Atomic Boogie Hour - Lee Rocker & Big Blue

Advantages: BRILLIANT
Disadvantages: NONE

...Whiskey & Wimmen Blues Before Sunrise Crawlin' Black Spider Big Fine Woman House Rent Boogie Hard Headed Woman Road Is So Rough I'm A Stranger When My First Wife Left Me I'm So Excited Baby Lee Time Is Marching Everybody's Rockin Mama,You've Got A Daughter I'm Mad Again I Wanna Walk Run On... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: One of Dylan's best, and a genuine return to form
Disadvantages: None

...of baffling and sometimes almost unlistenable cover versions, 'Love & Theft' is 100% original material. And it's very very good. A few facts to start with. The main man, on vocals, guitar and piano, has a five-piece band behind him. With no backing vocalists to be heard, Dylan's gravelly voice is perhaps a bit of an acquired taste. But most of the veteran blues and jazz greats - Louis Armstrong and John Lee Hooker, for example - had acquired that rugged timbre by their sixties, and Bob has also hit the big six himself. Finally, he's also a byword for going into the studio, letting the tapes roll and putting the results out with the minimum of fuss. (None of that nonsense of spending three months getting the drum programming right, and another four years remixing in all corners of the world). Right, the songs themselves. A full track... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: some more fine 70's rock
Disadvantages: most people won't have heard of it

...by Appice's at-times merciless snare attack.  Let Me Swim is a good down honest boogie,  and would not sound out of place on a Status Quo mid-70's LP (which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned).Cactus take a breather with the slow-burning blues of No Need To Worry,  featuring a blistering McCarty lead over some nice distorted bass a la 1969.  Here we do get a little bit of Zeppelin plagarism as Day stretches to reach Robert Plant's "don't you leave me little girl" kind of line but this is pretty good and the boogie of Oleo keeps the party going complete with some amazing high-end bass work from Tim Bogert,  sliding all over the fretboard.  Before you know it's the last track Feel So Good a big upfront rocker complete with compulsory  sinew-tearing drum solo pointing the way to bigger things to come.   For this band though it was already... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful