Using My Illusion

Bloody Hollies – No Jack White project this year, but this could almost pass as one. I like the in your face drum sound throughout, and although the vocals get wearisome, there’s no shortage of energy. Nice combo of dirty blues, punk and a little metal as well. “Dirty Sex” and “Sticks and Stones” are the highlights.  3.5 stars

Tom Fuller – What a pleasant CD.  The vocals are pleasant.  The sound is pleasant.  The playing is pleasant.  When the songs pop up in a shuffle, I will no doubt think “this is pleasant, I wonder who it is?”   And the moment the song is over, I will forget I ever heard it. 2 stars

Guns and Roses – What a freaking mess.  There’s almost an equal amount of brilliance and real crap here.  3 glorious tracks to start, then one of the worst Bob Dylan covers ever and two songs ruined by the in-song/post-song spoken word nonsense.  So it goes throughout the disc.  A great one here, a shit one there.  GnR couldn’t overcome their appetite for destruction in the studio anymore than they could in their personal lives.    In the end the highs are so high that I ignore the junk.  Cherry picking the best 7 songs from this and 5 from Illusion I creates a 5 star and possible desert island disc.  4 stars

Iggy Pop – Can we just all agree to give Mongillo the top 10 spots so he stops submitting obvious 4-5 star discs? Title track is one of the greatest songs ever recorded.  Rest of it is classic Iggy.  The Justin Bieber cover is hysterical.  4 stars

Mahavishnu Orchestra – Effortlessly combines the pointless noodling of a jam band with the meaningless jacking off of free jazz. Yes, individually the players are enormously talented.  That said, the world’s greatest chefs could get together and use their talents to make a dog shit casserole, but I wouldn’t want to eat it. 1 star

Sloan – Never been able to fully embrace these guys, and I’m not sure why.  Competent players, tight band and they generally write decent songs.  The harder edge songs like “Believe in Me” and “The Other Side” are fine, but their mid-tempo material is non-descript.  Wish they’d cut loose a little more.  3 stars