[Heeplist] Trouble review

[DAVID M SHERROD]

Thank you for the review, sounds interesting,, still looking forward to hearing this One Day. (:€)~
Dave

Tapio Minkkinen <tapio at uriah-heep.fi> wrote:

>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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