“Run Through The Light”, Yes Drama

Shock of all shocks, former Yes men John Anderson and Rick Wakeman are replaced by the Buggles’ Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes for an album that’s still pretty good and leans a little new wave-y.  “Run Through The Light” is fairly straight forward, featuring a lot of funky Downes keys and noisy guitarwork from Steve Howe.  Horn reaches the high range of his predecessor with relative ease here.  Shades of 90125?  Pretty close.

“Sibella”, Richard Thompson Mock Tudor

Thompson is a guitarist that I’ve come to respect immensely over the years, mostly from his strong acoustic work but he does a great job on electric too.  Kicking off with an almost tribal beat, Thompson kicks in with a strong vocal and great lyric as the band holds it all together rhythmically as the song builds to a strong chorus.  Nothing overly fancy but solid and in the pocket.

“Silent Cries”, Fates Warning No Exit

Ray Adler’s debut with the band forges some new territory for Fates but still hangs on to the technical ecstasy from the old days of John Arch.  Adler doesn’t bust out the vocal highs near as much as his predecessor but does offer a huskier midrange and oftentimes a more dramatic delivery overall.  “Silent Cries”, like most of the tracks on No Exit, pretty much forge a new molten metal direction for the band that would be upped even further with the arrival of Mark Zonder and his skins mastery come next album.

“Manifest Destiny Pt 2”, Rival Sons Head Down

Bust out the fuzz, kick out the drums, wail some harmonica, and lets get all down and dirty-  Rival Sons knock down the doors with a magically solid blues that hearkens back to the original masters but with a huge dose of Led Zeppelin and The Doors.  What’s amazing on this song is how manic the music is but how relatively calm (and shamanaistic) lead singer Jay Buchanan is with the vocal.  Smooth as silk vocally, rumblin’ train rhythmically.

“Deny The Cross”, Overkill Taking Over

Early Overkill was always such a clattery mess (and I mean that in a good way); heavy doses of Sabbath mixed with Motorhead with production values that sound like marbles rattling around in an oversize tin can.  This is straight ahead thrash and a great example of why Overkill should be seen as one of the early proponents of that burgeoning scene (you know, with Metallica, Slayer, etc etc).  Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth insane vocal yelps threaten to derail the momentum but his sheer charismatic delivery is part of the charm of this awesome New York band.  Gustafson for the win on guitar!

“Goin’ So Good” ZZ Top Mescalaro

ZZ Top is always good for throwing an odd curveball into the mix on each album- “Goin’ So Good” is that example on Mescalaro, all mellow R&B vocal from Billy Gibbons but with some sweet steel guitar backup to countrify the take.  But fear not, the Rev’s lead guitar on this cut shines ever so strong; that tone, taste, and tenacity when it comes lead time drops jaws come the fadeout.  Would have loved to hear this with old school production values.

“Type”, Living Colour Time’s Up

Boom bash boom bash…  go Will Calhoun!  Living Colour shoulda been stars.  Great players all around and a fab singer in one Corey Glover, but it’s really Vernon Reid’s guitar work that sets this band on a different level from others.  Yeah, the dude can sound incredibly noisy and out of tune but that’s part of what made this band totally unique.  “Type” is all heft and solid hook, Reid being fairly tame with the guitar melody allowing Glover room One Way to shine all over the place.  Solid cut.

“One Way To Rock”, Sammy Hagar Standing Hampton

Might be one of my all time favorite riffs, so simple in execution but jumps right out at you and grabs you by the throat immediately.  Sam often gets a bum rap lyrically but this is fairly tame with its sole objective to get you off your ass because “it’s time to rock”!  You go to a rock show and you want to go crazy sometimes and singing along to this one meets that purpose.  This is rock and roll, not a science exhibition!  If ya gotta have science though, check out Van Halen’s Live Without A Net performance of this song to gauge maximum intensity.

“Shot From My Gun”, Britny Fox Bite Down Hard

Ahh, the 80’s…  hair, pouty lips, bad lyrics, and occasionally stupid videos.  Britny Fox certainly had the hair and questionable lyrics but man, the songs were fairly stompin’ and crunchy with some cool singalong passages.  Bite Down Hard featured new singer Tommy Paris, unfortunately the disc dying a slow death as the major labels shifted gears and hopped on the grunge bandwagon.  “Shot From My Gun” is nothing more than a sleazy bashing good time; not near as good as their hit “Girlschool” (but maybe that had something to do with THAT VIDEO).

“Full Time Lover”, Fabulous Thunderbirds Essential

Ah yeah…  the T-birds were an Austin, Texas institution and known mostly in blues circles as a fantastic interpreter of blues classics with some fine originals in their mix as well.  “Full Time Lover” is an excellent cover found on their debut release and it’s hard to pick out just who is the star on this song:  Kim Wilson’s convincing lead vocal or Jimmie Vaughan’s spot on tasty guitar work.  No need to pick out a winner, just sit back and listen to some sweet, sweet blues.

Tough choice for pick of the week but I must give the edge to “One Way To Rock” over “Full Time Lover”.  Two totally different songs that fit different moods, depending on what you are looking for.