Reviews roundup – Ghost vs. Matty T Wall vs. Gong Expresso vs. Willie Jackson vs. Ben Glover

Reviews roundup – Ghost vs. Matty T Wall vs. Gong Expresso vs. Willie Jackson vs. Ben Glover

 

GHOST
Prequelle
Spinefarm

Album number four from Ghost and it’s well, um, OK.

Really. That’s it. Now that they (he) have been unmasked, the mythology and fun has been drained slightly. Add in the fact that this has very little to do with metal and more to do with eighties synth pop and there is just a feeling of so what.

It doesn’t even sound BIG, with a flat production and a serious lack of (technical term coming up) oomph. I kept on waiting for something interesting to happen and I’m still waiting. Now I don’t care about the legal shenanigans or how much input Omega, Alpha and Air had to earlier releases but the fact is that “Prequelle” is a pale imitation of what went before. It’s probably deliberate as Papa now Cardinal is aiming for wider success but ‘Rats’ aside I’m toiling to think of any songs I’d go back to very often. There’s also a fair few instrumentals which rather than adding to the album have a fell of padding about them.

Hopefully I’m wrong but this has the feel of a shark being jumped.

 

MATTY T WALL
Sidewinder
independent

Time for some blues rock now and an absolute cracker of a release from Matty T Wall.

Twelve tunes, eight originals and four covers. It certainly sounds great, which is no great surprise when he’s got Bob Clearmountain in to mix it. Yes, the Bryan Adams, The Who, The Rolling Stones Bob Clearmountain. But having a great sounding album is no damn good if you haven’t got the songs to back it up. And Mr Wall has them in spades.

The originals are uniformly good with the title track and Ain’t That The Truth the best of a cracking bunch. He’s a really strong singer but is happy to let the music do the talking with a couple of instrumentals which show his remarkable fretwork. I was less keen on the covers with ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ and ‘Mississippi Kkkrossroads’ getting a thumbs down round my way. But his take on Trombone Shorty’s ‘Something Beautiful’ is just fantastic. He can rock with the best of them but take it down on the likes of ‘Leave It All’ to great effect.

A must hear album from a must hear talent.  PS – David Coverdale phoned and asked for his album cover back!

https://www.mattytwall.com

 

GONG EXPRESSO
Decadence
independent

Back in the seventies Gong went about their merry mental way, all hippy mantras and whatnots. Then drummer Pierre Moerlen took over the band and the name and made some truly immense jazz fusion albums a million miles away from the original Gong sound.

Well most of seventies Gong are long gone but Benoit Moerlen and Hansford Rowe with Benoit tracing his Gong roots back to 1974 before joining with his brother Pierre for his fusion direction. Rowe worked with Pierre as well and also turned up in the later Gongzilla. And François Causse was around for a couple of albums as well. So they’ve got just as much right to big themselves up as the latest version of the Gong mother-ship who are mere babies by comparison.

Of course they’re still doing the fusion thing and they’re doing it really well. They should leave no doubt in the mind of the casual passer by as to their direction, hence the Expresso suffix, but this is a lot less furious than some of the late seventies / early eighties output. At places it’s borderline chill despite the percussive overload but regardless the likes of ‘Zephyr’ and ”God Knows’ can hold their heads up proudly in the canon of work produced by the original offshoot.

 

WILLIE JACKSON
Chosen By The Blues
independent

You might find this hard to believe but this is a blues album. I know. You’d never have guessed it from the title.  He’s also a different Willie Jackson from the other Willie Jackson.  You now, the deid one.

Now it’s one thing to be chosen by the blues. Quite another to have people wanting to hear you. I mean I was chosen by Tennent’s Super Strong Lager to be a jakey but no-one else was the least impressed. Thankfully Mr Jackson can actually deliver what he’s been chosen to do on a delightful mini album.

Across the six tracks, the Georgian native (USA not Eastern Europe) lets rip with a powerful and listenable voice on a fine set of original songs in the company of a mighty fine band – John Willis on bass, Dillon Young on guitar, Paxton Eugene on drums and Ace Anderson on harmonica. There is a soulful undercurrent to what he does but songs like ‘Just An Old Dog’ and ‘Big Boned Woman’ will sate the most ardent blues appetite. A good one.

https://williejacksonblues.com

 

 

BEN GLOVER
Shorebound
Proper

It must be right annoying to have the same name as a Grammy award winning songwriter when you’re a singer / songwriter. Especially one who’s having a go at Stateside success with his folk meets Americana schtick. So just in case any American Contemporary Christian music fans have wandered in, this is the other one. The one that co-wrote some fine tunes with Gretchen Peters as well as punting out a handful of solo albums.

He’s also rocked it up a bit on this one with less of the folk side and more of the Americana. Which is fine by me. It sees him collaborating with a weel kent array of fellow travellers with Peters returning alongside the likes of Amy Speace, Mary Gauthier, Kim Richey and, um , Ricky Ross, amongst others. But it remains his album with some excellent songs which really should see his profile raised. Tunes such as ‘A Wound That Seeks The Arrow’, ‘Ride The River’ and ‘Song For The Fighting’ could even cross over into the world of adult rock, as there is nothing going on in the worlds of Snow Patrol and their ilk that would deter crossover success.

Get him on that bloody awful Jools Holland show and watch the sales soar. Thing is, he deserves it.

 

 

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St Columba’s Hospice Tribute Fund for Linda Hamilton
http://linda.hamilton.muchloved.com/
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