Headcharger Against The Storm

Though there are still some traces of the confessionals that underpinned Beautiful Loser through Stranger in Town, Against the Wind finds Bob Seger turning toward craft. Perhaps he had to, since Against the Wind arrived after three blockbuster albums and never-ending tours…

Rage Against the Machine will celebrate the 20th anniversary of their self-titled debut with three separate reissues on November 27th. Rage Against the Machine — XX features a remastered copy of the original album with three B-sides from the era.

Against The Grain by the reformed UK AOR-sters After Hours. Now I say unexpected because this is a band that have been defunct for just a little under a quarter of a century with their last release coming in the shape of their debut effort Take Off from 1988! AOR Heaven have also reissued that album and on the strength of Against The Grain, it is an album I'll be investing in sharpish! The After Hours story goes all the way back to 1987, but after that debut release things started to really build for them, with European tours, appearances on German TV and a sponsorship deal with Adidas. However keyboard player Rick Young soon left the band, being replaced by ex Michael Schenker man Andy Nye, but with record labels dragging the band round the world to record album number two After Hours basically disintegrated, although that second release Afterhours did see the light of day in 1992.

Though there are still some traces of the confessionals that underpinned Beautiful Loser through Stranger in Town, finds Bob Seger turning toward craft. Perhaps he had to, since arrived after three blockbuster albums and never-ending tours. Even so, this record winds up not feeling as immediate or soulful as its predecessors, especially since it begins with a tossed-off rocker called "The Horizontal Bop," possibly his most careless tune since "Noah." It's fun, but once it's done, the record really starts to kick into high gear with "You'll Accomp'ny Me," a ballad the equal of anything on its two predecessors. Throughout , Seger winds up performing better on the ballads than the rockers, which, while good, tend to sound a little formulaic. Still, Seger's formula is good and if "Her Strut" and "Betty Lou's Gettin' out Tonight" would have been second stringers on Stranger in Town, they offer a nice balance here, and the rest of the record alternates between similarly well-constructed rockers and introspective ballads like "Against the Wind" and "Fire Lake." Compared to its predecessors, this does feel a little weak, but compared with its peers, it's a strong, varied heartland rock album that finds Seger at a near peak.

Besides being noteworthy as an astonishingly good all-covers album, Kicking Against the Pricks is notable for the arrival of a new key member for the Seeds, drummer Thomas Wydler. Besides being a fine percussionist, able to perform at both the explosive and restrained levels Cave requires, Wydler also allowed Harvey to concentrate on adding guitar and keyboards live as well as in the studio, a notable bonus…