Foghat, Warrant, Slaughter and Clueless Soundtrack
Our spotlight on vinyl spins four great reissues from Foghat, Warrant, Slaughter and the "Clueless" Motion Picture Soundtrack.
Foghat - Fool for the City - (2 LPs on green-bottle clear vinyl)
If you have ever at all been a fan of the great British blues rock band Foghat it's pretty much a given that you owned this album, and likely wore it out. An excellent album all around, the title tore up the charts and the airwaves thanks to the band's sort of modern day take on "Bolero," "Slow Ride." Instantly recognizable from its first notes, fans know when they hear the song starting that they have a little over eight minutes to boogie, rock out on air guitar, and er, do whatever in the bedroom. And now is the perfect time to relive the good old days with this 50th anniversary edition of
Fool for the City. Besides "Slow Ride" the album also rocks hard with the title cut and finds the band putting their rock 'n' roll spin on chestnuts like Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues" and the Righteous Brothers favorite "My Babe." Otherwise most of the tunes here were written by the now deceased singer and guitarist "Lonesome" Dave Peverett. For this album Foghat was rounded out by guitarist Rod Price, now also deceased, and drummer Roger Earl and the guy who played the fabulous bass riffs on "Slow Ride," Nick Jameson. A special treat for fans here is the second included disc that features a previously-unreleased live recording from the
Fool for the City era culled from the band's 1975 shows at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. That show features
Fool for the City cuts "My Babe," "Fool for the City" and of course "Slow Ride" along with past favorites "Honey Hush," "Home in My Hand" and "I Just Want to Make Love to You." Packaged in a sturdy gatefold jacket with track-by-track liner notes from Earl, it's an excellent snapshot of the heyday of these beloved rockers.
Warrant - Ultraphobic
When fans think of Warrant they probably first think of the hook-filled rocker "Cherry Pie" but they're also aware that the band sounds good when they mellow out, like on "Heaven" or when throwing in some fancy acoustic guitar picking as they do at the beginning of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." For sure, the Hollywood glam metal band is versatile beyond that description. And the guys prove it here with the first-ever vinyl pressing of their fourth album
Ultraphobic, released in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of its original 1995 release. The record has been remastered so fans may hear nuance they hadn't noticed previously among the sonic improvements. The A side begins with a very Grunge-era cut in "Undertow" and a similar vibe permeates "Followed" and "Family Picnic" which you might mistakenly assume is going to be mellow based on the song title. "Crawl Space" closes out the A side and it is more in the vein of the familiar Warrant sound. Some may hear only the sexual innuendo of B side lead off track "Live Inside of You" with its great, near psychedelic guitar riffing, but singer Jani Lane makes it clear that he's talking spiritually too. "High" is a soaring ballad while title cut "Ultraphobic" is a driving cut that again nods to grunge; closing cut "Stronger Now" is the album's mellow cut, awash in acoustic guitar and sincere vocals from Lane. Pressed on either black or orange swirl 180 gram vinyl, the album's inner sleeve features a band portrait on one side and credits on the other. From Deko Entertainment
Slaughter - Revolution
Here's another release from Deko Entertainment that flashes back several decades to present the first-ever vinyl pressing of Slaughter's 1997 album
Revolution. And there's plenty of good rocking here that fans will finally enjoy hearing on vinyl and in newly-remastered form. The album starts with a bit of a sonic surprise as the A side kicks off with "American Pie," a cut that sounds very much influenced by T Rex with vocal stylings and a rhythm that recall "Bang a Gong (Get it On)." More traditional Slaughter sounds follow; "Heaven it Cries" has a Led Zeppelin/Guns N' Roses vibe, the naughty "Tongue N'Groove" has frat boy lyrics and riffs to play air guitar to while "Can We Find a Way" has a power ballad groove not unlike the band's big 1990 hit "Fly to the Angels." The B side starts with title cut "Revolution," a hard rocking song of defiance, and leads into the spacey and brief instrumental "Guck;" a couple of songs later the band is ripping through the Joe Walsh classic "Rocky Mountain Way" and doing a great job of it too. "I'm Gone" has a softly spoken intro that jokingly indicates the song is "a beautiful ballad;" in fact it is a raucous cut that speeds along like a runaway train, beautiful but in another way. The Slaughter lineup for this album was singer and guitarist Mark Slaughter, bass man Dana Strum, Blas Elias on drums and Tim Kelly on guitar.
Revolution is available on 180 gram vinyl in either black or blue.
"Clueless" Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - (30th anniversary edition)
There's great news for fans of this 1995 film; firstly it has been announced that a sequel to the movie is in the works. Secondly, with this anniversary reissue of the original album fans can now and forever going forward rock out to some of the era's greatest tunes, including the Muffs doing a version of Kim Wilde's "Kids in America" along with rarities like Cracker's rousing take on the Flamin' Groovies chestnut "Shake Some Action," a live, acoustic version of the Psychedelic Furs hit "The Ghost in You" by Counting Crows, Luscious Jackson's dance floor burner "Here (Squirmel Mix)" and World Party's interpretation of David Bowie's "All the Young Dudes." Also here are cuts from Radiohead, the Lightning Seeds, Smoking Popes, Beastie Boys, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Coolio, Supergrass, Velocity Girl and the album closer "Supermodel" from Jill Sobule. This collection flows nicely and these songs do not sound dated and even those who didn't like the movie will love grooving to this set. Available on black or pink vinyl.
