Reviews roundup – Bernie Marsden vs. Third World vs. Curved Air vs. Helix

Reviews roundup – Bernie Marsden vs. Third World vs. Curved Air vs. Helix

BERNIE MARSDEN
Shine
Provogue

Blimey!  Here Comes Trouble!  A solo album from Bernie Marsden that isn’t a blues album.  We haven’t one of those in over 30 years.  Granted, there are blues licks a plenty, because that’s what he does, but this is harking back to his Parlophone days of “And About Time Too” and “Look At Me Now”.

To that end, he’s wheeled in former Alaska colleague Rob Cass to produce, and dipped into his rolodex for some special guest stars.  So the likes of Jimmy Copley, Ian Paice, Don Airey, Cherry Lee Mewis, Joe Bonamassa and Mark Feltham are brought along for the ride.  Oh, yes, and some fella called David Coverdale.

Now, I enjoyed it, but the mixture of styles does feel a tad jarring at times.  With blues, AOR, boogie, seventies rock and some west coast rock, it doesn’t flow.  However, his guitar work is absolutely delightful, and it’s good to hear him getting back to the top of his game.  Mr Marsden said previously that the style of the album will harken back to the Whitesnake “Ready An’ Willing” era: “Kind of gone retro, but with a 2012-2013 sound, if you know what I mean.”  And he’s not far off, although it’s more 1978 Snake than anything else.

There are a handful of delights, with his cover of Danny Kirwan’s ‘Dragonfly’ (a Fleetwood Mac single from 1970), the title track, the Cherry Lee Mewis augmented ‘Bad Blood’ and the delightful ‘Ladyfriend’, the best of an enjoyable album.  And, of course, the rejigged ‘Trouble’.  It’s been a long time coming, but it’s certainly up their with the best of his solo albums.

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THIRD WORLD
Under The Magic Sun
Cleopatra

Ah, reggae.  It always takes me back to the acid trip at Glastonbury 1984, when I started to come down, just as the heavens opened, and Black Uhuru took to the stage. One of the worst 75 minutes of my life.  Especially, as it seemed to last about 4 years.

Fast forward 30 years, and here come Third World with a covers album.  Seems this is the last record to feature the late, Bunny Rugs, erstwhile leader of the band, and it also sees them covering three of their own hits, namely ‘Try Jah Love’, ’96 Degrees’ and ‘Now That We Found Love’.

Elsewhere, they pick on a sixties tune from Jackie DeShannon, a Creedence Clearwater Revival gem, a Bread number and some Marvin Gaye, amongst others, all done in a mid tempo vibe.  The only new track on the record is a live number called ‘Livication To Bunny Rugs’, which as you may have guessed is a, um, livication to Bunny Rugs., recorded on on stage in Martinique.

It’s well produced, and if you like this sort of thing, then you’ll like this sort of thing.

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CURVED AIR
North Star
Curved Air Records

Curved Air, eh?  Before my time, so I only really recall them from archive pop programmes showing ‘Back Street Luv’.  Which is a bit shit.  These days, it’s Sonja Kristina and her backing crew, as Darryl Way is off doing his own thing, although drummer Florian Pilkington-Miksa is still around from their inception.  In fact, it’s the fourth album since she resurrected the name in 2008, but with the others being re-recordings, a best of, and a live album, this is the first one of new material.

Although, actually, it’s seven new songs, three re-recorded songs from first two Curved Air albums, one from a Sonja Kristina solo album, and three covers, from Snow Patrol, The Police and The Beatles.  But she’s put a good band together, and they know their way around a song, especially guitarist Kirby Gregory who puts in a good shift, on his return after 40 years away.

It’s still a mix of folk rock and art rock meets prog for a good noodle, but a lot of the instrumental passages are utterly engaging.  There are a few gems including the opening ‘Stay Human’, Interplay’ and the revisit to’Puppets’.  The band, also including violinist Paul Sax, keyboardist Robert Norton and bass player Chris Harris are all in excellent form, and fans from yore will definitely want this.

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HELIX
Bastard Of The Blues
Perris

Helix!  Huzzah!  Let’s Rawk!  Although there is a lot to be said about a band creating a moment of magic, then vanishing. that isn’t the Helix way.  No, they didn’t stop after creating their ‘Heavy Metal Love’ masterpiece, and this is the thirteenth full length studio CD from the Canadian colonials.

And not a lot has changed over the years since their glory days.  I remember getting “The Power of Rock and Roll” back in 2007 and thinking exactly the same thing, and they haven’t went for their Jazz Odyssey this time around either.  There have been hundreds of members in Helix, with only vocalist Brian Vollmer having lasted the full forty years, and even since their 2000s classic lineup reunion, there have been more comings and goings.

But it matters not a jot as they blast through their blues infested eighties metal hybrid, with songs like ‘Screaming At The Moon’, ‘Metal At Midnight’ and ‘Axe to Grind’ sounding exactly the way you would expect them to.  Which makes me content.  To be fair, I could have lived without the ballad, ‘When All The Love Is Gone’, sang and written by long-time bass player Daryl Gray, which made me rethink my Jazz Odyssey statement, but I’ll let it slide.  For some reason they’ve included a couple of songs from their 2011 EP “Skin In The Game”. It’s a shame as the new stuff is much better.

It’s not quite “Walkin’ the Razor’s Edge” / “No Rest for the Wicked”, but it’s a lot closer than I ever would have guessed.

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