keepers-3
keeper avg-.250
There's that 80's Guitar Player Magazine rock - I thought all those guys gave up. This supergroup of aging professional road warriors conjures Iron Maiden at its best on the stampeding "Black Country"****. Glen Hughs' bass jackhammers only stopping for a howling "Black Dog" call and response. The lowest common denominator of the sound, unfortunately, seems to be Bad Company, except that lame lineup that rocked me in 1990 rather than the classic ass-kickin Bad Company of "Can't Get Enough". Most of the songs are relatively uptempo, so maybe that's not entirely fair, but "Song Of Yesterday" has that mournful bar blues thing down, while Hughes has absolutely nothing to say except nuggets like:
I'm on the great divide
I'm sanctified
Be by your side
I hope we dont collide
Aging rockers spoutin' about being sanctified - yawwwwn. Meanwhile, Joe Bonamassa fills the role of guitar hero nicely though his guitar sound is consistently processed, which goes along with his finger-exercise guitar riffs. The marching instrumental tracks of "The Revolution In Me" do have some attitude, but referencing "fields of Dunkirk" seems completely random and trivializing at worst. The peppy, motivational chorus of "One Last Soul"**** is a good hook stolen even if it is stolen from Journey or Loverboy as I suspect. "Down Again"**** starts with recycled Zeppelin swagger, but leads to a strained, desperate "I'm down again but it's not over" chorus, where the overstuffed cock rock mix threatens to go nuclear. Kudos for the consistent energy and shredding, but nada for originality.
Comments