Following Eric Clapton’s 1992 appearance on ‘MTV Unplugged’, in terms of inspiration, his recorded output floundered for two decades. While three albums of blues covers (one made up of standards, two of Robert Johnson numbers) are full of enjoyable moments, the rest of his post- ‘Unplugged’ work hardly ever hints at any former glories. At best (as with parts of 2001’s ‘Reptile’), these albums represent a once-fiery musician drifting into late middle age with wishy-washy results, while at worst (1998’s ‘Pilgrim’ and 2010’s ‘Clapton’), the albums are full of easy listening material which the younger Clapton possibly wouldn’t have given the time of day. On his pompously packaged eponymous release of 2010, the clean and sober Eric Clapton had a fixation with 30s and 40s jazz standards and – in comparison to his much younger self – had largely become a musical irrelevance. A somewhat legendary irrelevance, perhaps, but fact is, ‘Clapton’ (the album) presented very little that would interest anyone but the most died in the wool fan…and even some of those found the record to be often forgettable.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
TANYA DONELLY – Lovesongs For Underdogs
Best known as frontwoman for Belly and sometime member of Throwing Muses, this first solo outing by Tanya Donelly is everything you’d expect. Issued on 4AD records in 1997, ‘Lovesongs For Underdogs’ does not always sound like great departure from previous work with Belly; but while not greatly different, it manages to pull together the soft sounds of that band’s ‘Star’ and rockier parts of ‘King’ on one release. In that respect, it could be viewed as Donelly’s most “complete” record.
DE LA CRUZ – Street Level
There have been some great bands exported from Australisia over the decades. Crowded House have blessed us with near-perfect and often very thoughtful pop; Cold Chisel raised the bar for no-nonsense rock ‘n’ roll; Peter Garrett and Midnight Oil proved – perhaps more than any of their American counterparts – that hard rock and politics can go hand in hand and still shift millions of units. Something UK and US audiences rarely associated with the southern hemispheres is sleaze/glam rock. Frontiers signings De La Cruz are here to help fly that flag.
SON OF A WITCH – Son Of A Witch EP
On their self-titled debut EP, Brazilian stoner merchants Son of a Witch pull elements from some superb influences and in turn, end up sounding pretty fabulous themselves. Adopting a general approach which fuses the best parts of Down and Orange Goblin, their riffs are among the best to emerge from a generation of post-Sabbath doom merchants.
THE BEST OF THE WORST – Perspectives
Following a couple of singles and EPs, this 2013 full-length from The Best of the Worst captures the band on top form. ‘Perspectives’ includes many of the necessary ingredients for a great skacore experience: the juxtaposition of tough riffs and shiny horn parts combined with a knack for the off-kilter leads to a listening experience where the necessary attitude is present in spades. These guys appear to put so much more thought into their craft than so many of their better-known contemporaries; their music is often so busy, it leaves the listener constantly on catch-up…and with so much of a kitchen sink approach, this is an album which just keeps on giving.