Tags

• Toont alle berichten die getagged zijn met de gegeven tag, zoals nieuwsberichten, foto's, blogs, foto albums, etc.
• 33 item(s) getagged met 'classic rock'

• Robert Plant - Dreamland dinsdag 07 september 2010

  By now, Plant's voice had become an instrument of breathy intimacy.

  Robert Plant entered the new millennium with an album that looked defiantly backward – not to Led Zeppelin, mind you, but to a round-up of his personal musical heroes. The grunge-era Manic Nirvana (1990) and Fate of Nations (1993) had already junked the overegged synth-rock of Plant's 80s albums – while 1995's Unledded reunion with Jimmy Page breathed new life into the Zeppelin catalogue – but Dreamland definitively set Sir Percival on the Americana-rooted course he has steered ever since.

• Elton John - Songs From the West Coast woensdag 01 september 2010

  An album of quality that nobody thought could have happened.

  At the beginning of the 21st century, Elton John was, effectively, a touring greatest hits act. Despite the excellence of 1995’s Made in England album, his 70s and 80s heydays had departed, and most people who had discovered Elton in the 90s had done so via the remake of Candle in the Wind he wrote for the late Princess Diana. He was an act left over from the past, with an increasingly pop direction exemplified in up-tempo hookfests like I’m Still Standing that had led him away from his earliest, more American influences. A career of charity concerts and compilations seemed certain.

• Leon Russell - Leon Russell woensdag 01 september 2010

  Russell’s third album featured a wealth of high-profile special guests.

  If nothing else, rock history will remember Leon Russell as the super session man.

• Leon Russell - Hank Wilson's Back woensdag 01 september 2010

  Like all great country, this turns melancholy and gloom into melody and dancing.

  Versatile as anything, Leon Russell has ranged across many styles in his extremely long career. For this 1973 set, credited to Hank Wilson, a fictional country singer, Russell veered away from his swamp soul roots and into one of the most joyful sidebars of his career – so joyful, in fact, that he eventually recorded not one but two sequels to Hank Wilson’s Back.

• Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection woensdag 01 september 2010

  A crafted, often impassioned work from a pre-pop-chopped Elton and Bernie.

  Elton pushed hard for his breakthrough, releasing albums with prolific zeal which the industry today would view as counter-productive. His self-titled second had emerged in April 1970, and just six months later the superior Tumbleweed Connection came out. With Your Song from its predecessor finally giving him a hit, this country-tinged set – often described as a concept album, on the basis that several songs reference cowboys and guns – was expected to clinch his star status. Yet he had to wait a little longer, as despite making the US top ten, it lacked singles.

• Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road woensdag 01 september 2010

  Winningly grandiose in places, but it’d have been better as a single LP.

  Never one to lack hubris, Elton described this 80-minute double as his White Album. It’s sold over 30 million copies and is his most commercially successful studio album. His name was already made upon its October 1973 release, but this muddled magnum opus shunted him – with its astronomical US popularity – into the big leagues. Today, the famous sections sound great while the filler numbers (and there are quite a few) sound flimsy.

• John Lennon - John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band vrijdag 27 augustus 2010

  Lennon’s solo debut is still grossly underrated.

  The first John Lennon solo album has had its fair share of acclaim. It was well-reviewed upon its release, and reached the top ten in both the US and UK, despite the absence of a major hit single. In the 40 years since it has routinely turned up in all those critics’ lists of best-ever albums, albeit way, way below the most admired Beatles sets. It’s firmly established as one of those grown-up rock classics that grown-up rock fans should own. But here’s the rub: Plastic Ono Band is still grossly underrated.

• John Lennon - Imagine vrijdag 27 augustus 2010

  A weird, ramshackle collection of eclectic gems.

  John Lennon’s most famous album is not what it seems. A huge commercial success both upon its release and immediately after Lennon’s murder, Imagine is generally seen as the star’s inevitable return to conventional pop after the ferocious flurry of avant-garde experiments, protest singles, primal confessionals and live rave-ups of the Yoko Ono-led 1968-70 period. But, beyond the title-track and the presence of Phil Spector and George Harrison, Imagine is a weird, ramshackle collection of eclectic gems that uniquely links Lennon the raging politico (and lippy bitch) with Lennon the peace-loving dreamer and adoring husband.

• Elton John - Too Low for Zero donderdag 26 augustus 2010

  Thoroughly entertaining throughout, and the return to form Elton John required.

  Too Low for Zero marks the reunion of Elton John with lyricist Bernie Taupin after a seven-year period of working with various other writers, and sees John’s music advance to the breezy, stately tunes that characterise his later period. The change is thematic too, so he deals with ‘the biggies’ of religion and complicated relationships rather than the rather more intense character-led works of previous records. In truth, this yields some mixed results in terms of how relatable the songs are to anyone raised remembering when rock was young, but the whole is a rewarding, sometimes remarkable work.

• John Lennon - Rock’N’Roll donderdag 26 augustus 2010

  Though there is very little subtlety, there is evident affection throughout.

  Quite simply, John Lennon recorded Rock‘N’Roll in order not to be sued.

• The Black Crowes - Croweology dinsdag 10 augustus 2010

  A veritable trove of delights for fans of the multi-million-selling veteran rockers.

  It’s an interesting quirk that, having been around for two decades, The Black Crowes can now be considered as ‘classic’ or ‘veteran’ in much the same way as the bands they made their name touring in support of. And credit where credit’s due: instead of farming out a standard Greatest Hits – remember, we live in a world where InMe are releasing such a compilation and, what’s worse, having the gall to do it with a straight face – they’re presenting a collection of largely acoustic takes on songs from the length and breadth of their catalogue. It’s not simply a case of switching out the electric guitars, though; the reimagined takes prove the Crowes are entering their third decade with enough drive to look back while slyly suggesting what lies ahead.

• The Black Crowes - Croweology maandag 02 augustus 2010

  The last time the Black Crowes went on hiatus, in 2002, they had good reason: Their previous album, , was the closest they'd come to being dull: solid songs like the howling electric church of "Soul Singing" muffled by indifferent execution. The Crowes plan to split again, indefinitely, at the end of this year. But the Robinson brothers – singer Chris and guitarist Rich – and their best-ever lineup, with Mississippi guitar shaman Luther Dickinson, are going out on a high: a two-CD set of live-in-the-studio performances of songs from across their catalog. The guitars are mostly acoustic, but there is no retreat from cosmic electricity. The emphasis is on numbers embedded on near-miss albums, such as "Soul Singing" and "Good Friday," from 1996's , while the arrangements spread out the way the band has played many of the songs on recent tours. The 18-minute medley of "Ballad in Urgency" and "Wiser Time," both from 1994's , are a blast of '68-Fillmore adventure at volume, while the double-time gospel section in "My Morning Song" recalls the impromptu pleasures of Delaney and Bonnie's 1971 acoustic-jam record, . has classic-rock radio staples like "Remedy" and "She Talks to Angels," but the album is much better than a greatest-hits affair – it's a reason to go on.

• Lou Reed - Transformer vrijdag 26 maart 2010

  His 1972 classic wasn’t just preaching to the hipster rock underground.

  A useful indicator of Lou Reed’s raw talent is a quick look at his inability to derail his own solo career. From the not untimely death of The Velvet Underground, featuring him as singer, in 1970 onwards, this native New Yorker has seemed intent on poking a stick through the spokes of his push bike at every given opportunity.