[Heeplist] Trouble review

Wed Oct 9 13:38:38 EDT 2013

 The review of mine, written two days ago, is almost as vast and something is similar in assesment, but similarities are very few... Later, upon translating, I will post it here. But I warn all who consider themselves true fans (so that they like anything by Ken) in advance: you hardly are going to like what I make of it. So beware, but take no offence - for it is only an opinion.
Cheers, Igor

Среда,  9 октября 2013, 15:04 +03:00 от Tapio Minkkinen <tapio at uriah-heep.fi>:
>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
>
>
>
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-- 
Igor Shveytser