Along Came Joe - Eddie Prevost & Alan Wilkinson

Advantages: When in the right mood, a few of the tracks could be mildly entertaining.
Disadvantages: Depressing and monotonous.

...Some of you may remember the MTV show 'Up For It' with Eddy Temple-Morris and Zane Lowe. As well as call-in sections and the usual comedy stunts, they showed live performances by bands that were supposedly about to break into the commercial scene. As far as I can remember, not many bands actually made it. Marcy Playground, along with Drugstore and Headswim, stayed firmly on the brink of mainstream. ‘Sex and Candy’ their first and only single released from this eponymous album is the definite standout track. Although quite beautiful compared to the other tracks, it is not really anything special. The song has a much softer feel to it than say ‘Saint Joe on the School Bus’ which, according to the sleeve, ‘is about being picked on’. However, I think it speaks for itself and wonder why... Read review

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Advantages: classic pop-punk record
Disadvantages: never matched it themselves

...Forgive me if this doesn't sound like a Green Day review at first .......... In the early 90's the music scene was all about 'grunge'. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden had all come along and kicked all opposition aside to revolutionise the 'current' music scene. Hair metal (all except Bon Jovi) was kicked to the curb in favour of loud, hard music from largely, Seattle. 'Nevermind' and 'Ten' came and (after time), went, then we had, in particular 'In Utero' to contend with. Unfortunatly these bands slowly fell away, Eddie Vedder got to big for his boots, Kurt Cobain came across a gun and AIC just became stale and repetitive. However much 'grunge' had entertained us, something new now had to come along and do the job of revolutionising the scene once again. Enter Green Day, a trio of Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool... Read review

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Advantages: Eddie's vocals, brilliant guitar riffs
Disadvantages: n/a

...Jam’s only real movement into the experimental side of things tends to be along the lines of this track. The band strike up various sounds, and melodies, along a verse-chorus-verse format. Whilst all this is going on, Eddie is speaking his vocals like a poem. Sounds similar to the sort of thing The Doors would do. All Those Yesterdays. ------------------------------ Again, Pearl Jam finish an album with a slow burning, but reflective track. Leaves you with a warm feeling inside. So, Yield appeared at quite a difficult point in the bands history. It came after the album that people believed wasn’t up to the usual PJ standards, and so they seemed to have to prove a point again. But they come out of it on top. This is a fine album, with some fantastic tracks. It mixes the very raw-edged rock, and the slow-tempo ballads... Read review

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