Burton Cummings - Massey Hall

Considering Burton has been apart of my listening rotation since my birth and I've grown up a fan of his musical musings I'm a little excited to hear and see a new released of him live. He's one of the very few artists that I can without malice say a live recording is going to be good. He's a solid performer and a great actually lets go there he's an absolutely brilliant singer on a live stage.

The Massey Hall release is a classic run through of all things Burton related and the playlist is undeniably awesome. You can't find songs better than the material that has been included on this album because some of these songs are the greatest rock or pop tunes in the history of music. Sure there are some that we roll our eyes at and that's fine but when you get to a songs like "These Eyes" which is in the top ten or twenty of greatest musical compositions in music my statement is easily proven as an absolute truth.

The album opens with "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature" that still has all the charming charisma and shine it had back in 1970 when I was only two years old and I'm positive my parents were cranking up and rocking the house to daily with it. This version has Burton singing it a little lower in key but the presence of his voice and the songs incredible melody dances in my ears and I can't help but sing a long with huge Canadian pride.

The album progresses along through some more Guess Who classics to the Burton Cummings ballad "Stand Tall" that is not only a slice of pure songwriting genius it's probably Burton's single greatest solo hit single. In 2012 at 65 years old you get this guy singing as if he's half or less his age. He sounds great and hits the notes and keeps the melody. A very impressive reading of one his very best moments on vinyl. A few more songs and we get to the Randy Bachman jazz number from 1969 "Undun" a song I wasn't big as a kid but once I grew into a teenager this song really began to come into focus for me and I couldn't get enough of Gary's drumming and Randy's soloing on the original which was really killer stuff especially for me being into drums.

Burton does up "I'm Scared" that the band just hits perfectly here it sounds almost exactly like the album release and Mr. Cummings sounds once again as good he did back in 1977 when the song was originally released on his debut solo album. His duck out of the cold being lost in New York a story I had the personal experience of hearing in total one night while he was sitting on the sofa in our living-room. See my mother dated one of his best friends from childhood and road managers back in the 80's for the better part of a decade. Another reason why I'm such a fanboi of him, I'm sure is that personal connection. Come to think of it I wonder if Marty still works with him today? Anyway back to the music!

The reading of "These Eyes" is a still top flight on the Massey Hall album but I've heard him hit this one out of the park live a few times that I've captured in my memory that will never be touched so this time around as good as it is there are better ones out there. The most overplayed Guess Who track "American Woman" rips it up near the end of this excellent live album. Burton's voice is still the only voice that sounds right singing this song and it's been covered by Kravitz and Krokus to varying degrees of success. I don't care for the Kravitz version and I've never heard anyone do it better the man that wrote it and here on this album it still kicks the ass of all the covers by others.

My one complaint here is that there is no "Bus Rider" and a complete absence of his two rocking solo hits "Your Backyard" along with "My Own Way To Rock" as well as missing is the 80's classic "Fine State Of Affairs" which could have replaced easily "Timeless Love", "Guns Guns Guns" and "Above The Ground" plus he could have finally pulled "Fame Junkie" from obscurity or even his minor hit "Love Dreams" from the excellent 1984 album Heart. Again I'm a huge fan so I can always want for more or different tunes from such a large back catalog of great material.

In the end this is a less spirited version of Burton Cummings given his advanced age but he still has it and the crowds that show up are getting a great performance from a legend. Now only if those moron's and idiots at the Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame would induct someone deserving instead these wastes of space like the Beastie Boys and Run DMC who aren't even rock and or roll and didn't come close to earning those spots like the talent that was known collectively as the Guess Who!

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Check Out: Big Wreck - The Oaf Live

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50 Best Heavy Metal Albums Of All-Time

There are so many sub genre's of Heavy Metal that I'm going to keep this list open as to what genre's I include being all of them. Now these are my opinion and not the typical crap you see on nearly every list out there.

50. HellYeah! 2012 - Band Of Brothers
49. L.A. Guns 1991 - Hollywood Vampires
48. Overkill 1989 - The Years Of Decay
47. Jetboy 1988 - Feel The Shake
46. King Diamond 1988 - Them
45. Quiet Riot 1983 - Mental Health
44. Trivium 2006 - The Crusade
43. Metallica 1983 - Kill 'em All
42. Pretty Boy Floyd 1989 - Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz
41. Great White 1987 - Once Bitten

40. Black Sabbath 1980 - Heaven & Hell
39. Roxx Gang 1990 - Things You've Never Done Before
38. Mötley Crüe 1981 - Too Fast For Love
37. Slaughter 1990 - Stick It To Ya
36. Helix 1984 - Walking On The Razors Edge
35. Dope 2001 - Life
34. Warrant 1990 - Cherry Pie
33. Poison 1988 - Open Up And Say Ahh
32. Halford 2000 - Resurrection
31. Marilyn Manson 2003 - The Golden Age Of Grotesque

30. Slayer 1988 - South Of Heaven
29. Megadeth 1992 - Countdown To Extinction
28. Judas Priest 1984 - Defenders Of The Faith
27. Kix 1988 - Blow My Fuse
26. Metallica 1984 - Ride The Lightning
25. Helloween 2007 - Gambling With The Devil
24. Whitesnake 1984 - Slide It In
23. Scorpions 1982 - Blackout
22. Cinderella 1986 - Night Songs
21. Iron Maiden 1982 - The Number Of The Beast

20. Ozzy Osbourne 1989 - No Rest For The Wicked
19. Skid Row 1990 - Skid Row
18. Kiss 1983 - Lick It Up
17. Anthrax 2011 - Worship Music
16. Ratt 1985 - Invasion Of Your Privacy
15. Iron Maiden 1988 - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
14. Guns N' Roses 1987 - Appetite For Destruction
13. Dokken 1984 - Tooth & Nail
12. Mötley Crüe 1983 - Shout A The Devil
11. Led Zeppelin 1969 - II

10. Def Leppard 1983 - Pyromania
09. Black Sabbath 1973 - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
08. Testament 1999 - The Gathering
07. Suicidal Tendencies 1990 - Lights, Camera, Revolution
06. Deep Purple 1972 - Machine Head
05. ACDC 1980 - Back In Black
04. Fight 1993 - War Of Words
03. Megadeth 1994 - Youthanasia
02. Nazareth 1973 - Razamanaz
01. Led Zeppelin 1971 - IV

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Animal Collective - Centipede Hz

I came into this listening with great anticipation because I wanted to love this album and be mesmorized by their innate awkwardness and specific creative atrocities on what we know as music. This band isn't getting the same blasts of love and success as Bon Iver and Arcade Fire but I find them much more invigorating and splendid than either of those two acts and constant critics darlings. 

The band have once again created something so un-mainstream and cool that the mainstream majority will probably dismiss it. Animal Collective’s madcap and vital new album Centipede Hz will likely divide fans into two lopsided camps: a mostly satisfied majority and those who hate it because it’s not Merriweather Post Pavilion. Fans with little familiarity with Animal Collective’s prolific output apart from Merriweather Post Pavilion, or with its member’s solo efforts, will have to brace themselves for a skittering, bonkers midway ride. For those familiar with the twists and turns of this changeling’s work, Centipede Hz’s stark departure will seem more like a natural progression, though one ostensibly juiced up by large doses of methamphetamine.

 Now considering my absolute love for music my friends will hate or not understand drives me towards bands like Animal Collective and their strange but true characteristics. The linear pulse, and a paring back of their signature kaleidoscopic Pet Sounds harmonies, might bum out the band's cult – people who took Merriweather as cause to go off their antidepressants. But fear not, hipster Hobbits, even when Animal Collective go "garage rock," it's still pure psych-rock Romper Room. 

This is a band that takes deep vocal influence from Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man," which ping-pongs from East Asian classical music to post-punk drum circles to gooey doinktronica, whose tripnotic circular rhythms (via Stewart Copeland fan Panda Bear) are often more like GIFs than grooves, which drops a jam called "Father Time" that sounds like Xavier Cugat playing an ashram.

What gives Centipede Hz its relatable gravity is that, this time out, Animal Collective sound more like creatures who put their skinny jeans on one hoof at a time. "Wonder how I even wrote this song/Does this not occur to almost everyone?" Tare sings on "Monkey Riches." For a band that usually seems to be eternally shambling toward transcendence, a shot of ambivalence is a brave new kind of pick-me-up.

As I previously stated this album won't be everyone's cup of java but when you like your caffeine mixed with delicious dairy and shots of syrup then this might just be what wakes your brain from that golden slumber to alert status red. Just shut up and listen to the album that will be the hipsters indie rock darling while knowing all along that hipsters know fuck all and you are just as cool as they think they are. Centipede Hz is an album by a group of guys who were the coolest guys in school that you didn't relate to because you were afraid to be that bloody awesome.

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All Time Low - Don't Panic

Very well produced pop rock music is on tap with Don't Panic and album full of good riffs, chorus's and solid production. The well crafted songs always have something to offer to fans of the genre but now and again All Time Low miss the mark.

The band haven't written a masterpiece of reinvented the wheel on Don't Panic but they do put together a rather solid collection of music that is unoffensive entertaining and worth listening to when you want to just enjoy whatever your doing.

The band do elevate themselves above average with "For Baltimore", "The Irony Of Choking On A Lifesaver" and "If These Sheets Were States" and fall apart completely on "So Long Soldier". Again this is solid but not amazing and in the end won't be the most memorable album you hear this year but you might come back now and again to listen to the better tunes.

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Aiden Grimshaw - Misty Eye

Aiden was a castoff on X-Factor UK and from the moment I saw him audition I knew there was something special about him. He is surely not a pop star in the current pop market of tarts and queers. He's more akin to the credible side of music, where bands like Radiohead and U2 reach lofty heights.

Sure, Misty Eye is a pop record in the strictest sense of the word, but at the same time it's difficult to envisage the symphonic title track or beat-laden 'This Island' receiving the karaoke treatment any time soon.  Lana Del Rey collaborator Jarrad Rogers was tapped to work with Grimshaw on Misty Eye and that was a great call for everyone involved as the album has a sound and a feeling that breathes life into the songs with emotion and desolateness that can wring you of all power while listening.

Athlete's Joel Pott and Steve Rushton - formerly in Busted off-shoot Son Of Dork - also make cameos as co-writers here. Pott's contribution, the Alex Clare-like 'Is This Love' falls under the weight of its own expectation trying to catch the dubstep gravy train. Rushton's efforts veer between the sublime reflective tones of the orchestral title track and atmospheric lament 'Poacher's Timing', to the closing number 'Curtain Call', which briefly strays into Williams territory via Andreas Johnson's (remember him?) 1999 hit 'Glorious'.

'What We Gonna Be' is one of the few moments that see Grimshaw fall flat on his face as he apes Tinne Tempa's "Written In The Stars". The song is almost laughable and really derails a good album. Grimshaw's subdued take on Sia's 'Breathe Me' also suffers from piano-ballad-by-numbers syndrome, while self-referential slowie 'Be Myself' wins first prize for stating the bleeding obvious ("I gotta be myself, no one else...").

Aiden's intense stage persona oozes through his deeply fervent lyrics of heartbreak and despair. "Behind my eyes I'm terrified/ Now you're gone," he admits on "This Island", before declaring that the solitary space is "suicidal". It's painfully hard stuff, but refreshingly honest. His chances of winning The X-Factor UK may have ended criminally early, but Misty Eye is beyond a winner's album. It's interesting, it's daring and, most importantly of all, it's Aiden's.

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Check Out: Anerbelin - Someone Anyone Lyric Video

Anberlin might have their most immediate and memorable song to date with "Someone Anyone". The chorus is awesome and got stuck in my head instantly which is a good sign for me.

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Jeff Lynne - Long Wave

The man who gave us classics like "Telephone Line", "Don't Bring Me Down" and "Rock N' Roll Is King" has returned with new music. Not since Armchair Theatre have we been graced with his genius and that was twenty-two years ago so it's been a long wave just as this album is titled. The key to Long Wave is that the album is a nod to those songs that he grew up hearing as good old mom and dad were playing the radio at home as a child. 

The great rock n' roll and progressive pop that we enjoyed back in the hey day of ELO is not present here because of what this album is themed. The style of production he takes on this is more akin to his work with the post ELO projects but that's not entirely a bad thing and I do find some decent renditions on the album like "Mercy, Mercy" which sounds as one would expect Lynne to sound like albeit stripped down to the basics. The album is infused with warm melancholy. If it never crackles with startling candour, you sense that’s because he wants to pay simple homage to the tunes that formed him, rather than whip out his youthful diaries.

When you get to his take on the Etta James classic "At Last" you might have had enough of Long Wave because there is not much excitement in Jeff's covers.The ELO/Jeff Lynne sound does spring out with "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" which he almost gets a good swing happening but the tempo just doesn't get up to a good dancing pace. The excellent reading of "Let It Rock" from Chuck Berry's incredible catolog is very good but pales when compared to the original and the country flavored cover from Mel McDaniels back in the eighties. The guitar riff'd version of "Beyond The Sea" is actually hard to listen to because it doesn't have the swagger that the song so naturally has in its most famous version by Bobby Darrin.

Still, Long Wave makes no attempt to avoid sentimentality. Love songs and brazen nostalgia are the album's bread and butter, and it's hard not to be drawn in by the comfort of Lynne's layer upon layer of pleasant melodic attention. But to want to pull this off the shelf and play it through multiple times it will not draw.

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Heart - Fanatic

A new Heart album has been met with disappointment the last few years for sure. I'm not expecting much from this album because I don't think they can write those perfect pop rock songs any longer. I hit play and here we go with the title track that has a gritty near grunge guitar distortion that sometimes apes the Led Zeppelin riff ranch for inspiration and admittedly I like the dirge and grind of the groove. A little under produced on the vocals which is OK on a song like this one.

The Wilson sisters follow with another really dark and mean song which works even though it is awkward and unpolished. Then the turn to the ballad a song with Sara McLachlan who I can't stand as a singer or a performer. The song is a whatever tune, it's kinda good but it's kinda lame as well. The chorus wants to be cool but it doesn't quite reach the lofty heights it needs to and that's because the album sounds like it was recorded on the cheap.

The blues rocker "Skin & Bones" with the unlatching guitar and vocal and the out of tune ring of the bass almost work but miss what artists like Stevie Wonder bring to this sort of style. Now the rest of the album plays by and I'm bored with what they are laying down. The sound of the album is overtly weak and the guitar playing is awful. Heart prove yet again they should just stop recording new material of find someone to write them some songs that don't suck. Ann and Nancy are past their prime when it comes to song writing and even though she can still wail now and again Ann can't suck in the air and let it rip like she could in her youth. Partly because of her weight struggles and in part age but I do believe that if she was near the same weight she was back in the 80's comeback period her voice would be stronger especially live where she sounds winded after the first line. She actually sounds winded on some of the songs on Fanatic which isn't good and I don't say this to be mean or picky it's fact.

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Kiss - Monster

Does Kiss have another Sonic Boom in them well that question will be answered by the end of this review. The first single from the album is the abysmal and trivial "Hell Or Hallelujah" that carries little weight. The song has barely a decent riff and after a listen to it the song is easily forgotten and the worst song on the album leaving a band taste in my mouth that seems to stick around for awhile. Then Gene's lead vocal on "Wall Of Sound" turns everything around for one song at least with a total classic rocker from Kiss. The song has great verses and a memorable chorus that makes me want to hit the repeat button right away and give it another listen. 

Now I will admit I'm a Gene fan always have been always will be. He's the better vocalist of the two main members and he usually writes the better songs albeit cheesier sometimes but I just enjoy his voice much more. Paul Stanley's voice grates on my nerves after awhile because he whines like a bitch too often so, when Paul is the more focused vocalist on a Kiss release I tend to not enjoy it as much but I do like many of Paul's songs and even his last solo album was strong overall. With that said Paul's song "Freak" is much better than the first offering on Monster but isn't as good as all the other material on the album.

The worst thing I can say about this album is that Gene isn't singing and lead writer more often, he barely does anything on Monster that isn't great and I mean Grrrrrreat! "Back To The Stone Age" and "Eat Your Heart Out" are slices of glam rock perfection with big hooks in the chorus's and delicious riffs that make you want to play air guitar instantly.

The guitar solo's on this album are pretty slick and Tommy sounds fantastic especially on the latter of the two tracks. Stanley and Simmons have  great talent but Gene sounds especially deadly and modern as well on the song "The Devil Is Me" that borders between classic heavy Kiss and modern rock of today. Gene's massive personality casts a huge shadow over the entire band on "The Devil Is Me" he just takes over and proves all by himself why Kiss is one of the greatest bands of all-time and why the band have been able to have a career rivaling the Rolling Stones.

Tommy Thayer delivers what I think might become one of my favorite Kiss songs "Outta This World" I love the groove and chorus of the song and Tommy sounds incredible. I'm hoping for a Tommy solo album because he's just so damn good I'd enjoy ten or twelve songs sung by him. This is a great rock n' roll song and nearly the best song on the whole album. Tommy came close to doing the same on Sonic Boom as well so this proves he's not a fluke. "All For The Love of Rock & Roll" is Eric's lead vocal and well c'mon it's bloody awesome too! I can see all the hotties shaking their asses at the concert singing along to it if they'd let him sing it live. It's a feel good rock tune that is currently missing on all forms of radio in 2012.

Paul's best contribution on the album is "Long Way Down" where he doesn't attempt to sing as high and in this octave he sounds much better. I wish he's sing down here more often because his voice has more depth and his pitch doesn't take off into that whiny neighbourhood that drives my ears crazy. Thayer's contributions to the writing are a plenty and he and Paul seem to have good chemistry which I like to see that the band is acting more like a band using the talents of the members. This cohesiveness has made Kiss a much better live act and proof of back to back excellent records that the formula is just perfect.

As the album draws to its close with a slick groover "Take Me Down Below" sung by "THE" man Mr. Gene Simmons and co-vocals by Paul is again Paul sounding his best on the album again. This is another song that should be included in the live sets actually, I'd be happy to have them do almost every song on this album and a few from Sonic Boom and leave out a shitload of the oldies because this is seriously good music. The band have delivered another Sonic Boom and I don't know yet if this album will be able to keep my attention as long as Sonic Boom did but, I will say this when the official release comes about I'll be buying my copy at HMV for sure.

When the album ends on "Last Chance" the first thing I did was start it over again from track two to track twelve and knew by completion this album is a gold medal winner. Kiss is writing some of their finest material in their fifth decade of kicking ass and taking names and I think they just moved past the Stones into second place on the list of the greatest rock n' roll bands of all-time and I say that with absolute honesty.

Monster lives up to its name it is just that a MONSTER of a rock n' roll record that will make Kiss fans happy and better yet rock n' roll fans who just want to crank up the volume and have some fun ecstatic. On October 9th, 2012 make sure you go to your favorite music retailer and purchase a copy of Monster it will make you a better person! ROCK ON!

(No Samples Don't Want Gene To Sue Me!)

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