The onslaught is upon me and I have to say it's great fun to be needed. This week we have a mixed bag of stuff with varying styles and degrees of success. Anyway enough jabbering let me "get on with it."
CD Reviews
Saturna: All Night
This is an EP of indie space rock from Seattle that occasionally has touches of Foreigner's riffs, Joy Division posturing, and even hints of Pink Floyd. This five track CD (the sixth is a radio edit of "Just for Thrills") contains some fairly mellow and laid-back trippy stuff that would be perfect when one is off your head after heavy night of partying and needs to mellow out. Now, not exactly heavy or even that original, it does have qualities that require repeated listens and appreciations. Then again Seattle and Manchester have a lot in common.
Double Eclipse: Eloquent Face Down
It seems at the moment that some bands in the UK are all nostalgic for grunge. Alas, this band has a few dabbles with grunge ("Save Me" for example is dreary in extremis... ditto "Learn") and its light alternative. However, there are a few rather good tracks on here that rise above the dross. "Sorry Wasn't Enough" drifts towards a pleasant form of AOR. It's quite a good song which has lighter in the air qualities about it. It's the track which features the best singing so why was it left as the tail-end track?
The band which comprises of the brothers' Hackney does possess talent (that is quite obvious) but it really needs to be a bit more focused. The guitar intro on "Don't Be So Low" is quite fun as well. This is certainly a curate's egg of a CD. Double Eclipse show a great amount of promise and are worth keeping an eye on.
Yes: Essentially
You got five albums that didn't sell too well when released and are now floundering. What do you do to give a kick up the sales arse? Well, if you are Yes you slap 'em into a box set and have Classic Rock writer Dave Ling do a nice write-up for you. This set is quite impressive looking and the sleeves for each CD are rather nice as well. The live album included "Live in Montreux" is not really one of their best, but that aside if you don’t have these albums, this a good way of completing your Yes collection.
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