New Albums Galore

Franz Ferdinand aren’t the only ones bringing out seconds. There is talk of a new Jet album but it is still speculation when they will start recording. Damage Plan has collected what they recorded with Dimebag (lead guitarist), who was recently murdered at a gig with the band, and have brought together an album. Release dates have not been discussed yet. The Darkness’s new album appears to be just a smattering of cover songs, which is a bizarre move for a recent band. They should try to build a bigger fan base before attempting gambles like this.

Veteran band the Foo Fighters are releasing a fifth album, which will be double. One cd will be rock & the other acoustic. It is called In Your Honour, and singer Grohl claims that it will be the Foo Fighter’s Physical Graffiti (Led Zeppelin’s fifth album, which was also a double), so it comes with high expectations. Also on their fifth are the White Stripes, who have named their new 13 track album Get Behind Me Satan. This is due out on June 7th. System of a Down are also releasing their fifth with Mezmerize on April 26th, with another album (Hypnotize) coming out later this year. And finally Pearl Jam are releasing their 8th studio album to follow up 2002's Riot Act and 2004’s Rearview Mirror, which was a ‘best of’ compilation. No names have been mentioned and there is much speculation as to when it will be released.

Franz Ferdinand New Album

The biggest thing out of Scotland, Franz Ferdinand are coming back with a new album to be released around September. The band’s first album took the world by storm in 2004 helping the band receive most of the music awards that year. A lot of expectations will be placed on the band to redeliver another great album. Unfortunately some bands often suffer from second album syndrome where they produce a brilliant debut album but do not follow it up with an equally successful album or something less. I personally hope that they come up with something good.

My Favourite Top Twenty Albums

As I promised to do.

The Beatles: Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin 2

Deep Purple: In Rock

Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath

Incubus: Science

Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Californication

Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Blood Sex Sugar Magic

Machine Gun Fellatio: On Ice

Black Sabbath: Master of Reality

Dream Theater: Scenes From a Memory

Queen: A Night At The Opera

Living End: The Living End

John Lennon: Imagine

Cream: Disraeli Gears

Queens of The Stone Age: Songs For The Deaf

Foo Fighters: One By One

The Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet

Black Sabbath: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Led Zeppelin: 4 or runes album

Incubus: Make Yourself

If you want to but your favourites please do so in the comments.

Album Review: Muddy Waters, Hard Again, 1977 Epic/Legacy

The album that is claimed to have revitalised modern blues and re-started Muddy Waters’ career. What it definitely is, is some good, hard core blues. From the remake of hard rocking Mannish Boy to the lusty I Want to Be Loved, all the tracks are great blues classics. There is a really positive vibe throughout and it is obvious that all involved sure had fun making this album. Muddy assembled a class band of 7 musicians, including Johnny Winter (lead guitarist).

An interesting quirk is that Muddy is often credited with the great guitar work on the album. Apparently throughout the whole session, Muddy’s red Fender Telecaster ‘sat tuned and plugged into his amplifier next to him', or so claims Bob Margolin (rhythm guitarist). He has said that only himself and Winter played guitar on the album. Muddy Waters is one of the great blues guitarists, especially live and on earlier albums, but did not pick one string on Hard Again. But it is definitely him singing and what a great blues singer he is. This is one of the definitive blues albums of all time. I give it 4 stars.

Greatest Hits Albums

What’s with bands that have only been in the game for ten years releasing greatest hits compilations? I.e. two Australian bands Living End (whom I love) and Powderfinger are both culprits. A band should follow these 5 rules if they are going to make a ‘best of.’

1. If they are still going must be more than ten years old.

2. Must have had more than one hit.

3. Don’t fill it up with cover songs (come on, put your own work on it).

4. Don’t claim to have a best of double album when the second disk is all just remixes.

5. If the band is old the songs should be remastered.

Two bands (who are both great) that are really bad offenders are U2 and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. They decided that they needed a ‘best of’ for each decade; the Peppers even decided they needed to celebrate one decade with two. And the Guns N Roses greatest hits album was a bit of a joke. Out of fourteen songs it had three cover songs, which were great. The disappointment of the album was all the sappy songs (they are musically OK but not what you would put on a Guns N Roses best of) naturally put on the album by Axl (lead singer). There were a few of the old favourites but not enough of the metal songs that made them so popular, and they are definitely not lacking in these. Better to have just bought their first album, Appetite For Destruction (which I did). So bands, before you release that greatest hits album, think, are you really that popular, how long have you been around and do you have enough original songs to at least get eighteen on one disk?