BEST OF THE REST
Other new reissues out this month.Nirvana
MTV Unplugged GEFFEN/UMC
Much-vaunted acoustic-ish performance from Nirvana’s golden era,
now expanded across two discs of vinyl to accommodate five extra
rehearsal tracks where absolutely nobody’s rising to the occasion. 7/10Royal Trux
Quantum Entanglement FAT POSSUM
Select bomb-bursts from Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema’s glorious
scattershot assault on staid rock conservatism. Seditious, seductive,
twisted, opiated, brazen and worth your quids for Waterpark alone. 8/10Flamin’ Groovies
Between The Lines: The Complete Jordan/Wilson
Songbook ’77-’81 GROWN UP WRONG
The psyched-out rabble-rousing Frisco punk progenitors’ second vain
attempt to bite the elusive cherry of mainstream rock stardom handily
encapsulated. Everyone should own Shake Some Action and the off-the-
rails title track. 7/10Rainbow
Monsters Of Rock Live At Donington 1980
EARMUSIC CLASSICS
Headlining the first Donington, Rainbow’s last stand as Blackmore,
Airey, Bonnet, Glover and Powell lumber through a set characterised
by its indulgence. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? You probably had to
be there. 6/10Specials
Specials (Double Edition) CHRYSALIS
Half-speed cut from original masters at Abbey Road and stretched
across a pair of 45rpm 12-inch discs to give its exuberant combination
of cautionary tales and joyous ska room to breathe, Specials never
sounded better. 9/10The Who
Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival 1970 EARMUSIC CLASSICS
The ‘Oo’s full mammoth 30-track IOW set, mastered for heavyweight
triple vinyl, including a full performance of Tommy sandwiched in the
middle of a storming set familiar from Live At Leeds. 8/10Van Halen
The Japanese Singles 1978-1984 RHINO
Thirteen replica seven-inch vinyl singles, including Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout
Love backed with Runnin’ With The Devil. Gorgeous pic sleeves covering
the first six VH albums and 26 trips to the turntable. What more could
you ask? 8/10ZZ Top
Live From Texas EARMUSIC CLASSICS
Captured in their element, 2007’s ZZ delivering a set rich in crowd
pleasers (Tush, Legs) and fan favourites (Just Got Paid, Waitin’ For The
Bus) pressed across a pair of 180g virgin vinyl platters. 7/10Cradle Of Filth
Cruelty And The Beat MUSIC FOR NATIONS
COF’s third, a concept work concerning blood-bathing Countess
Elizabeth Bathory, was hobbled by unsympathetic production. Twenty-
one years on, it’s been remixed to sound even more like a tortured dog
at a black metal mass. 7/10Humble Pie
Tourin’ (Bootleg Box 4) HEAR NO EVIL
Sub-audio vérité sound suits the Pie’s rough, ready, rambunctious
style across four discs. Two from 1974’s Clem Clempson era, and
a couple from the less lauded Bobby Tench line-up of ‘80/81 (which
hold up well). 6/10Blondie
Live 1999 EARMUSIC CLASSICS
Combining timeless 70s chart hits (Dreaming, Atomic et al) with
selections from their then current No Exit comeback (Maria, Screaming
Skin), two LPs capture Blondie reaching ambitiously beyond the
nostalgia market. 6/10singer, Burchill the guitarist. But
these two young men had bigger
ideas. And when they put a new
group together in late ’77 –
naming it, more sensibly, Simple
Minds, after a line in Bowie’s The
Jean Genie – it was the start of
something very big indeed.
Kerr and Burchill have guided
Simple Minds through an epic
career, achieving worldwide
sales of 60 million records. In
this new anthology, spanning 40
years, the band’s monster hits
from the late 80s are mixed with
innovative cult classics from the
post-punk era and key tracks
from a late-period renaissance.
The influence of European art
rock and synth pop, Bowie and
Kraftwerk is evident in early
landmarks I Travel, Love Song and
Themes For Great Cities. A more
mainstream approach, begun
with 1982’s euphoric New Gold
Dream (81–82–83–84), led to the
huge rock anthems Waterfront,
Don’t You (Forget About Me)
and Alive And Kicking, and in
modern songs such as Honest
To w n is the sound of a band still
reaching high.
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Paul Elliott
Dinosaur Jr
Reissues CHERRY RED
Quartet of 90s albums, with
the usual add-ons.
The deluxe
reissue of
Dinosaur Jr’s
mid-period
picks up and
ends at points when the band
were in flux. With bassist Lou
Barlow newly out of the line-up
by the time of 1994’s Green
Mind (6/10), that record was,
to all intents and purposes, bar
some input from drummer
Murph, a solo album for
vocalist/guitarist J Mascis,
stripped to the bone and
swimming with great melodies.
Here it’s crammed with newly
rediscovered B-sides and live
cuts, not to mention sleeve
notes from journalist Keith
Cameron (no mean feat, given
that Mascis is a notoriously
tricky interviewee).
The quality and volume (in
both senses) keeps on rolling
with Where You Been (7/10),
their unashamed 70s classic
rock-inspired album riding the
crest of the grunge wave,
spawning bona fide anthem
Start Choppin’, and presented
here with a Peel session; the
dark and atmospheric Without
A Sound (8/10), home of the
wonderful I Feel The Pain and
here with the addition of
instrumental takes (presumably
useful for alt.rock karaoke
sessions); and first-wave
swansong Hand It Over (7/10),
a dusky exercise in
experimentation from Mascis,
by then the sole remaining
member of the band, here with
alternative takes on old
favourites such as Freak Scene
and plenty of long-lost oddities.
Stuffed to the gills with wilfully
wonky goodies, these reissues
offer a weighty glimpse into
a singular musical mind.
Emma JohnstonPride & Glory
Pride & Glory EONE
Zakk Wylde’s southern fried
solo project holds up well.
If Zakk Wylde’s post-Ozzy
power trio Pride & Glory were
making their debut in 2019,
their coupling of brawny riffs
with southern rock stylings
would likely win favourable
comparisons with Black
Stone Cherry.
Back in 1994, in the dying
throes of grunge, they were
a band out of time, and despite
the lasting quality of this album
they didn’t see the year out.
Wylde had stockpiled a wealth
of varied material, retaining the
muscular riffing style and bluesy
shredding solos characteristic of
his years with Ozzy, but added
fresh textures amid the weighty
riffs with banjo (Losin’ Your Mind)
and harmonica (Shine On).
Contrast comes via a brace of
mellow southern rock tracks,
Wylde’s warm, rich vocals
impressing on Cry Me A River.
Remastered here and with
seven bonus tracks (two
previously unreleased), it’s an
album he has since equalled but
never bettered.
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Rich DavenportGene Clark
No Other 4AD
Ex-Byrd’s rubbished magnum
opus, deservedly reassessed.
Originally
savaged as
“bloated” and
“pretentious”
by the same
generation of no-nothing critics
who called Lou Reed’s Berlin
“lousy” and a ‘disaster’, the
ex-Byrd’s fourth album has
latterly been recognised as an
ambitious masterpiece. Sadly
succinct (due to original
paymasters Asylum losing their
nerve in the face of stratospheric
production costs), No Other’s
eight tracks expand the psych-
country-folk feel of Clark’sprevious work with the addition
of lush vocal harmonies,
widescreen arrangements
gloriously realised by super-
session stalwarts and palette-
broadening dashes of Sly Stone-
informed R&B. 4AD have
excelled themselves with
packages to suit all budgets:
single CD, download-carded
vinyl, hardback booklet-housed
double CD with nine session
alternatives (including a version
of Train Leaves Here This Morning
that Clark co-wrote with Bernie
Leadon for the Eagles) and, for
those on Santa’s ‘nice ‘ list,
a sumptuous boxed version with
vinyl, three SACDs, BluRay,
80-page book, seven-inch
single, partridge, pear tree...
A labour of well-deserved love.
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Ian FortnamTrapeze
Leavin’ The Hard Times
Behind: The Best
Of Trapeze CHERRY RED
Soul-infused hard rock.
Listen to
Trapeze all
these years
later, and don’t
be surprised to
find yourself drifting away and
dreaming of Californian
highways and open skies. Rod
Stewart once remarked how
pleased he was to have written
Mandolin Wind while living on
London’s Archway Road, but
he’s got next to nothing on
Trapeze, coming straight out of
the Midlands with a sound that
encompassed strands of
Motown and punchy, multi-
coloured hard rock.
Having both Mel Galley and
Glenn Hughes as writers meant
the band were never going to be
short of dynamics, and while
their debut showed promise
with its psychedelic hues, it was
Medusa that cemented the then
trio’s legend. Third album You Are
The Music... We’re Just The Band
was so good that Deep Purple
stole Hughes and left Mel and
drummer Dave Holland to make
a decent fist of Trapeze Mark II,
as evidenced by the second disc
here: the previously unreleased
Live At The Civic Theatre,
Mansfield, recorded in 1977,
which includes an interview with
a poker-faced Dave Holland. No
arguing with the music though,
the band teeming with life. Little
wonder, then, that the call would
eventually come from Judas
Priest and Whitesnake for two
of their founding members.
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Philip WildingCLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 91