FAT HIPPY LABEL

GERRY JABLONSKI AND THE ELECTRIC BAND – Life At Captain Tom's CD
With a quite staggering 14 tracks averaging 5 mins apiece, this album did the one thing that I never thought and electric blues band could do – it surprised me. You see, on his previous electric album, Jablonski did the whole axe hero bit across a sizzling set of songs but it was the guitar that was the star, pretty well throughout.
For this album, it's like he's got that out of his system and can now concentrate on producing a whole slew of crackin' electric blues tracks where the songs take centre stage and the whole band shares the action. That he has amply succeeded is told by the opening track, “Higher They Climb”, where a bouncing, rolling rhythm underpins a surging number with suitably bluesy vocals, lightly echoed, and a strident set of verses leading into a memorable hook with the whole band driving it all forward as wailing harp takes centre stage and bursts of guitar add the bite, while the rhythm section and rhythm guitar fill the rest in to perfection. “Sherry Dee” is even more “trad” with a typically Mayall-esque rolling rhythm under choppy rhythm guitar, searing harp and and more guitar breaks, this time the vocal really emotive as it glides on down the higway on a strident slice of blues writing that's totally familiar yet utterly addictive and oddly refreshing. “Koss” has a sort of Free “Wishing Well” feel to it, only bluesier and stronger, with a multi-tracked and lead vocal that wreaks of Paul Rodgers, the rhythms lighter and bouncier, the singing more optimistic and the song generally less sombre, all of which makes for a neat 4 minute slice of commercial composing that's still got blues stamped all over it. “Hard To Make A Living” is a swaggering 6 minutes of slide-guitar-led blues-rock, decelerated but with so much dynamic within the arrangement that it flows with strength, the vocals flying over the playing as the band produce one meaty performance of slow blues that's positively sizzling, again so familiar yet so completely addictive. When the blues is done this well, you simply have to listen – and the added input of a heated electric guitar break just adds to the enjoyment. “High On You” is even longer at nearly 7 and a half minutes, this time mixing Fleetwood Mac's “The Chain” feel with a slowly building slice of deeper, darker blues that gradually powers up courtesy of some wicked harp playing and this dirty sea of guitar riffery, before settling back into that “Chain”-esque rhythm and building it all up once again. The way it's arranged and played and the sheer wealth of dynamics, makes it greater than the sum of its parts, the variation working remarkably well simply by not doing what you expect it to do before then doing it it a bit further on – again, as slow blues goes, it's both refreshing, that bit different and quite mesmerising. “Merchants Of Soul” swings into action with a sprightly 6 minutes of indie-blues as the bass bobs upfront, the guitar weaves in and out and an almost “Bad Company-gone-blues-pop” type of song bounces along to perfection. “Hot” gives us three minutes of heated blues-rock that opens like Eurythmics “Missionary Man” then goes blues instead of pop as this rolling slice of strong songwriting is unleashed to more soaring harp and dirty guitar riffs, the added electric lead acting as the main melodic counterpoint as the vocals fly out and the song swings back and forth between commercial and downright intensity. “Slow Down” at just over 3 minutes, does exactly that and strolls along with confidence, a little bit like some of Jeff Healey's earlier work.
I'm gonna cop out here as I could quite easily go into equal raptures about the final 6 tracks on the album, as they are all up to the same standard, but I think you've got the hang of what this album's all about by now, so it just leaves me to say that if you're into classic blues writing, arranging and playing that brings a smile to your face from start to finish, features no self-indulgence whatsoever, and works on every level, then what are you waiting for – go out and buy the darned thing – like now!!

LORELEI – Faces CD
The reviewer's nightmare....for all the right reasons, I hasten to add. Here we have a band from Aberdeen with an album that features 14 tracks, and every single one of them an absolute gem of a song. The main problem, for someone like myself who likes to go into track-by-track detail, is that virtually every song is differently structured – we'd be here for days!! The evn odder part is that, for all this, the songs are consistent, cohesive and fantastic, from start to finish.
Essentially we have an album of 14 songs that conform to what you'd call “electric indie -folk-pop” and things get off to a rousing start with “Endescapology” as a blistering guitar riff becomes the central hook that swirls around your head the moment you hear it. Around this, the rhythm section crunch and drive while the lead male vocal deilvers the verses with urgency and bite, the rest of the panorama made up of distant wordless harmonies and more guitars asit all races to a steaming end point. Just to show the contrast, “Love Is Blind” starts with acoustic guitar then , with a quick yelp from the singer goes into an urgent shuffle of a rhythm that's led by violin of all things, and the song is sung by dual male and female singers with impassioned yearning, repeating the hook of the title in a way that is both central to the song yet becomes the thing that you love about the driving, shuffling song. Then a harmonica break occurs, the violin solos and it's racing folk-pop that really hits the emotional spot. “Singer, Sings” uses organ as its bedrock (I told you this was varied!!) and, following a broody vocal start, the rhythms kick in and it becomes a cross between anguished early Rolling Stones and moody rolling Deacon Blue as the song, led by the vocal you'd expect from that description, takes off into multi-part harmony choruses and this time a biting lead guitar break is the soloist as another driving burst of rhythms sets the song on its high-flying, solid, expansive chorus-filled way to the stars. “Monday” is a rousing slice of Celtic folk-rock, this time sung by the female singer and the sort of thing you'd expect to hear during a night at your favourite Celtic pub as the band surges and you dance like a drunken dervish, with what sounds like electric mandolin leading the way as the band bounce and the song takes off to another memorable degree.
At this point you're only four songs in and you've heard more quality songs of an incredibly memorable and addictive degree than most bands manage on an entire album – and in this case, you've still got ten more of the things to go – can they keep this up?
Of course, the answer is “hell yeh – they sure can” - and they do - “”Song For The Boy” is a gentle acoustic ballad with acoustic guitar, violin and emotional plaintive male vocal” while “Waiting To Play” is more mid-paced and strung out, a bit like a passionate folk anthem as the drums lurch, the violin weaves, the guitars jangle, the bas acts as the foundations and strummed mandolin adds an extra dimension with the lead singer quite moody but rising to the chorus in a surge of harmonies and urgency as the band lift off then drop back, all quite huge and arms-in-the-air stuff. “Liar” races off at an alarming pace as that guitar bursts then the band come in with an explosive pulse of a beat before they then charge off collectively at a blistering heat as the singer delivers the song with urgency and anguish and the whole thing is like some kind of folk-rock bouncing bomb as it bobs and explodes to breathtaking degree, even allowing you the surprise of a brief break from the violin and guitars and rhythm section that sounds like some drunken cossack dance before they all drive back into the main body of the song and the choruses, ending on a huge surge of organ and crunching rhythms.
Now at this point, most bands would have stopped there and we'd have one hell of a great album – but this is only half way and there's so much more to come.
“Hack Yourself” is a mix of Richard & Linda Thompson with Deacon Blue, and if that sounds appetising, it's because it is – and then when they add a healthy slice of Pogues in there too, it's just stunning. “Needle Soul” is a heartfelt power ballad of the folk-pop variety, with strong arrangements, stirring rhythms and an expanse of instrumentation featuring organ and either mandolin or guitar (can't tell!!) in the main, with emotional, yearning vocals soaring along on top of it all. “A2B” is another driving rousing slice of urgency as yet another bouncing gem of a song is unleashed with power and strength, the rhythms chugging along at some pace, the dual vocals providing an almost seventies-esque burst of anthemic folk-pop that climbs to a seriously strident chorus, with a full sound, stirring arrangements and a nagging sense that it reminds you of two or three band that you just cannot recall, most likely something between McGuinness Flint and String Driven Thing with a more contemporary feel. “Tricks” sees the return of the female on lead vocals and to a background of organ foundations, gives us a flowing song with lurching beats and a brooding sense of biting tension as the river of sound continues, a curiously unnerving little song that's almost like some weirdly spiritual number with a sense of strangeness about it all. “Molly” returns us to the dance, as a sprightly song bursts into life and another pop anthem ensues that's got “catchy” written all over it, the lead male vocals soaring into dual harmony choruses as the band bounce and drive. “Walk Like A Child” is a real folk anthem with mandolin, violin, acoustic guitars, guitar, bass, drums, emotive lead vocals – the works – and the result is this fantastic mini-epic complete with a searing heat guitar break as the whole thing expands in this glorious blaze of sound, veering from hi-flying intensity to sublime delicacy on what is a seriously great song. Finally we have “Hurt Myself” as the album ends, not with a bang, but with a whisper, as a violin-led ballad of full-sounding proportions gives us a short but sensitive song to finish thing s off.
There is a saying that you can have too much of a good thing – in this case, that is far from the truth – 14 tracks, every one a gem, an album that gives way more than you put in and surely one of the best contemporary folk-rock-pop albums to come out in a very long time.