Lost/Forgotten Album #196

[Jon]

Yet again, no "facts" are taken from Wikipedia.

There's also no movie tie-in with this week's pick. I post what I want to post, when I want to post it. No giant lizard is going to sway me.

With that out of the way, this week's pick is the second (and last) album from Lone Star, 1977's "Firing On All Six". No, this is not the country group. That's "Lonestar" and we don't do country here.  

Here's a little biography of the band, courtesy allmusic.com:

"This traditional UK hard rock quintet was formed in 1975 by Kenny Driscoll (lead vocals), Tony Smith (guitar), Paul ‘Tonka’ Chapman (b. 9 June 1954, Cardiff, Wales; guitar), Pete Hurley (bass) and Dixie Lee (drums). Specializing in dynamic heavy rock, they attracted considerable attention with their Roy Thomas Baker-produced debut, offering an approach and sound not dissimilar to early Queen’s pomp/hard rock formula. Driscoll was replaced by John Sloman in 1977 before the release of Firing On All Six. This album pushed the dual guitars of Chapman and Smith to the forefront and concentrated on heavier material. Shortly after its release the band disintegrated, with Sloman joining Uriah Heep, Chapman replacing Michael Schenker in UFO and Dixie Lee teaming up with Wild Horses."

Even though their debut album is pretty good, I decided to post their second album. It is a stronger album, plus there's some funk/disco thrown in and everyone loves funk/disco!  

The album does sound a bit dated, especially with the keyboards. They're "sweeping". Sometimes the drums sound like something out of the 70's. The geetars™ are geetars™. No matter the time, geetars™ are cool. Plus there's dual geetars™ here, so double the fun. 

That's 500+ words. I'm done.

Firing On All Six

1. The Bells Of Berlin
2. The Ballad Of Crafty Jack
3. Time Lays Down
4. Hypnotic Mover
5. Lovely Lubina
6. Seasons In Your Eyes
7. Rivers Overflowing
8. All Of Us To All Of You

Availability: Two options for you! First is the BGO two-fer which includes the first album and runs around $15. Second is the Rock Candy remaster which runs around $18 and includes bonus tracks. From my understanding, both editions sound very good so it might boil down to the bonus tracks. (NOTE: I used the BGO remaster for this post.)   

 

[Jon]

[RJhog (Admin)]

I'm surprised that Scott isn't a bigger fan of this.  I would have guessed that he would like it a lot.  That being said, here are my thoughts:

The bass player is good.  I like his work.

I hear a bit of Styx"ish" vocals in the second track.

Track two is also a cool song with some nice guitar playing.

The lead vocals, while not terrible, also aren't great.  But I hear some nice harmony backing vocals at times, again reminding me a bit of Styx (tacks 3 and 5).

Don't care for Hypnotic Mover.

Definite funkiness in a couple of tracks, which brings me full circle back to the bass player.

Again, pretty decent post.  An enjoyable listen.