| Track by Track Review
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CD 1: Original Album (1995)
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Big Time
This hard rocker is solid stuff. I think the vocals are a bit too far down in the mix, though. I dig the guitar solo section of this quite a bit, and the whole thing rocks. |
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Livin' for the Minute
More of a pop rock tune, the production on this is a bit too polished. It has an 80s pop music kind of vibe. In some ways this feels like The Doobie Brothers go metallic. It's catchy and crunchy, and oh so cool. |
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Does It Mean That Much to You?
Take a metallic hard rock sound and merge some funk into it. This is cool stuff. It's energetic and has an infectious vocal arrangement. Again, the production is a bit too slick for my tastes, but the song is strong enough to hold up to it. |
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Save Me Tonight (I'll Be Waiting)
This cut is much more of a soulful ballad. That Doobie Brothers reference point is again valid. The vocals sell this tune because it's really not my kind of thing. |
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Redline
The opening section on this makes me think of Living Colour. It drops to a mellower sound for the vocals to join. This has a lot of funk and soul built into it, yet the chorus really rocks. The scorching hot extended section at the end makes me think of Prince merged with Living Colour. |
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Coffee & Vanilla
A saxophone plays the lead at the start of this cut. As the vocals join I'm again reminded of Doobie Brothers. The cut works out from there to some killer funk. I love the bass on this number. |
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Push!
Fast paced funky hard rock, this just plain stomps. It feels a bit like what you might get if Eddie Van Halen played with Parliament. I can make out some Prince on this, too. The literally screaming part at the end really rocks. |
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She Loves Your Money
Living Colour and Parliament seem to merge on this killer funk piece. This is another that feels like something from the 80s in terms of the production. |
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Speak Your Mind
More smoking hot funk rock, this isn't a big change, but it works really well. I can hear some of those Doobie Brothers hints at times on this. The guitar solo here is meaty and works really well. |
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Talkin' to Messiah
That Living Colour thing is all over this. The cut is built on more of that smoking hot hard rock turned funky. |
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Maybe Your Baby
Here is another song that makes me think of both Parliament and Prince. It's a cool funk-rocker. It's not one of my favorites here, though. |
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Bonus Tracks
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Holy Man
This number is more of a mainstream hard rocker. It's not really funky, but rather more built on pure melodic rock with a crunchy edge. I like this, and it's a nice change, but it doesn't shine quite as bright as a lot of the rest do. Then again, it is a bonus track. |
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CD 2: Bonus Tracks
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Live Carola, Holland 20/10/1994
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Introduction
The first part of this introduction is in Dutch, so I don't understand what she's saying. When she starts talking to the band, it's in English. |
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From Now On
This comes in as an acoustic ballad that's quite pretty. It works out toward jazz territory later in the piece. |
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Interview
There is some more Dutch in this, but much of the interview section is in English. |
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Lay My Body Down
Another acoustic based tune, this is much more of a rocker. It's a soulful stomper that works really well. As much as I liked the previous tune, this is even better. There is a lot of blues built into this number. |
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Unplugged in Stockholm 28/07/1993
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So Much Love to Give
More of a blues rocker, this is a killer acoustic number. I love the guitar soloing on this thing. |
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Unplugged in Japan 26/02/1994
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From Now On...
The recording here feels a bit distant and echoey. The performance is definitely solid and works quite well. |
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You Keep on Moving
This is a stomping hot acoustic rocker. The only issue is that recording quality again suffers. |
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Lay My Body Down
The recording quality seems better here. This is a cool blues rocker delivered on acoustic guitar. I think I prefer this version to the one that we heard earlier on the disc. |
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Schüttdorf Open Air 02/07/ 1994
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Burn
The show starts with this Deep Purple stomper. I've always been a big fan of that album and song. The only bad part is that the recording quality is definitely of a bootleg quality. This performance of the tune really rocks, though. The drums seem too high in the mix, but that's probably a function of the lousy recording. The guitar solo is right on target, and that's impressive. |
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Liar
This stomper really rocks. It reminds me of Living Colour a little. This is a powerhouse tune. |
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Muscle and Blood
Here we get another hard rocking stomper. This isn't particularly special, but just another solid number. At the end of this song Hughes has a bit of stage banter that earns a definite parental advisory. |
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Lay My Body Down
Here's full electric rock band treatment of the song we earlier heard done acoustically twice. This is stronger in this format as far as I'm concerned. It's a real screamer. More stage banter with more parental advisories are heard at the end of this. |
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Into the Void
The intro to this one also earns a parental advisory. They power into this with an almost prog rock kind of vibe. This works through a number of changes. It's a killer cut that's among the best on this second set despite the recording quality. |
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Gettin' Tighter
I dig this arena rocker quite a bit. It's a real screamer. I dig the killer funky jazz jam mid-track. |
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Stormbringer
This is a cool high energy rendition of the Deep Purple title track. They really scorch it. There's another parental advisory on the stage banter at the end of the tune. |
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