Howling At The Moon - The Panther's Album Reviews

"He was born in Macon Georgia, a poor boy without a dime, he made his way to Memphis singing "These Arms Of Mine" - William Bell in his Otis Redding musical salute "Tribute To A King" As most people surely know, 1968 was a tumultuous year - the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, war in Vietnam at its Tet offensive height, Russians in Czechoslovakia, violent student demonstrations in Paris, racial tensions ramped up all over the place, particularly in the USA and South Africa. Stax Records, based in King's hometown and near to the site of his murder, felt this as keenly as anyone. Turmoil was the name of the game, the background to even the most ordinary person's existence. It is against this background that this five CD compilation is presented - just take a look at its inspirationally iconic cover. However, if you were expecting, as I was, a whole load of soulful protest, Staple Singers-style, to reflect the sound of seg...

  Known to many people, Ann’s only minor hit came with the much-covered  I Can't Stand The Rain . Her version in its stark, almost desolate production, is the definitive one. It was covered is upbeat disco fashion by Eruption in 1977 and Tina Turner on her 1983 Private Dancer album in more soulful style, as you would expect.  Much of Ann's material is from the Millie Jackson-Betty Wright-Shirley Brown-Laura Lee-Doris Duke school of female angst over their cheating no good men that was so prevalent in black female soul music in the early seventies.  Tracks like the Blaxploitation hit,  I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down  and the bitter  I feel Like Breaking Somebody's Home  certainly live up to that billing.  Anyway, this was 22 year-old Ann Peebles’ assured debut album. Just listen to the confident way she attacks the first two cookers on here, Give Me Some Credit and the slightly swamp-rocky Crazy About You Baby. Make Me Yours continues in t...

For some reason, this album included six cuts from This Is Ann Peebles - click to read the review for that album. This was something that often happened in the sixties and early seventies. Why, I’m not sure. Maybe they though the first album didn’t attract enough attention. These are the four new ones.  Part Time Love is a fine potboiler to kick off with. in the same vein is I Get Along. there is something a bit deeper about the sound on this album, a bit more raunchy. Ann’s voice is ever so slightly gruffer too. Sure, it is similar to the material on the first album, but there’s something just slightly different.  I Still Love You is in that slow churchy style while Generation Gap Between Us is a lively number bemoaning the fact that Ann’s lover is much older. Never mind Ann, I'm sure you'll get over it.

  Now for Ann Peebles' second (or maybe third) album.   Slipped, Tripped And Fell In Love is exactly what you would expect - big, deep, throbbing bassline, fatback drums, killer soulful Stax-style guitar and Ann's gritty vocal. Boil them all together and you get one hell of a southern soul recipe.  Ann is getting a touch of that world-weariness with regard to relationships now that many female soulstresses did in the early seventies and Trouble, Heartache And Sadness perfectly represents that state of mind. That darn no-good man done me wrong once more. At the risk of repeating myself, something I often do, I have to say that the sound on this album is out there. Just listen to that tasty, deep bass come rumbling into What You Laid On Me. We  hear a heartbroken, wronged woman railing against her man and other predatory women against a funky, dirty musical backdrop. Horns and wah-wah guitar. No lush strings here.  This is classic seventies gutsy, kick-ass dirty s...

Three years on (quite a while) and Ann Peebles finally got her big single success with the track many of us know by now. The album was produced by Willie Mit chell and largely written by Ann and her husband Don Bryant. I have mentioned the now iconic title track in my introduction to Ann's work. It still sounds great, doesn't it? The lyric is resurrected in the next track, the typical Peebles-soul of Do I Need You. It would seem that the formula hasn't changed much over the ears, but like with reggae or blues rock, for this sort of soul, does it really matter? Hell no.  Until You Came To Me is one of those gospel-inflected slow, heartfelt ballads that finds the singer in more reflective mood. (You Keep Me) Hangin' On (not the Supremes song) is a sumptuously appetising serving of smooth soul. Why, Ann has filed down and polished up those raw, rough raunchy edges, hasn't she? It's a lovely warm song.  The chugging Run Run Run has a vaguely Native American-sounding...

By 1975, Ann Peebles was already something of a veteran, with three studio albums of raw, brassy, down 'n' dirty my man gone done me wrong Southern soul under her belt. It would seem, therefore, that 1975's Tellin' It album would be more of the same, which, to a great extent it is. However, there is a change of image in that Ann now looks slick and sophsticated with a new hairdo on the cover, as it off to a swanky night club as opposed to drinking in a downhome bar or hurrying off to pick the kids up from school before thinking about any opportunity for fun with her cheatin' no good man. No sir. Ann, looking sexy as hell, has gone up a notch or two and, much to the dsipleasure of those who dug the archetypal original Hi Records earthy, horn-drenched grinding backing, what we get here is just a tiny little bit more sophisticated. Produced once more by Willie Mitchell, the sound is more polished, sweeter and more subtle. Well, just a bit, because what it doesn't...

In 1977, things were changing in soul music - D. I. S. C. O. Even legendary cookin' soul labels like Hi Records were not immune. They had to get in on the act too and, although this, Ann's first release for two years, was still Willie Mitchell-produced, there are definite nods to the dance floor present here. Rather like Curtis Mayfield’s output at the same time, there is a softer, more disco-oriented groove to the sound. The horns, for example are now delivered by the sweeter-sounding disco-ish South Memphis Horns, as opposed to the iconic Memphis Horns. Strings are clearly present, sweeping over the melody in true disco style. Check out the album's opener, If This is Heaven, as a fine example. What is never in doubt, however, is that our Ann had one hell of a voice. She sounds great on what is, for me anyway, a really, really good track. Yes, the horns are softer, but in a good way. They perfectly suit the track. Sure, I love the earlier raw and punchy sound, but I like ...

You may be thinking I am becoming obsessed with Ann Peebles, the amount of reviews I have been doing of her albums recently. It is simply that her albums are all so damn good that I have grown slightly addicted to their robust, Southern soul grooves. I've been listening to her every evening for about two weeks now. This album, from 1979, is the last in her series of excellent releases on the Hi records label. After 1977's slightly lighter, vaguely disco-influenced If This Is Heaven we return here to a punchier, more raw-sounding, typically Hi sound, no doubt to the relief of some long-time fans. Overall, it is the best-sounding of all her albums, production-wise. Sex is high up on the list of lyric subjects on this album, making for a raunchy listen. Ann, now a most experienced lover, is summoning up her inner Millie Jackson, it would seem. On the opener, Old Man With Young Ideas, Ann extols the virtues of having an experienced lover who is twice her age. Good for her. Us ol...

I was never quite sure how to categorise Texas. They actually came on to the scene in 1989, before Brit Pop, yet they were sort of indie/Brit Pop-ish. They fitted that bill - charismatic, ballsy female lead singer (Sharleen Spiteri) and some faceless blokes backing her (actually Johnny McElhone had been in new wave/post punk band Altered Images). Their music was rock-ish (certainly on their first three albums), with some soul/Motown and blues influences but also a guitar-driven indie post punky feel to them. This was their most "rock" album and it is still probably my favourite. Incidentally, quite why a Scottish band called themselves Texas is unclear. I Don't Want A Lover starts with some low-key bluesy slide guitar, before a bass line arrives and it breaks out into a solid, singalong bluesy rock song. It was the group's first big hit and still often gets played many years later. Spiteri's voice is strong and the acoustic guitars are razor sharp. I am sure KT Tu...

This is Texas as I preferred them - bluesy and rocking in traditional fashion. No drum machines or contemporary stylings on here as would appear on later albums (White On Blonde and beyond). There are quite a lot of Delta Blues influences, with excellent slide guitar from Ally McErlaine, while singer Sharleen Spiteri's voice is deep, low in pitch and soulful. This is a proper rock album, and a really good one at that. I like it a lot. Mothers Heaven is a big, crashing piece of blues-influenced rock, full of pounding drums, chunky riffs, funky clavinet and vibrant piano. Sharleen Spiteri’s vocal is strong enough to cope with the song’s power.  Why Believe In You is influenced by U2’s dabbling in Americana with a bit of The Hothouse Flowers in there. The organ bits and the bluesy slide guitar are excellent, as is the brooding, shuffling beat. Check out that slide guitar solo half way through. The piano rocks throughout the song too, wonderfully well. Dream Hotel is an evocative, slow...

Rick's Road was Texas’s third album, and it has received a certain amount of criticism from various reviewers I have read, comparing it unfavourably to the two following albums, both of which were huge sellers. Indeed, AllMusic stated that it is "just one or two decent songs above being classified as drivel". Nonsense.  I have to robustly disagree with them. These people have had problems with the fact that it is a blues rock album and not a commercially-oriented poppy or hip/hop-influenced one, whereas for me it is the exact opposite - it is powerful, rocking and full of quality blues guitar, drums and harmonica. This, as far as I am concerned, is Texas at their best, before they went all programmed drums, and "contemporary" pop soul sounds. Texas never sounded like this again after this, a few backwards nods here and there, but not too much. For me, their first three albums were their best, when they wanted to sound as American as their name. Sharleen Spiteri...

This is where Texas went from being a blues rock, slightly "cult" band to being a blue-eyed soul-pop one before our very ears, utilising contemporary dance beats, programmed drums, synthesised strings, artificial scratching noises and the like. as far as I am concerned, despite being full of really catchy and melodic songs (just as the previous album was), something was lost due to the muffled, dense and murky sound that was delivered in order to satisfy the tastes of Radio Two chart-oriented listeners. The difference in clarity (negatively) between this and the previous offering was seismic.  I just cannot get on with the sound on this one at all. Even on the faux Motown-Northern Soul of the "earworm" singalong hit single, Black Eyed Boy, there is an overall muddiness that detracts from it. Those synthesised strings sound awful. The same accusation can be levelled at the album's other big hits, Say What You Want and the scratchy White On Blonde. It is a shame, ...

Right from the outset here I have to own up to not being a "proper" Pink Floyd fan - you know, the sort of slightly nerdy bloke who lies in a darkened room listening to Dark Side Of The Moon endlessly. That sort of thing was anathema to me in the seventies. However, the Floyd were just so damn BIG back then (and indeed still are) that I felt I had to dip into their work. I ended up reviewing twelve albums, so who's the nerd now, eh? The debut album from Pink Floyd was a most odd affair - full of Syd Barrett's strangely child-like lyrical imagery, mixed with lots of very English whimsy, the band's often bizarre psychedelic innovation and a few tiny signs of Roger Waters' wry, often cynical, world-weary too soon witticism.  Musically, it is often a discordant, psychedelic, hallucinogenic trip of weird keyboard noises and "spacey" sound effects.   There is a real dichotomy apparent between Barrett's lightly mischievous ditties like the very early Da...

  Whereas the first album had been pretty much Syd Barrett's album, the other members all contributed to this one and, for me, it is notably an improvement on its predecessor. During the recording of the album, Barrett was ousted from the band.  This album reveals a movement away from the Syd Barrett doped-up childlike songs of the debut album and towards more lengthy, spacey instrumental workouts such as Roger Waters' admittedly Barrett-inspired spaced-out  Let  There Be More Light  and the hippy, trippy beautifully pulsing bass-driven bliss of Nick Wright's  Remember A Day .  Waters'  Set The Controls To The Heart Of The Sun  is a magnificent piece of dreamy space rock, underpinned by a sumptuous bass line and some mysterious keyboards. It is just so wonderfully weird and trippy (sorry for using that phrase again, but it is so very apt). Who would have thought that so many years later artists such as Paul Weller would derive inspiration fro...

  Nick Mason said of this album, which was a double - the first half a live recording, the second a studio creation - that " ....I thought it was a very good and interesting little exercise, the whole business of everyone doing a bit. But I still feel really that that's quite a good example of the sum being greater than the parts ...".   I remember as a young teenager in 1972, pre-Dark Side Of The Moon, that those boys I knew who were (incomprehensibly, to me) into Pink Floyd treated this album as the Holy Grail - the best The Floyd had to offer thus far. Hmmm. It is notable how many of the group's  members, in retrospect, criticised their early work.  Anyway, to the studio album - each band member has their own particular chance to shine -   Sysyphus  being keyboardsman Richard Wright's piece of indulgence. To me, it gets nowhere - the keyboard sounds are neither tuneful not appealing discordant. The piece just doesn't go anywhere, being made up of am...

  After their previous indulgent outing, The Floyd were full-on weirdo prog by now.   The first track,   Atom Heart Mother , took up the whole of side one, and lasted twenty-three minutes. It is a classically-influenced, largely quiet piece that features a consistently subtle, warm bass sound, some nice drums and guitar too, but, as with so many of these prog suites, you have to sit through the whole lot for the good bits that come around every three or four minutes, such as the guitar-bass-organ interplay at around eleven and a half minutes, which is inspired. The peaceful guitar passage at the end is great too. Indeed, shave fifteen minutes off the track and it would be so much better!  Quite a bit of it reminds me of Mike Oldfield’s Hergest Ridge. Maybe he drew inspiration from this. As these prog suites go, it is ok, give me this over much of Yes’s output all day long.  Furthermore, I have to admit that, for 1970, it was pretty adventurous, falling into the...