[Heeplist] Trouble review

[Tapio Minkkinen]

I received the CD yesterday and here's a review after playing the  
album 4 - 5 times through:

KEN HENSLEY & LIVE FIRE: TROUBLE

READY TO DIE - Powerful opening, chorus reminds a bit of Playing To  
Win by Little River Band. One of my favourite songs on the CD. There?s  
some great guitar work by Ken Ingwersen all through the song and the  
solo.

TROUBLE - The lines in the lyrics like "Trouble with my bicycle,  
trouble with my hair", "Trouble, trouble, trouble" etc. sound a bit  
stupid at first listen but I like this song more now that I've heard  
it a few times. There's similar kind of slower and partly instrumental  
section in the middle like on "The Curse" on Faster. The first song is  
more guitar driven and I can't hear much Hammond but on this song  
keyboards are more up on the mix and there's a very nice solo in the  
end.

IT - There's a great build up in the beginning: It starts with some  
nice bass lines and then the drums and guitars come in, then Ken comes  
in. This song is more peaceful and melodic than the first two and the  
main thing that carries it through is Ken's Hammond, the melody that  
the plays reminds a bit of of "One Tender Moment" on A Glimpse Of  
Glory. The song is seven minutes long of which the last four minutes  
are instrumental and Ken's soloing on Hammond is fantastic, he really  
lets loose here and it's great that this kind of thing is included on  
a studio CD when usually it's only concerts where you hear keyboard  
solos like this. This part with is my favourite on the CD and and the  
three first songs are all among my favourites but after that the  
quality unfortunately drops a bit.

TODO LOCO - A bit dull, I wouldn't say it's a bad song but it's not  
that interesting - starting from the title that means in English  
"Everything is crazy". It starts slowly with first just guitar and  
keyboards and then vocals. After a while it becomes more powerful and  
gets heavier but the chorus is a bit let down, if the chorus was  
better this would be more enjoyable as there's some good parts.

I WANNA GO BACK - This is also nothing special, just an uptempo  
melodic pop rock song. The lyrics seem to  be about all the girls Ken  
has "met" along his tours over the years. Considering he is married  
now and been together with his wife for over ten years this seems a  
strange topic to a song but I guess it's natural to long back to the  
old days.

PLEASE EXPLAIN - This is again one of my favourites. This is similar  
to "Beyond The Starz" on Faster, it begins with only Hammond and then  
there's the same kind of hypnotic feel to the song and there's a good  
strong chorus. I really like this one, probably my nr. favourite at  
the moment.

YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MINE - This is the first of the ballads on the  
album. This song actually was created originally back in 2009 here in  
Finland at Ken's songwriting class the first Easy Livin' In Salo event  
together with those who attended it. Lyrics and melodies were mostly  
written by Finnish Heep fan Liisa Tolonen but I don't think much was  
left of that to this finished version. There was a video clip in  
Youtube recorded when this song was performed for the first time after  
it was written, I can try and find that so I can compare these two  
versions. This is a typical Hensley ballad and its OK but somehow it  
doesn't appeal to me that much, Ken has written some better ballads  
during his solo career, for example "I Cry Alone" on the previous album.

I DON'T KNOW - A peaceful beginning with just keyboards and vocals, a  
slower tempo and lighter more melodic song but there's still some  
power. In the end there's something I don't remember hearing on any  
Hensley record: A spoken word part. I have never liked these kind of  
things on songs and it would have been better if this hadn't been  
included but still the song itself is among the better songs on the cd.

DANGEROUS DESIRE - It's good to have this kind of faster and more  
rocking song at the end to lift things up a bit. The song is also  
actually pretty good too, a simple rock song with a melody in chorus  
that sticks to the head. Not much meaning in the lyrics but I think  
it's good as a contrast to some more deeper lyrics.

THE LONGEST NIGHT - The second ballad and the only song where you can  
actually hear Ken on lead vocals, on a few tracks he sings the second  
vocals together with Tiranti but this is a duet where they share the  
vocals. This is better than the other ballad but either this is as  
good as some of the ballads Ken has written before.

So, there was it song by song. Overall I would say this sound really  
good, it's heavy and there's a lot of Hammond Organ and the playing is  
excellent. The songs also seem to more in the same style with each  
other when on previous records in the last fifteen years that Ken has  
pursued his new solo career I have felt that the albums have been put  
together of songs written over a long period in time and that are  
different in style. I don't know if it's the case but it could be that  
he?s used most of the "old supply" and these are newer songs written  
especially for Live Fire, at least so it seems to me. Musically this  
is his strongest album so far. There is actually no weak songs  
included here although a few of them I'm not that excited after a few  
listens but perhaps these will grow when given time. Ken's song  
writing and the sense of melody is still there. The CD has "only" 10  
songs but the total playing time is still over 50 minutes so the songs  
are quite long. I like that the songs are given more space to build  
with this as there are long intros and long instrumental parts.

There's the good stuff, then the negative: The only thing I have to  
complain so far is the vocals. The previous lead vocalist Eirikur  
Hauksson and the bass player Sid Ringsby left earlier this year and  
they were replaced by Italian Roberto Tiranti who both sings and plays  
bass. Ken sings lead vocals only on one song and the rest is left to  
Tiranti. I had doubts beforehand on how he would do as I wasn't that  
convinced of his vocal abilities based on what I had heard him sing  
before.

After hearing Trouble my opinion hasn't changed. He is an OK singer  
but nothing more. I was worried about the Italian accent but that was  
a positive surprise that he actually pronounced the words quite well,  
either he has practiced well or Ken has done a lot of coaching on the  
matter. Still that doesn't change the fact that as a singer he is not  
of the same standard as Ken's songs, these are so good that they would  
have deserved a better singer. Of several songs he sounds a bit like  
Glenn Hughes and even like John Sloman at times but that's just the  
problem: He sounds like someone else and he doesn't have his own sound  
that could be recognized. If this was an album by a new upcoming band  
or artist he would do just fine but as interpreter of Ken Hensley's  
song he is just not good enouh.

Several times when listening to the album I find myself thinking: "How  
good would this sound with Eirikur or Ken singing". One of the best  
things on previous album Faster was that Ken's and Eirikur's voices  
fit in really well together and they divived the lead vocals part  
pretty equally. This solution would have been better also on this  
album or Ken could in my opinion sing himself most of the songs even  
if Tiranti sang them live, anyway only a couple of these will probably  
ever be played live. But apparently Ken and the band are happy with  
him and it seems Ken is not interesting in singing on Live Fire  
albums. I hope the next record he released will be a real solo album  
so we can enjoy his singing more.


-- 
TapioM.
tapio at uriah-heep.fi
www.uriah-heep.fi