Classic Rock Bottom

New Music Corner #237 - (Billy Gibbons and the BFGs, Jeff Lynnes ELO)

by "no idea what BFG stands for" Scott

Two pretty cool and highly anticipated releases, at least by some.  Was the wait worth it?

Billy Gibbons and BFG's
Perfectamundo

  1. Got Love If You Want It (4:18)
  2. You're What's Happenin', Baby (6:07)
  3. Pickin' Up Chicks On Dowling Street (4:12)
  4. Quiero Mas Dinero (3:27)
  5. Piedras Negras (3:09)

Jeff Lynne's ELO
Alone In The Universe

  1. Love and Rain (3:30)
  2. When The Night Comes (3:22)
  3. Ain't It A Drag (2:36)
  4. I'm Leaving You (3:09)
  5. Alone In The Universe (3:55)

Well?

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Replies to This Discussion

Billy Gibbons And The BFG's--Thumbs Down

Look, if you're gonna use autotune, you're going to get thumbs down. I don't know why anybody (except Cher) thinks this is a nifty, neat-o thing to do. It just makes it sound like over-processed crap. It's a shame, since there's some nice geetaring throughout and that last song is really good. The second song started off quite funky and then that autotune and then the rap and it just caused any goodwill towards that song to disappear. About a week ago, I was checking on the reviews on amazon and the average was 2.5 stars. Now it's up to 4, makes me wonder if there's some bogus reviewing going on. Oh, and this wasn't anticipated, highly anticipated and even slightly anticipated for me. This wasn't a pleasant listen at all, except for the last song.

Not surprisingly I disagree.  One of the biggest surprises about this CD for me were the keyboards.  Really nicely textured!  The beats resonate and the guitar accent everything really nicely.  I think Gibbons has earned the right to leverage whatever technology he wants because we know he can do it without studio trickery.  The louder this one gets the better it sounds.

Weirdly the raps didn't bother me either, but then again I am also a Roll The Bones apologist.  :-)

GIBBONS - "Got Love If You Want It" is a great song, but I prefer it with High Numbers, or whatever they were called at the time. I'm not much of a fan of spanish music or whatever to call this stuff. Good rythms and good playing, but not enough guitar, and the fact that Gibbons voice is "electric" all the way through the album, tells me, he can't sing anymore without help. A nice party-album, but as I've said earlier, I prefer party's, where "Physical Graffitti" is the nights biggest hit-album. Not that I've ever been to such a party, though, unfortunally.

ELO - This is music for Grandma's. There are SOME good old ELO-sounds in this, but when did Lynne the last time made a very good album? I prefer ELO from the mid-seventies. This sounds more like mid-eigthies ELO. A dissapointment, even though I didn't expect much of this release.

This nice party album will make an appearance on my top ten this year.  I've not been able to stop listening since I got it.  The only question for me is how high will it go!  :-)

Jeff Lynne's ELO--Thumbs in the middle

Thanks to Amazon Prime, I was able to listen to this whole album for freeeeeeeee and thought it was kinda boring with the songs kinda sounding the same. All mid-tempo stuff. So I thought the second time listening to some of the songs a second time would give me a second opinion, but it's still the same. All the songs still sound the same, and they're basically all the same tempo. At least there's none of that autotune crap here which is a good thing. Debated about getting this before listening, a bit glad I didn't because I don 't think I would revisit this often, if at all. I guess I was slightly anticipating this, but not a whole lot.

I'm kinda with you and Niels on this.  I hear some retro ELO all over this but its like unplugged ELO.  I totally miss all the layers and strings.  A couple of tracks really are more disappointing than others, like I'm Leaving You which sounds like a Traveling Wilburys leftover instead of an ELO track, and Dirty To The Bone would fit perfectly on any Tom Petty album from 1991 or later.  The rest I like better as ELO tracks.  I don't agree with his approach do this alone though. I had hoped for a real ELO album instead of a Jeff Lynne solo...

Gibbons - So I'm listening to this, and it's not bad.  It also has nothing that sticks out to me.  Well, that second track has some nice bass work.  But I definitely hear the auto-tune issues Jon is referring to.  You'd think that alone would be enough to make classic rock fans give a thumbs down.  But the groove of track two is just so inviting.  Quite funky.  But the song just took a downward spiral.  You know why.  I'm not totally against a little rap here and there.  One of Mother's Finest's songs has a rap part, and I like it.  Sweet guitar solo.  Damn, I feel like I've listened to the whole album with just this one track. The Pickin' Up Chicks song has some cool rhythm guitar on it.  The keys are cool too.  So far, quite a few hip hop sounds, especially on the first Spanish titled song.  When Gibbons cuts loose on the axe, my interest grows.  That sounds like slide guitar on that final track.  

Overall, I'm going...Thumbs sideways.  The interest that the first three tracks build is quickly dashed by the last two tracks posted.  Just totally different.  So, while my thoughts through the first three tracks were leaning toward a possible purchase, changed again after hearing the last two.  Close, but not quite a purchase for me.

Jeff Lynne's ELO - Why not just Jeff Lynne?  Or, why not just ELO?  And why not hire a full scale orchestra to really accent these songs?  I totally dig the first two tracks sampled here.  And the strings are more prominent on When The Night Comes, which helps.  Ain't It A Drag's riff sounds like a James Bond theme song.  The song itself reminds me of something ELO did, but I can't place it right now.  These songs, especially this one, are quite short.  I'm Leaving You sounds like it's straight out of the Travelling Wilbury's playbook. I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing.  His voice is so good, and it stands out on the last track posted here, but the track itself is one of those that would benefit with some heavy strings.

I own this one already, and I've listened to it once all the way through, and now these songs.  My initial thoughts match what I'm hearing here, it's very slow paced in general.  But, I do like these tracks posted, so I'm gonna be sure and spin it again soon for a fresh new listen.

The jury is still out.

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