Makumba Rock grooves to a tight and almost jazzy rhythm courtesy of a meandering trumpet riff and Perry interjecting his own crying sounds while he sings, “I think I want my mommy, I think I want my daddy.” The doleful cello that underlies the female chorus combines to make Let It Rain a hypnotic treat, but it’s anyone’s guess what Perry means when he sings, “Don’t be naughty like Paul McCartney.” There is a lot to hear here, and anyone familiar with Perry’s penchant for making weird vocal sounds along with his distinctive lyric flow will not be disappointed. His partner in crime is once again On-U Sound label boss and producer Adrian Sherwood, and in tandem they have found a way to make Perry as relevant as ever. The Upsetter is now 83 and Rainford is undeniably one of the finest releases of his life. Without the space here to fully expound on the lengthy and wild career of music legend Lee “Scratch” Perry, suffice to say that since the 1970s he has created and performed some of the finest and at times weirdest roots reggae imaginable. Maybe the blues will never leave, but we will have this album to enjoy in the meantime. There is a real sense here of good friends who have worked together long enough to play effortlessly into collective strengths.
All three men solo wonderfully and while I earlier used the phrase “classic jazz-trio format,” this is very different and definitely more forward-looking music than earlier trio albums. Mazatlan starts the album with driving rhythm, while tracks like Flame explore a still powerful but more melodic approach.
Like any athletes or musicians at the top of their game, they make everything sound so easy when it is anything but.
Without referring to the actual sound, the term smooth comes to mind to describe the way the three musicians work together. This is simply a classic jazz-trio format performed by three masters.īley may not get mentioned as often as Bill Evans, for example, but his creativity and more aggressive approach to the instrument work perfectly with his colleagues here. These three - pianist Paul Bley, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Paul Motian - had performed together for years, had a fine album release in 1998 and then convened for a concert in Lugano Italy in 1999. Many of us may ask “Why now?” but the main thing is to just celebrate it. This album is another example of a first-time release of a recording made several decades ago. STREAM THESE: Die to Live, When We Were Kids, Parasite Pelvis on Fire owes a ton to The King (as if you couldn’t tell) Cheapside Sloggers evokes the churning metal of mid-career Scorpions When We Were Kids has a whiff of Europe about it (it’s the vocal treatment) and The Everlasting (a 37-second song released as a teaser single) is a throaty modern metal track.Įlsewhere you’ll hear snippets of sources such as Judas Priest (the opening of Rewind the Exit), the Faces (the boogie-woogie sax-and-piano break of Die to Live) and Michael Jackson and INXS (both on album opener Last Day Under the Sun).Ĭall this the perfect soundtrack to the last six weeks of summer. Amid all the emphasis on memorable riffs and the soaring, sing-along choruses of earworms such as Sorry Sack of Bones and Cloud 9, it’s also fun to play spot-the-influence with this record. Rewind, Replay, Rebound is a pleasant surprise in that it may well be Poulsen and Volbeat’s most tuneful, hook-laden record, as if he and longtime producer Jacob Hansen have torn a page or 10 from Mutt Lange’s notebook. Volbeat is huge back home on the basis of its blend of hard rock with throwback references to the “big beat” of ‘50s and ‘60s bad boys such as Elvis and Johnny Cash, filtered through modern riff-rock production. That’s what you get with Volbeat, a catchy-despite-themselves group of Danish rockers led by Michael Poulsen that’s been pounding out its unique rehash of disparate riffs and hooks for nigh on 18 years and through seven studio albums. Now, imagine that lineup - all those influences and styles - distilled into one fun rock ‘n’ roll band. Imagine, if you will, a major European rock festival - a gathering of the denim-and-leather clans that features the likes of Metallica, Scorpions, Misfits, The Hellacopters, Europe, Danko Jones, Motorhead, Social Distortion and the Cramps. This article was published (1142 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.