Geoff

New album, couple of half okay-ish kind of songs again;

Interesting album. If they could write a decent song, this actually wouldn't be a bad album, lol. Sadly, they still can't write a decent song. There's some terrible stuff on the second half of the cassette tape, but a couple of songs like 'Time After Time' and 'Caught Up' are not far off actually being half decent. Lynch still definitely has that distinct guitar sound where you know it's him... but I can't even recall the last time he played on a decent song. Bad album, but better than the abundance of worse Lynch Mob albums after the first two gems.

I actually agree with you that although I don’t mind the T3nors album, it is extremely bland, and Sweet/Lynch does absolutely zero for me. But for me, personally, both are light years ahead of this, such is my dislike for this. But all is well. To each their own and I’m glad they still have one fan left. 😉

As a massive fan of Robbie LaBlanc, I am not sure we need to hear more from him again this year, but this sounds pretty sharp so I'll try to enjoy it on it's own merit.

Touch the Sky - Cringasaurus Rex; the song, and that hat. The song's not good, but the hat is worse. Heroes - you can't do that, surely. It's a decent song, if not extremely familiar at time in that chorus. But the Frontline song of the same name is better. Legendary - don't love the lyrics, but a nice melodic number. Thanks God It's Christmas - pass the vomit bag (and please fill it with a toxic gas so it ends quickly). That's one of the worst things I've ever seen and heard, but I assume there must be a story behind that? I assume it was recorded for a children's show, or something? Either way, I hate every single thing about it with a fiery passion.

That's a nice song. I like that. Man, whatever you think of this dude's voice, it has held up since day one. I'd even argue that he sounds better today than he did on the first Frontline album. Just wish they'd release an album with everything put together in one nice, sexy place.

Not to be harsh, but I'd be sad to see what lies on the bottom side of the middle you speak of. I'd be curious too. For me, personally, in terms of albums from "name" bands I've heard this year, or even anything within "our genre," I don't think I've heard worse than this all year. I have a morbid curiosity for what you're rating below this. And, of course, to each their own.

Oh man, this is in my ears on Monday no doubt about it.

Without going into too much detail I think he mentions something along those lines in the interview. He says that in the past the other band members weren't on board with this, or a re-issue of the album (which apparently is also happening now). Possibly most of all he had issues with Frank Banali? Possibly? But they made peace before he passed and apparently the remaining guys gave the green light? Not sure exactly - I listen to so much stuff and everything else, but I think it was something along those lines.

Don't know if you're into podcasts and stuff, but he goes pretty deep on the debut. A little too deep for my liking, lol. Whenever I see these types of interviews I want to hear it all. Unfortunately, with Davy Vain, I've only heard one other interview but it was exactly like this. Interviewer basically starts it off and Davy just takes it away for the rest of the time, non stop. The stories are cool, if not a little (or lot) long winded, but he doesn't cover much ground at all. He talks about 'No Respect' and there's a bit about 'Enough Rope' in there too. Roadcrew gets a mention also. But I'd have loved to hear him chronicle what happened in and around the band at least up until and including 'Fade.' Would be so intrigued to hear what happened with 'All Those Strangers' and then into 'Move on it' and then 'Fade' before the hiatus and "return." I trust there's a lot of interesting info to be had, but sadly it's more or less all about 'No Respect.' Which is a magnificent album worthy of much attention. But I was hoping for more.

Nothing concrete or in writing, that I know of, but I was listening to a pretty recent interview with Davy Vain where he was talking (at length) about new material for a new album/(s?). Dude can really, really, really talk. I think all the stuff about the new material is in Part I for anyone interested;

Was listening to this interview the other day; ... and he was talking (a lot) about an upcoming album of tracks from the Heavy Bones sessions. If it's half as good as he and the producer talk it up to be, I'm definitely interested. It sounds like it should have been released by now, but hopefully it is not far away now. https://www.joelellismusic.com/joel-ellis-interviews

Yeah mate, really sorry to hear about your loss. I've never heard that song you mentioned so I had to track it down. Only place I could find it was one random post on youtube... is this a channel you started, perhaps? https://www.youtube.com/@thepowerballads3039/featured Very nice sounding song. I see it was only released on some obscure compilation album in 1993. Only other thing I could find by Cry Tuff was an album from 1987 called 'Nobody's Baby.' Is that any good? Going to check it out asap because I'm curious.

You mean you only think it’s dreadful, while everyone else thinks it’s utterly terrible? 😉

Yeah, always loved that song. So did him leaving Southgang actually end the band? Were the other three hoping to continue as Southgang at the time? I'd never put that Jesse Harte / Warrant story together and I assumed 'Girl' was just a random one-off like I assumed most the other songs on that 'Demos for Diehards' album were.

Doubt anyone else will care but I'm actively stalking these guys on whatever social media I actually look at and am hanging out like a stretched ballsack for them to release a new album or EP. Anything. Could be a long wait, by the looks of it, but they did finally release a new song a couple of weeks ago. Probably not quite on par with the (imo, brilliant) last album, but a good song anyway;

Few decent EP/albums released in the last couple of weeks; Bad/Love - Mono No Aware, Pt. II Cold Culture - Afterthoughts Lines of Loyalty - Hurts To Be Human Beartooth - The Surface The Failsafe - Toxic Hearts

Bit unsure about this one and willing to give it some more time before I really get a good feel for it. On first listen, nothing wrong with the songs. All good, catchy upbeat tunes. Favourites would be 'All The Right Moves,' 'Satellite,' and 'Big Time' but there's a bunch of others not far off them. The issue I had and couldn't shake was the sound quality / production. It happens every week when I'm listening to these razor sharp produced albums played back to back with ones that maybe don't quite reach the same. standard. Usually it takes a song or two to acclimate to the new album, and generally speaking, from that point on it just sounds "normal." But it didn't happen with this one. All the while I listened to this I thought it sounded like a very well recorded demo. To be more exact, a glam metal demo, done on a tight budget with a few bits that might have been tweaked if a seasoned producer / mixer got their hands on it before it was released to the masses. And maybe I was hearing things, but it even seemed a little uneven at times, that some songs sounded worse than others. I should clarify... it's not a shocking production job that I completely hate. In time I'm sure it'll be adequate. But these kind of songs need something pretty slick, and there's nothing slick about the production job and I wish there was. Good songs, though.

Yeah, I hate to say it but it's not doing much for me either. I agree that 'If You Can Dream It' is easily the stand out track, for me. Nice, melodic and catchy. 'Shine' and 'Paper Tiger' would be my next favourites. Overall, though, it's all just okay to me. Sure wouldn't mind hearing some new Pretty Maids at this point in time...

'Where Are You Now' is a nice tune... the rest, I can pass on.

I actually liked the last album, oddly enough, but I hadn't heard this thing about recording all three albums in one sitting. That sounds terrible and a guaranteed way to bore the fans.

I think this is the one that just about sums it all up. One thing Frontiers has done is change my perception of a good, keeper song, to some degree. There are albums released these days that I flick through and discard forever, that I would very happily have lapped up 20, to maybe even 10 years ago. Released singularly, without a bunch of identical albums, they'd have fared pretty well in days gone by. It's not like these albums are bad these days (well, some are terrible... just generally speaking, regarding the upper tier of releases). Good musicians and generally pretty decent songs... but the problem is that those musicians and those songs, or a very slight variance of those same songs, are on a dozen other albums released that week/fortnight/month.

Monday is my new release listening day, where I listen to the new albums of the week. And this was the one that came out on top in today's listening session. I actually don't mind a few peaks and troughs on an album... kind of accentuates the highlights, one could argue. There are a few fillers on this one - which are kind of weird. Nice sounding songs, but just no hooks or decent chorus. Almost seems entirely intentional. But to combat these, you have the gems like 'Over & Over, 'If You Want Me Too,' 'Locked away' and 'Better off alone,' capped off by the killer 'Close My Eyes' The album could probably use a few more killer cuts, to be fair, but it's pretty decent.

Pretty decent album throughout. Nothing that I'll take away from it, to be honest, but it's solid at what it is.

Not heard them, to be honest. Do they have albums?