Now a little thing that sometimes must be taken into account when it comes to greatest hits albums is taste. Sometimes the artist or band might decide their favourite song over their most popular, or perhaps the problem is that the singles on the album were released in some countries but not others. The latter is the case with Queen’s Greatest hits album, as it has no universal track listing or even universal cover art, due to the fact that it was released three times. First there was the 1981 U.K release, then the 1981 U.S edition, which was followed 11 years later by the 1992 U.S edition. But I am going to deal with the first release of the album, the 1981 U.K edition. MOAR »
Back in Black was one of the first great albums of the 1980’s being released in late July in 1980. It’s easily AC/DC’s best selling album, entering the record books with an incredible 42 million sales worldwide. The second best selling album in history, (second only to Michael Jackson’s album Thriller which to this day has flattened all other competition with a massive estimate of 108 million copies sold worldwide,) Back in Black entered the U.K and Australian album charts at #1, reaching only #4 in the U.S charts, despite becoming the fifth best selling album in U.S history. MOAR »
The year was 1973 and the Irish Blues/Rock legend Rory Gallagher was really peaking as an artist. It was in this year, at the age of just twenty-five that he released his fourth studio album, Tattoo. This album was another in his rapidly growing collection, which proved him and his band’s talent, despite a constant change in drummers and keyboard-players. Rory himself wrote all the tracks on the album, with him on vocals and lead guitar and Gerry McAvoy as always on bass.
The tracks themselves were impressive, with many being included in Greatest Hits/Ultimate Collection albums, and other artists, due to Rory’s talent as a songwriter, have covered many of the tracks on the album, which also gave him many favourites for playing live on his tours. The most notable of these would probably be “Cradle Rock”, an all right song, but I thought it was a little dull and repetitive at times.
The album stuck to the Rory Gallagher that fans knew and loved by incorporating his signature blues/rock/jazzy sound. In particular the song “They Don’t Make Them Like You Anymore” was a great jazz riff and had very catchy beat, and still stuck to his rock roots with a nice little guitar solo to finish it all off. “They Don’t Make Them Like You Anymore” along with “20:20 Vision” are probably the more jazzier and light-hearted tacks on the album. While the rest seem to take a more bluesrock route. MOAR »
It was on a Monday on the 8th of November 1971, when Led Zeppelin released their fourth album. Usually, in a review, the name of the album would be given or mentioned, but Led Zeppelin chose not to have an official name or title for their album. Instead the four symbols pictured above (designed to represent the members of the band) were the only discernable markings on an otherwise blank album with the exception of a painting of an old man carrying sticks.
It is, however, most commonly referred to as IV. The album had a lot to live up to at the time. While Led Zeppelin had admiration from many fans, the media was not one of them. While regular fans fawned over them, the media thought of them as overrated and only selling albums from their namesake. Led Zeppelin had to prove their worth to fans and media, and many would say that this album was the pinnacle that started their ascension to become one of the biggest bands of all time. MOAR »
This is Children of Bodom’s sixth studio album, and is clearly more of a reversal for Bodom, after the “Are you Dead yet?” album, where many felt the band sold out. Returning to a more thrash and aggressive state, I feel this album shows that Bodom still have the ability to crank out a good album. There are several good guitar solos, like in the song “LoBodomy” (which also keeps up the tradition of having at least one song in an album having Bodom in the name) and “One Day You Will Cry”. The production is well carried out, done by Mikko Karmila and Peter Tagtgren, which is too be expected, as Tagtgren has worked with many heavy metal bands. Overall, I liked this album, and feel it is a vast improvement on “Are You Dead Yet?” MOAR »
