First Spin Impressions

[Glen]

 

THE MAGNIFICENT - S/T

 

Holy shitballs. Where did this spring from? Massive Scandi melodic rock with a big sound (like a slightly heavier Brother Firetribe) and above all some great songs. In fact there's barely a filler, although I'm not a big fan of opener "Holding on to your Love". The 3 track combination from 2-3-4 is stunning, as are the last 4 or 5 tracks particularly. When compared to the very best of 2011 there are times - and I said the same about LOVEX - when they don't quite pair a great verse with a great chorus (i.e, the lush verses on "Smoke & Fire" deserve a chorus like on "Cheated By Love" or "Lost"), but that's being stupidly picky. AWESOME.

 

Well Tim I was plugging it for weeks if not months before its release ;-)

 

Glad you love it mate....I knew you would and IMO it crucifies Fergie (which I think you also bought?).

 

Cheers

 

PS 'Smoke & Fire' is awesome throughout...just thought I'd correct you there ;-))

[Nightrain]

HOUSTON - Relaunch

 

Is this their second album? Have they run out of ideas this early on? No offence intended to anyone, as I love 80's-sounding AOR as much as the next man, but this is AWFUL. Aside from their strange choice of songs to cover, the quality of their versions are piss-poor. In a great year for melodic rock it's stuff like this that gives the genre a bad name IMO.

 

 

 

Well then please contact me if you want to sell it mate,

i do want to buy it but haven't done it, so might be a good chance for me to pick it up for a low price

[TIM (2)]

HOUSTON - Relaunch

 

Is this their second album? Have they run out of ideas this early on? No offence intended to anyone, as I love 80's-sounding AOR as much as the next man, but this is AWFUL. Aside from their strange choice of songs to cover, the quality of their versions are piss-poor. In a great year for melodic rock it's stuff like this that gives the genre a bad name IMO.

 

 

 

Well then please contact me if you want to sell it mate,

i do want to buy it but haven't done it, so might be a good chance for me to pick it up for a low price

 

Sorry mate you were a couple of hours late. Next time I get a rubbish CD I don't want I'll give you a shout though...!

[Faron]

I`ve been listening to a few different things lately on Youtube and even though I tend to stick to the older stuff, I do read all the threads on various topics for ideas on something different to listen to.

 

Of late I`ve been trying to give the following a bit of a listen, obviously only songs not albums, some are okay and I won`t listen to again and others I`ll persevere with.......

 

Steel Panther

The Magnificent

White Widow

Mecca

Pride Of Lions

Work Of Art

Within Temptation

[phaffas]

Pride of Lions - whatever the first one was called.

Ok, AOR Fuzzsters... you will hate me. But not as much as i hate this. Ok maybe not hate, but damn this is bloody annoying stuff. 1. Peterik is the ugliest guy in music... besides Mecca, ... why should that matter? Because his ugliness can be heard. 2. Toby. What an annoying voice. Nice voice. But annoying. There are no dynamics in his voice. Its just Turned on alot. In your face. Annoying.

[Geoff]

Pride of Lions - whatever the first one was called.

Ok, AOR Fuzzsters... you will hate me. But not as much as i hate this. Ok maybe not hate, but damn this is bloody annoying stuff. 1. Peterik is the ugliest guy in music... besides Mecca, ... why should that matter? Because his ugliness can be heard. 2. Toby. What an annoying voice. Nice voice. But annoying. There are no dynamics in his voice. Its just Turned on alot. In your face. Annoying.

[Nightrain]

Pride of Lions - whatever the first one was called.

Ok, AOR Fuzzsters... you will hate me. But not as much as i hate this. Ok maybe not hate, but damn this is bloody annoying stuff. 1. Peterik is the ugliest guy in music... besides Mecca, ... why should that matter? Because his ugliness can be heard. 2. Toby. What an annoying voice. Nice voice. But annoying. There are no dynamics in his voice. Its just Turned on alot. In your face. Annoying.

 

lol

 

but if you call Toby an annoying voice, beware as you'll get thrown lots of plates as his solo album was on the top of at least 3-4 people here

[Nightrain]

HOUSTON - Relaunch

 

Is this their second album? Have they run out of ideas this early on? No offence intended to anyone, as I love 80's-sounding AOR as much as the next man, but this is AWFUL. Aside from their strange choice of songs to cover, the quality of their versions are piss-poor. In a great year for melodic rock it's stuff like this that gives the genre a bad name IMO.

 

 

 

Well then please contact me if you want to sell it mate,

i do want to buy it but haven't done it, so might be a good chance for me to pick it up for a low price

 

Sorry mate you were a couple of hours late. Next time I get a rubbish CD I don't want I'll give you a shout though...!

 

darn if I was late couple hours, then I think thousand people has PM-ed you as fast as thunder so quickly to get this great disc for a penny

[Nightrain]

ALFONZETTI - Here Comes The Night

Better than I expected, unlike Jagged Edge that has the glam touch, this is more of a formulaic typical euro MHR/AOR thing, a balance mix of uptempo rockers, mid-tempo AOR, and ballads, which I think the best part here are the ballads, even though rockers like 'Don't Listen To Your Heart' and 'I Will Never Let You Fall' are also great, but trophy down to 'Heartbreaker', 'Lay Your Love On Me', and 'Set Me Free'.

 

Alfonzetti vocal is still great, however the whole album is too short, running below 40 minutes, and I'm still unsure whether it holds up after more than 5 spins, but I like what I hear so far, and I think it should be in the range of 75%-85% and quite reasonable at 80%.

 

JAMES DURBIN - Memories of A Beautiful Disaster

surprisingly great, lots of varieties and many risky arrangement, not very ordinary and linear pop-rock approach even though he still accomodate the Idol fans with at least 4 poppish ballads. My faves here are 'All I Want'; 'Love In Ruins' which has the Aerosmith - Get A Grip vibe; 'Right Behind You' is awesome as well; 'Outcast' with Mick Mars which perhaps the best track here. The last two tracks, 'Everything Burns' with chorus similar to GNR's 'This I Love' and 'Stand Up', a beautiful uptempo tune, also lovable.

 

More adventurous than Daughtry, perhaps the better release if compared to him and Cook after 5-6 spins, and has the chance to stuck around 80%-85%.

 

LANCE KING - A Moment In Chiros

Here it is - the man of Nightmare Records, and a guy who sang in Balance of Power and many other thing. Boy how ugly is that cover of his solo album, and sadly, the album isn't far off. Sounded like melodic metal with prog touch, but crawls painfully average from start to finish, with perhaps the 75%-worth of track are only 'A Sense of Urgency' and 'A Given Choice', the rest of 70% tracks are 'Awakening', 'Manifest Destiny', and 'Infinity Divine'. After counting in the nice vocal work and a good production, I arrived at 60%.

 

NEONFLY - Outshine The Sun

Another promising British melodic metal outfit, but still many things to learn to create a much better sophomore release later on. Building up a killer hooky chorus is their main problem, some songs started good with a nice verse but then fell fast to the ground. 'Broken Wings' and 'The Enemy' are the best tracks here, 'Ship With No Sails', 'Splitting Blood', and 'I Think I Saw UFO' are pretty okay, but the rest are just passable. 65%

 

NICKELBACK - Here and Now

Didn't expect much from this band, but I found 4 awesome tracks here. 'When We Stand Together', a nice commercial / acoustic tune with a great chorus; 'Lullaby', a good ballad; 'Trying Not To Love You', also another good ballad; and 'Don't Ever Let It End' is definitely the best track here. 'Bottoms Up' also deserve a shout-out, a good track by them, but tracks like 'Gotta Get Me Some', 'Kiss It Goodbye', and 'Everything I Wanna Do' are the reason why any guys should hate them in the first place.

 

A not-so-bad modern rock thingie, probably around 60%-65%, but that 4 great tracks alone perhaps should entice me to buy this album at around $2-$3 mark.

 

SWITCHBLADE SCARLETT - White Line Fever

another unexepctedly good disc and apparently was discovered by Retrospect. Their sound is a mix of melodic rock, sleaze, and perhaps rock and roll thing like Quireboys, and with a slight modern touch. Retrospect claimed this to be a mix of Loveblast, Dirty Penny, and Bad City, well yeah a good description I think.

 

Best tracks for me are 'White Line Fever', 'Say Anything', Little Hearts', 'Red Clay', 'Gone', 'Dirty Girl', and 'Lucielle'. If only they released off the last two horrible tracks and ended up with 10 tracks, this is an 80% from me, otherwise it's a 75% type of disc, but never know how it comes up later. I'm interested to check on more.

 

TALON - III

Not very far from their prior album, but I get the feeling that this could be the worst of the three. Not bad by any means, it's just that it lacks the superb tracks that will caught your attention instantly. My faves here are 'Crying To Me', 'Did You Have To Say', and 'Everytime', the rest are around 70%-75% type of songs, with at least 3-4 fillers, including the duet with Jeff Scott Soto and Starship cover. 70%

 

THEOCRACY - As The World Bleeds

Melodic / power metal band, perhaps a cross of Edguy and Helloween type of band. Some said they have prog tendency, but the obvious dynamic tempo is shown in 'I Am' only. That first track is supposed to be an epic, promising but 11 minutes is too long and definitely unimportant. 'The Master Storyteller' is a great track, very Edguy thing; 'Nailed' reminds me of Helloween in their later day with great melodic chorus; 'Light of The World' is another giant track here to love. 'Drown' and 'As The World Bleeds' are the fillers, but the rest are pretty good, but hardly special. I can see it ended up around 75% top.

[Glen]

ALFONZETTI - Here Comes The Night

Better than I expected, unlike Jagged Edge that has the glam touch, this is more of a formulaic typical euro MHR/AOR thing, a balance mix of uptempo rockers, mid-tempo AOR, and ballads, which I think the best part here are the ballads, even though rockers like 'Don't Listen To Your Heart' and 'I Will Never Let You Fall' are also great, but trophy down to 'Heartbreaker', 'Lay Your Love On Me', and 'Set Me Free'.

Alfonzetti vocal is still great, however the whole album is too short, running below 40 minutes, and I'm still unsure whether it holds up after more than 5 spins, but I like what I hear so far, and I think it should be in the range of 75%-85% and quite reasonable at 80%.

 

 

the definite highlight of the album for me :-))

[TIM (2)]

NICKLEBACK - Here and Now

 

The usual mixed bag on this one. A lot of bland unmemorable filler and a few outright gems. This one actually has way too much of the filler for my liking, and in all honesty this is not really worth getting. Given I generally prefer albums with a few stand-out tunes (even if they have filler) so I'm always happy to own Nickleback albums and am prepared to skip through them, but there is so much rubbish on here. Even first-single, the melodic "When We Stand Together" is horribly bland. All that said, "Trying Not To Love You" could be the best song they've ever recorded. "Lullaby" is a great ballad with a big hook (though is massively over-produced), and songs like "Don't Ever Let It End" have enough melody to warrant repeat spins. But predominantly this is full of stuff like "Midnight Queen" (absolute dogshit) and "Bottoms Up" (how many times have they written songs like this?) that you will be forced to skip over. About a 5/10 from me.

[JamesEagle]

HELL - Human Remains

 

Kinda wishing I hadn't bought this. It's okay, but nothing special and I'm not keen on the vocals. Very highly-rated NWOBHM, remastered and released this year nearly 30 years or so after the songs were first recorded. The songs just don't grab me (yet).

[Nightrain]

HELL - Human Remains

 

Kinda wishing I hadn't bought this. It's okay, but nothing special and I'm not keen on the vocals. Very highly-rated NWOBHM, remastered and released this year nearly 30 years or so after the songs were first recorded. The songs just don't grab me (yet).

 

This one's definitely overrated. I spun it twice and think it's definitely below 65%.

 

Maybe you want to try BATTLE BEAST - Steel instead, they're Finnish heavy metal band with female vocal,

I can think of a mix between Maiden, Manowar, and Accept in it, kinda like it.

[embrock]

Beggars & Thieves – We are the Brokenhearted

 

Up-front: Their debut is one of my all-time faves! But after my first spin I don't know yet what to think of their newbie. Some excellent songs (We come undone; Stranded; Title-track) and a superb production (every 80s band recording a comeback disc: this is how it's done!), but also some songs I found to be rather boring. Anyway, to me worth alone for the three tracks mentioned above and I'm pretty sure some other songs will grow on me after a few more spins!

Nice to have this band back!

[TIM (2)]

NIGHTWISH - Imaginaerium

 

Much anticipated from me, this one, given that their last 2 albums were absolutely epic IMO. Apparently this is the companion piece to a film, and it sounds like a soundtrack album, it's much more theatrical and OTT than the last few discs. They've basically gone from being a melodic metal band to the 21st Century's own Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Comparisons to bands like Within Temptation are no longer even remotely relevant. This is hard-going, with fewer obvious hooks and melodies and more focus on story-telling lyrics and bombastic musicianship. Plus Olzon is clearly the wrong singer for them. This was obvious on the last album, and it's more apparent here. The musicianship is stunning, in fact there are some sections so incredible they almost justify the entry-price alone, but overall this is inaccessible and bloated and probably only for prog fans or those with a lot of patience. And I'm neither.

[Nightrain]

another run of 2011 releases

 

ADAM LAMBERT - Beg For Mercy

avoid this at all cost! This is an old recording from his Citizen Vein days and the songs are mostly awful. Looks like the band need to farm some cash from Lambert's recent popularity, sounds like the real new album should be out by 2012. This is modern/alternative rock approach rather than poppish element in his debut, couple songs that I like here are 'Just The Way It Is' and 'The Circle' and that's all. 30%

 

BEGGARS & THIEVES - We Are The Brokenhearted

As much as I like their debut, this is just plain uninteresting and another Frontiers failed attempt of rejunevating classic bands. Hard rock thing but filled with fillers and mostly slow/mid tempo. A real worthy track I guess is only 'We Come Undone', and that's only a 7.5 from me, the rest are around 5-6, so probably this will end up around 50%-60%.

 

BRIAN HOWE - Emotions EP

a swansong release by a great singer. Far from rockin', more vocal oriented album, maybe close to audiophile recording. Songs are enjoyable, but maybe not for everyone especially who expect an uptempo album. I think 'Drinking' is the best track here, Howe exploited his normal range to high-rise screamer with ease, song is very slow in tempo though, but very good. 'I'm There' and 'Stringless Kite' are great as well and 'Runaway Train' could be the worst track. 'Christmas' is decent, and overall I think it's a great laid-back album, great production, and deserved around 75%-80%.

 

DISTANCE CALL - s/t

better than I expected but still miles away from perfection. Reminds me a bit of Seven Wishes, only SW is a bit better, and they struggle with the Germany's accent which is quite obvious here. Most of the songs are at 70% value with couple of standouts, 'Bricks' and 'Way To Your Heart'. They also struggle to create a spectacular chorus hence the average score of most songs. Some nice riffs and the guitars are the shiny part here. This is more mid-80s glam metal (with heavy metal tendency), so it's kinda like Dokken, Ratt, Icon kind-of thing. 70%, might be better, but still unsure.

 

NIGHTWISH - Imaginaerum

I can call it a disappointment and that's because I like 'Dark Passion Play' better. This album is too 'soundtrack' oriented, theatrical is also a good term to call it. I don't know whether this was made based on the movie, or vice versa, but the lack of epic-rhythm guitar and spectacular sing-along chorus are the weakest links. I think the best track here is the first single, 'Storytime'. The jazzy-approach in 'Slow, Love, Slow' is unique but not really that great. 'I Want My Tears Back' is a potential commercial hit with an interesting Celtic melodies. 'Turn Loose The Mermaids' is a sad ballad and pretty nice and 'Last Ride of The Day' is a typical Nightwish symphonic metal style, kinda dig it.

 

But the 13 minutes song is useless. You sure can enjoy the first 3 minutes of it, but do you really want to listen to a story for at least 6 minutes, oh cmon! The last instrumental track will be a great musical score, but unnecessary for the album, that also goes with 'Arabesque'.

 

I don't think it might be that bad, but definitely too average for their releases, around 65%-70% for the starter, and what makes me angry is because there'll be no new Brother Firetribe for 2012, holy crap!

 

SEXX ACTION - Feelz Like Fire EP

I think this is gonna be a German-version of Reckless Love, especially when they claimed to be an electro-glam band lol means they kinda mix a dance-y rhythm with glam metal, but this EP sounds like a failure to me. The title track is pretty good - a nice glam meets dance touch, but the rest are horribly passable. 50% is me being generous!

 

SHOTGUN ALLEY - s/t

The first 3 tracks are really not a good choice for starter, people might turned off easily for that kind of fillers, but things started picking up well on 'Eventually'. A brilliant slowtempo ballad and they have another one similar with this near the end called 'Heart Like Glass', which I think almost on par but slightly better. 'Look At Me Now' and 'I Came Here To Love You' are also very good. Sounds like the second half are definitely much better, and another good tracks here are 'Suicide Boulevard' and 'All We Know'. This is a balance blend of modern hard rock and 80s glam. Lyrics are poorly written but the musicianship are great. If only they can come up with a better songs than that 4 fillers, I guess this can take up to 85%, otherwise it's a 75% with a possibility to shoot to 80%.

 

TOUCHSTONE - The City Sleeps

a friend recommend this to me because he said that it's an awesome band with a blend of melodic hard rock and prog metal, and with female vocal. Well, awesome definitely is not an exactly precise term for this one, in fact, it's pretty bland to me. 'When Shadows Fall', a great melodic rock/prog blend, I agree, but it's too long at 10 minutes, I think it's better if they can squeeze it to 7 minutes top. The slight Dream Theater / Genesis touch is quite obvious here, and the alternating male/female vocal is a good move.

 

'Sleeping Giants' is a beautiful slow piano ballad and 'Half Moon Meadow' is quite similar and also I love that track, but if ballads are the best tracks in a prog album, it sure has some problem. The concept is smart, but unsupported by great songwriting, could have been much better, shame on it.

Overall, it deserved only around 65%.

[Glen]

BEGGARS & THIEVES - We Are The Brokenhearted

As much as I like their debut, this is just plain uninteresting and another Frontiers failed attempt of rejunevating classic bands. Hard rock thing but filled with fillers and mostly slow/mid tempo. A real worthy track I guess is only 'We Come Undone', and that's only a 7.5 from me, the rest are around 5-6, so probably this will end up around 50%-60%.

 

 

funnily enough most people are praising this to the hilt and claiming it one of the few 'decent' frontiers releases this year - otherwise they are just releasing generic AOR. Havent heard it yet, but find it interesting that you dont like it.

 

Perhaps its one of those 'grower' albums which we are not allowed to listen to around here.......unless it splits your ears on first listen it gets shelved. Hey ho.

[Geoff]

Funnily enough, I never though the debut Beggars & Thieves was that good anyway, so if the new one's apparently so much weaker I honestly wonder if I even bother? A few I have bothered with:

 

Stan Bush - s/t ; pretty decent vintage AOR. It's not great, but for 1983 it's a good solid album and a definite keeper.

 

Stan Bush & Barrage - s/t ; wow, this is great. Don't know how I managed to avoid these through all the years, but very glad it finally found a home in my ears. Great 80's AOR/melodic rock.

 

Stan Bush - 'Every beat of my heart' ; and another good one I'm glad I now have. More mellow than Barrage and not as good, but it is another fine slab of AOR from start to end.

 

Chickenfoot - 'III' ; I was probably always going to give this a go, though I was clearly in no hurry. Like the debut, it's run-of-the-mill hard rock that no one would notice in a million years without the personell involved, but there are some decent songs here - seems a little more consistent than the very average debut. 'Different devil' and 'Come closer' were my picks on first spin.

[Nightrain]

BEGGARS & THIEVES - We Are The Brokenhearted

As much as I like their debut, this is just plain uninteresting and another Frontiers failed attempt of rejunevating classic bands. Hard rock thing but filled with fillers and mostly slow/mid tempo. A real worthy track I guess is only 'We Come Undone', and that's only a 7.5 from me, the rest are around 5-6, so probably this will end up around 50%-60%.

 

 

funnily enough most people are praising this to the hilt and claiming it one of the few 'decent' frontiers releases this year - otherwise they are just releasing generic AOR. Havent heard it yet, but find it interesting that you dont like it.

 

Perhaps its one of those 'grower' albums which we are not allowed to listen to around here.......unless it splits your ears on first listen it gets shelved. Hey ho.

 

I'm not even sure if it's a grower, but yeah you could try it and let me know if it gets more than 70% from you. I don't know if I'm being too harsh or not with this, but that rating is what my ears told me.

[JamesEagle]

Sebastian Bach - Kicking & Screaming

 

Not really sure why I bought this; maybe I believed Seb's own hype, which would have been a bit naive. It sounds okay, the title track isn't bad and 'I'm Alive' is excellent. Other than that, it all sounds okay, but probably not really my bag.

[Glen]

Sebastian Bach - Kicking & Screaming

 

Not really sure why I bought this; maybe I believed Seb's own hype, which would have been a bit naive. It sounds okay, the title track isn't bad and 'I'm Alive' is excellent. Other than that, it all sounds okay, but probably not really my bag.

 

well we did say that ;-))

[Nightrain]

Sebastian Bach - Kicking & Screaming

 

Not really sure why I bought this; maybe I believed Seb's own hype, which would have been a bit naive. It sounds okay, the title track isn't bad and 'I'm Alive' is excellent. Other than that, it all sounds okay, but probably not really my bag.

 

hey James, i think i saw you buy 'Atmosphere' the other day, interested to see how do you think of it since you're also a man with taste that's hard to predict

[JamesEagle]

Sebastian Bach - Kicking & Screaming

 

Not really sure why I bought this; maybe I believed Seb's own hype, which would have been a bit naive. It sounds okay, the title track isn't bad and 'I'm Alive' is excellent. Other than that, it all sounds okay, but probably not really my bag.

 

hey James, i think i saw you buy 'Atmosphere' the other day, interested to see how do you think of it since you're also a man with taste that's hard to predict

 

Yeah, I know you love that one. Probably best to expect the worst.

[heaven&hell]

Sebastian Bach - Kicking & Screaming

 

Not really sure why I bought this; maybe I believed Seb's own hype, which would have been a bit naive. It sounds okay, the title track isn't bad and 'I'm Alive' is excellent. Other than that, it all sounds okay, but probably not really my bag.

 

well we did say that ;-))

Im not gonna pretend its a gem or anything but i think its a solid hard rock album. Not as good as Angel Down but the production is better.

[heaven&hell]

Slash - Made in Stoke 24/7/11

The best live album I've heard in ages. Forget Velvet Revolver Slash should just stick with this band. Myles sounds great singing the GNR, Snakepit and all of the Slash solo stuff with the only track seems out of place is VR's "Slither". Bassist Todd Kerns takes the mic for "Doctor Alibi" that was originally sung by Lemmy and Todd sounds great singing it. The big surprises for me was how great Myles sounds on "Civil War", "Night Train", "Beggars and Hangers On", "Been There Lately", "Nothing to Say" and "Promise.

 

Riot - Immortal Soul

The return of the Thundersteel lineup with long time Riot guitarist Mike Flyntz. This is a great album. If you loved Thundersteel or love Power/Trad Metal than this is right up your alley. "Riot", "Wings Are For Angels", "Sins of the Father", "Still Your Man", "Crawling" and "Fall Before Me" are the stand out tracks so far.

 

Steel Panther - Balls Out

Not as stellar as 'Feel the Steel' but still a really good album. My 2nd spin was much better than the first but don't know if this one will have the lasting impression the debut did. I still have to wonder what would happen if they dropped the comedy routine and actually wrote serious lyrics but either way this is a fun album.

 

The Magnificent - S/T

These guys seem to get compared to Brother Firetribe but I have to wonder if they aren't a little better that BT. A really solid Melodic Rock/AOR album that is kidn of Magnificent. The first five songs are all excellent and there really isn't any bad tunes.

 

Vain - Enough Rope

I will NEVER EVER EVER try to say this is better or equal to 'No Respect' but I will say that I never saw it coming in a million years that Vain would make a cd this good again. Don't get me wrong I love everything Davy does but this is probably their 3rd best release after the debut and 'Move on It'. There are two tracks from the Roadcrew sessions that still have Adler's drums and Rorie's guitars("Cindy" and "Worship You") and there is another tune("Distance of Love") that features only one original member and has Britt Penella(Blackboard Jungle) on bass. Guitarist James Scott plays on 10 out of the 11 tracks, Ashley Mitchell plays bass on 8 of 11, Drummer Tom Rickard on 6 of 11, but guitarist Danny West only plays on "Solid Gold" which he also co-wrote. Drummer Louie Senor plays on a few tracks and he had been Davy's drummer the last few albums. Fav tracks so far are "Cindy", "Triple X", "Hot Stage Light", "Stray Kitten Burns", "Treasure Girl", "Vain", "Enough Rope", "Greener" and "Distance of Love". I normally don't give scores but if I had to this one would be somewhere close to 10/10 or 100% but maybe just barely under that.

 

Mitch Malloy - II

Said to be like a follow up to the great MM debut album this one is good and has probably a handful of great songs but pales in comparison to the debut. It just doesn't seem to have the same energy but again there are some great tunes and there's not any bad songs. I do think that "I'm the One" should not of been the opening tune. "Falling to Pieces", "Carry On", "I'll Love You Still" and "Love Song" are great songs but I doubt I would pull to many tunes from the debut and replace them with songs from this disc and I guess that's the true test of comparing one album to another.

 

Beggars & Thieves - We Are The Brokenhearted

This is a great great album. I can't believe how good this sounds and how many great songs there are. Sure I wish there were some more rocking songs but this is a much more mature and classy disc. While it's not as good as the debut it still is great IMO. "Oil and Water" is one of my favs of 2011 and "We Come Undone" is amazing too. "Beautiful Losers", "Innocence", "Midnight Blue" and "Stranded" are the standout tracks so far for me. Louie's voice sounds like amazing and Ronnie has wrote some great tunes and plays some great solos.