NEW MUSIC CORNER #13 (TAKING DAWN/THE DOOBIE BROTHERS/DOWN 'N' OUTZ/SANTANA)

[RJhog (Admin)]

by RJhog

I'm gonna tweak my format just a bit starting this week.  From now on, I'm gonna post from 3 categories.  Those will be a "New" band, a "Classic" band and a "Pick 'Em" or "Grab Bag", which could be anything.  Of course, I'm throwing a curve right off the bat because I prepped 4 albums for this volume of NMC.  So I'll have a new, classic, pick 'em and a bonus this week. 

New Band

  Band: Taking Dawn
  Album: Time To Burn
  Released: 2010




1. Take Me Away
2. Save Me
3. Endlessly
4. Can't Leave You Alone
5. Black Diamond

Taking Dawn's debut release is pretty cool.  This band opened for Kiss during their 2010 European Tour.  They have somewhat of a late 80's hair band sound.  This album is loaded with melodies, hooks and some very decent twin lead guitar playing.  I actually downloaded this from iTunes (which is very unusual) because it had 3 bonus tracks compared to the physical release, and I've included two of those here (Can't Leave You Alone and the Kiss cover Black Diamond). 

Cover Art:  C (not great, not bad, just there)

Recommendation:  Buy it!

Classic Band

  Band: The Doobie Brothers
  Album: World Gone Crazy
  Released: 2010




 6. Chateau
 7. Nobody
 8. World Gone Crazy
 9. Don't Say Goodbye
10. Old Juarez

"Wow" is my first impression of this album.  Tom Johnston still sounds the exact same, which is awesome.  The song Don't Say Goodbye has a familiar voice (Michael McDonald) on backing vocals.  For my money, Old Juarez may just be the song of the year.  It's fantastic.  The only drawback for me here (it's minute) is the other vocalist (I think it's Pat Simmons).  It's really a shame that McDonald isn't doing a couple of lead vocals here.  But like I said, Tom Johnston makes this worth the price of admission.

Cover Art: C (looks like actual art, which I know nothing about)

Recommendation: Buy it!

Pick 'Em Band

  Band: Down 'N' Outz
  Album: My Regeneration Vol. 1
  Released: 2010




11. Golden Opportunity
12. Storm
13. Overnight Angels
14. Career (No Such Thing As Rock 'n' Roll)
15. By Tonight

This is Joe Elliot's (Def Leppard) side project with some of The Quireboys and their take on Ian Hunter's catalog (I'm not sure if any of these are Mott The Hoople songs or not).  As far as cover albums go, this is one of the better ones.  Probably because the track listing is very unknown to me, therefore it sounds fresh.  This is well done, and Elliot can still sing pretty well, at least in the studio.

Cover Art: D (kind of crappy)

Recommendation:  If you have the dough, buy it!

Bonus Band

  Band: Santana
  Album: Guitar Heaven:The Greatest Guitar Classics Of All Time
  Released: 2010




16. Can't You Hear Me Knocking (Scott Weiland)
17. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (India Arie & Yo-Yo Ma)
18. Photograph (Chris Daughtry)
19. Back In Black (Nas)
20. Dance The Night Away (Pat Monahan)

This bonus album I have for you is crap.  Plain and simple.  Only a couple of songs here are even tolerable, those being Can't You Hear Me Knocking, While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Under The Bridge (which I did not include).  I do actually like Back In Black with Nas, not because I like rap, but the song fits the rap style to me.  The lyrics are perfect for rap.  Who would have known that in 1980?  Anyway, the rest is pretty much awful.  Photograph, Dance The Night Away and Fortunate Son (also not included here) are 3 of the worst covers ever.  I even like Vince Neil's covers album better than this.

Cover Art: B (the best thing about this album)

Recommendation: Total waste of money.

To listen to NMC #13, please click here.
                          

                         

[Jon]

Finally got to listen to this....


Taking Dawn: Eh...sounds a bit angsty and you didn't help them with the Kiss cover :-).

Doobie Brothers: A pleasant surprise. I am not a big Michael McDonald fan, everytime he's a guest on some artists song, I get annoyed. Don't know why, I just do. I'll put this in the "will maybe buy when it's really cheap". Not a bad effort at all.

Down 'n' Outz: Hell, another covers album. It's not bad but not something I want.

Santana: Double hell, yet another covers album. While it's great to hear Carlos, I think he needs to lay off this guest vocalist stuff and get back to making this a total 100% band effort. Blame this on Clive Davis, he needs to go away. Another star off for forcing me to listen to an American Idol contestant. Gee, thanks! This version of "Back In Black" sucks, if you want to hear a decent cover version listen to Living Colours interpretation. Will not spend a pennmy on this album. If I got it for free, I would send it back.