At the same time, the band continued to produce high quality albums. When 2001 came along, the nucleus of Mike + The Mechanics would be disrupted when Paul Young would pass away unexpectedly. For the first time, the band would be without one of their co-lead vocalists. To the credit, Rutherford and Carrack would carry on and release another album in 2004 - "Rewired". Since Rutherford and Carrack would be the only members of the nucleus left, the album would be released under the banner of "Mike + The Mechanics + Paul Carrack". The title of the album is very appropriate. Not only did the band need to "rewire" themselves following Young's death, but they also rewired their sound. I give the band a lot of credit a lot of credit for getting back together and reinventing their sound. I wish I could say that the end product was up to the high standards that were previously delivered by the band - unfortunately I cannot.
The loss of Young was an enormous blow to the band. Much of the unique appeal of Mike + The Mechanics is the two headed vocal approach that Carrack and Young bring to the table. I always felt that Carrack focused on delivering the intense vocals while Young focused on the passionate vocals. Now without Young, the band made the decision to carry on with just Carrack. To some extent I question the move of not bringing in another vocalist, but I can understand that it would be very difficult to replace Young.
The big change is that Mike + The Mechanics introduce a Synthesizer-laden keyboard and mix it with a lot of Adult-Contemporary-styled songs. Today, much of the new music is falling into a cookie-cutter style guitar-laden sound (just ask Bryan Adams, even his "Room Service" album falls into this category). In fact, I give Mike + The Mechanics a lot of credit for doing this because they weren't afraid to move away from the norm and do something different. However the end product just wasn't all that interesting. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that you don't have those passionate Paul Young vocals that became a Mike + The Mechanics staple. But on top of that, even Paul Carrack's vocals lack the three-dimensional intensity that existed on previous works. The move toward this Techno sound should not be a complete surprise. There were hints of this on the "M6" album (just listen to the sound "Now That You've Gone").
From a personnel standpoint, it is worth noting that longtime Mechanics drummer Peter Van Hooke is back (after an absence from the "M6" album). Van Hooke also helped co-produce the album with Rutherford. Rutherford and Carrack contribute songwriting on all nine tracks. Longtime Mechanics songwriter B.A. Robertson contributes to the songwriting on three tracks. Despite this strong "Original Mechanics" nucleus, things still don't pan out. I think the big problem is that the album, while not a bad album just didn't have enough to hold my interest.
It is also worth noting that the band brings in a synthesizer programmer in Will Bates. Bates contributes to songwriting on two instrumental tracks "Rewired" (limited vocals) and "Underscore". Instrumental tracks are not exactly a staple of this band, but perhaps without Young's presence, it made sense to go in this direction. These are probably the most "Techno" sounding songs on the collection. The song "Rewired" does have some limited vocals. "Underscore" is the better of the two tracks - it has the passion and intensity that is lacked in the vocals. The techo sound isn't limited to these tracks, but tracks like "One Left Standing", Falling", and "I Don't Want It All" will also have this influence. Even the track "How Can I?" which starts out with a more classic sound will have the techno influence.
The other place where things change are the higher dependence of background vocals. Songs such as "One Left Standing", "If I Were You", and "Perfect Child" demonstrate this use of the background vocals.
Perhaps the best strong from a lyrical standpoint is "Perfect Child". This song has a lot of the emotional feel that "The Living Years" had. It has an adult-contemporary sound to it. The song deals with the emotions one has in wanting to bring a child into this world. "I want a perfect child; to live a perfect life in this world...They say when we have children; It changes how we live". This is a great song with Carrack showing his best stuff. Where was this song on the adult-contemporary radio playlists? This is really good stuff and deserved to be heard by the general public.
The liner notes include all of the lyrics and songwriting credits. It also lists the musicians. I personally would have liked to have seen something as a tribute to Paul Young. Overall, I think I have to give "Rewired" an "A" for effort, but more like a B- for overall music. The band should be applauded for carrying on and making a change in direction, but ultimately they need to be judged by how strong the end product is.
Video Mike and the Mechanics and Paul Carrack. ONE LEFT STANDING
Video from the song One left Standing from the REWIRED album.
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