We're now half way through my all my album reviews (well, technically, half way is half way through this very blog), and I am trying my best to be as 'professional' with it as possible. However, I seem to have used the words 'deep', 'meaningful' and 'powerful' quite a lot; and this blog is no different and nor do expect it to change too much. It just helps prove that music reviews are not my forte.
The album is full of completely different songs which are all sung by different artists.
The only common factor in all the songs, surprisingly, is the man with the big black hat playing guitar, incredibly well, on every track. Infact, you can guarantee every song to have a guitar solo of some sorts; and why not – it is his self-titled debut album after all.
The first song is ‘Ghost’, which is sung by our English Ian Astbury from The Cult. He seems to have a good voice which really works with the song and also the heavy guitar music. It is a very interesting song with the range of this man’s voice, mixed with the range of instruments from, the distinctive drum beat to the powerful guitar solos. It’s a good first song which I rather like.
The next song on the album is the oddly named ‘Crucify The Dead’. Then you realise it’s sung by Ozzy Osbourne and then the song title finally makes sense. When it comes to Ozzy’s voice, I am a hard one to please. On occasions it can sound awful, but on others it can sound really good. This is one of those times. The song isn’t full on hard rock like I expected, and it is really good and, believe it or not, I believe the song to have some depth.
‘Beautiful Dangerous’ is sung by Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas. I have mixed opinions about her. I dislike her in Black Eyed Peas, but on her own, she is very pleasant. Her voice really is brilliant with the power she has to put into this rock song for it to work. I actually really love it, and I wish she would do more like this; she sounds great in the chorus when she really has the powerful voice; I bet she had a sore throat the next day though.
‘Back From Cali’ is sung (and written) by Myles Kennedy. This too is a great song, which is characteristic of what one was expecting from this album, with it being a typical powerful rock song. It has the loud powerful voice and the great guitaring, obviously.
The next song is one of my favourites, which is completely different to the previous track. This song is ‘Promise’ sung by Chris Cornell, who hit his popularity peak a few years ago. Anyway, this song has this uplifting feel which always lifts my mood. It is a powerful rock song, but yet it seems to have this deep emotion, and it is purely beautiful. It’s a song I can listen to over, and over again.
‘By The Sword’, with Andrew Stockdale from Wolfmother (Yeah, I know rock music better than I thought) singing, is an okay song. Nothing which got me excited, but as a piece of music it is very good. The tune is really good and I like it, but I’m just not overly keen on the slightly whinny voice of Andrew if I’m honest.
Unsurprisingly, this next song is my favourite. ‘Gotten’ is sung by Adam Levine, and in case you don’t know, he is the lead singer in Maroon 5. It is a classic Maroon 5 song with its emotion and power. I am pleased that he has stuck to his normal voice, rather than try to emanate a classic rock voice. This is another song I can listen to over and over and over again, and I love it. I love its deep meaning, and I even love Slash’s solo. It’s nice to hear Adam’s voice without the rest of the Maroon 5 clang.
‘Doctor Alibi’ is sung by another English rock star Lemmy Kileister. I don’t like him really and I don’t particularly like his band Motorhead. I like hard rock music, but that is just over the limit for me. The song is okay but out of my own personal preference, I don’t like it that much. However, that doesn’t matter on an album like this though, with so much variety.
‘Watch This Dave’ isn’t sung by anyone. It is instead a jamming session between Slash, Duff McKagan on another guitar and Dave Grohl on the drums. If you can appreciate pieces of just music without any singing, and you like rock, then you can like this song. It is quite nice to just listen to their musical abilities. It’s a good song.
‘I Hold On’ is sung by Kid Rock; another rock singer I don’t always like. In this instance it is quite a nice song and I think it works particularly well, with it being toned down a bit and being of the slightly ‘emotional’ type. That is what makes the album so good, with its different ranges. It has a rather good, catchy beat which you will find yourself tapping the table to, while listening to it.
‘Nothing To Say’ is by M.Shadows (Wikipedia tells me he is in Avenged Sevenfold). His band’s music, I either like or loath as yet again it can be just over my limit, so I didn’t hold out high hopes. I don’t have any strong feelings for this song. It’s okay. If I comment on the guitaring in this song, I will be quick to say it is brilliant, but as for the singing, well I won’t be quite so quick to say that it’s brilliant. It is (or at least feeling like) a very long song…
Myles Kennedy returns to sing another song he’s written called ‘Starlight’; another song which I really like. I really like his voice on this song and with the guitaring of Slash, it surprisingly works well and I really quite like it. It seems to have this deep meaning and has quite a powerful impact. Myles is from a band called Alter Bridge (according to Wikipedia again), so I may have to listen to some of their stuff.
‘Saint Is A Sinner Too’ is sung by someone called Rocco DeLuca from a band called Rocco Deluca and the Burden (Thanks Wikipedia). I really like this song; it is rather beautiful and I really like his voice. It is a great song. You don’t hear a lot of Slash’s guitaring in it, but it still is a great song. Another band for me to research and listen too – I think I might quite like him.
The final song is a happily named ‘We’re All Gonna Die’, sung by ‘That Disgusting Man From The Annoying Insurance Adverts’ Iggy Pop. I quite like his music, so I was looking forward to this. It is a rather good song and I quite like it; even though Iggy does half through seem to do an Elvis impression. Not sure it is a great final song for the album, but that is just a technicality.
If you like rock music, you are sure to find songs which you like, but don’t expect to like every song due its range. As for Slash, despite the fact it is his album, he doesn’t impress anymore. If you like Slash, you know how good his guitaring is, but don’t expect to listen to the album, expecting him to push himself to the limit of his guitaring ability.
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