Tag Archives: Mercury Records

Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Song Posts

Robert Plant – Come Into My Life

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“Hopes drift in higher places”

On Come Into My Life, well-chosen guest musicians sprinkle tasteful, but magical, fairy dust over a great song and turn it into a sublime one. Taken from Robert Plant’s excellent 1993 album Fate Of Nations, this is a passionate celtic rock song with gentle, shimmering verses and a fully Ledded big chord chorus. But because Boaby is the kind of guy (I imagine) that can just pick up the phone and get anyone he wants, Clannad’s Máire Brennan adds her beautiful ethereal voice and folk-rock giant Richard Thompson adds his distinctive, delicate guitar bends making Come Into My Life even more elemental and sumptuous than it already was. Ideal dreamy listening for a hot summer’s day.

Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Song Posts

KISS – Bang Bang You

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“You know the rules and you’re gonna play”

If I was going to do an “all KISS songs ranked” type post, I reckon I’d have Bang Bang You higher on the list than most. There are a few reasons for this… One: It’s an endearingly dumb rock song about shagging. Two: I’m a sucker for 80s KISS (Paul Stanley’s voice is great and Bruce Kulick’s guitar work is always tasty). Three: It’s a song I love more since learning how to play it. I have a real thing about rock songs that use capos and Paul Stanley is a regular capo user. He uses one here, on the 2nd fret, and I love playing it. Four: it’s become my go-to song for testing out music gear down at the guitar shop. If I don’t enjoy playing Bang Bang You on a guitar or amp it doesn’t get bought. Simple as that. That’s the main reasons anyway, but I could probably reel off another… I dunno… five, six, seven, eight.

 

Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Song Posts

Def Leppard – Let’s Get Rocked

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“Turn it off, that ain’t my scene”

Turn it off: that was basically my opinion when I first heard it on the radio in 1992, but who knew Def Leppard’s cheesemongous Let’s Get Rocked would prove to be such a grower? It’s three chords’ worth of dumb with cringey lyrics, but after countless listens, live performances, steamin’ singalongs and noticing just how incredibly euphoric that guitar solo is, it would be churlish not to appreciate that this song makes me happy. And surely that was the goal. OK, it’s not Lep’s best song by a mile, it’s not even the best song on its parent album Adrenalize, but I’ve got a real soft spot for it. A rock is definitely not out of the question.

Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Song Posts

Bruce Dickinson – The Breeding House

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“His spawn lay in the freezer, the killers that bore his name”

The Breeding House is one of a number of recorded and abandoned tracks that Bruce Dickinson worked on in the years preceding his 1994 album Balls To Picasso: his first solo album since leaving Iron Maiden. The pressure of making his first post-Maiden statement resulted in a number of rethinks and reshuffles and a right mixed bag of music. Ranging from tried-and-trusted Tattooed Millionaire style rock to totally daft experimentation.

The Breeding House was one of the earliest of these unused tracks to get a release when it appeared as a B-Side on the Tears Of The Dragon single. Of his output at the time, this was the closest in style to his previous band: with chord progressions and harmony guitars straight out of the Maiden playbook. Jagged Edge/Skin guitarist Myke Gray zips around the fretboard in style and the Air Raid Siren soars throughout, especially in the thrilling bridge, and contributes a layer of intrigue with some dark and cryptic lyrics.

I had lost interest in Maiden and Bruce in the early 90s but The Breeding House had a sense of freshness and commitment that got me excited to hear what Dickinson had to offer as a solo artist.

Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal

KISS – Psycho Circus (Review)

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KISS – Psycho Circus (1998)

Basking in the incredible success of their 1996 reunion tour, the four original members of KISS headed back into the studio to pick up where they left off: completely unable to work together. In fact, the entire band only appear together twice on 1998’s so-called reunion album Psycho Circus. The whole band performs Ace Frehley’s Into The Void (which, surprise surprise, is the only track here that sounds anything like classic KISS) and they all sing together on the fairly average You Wanted The Best. In truth, however, this is the Paul n’ Gene show. Which would be fine if the album was actually any good, but it’s a muddled, mediocre effort. Stanley exerts a bit of quality control with the anthemic, stomping title track and Gene offers up the suprisingly good closer Journey Of 1,000 Years but both performers have seen better days. Within is terrible alterna-metal, Finally Found My Way is a limp and dated ballad and the album is loaded with empty and charmless statements of unity. Doing a greatest hits nostalgia trek is one thing, moving forward as a creative unit is another entirely. KISS would have been better settling for the nostalgia because Psycho Circus left the inimitable rock legends looking like nothing but a bunch of clowns.

Another attempt at photographing the pesky 3D coverhttps://youtu.be/SWxa0iS2zdE