Music Review: Whitesnake: Flesh And Blood

I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for Whitesnake, for three reasons:

  1. Their 1987 version of Here I Go Again was featured on Now! That’s What I Call Music #10, the greatest compilation of all time.
  2. Their ’80s videos are completely overblown and ridiculous, with the biggest hair and shoulder pads you have ever seen, and I absolutely love them.
  3. They’re from Middlesbrough, which I find endlessly hilarious. You won’t find anyone doing somersaults on the bonnets of Jaguars around there.

As such, I thought I’d give their latest collection of rock tunes a listen!

Whitesnake - Flesh And Blood

Good To See You Again

Great upbeat bit of hairmetal to start off with, with an awesome classic sound that reminds me why rock music doesn’t need to change. Ever. Love that guitar solo!

Gonna Be Alright

This one’s slower and has a little more of a ’90s sound about it. The backing vocals give it a really nice atmosphere.

Shut Up And Kiss Me

A good classic metal riff to kick this one off, and again I really like the effect of the backing vocals!

Hey You (You Make Me Rock)

Great rock guitar opening – this one’s very ’70s, a bit glam rock in many ways.

Always And Forever

A bit more slow and melodious – this one is unashamedly a love song. A bit cheesy for me lyrically, but I do like the ongoing ’70s-esque sound!

When I Think Of You (Colour Me Blue)

Another slower, slightly march-y track – a definite rock ballad, which is very classic Whitesnake!

Trouble Is Your Middle Name

Great blues-y, brooding atmosphere on this one, with a good shout-along chorus.

Flesh And Blood

The title track is one of the slower ones on this album, with a slight country rock tinge to it.

Well I Never

Another good stadium sing-along track, and I love the atmosphere on the verses.

Heart Of Stone

The guitar riff in this is beautiful and atmospheric! I think this one is my favourite track on the album.

Get Up

Back to the upbeat hairmetal for this one. Great chorus!

After All

A surprisingly acoustic-y interlude. Not usually my kind of thing, but it’s quite a pretty tune.

Sands Of Time

A nice atmospheric Eastern-tinged backing track and almost-goth vocals. I really like this one – great way to finish the album!

Overall this is a really nice and varied collection – very enjoyable.

Music Review: Now! That’s What I Call Music #11

Day 11’s Now! compilation takes us to 21st March 1988.

March 1988
This is the way the world looked in March 1988 – and it’s a welcome break from the baby photos today, as we had a new-to-us car, a ropey old Austin Ambassador. I loved that car and I cried my eyes out when it broke down and we had to get rid of it a year or two later.

Here’s some music by people who almost certainly drove better cars than my dad did that month.

Now! That's What I Call Music #11
Track 1: Pet Shop Boys – Always On My Mind

Great cover of the Elvis classic.  I love the synth line on this one, but then I love the synth line on pretty much every Pet Shop Boys track.  This was the 1987 Christmas number one – I would say ‘deservedly so’ if it weren’t for the fact that it should have been Fairytale Of New York that year.

Track 2: Belinda Carlisle – Heaven Is A Place On Earth

Love this one!  Another classic from my ’80s playlist I made in the early ’00s.  I used to blast it in my first student flat.  Thankfully my flatmates all loved it too.

Track 3: Billy Ocean – Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car

Is Billy Ocean’s car a dodgy red Austin Ambassador?  If so, I’d get into it any day.  I miss that car.

Great bit of pop, always liked this one.

Track 4: Jermaine Stewart – Say It Again

‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).

Nice piano intro, nice tune on the chorus, generally pleasant song.

Track 5: Eddy Grant – Gimme Hope Jo’anna

Argh, annoying chorus alert!  Good party song, but give me Electric Avenue any day.

Track 6: Eddie Cochran – C’mon Everybody

Not sure why this ’50s classic was back in the charts, but here it is.  Nice bit of timeless rock ‘n’ roll.

Track 7: Morrissey – Suedehead

Fairly typical of Morrissey’s just-post-the-Smiths era.  I’m not a big fan of this one, there’s nothing in the tune that I like.

Track 8: Elton John – Candle In The Wind

Again, I have no idea why this song was back in the charts more than a decade after its original release, but it was.  I actually prefer the Diana tribute reworking from 1997.  Honestly!

Track 9: Wet Wet Wet – Angel Eyes (Home And Away)

Another annoying chorus – there’s something kind of whiny about it.  I’m not sure what the ‘home and away’ in the title is about, either – it just reminds me of the soap opera, which I’m not sure had even started in 1988.

Track 10: Johnny Hates Jazz – Turn Back The Clock

Kind of a dull one in my book, though the instrumentals are quite nice.

Track 11: T’Pau – Valentine

Really like the way this one builds – great, interesting track.

Track 12: Billy Idol – Hot In The City

A bit repetitive in its tune, but still a good head-nodder.

Track 13: Sinéad O’Connor – Mandinka

Nice upbeat track, love the guitar and the vocals on the bridge and chorus.

Track 14: The Mission – Tower Of Strength

Goth club classic!  Get that two-step going.

Track 15: Whitesnake – Give Me All Your Love

Not as epic as the best Whitesnake songs, but still a nice singalong hair metal chorus.

Track 16: Kylie Minogue – I Should Be So Lucky

This was my favourite song in 1988, but then it was also the favourite song of every other girl in my nursery class (you’re not very original when you’re three).  I still love it – great pop track.

Track 17: Mel & Kim – That’s The Way It Is

More great pop from Mel & Kim.  I think this may be one of my favourites of theirs.

Track 18: Joyce Sims – Come Into My Life [Radio Mix]

Nice tinkly intro, great catchy hooks, great tune.

Track 19: Jellybean and Elisa Fiorillo – Who Found Who

Chair-dancing from the start with this one – bit of a cheesy vocal, but a nice bouncy track.

Track 20: Bananarama – I Can’t Help It

Love this one!  Another solid pop song from Bananarama.

Track 21: Dollar – Oh L’amour

Fun fact: the original Erasure version of this was never a hit, which is probably why this Dollar cover (which was a hit) appears on so many ’80s compilations.  Absolute epitome of a pointless cover, as it changes nothing from the original (in fact, I was playing it the other day and I don’t think Geth even noticed it wasn’t the original, and he’s a huge Erasure fan), but that at least means that it’s just as danceable.

Track 22: Vanessa Paradis – Joe Le Taxi

Slightly slower one, but still a nice track.  One for the chillout playlist.

Track 23: Morris Minor & The Majors – Stutter Rap (No Sleep Till Bedtime)

‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).

Daft Beastie Boys parody, very of its time.  Mildly amusing, but not playlist-worthy.

Track 24: Bomb The Bass – Beat Dis

How could I fail to love a track with a Thunderbirds sample?  This one is great.

Being the queen of misheard lyrics, I was all ‘OMG, is that the f-word in my lovely innocent ’80s pop?’  No, of course it’s not!  They’re actually singing ‘funky’.  Contrast that to today’s charts, where every second word in pretty much every song has to be muted on the radio.  I hate this century. </getoffmylawn>

Track 25: Coldcut and Yazz & The Plastic Population – Doctorin’ The House

Another annoying chorus.  What is it with those today?  I quite like the rest of the track, though.

Track 26: Krush – House Arrest

Great dance song.  I don’t imagine most wedding DJs would play this one, but I might request it off Geth next time he’s DJing a wedding.

Track 27: Jack ‘N’ Chill – The Jack That House Built

I really like this one as well – lots of chair-dancing today.  Great synth line, love the samples too.

Track 28: Beatmasters and The Cookie Crew – Rok Da House

‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).

This one’s not so much my cup of tea, though I do like the piano bit.

Track 29: Two Men, A Drum Machine & A Trumpet – Tired Of Getting Pushed Around

‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).

Wikipedia informs me these were actually a Fine Young Cannibals spinoff band.  I quite like the track.

Track 30: Climie Fisher – Rise To The Occasion

Bit of a dull ballad, which is becoming standard for the last track.  Let’s have something more upbeat, Now! compilers!

Music Review: Now! That’s What I Call Music #10

Day 10’s Now! compilation was released on 23rd November 1987.

November 1987
There’s something of a theme developing with these ‘this is what the world looked like…’ pictures. I’m sure the world didn’t just look like our house (and since this particular picture was taken, its background hasn’t changed in the slightest – carpet, intercom and original Victorian doorway are still all exactly the same!), but I guess you don’t get out much with small children, so in our family photo album the world looks very much like our house during that era. Here’s what it looked like in November 1987.

Now! #10 is special to me, because it’s the one we had (and still have) on vinyl – the one Dad always put on the record player for me when I wanted to listen to music, the one I learnt to sing and dance to, the one I grew up with, the one that absolutely shaped my music taste.  While there were a lot of Now! compilations I was familiar with in the ’90s, this one is my one.  I must have listened to it a thousand times.

Let’s have a listen to some tracks I know very, very well.

Now! That's What I Call Music #10

Track 1: Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé – Barcelona

The opening bars of this track still send chills down my spine – I’m instantly transported back to my parents’ living room as it looked in the last century, the sound of the record on the player that you just can’t replicate digitally, the bass on the speakers of Dad’s homemade sound system, the anticipation of an evening spent listening to music I loved.

The BBC used this song for its coverage of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, so the song also takes me back to summer days in front of the TV at our holiday caravan (we usually had a black and white TV at the caravan but for the Olympics we brought a colour one with us specially), watching Sally Gunnell and Linford Christie winning gold.

How this one shaped my music taste: You know how every third song review I’ve done on this feature seems to contain the phrase ‘epic atmosphere’?  This is the ultimate in epic atmospheres – booming, dramatic, lots of switching between major and minor key, piano, operatic vocals, slow verses building to a huge chorus, the works.  That is what I love in music – something that makes me feel that strange mixture of happy and sad.

Track 2: Pet Shop Boys – Rent

Pet Shop Boys can do no wrong in my opinion, but this is a stunner.  Beautiful lyrical theme, wonderful emotion-inducing synth line, and another of those epic atmospheres I was talking about above.  An all-time favourite.

Fun fact: Carter USM did a not-at-all-pointless ’90s cover of this, which is very different but also absolutely beautiful.  Nothing will ever beat the original for me, but that Carter cover is great.

How this one shaped my music taste: Two words: electronic music.  I’ve always been drawn to electro, and it’s largely because of early exposure to beautiful synthpop like this.

Track 3: The Communards – Never Can Say Goodbye

Another great pop track from the Communards.  More amusement provided by 2017 Strictly contestant Richard Coles in the video, in which he leads the crowd on the disco dancefloor with some dodgy moves that were nonetheless way better than anything he did on Strictly.  Still wish he’d stayed in the competition longer!

How this one shaped my music taste: It’s fast, upbeat ’80s pop.  Say no more!

Track 4: M/A/R/R/S – Pump Up The Volume

This one always scared me a bit as a kid.  I’m not sure why.  I remember that feeling of fear, wanting to go and hide while the song was playing, but I never did.  I just always stayed kind of rooted to the spot until it was over.

As an adult who no longer experiences irrational fear (um, mostly), I find it a great chantalong track, and due to its ‘SAN FRANCISCO/pump up the volume‘ hook, I played it nonstop for a week leading up to a trip to San Francisco in 2011.  True story.  I am super lame.

How this one shaped my music taste: I always give things a chance, even when it doesn’t immediately sound like my cup of tea.  Anything might grow on you eventually.  Even if it’s a song that gives you strange, irrational fear.

Track 5: Hue & Cry – Labour Of Love

Most definitely an example of that unexplainable mid-’80s Scottish band sound, but in a great way.  I absolutely love this track – the rapid tempo, the stop-start hooks, the catchy vocals.  Awesome song.

How this one shaped my music taste: I love interesting hooks.  And piano.

Track 6: Jellybean and Steven Dante – The Real Thing

‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).

On the surface this one is a bit dull, but it’s got a nice singalong chorus, and I always find myself nodding along.

How this one shaped my music taste: It’s not always the expected tracks that have you chair-dancing.

Track 7: Johnny Hates Jazz – I Don’t Want To Be A Hero

Great upbeat pop song with a catchy, singalong chorus.  There’s something nice and emotional about the bridge, too.

How this one shaped my music taste: You can find a lovely epic bridge in the most unexpected songs.

Track 8: The Style Council – Wanted

Nice feelgood track from the Style Council – as ever, the backing vocals are great.  Love those tinkly instrumental hooks.

How this one shaped my music taste: I really appreciate good backing vocals.

Track 9: T’Pau – China In Your Hand

Beautiful, beautiful song – another one with an epic atmosphere.  The vocals are stunning, the way the song builds is perfect, and that sax solo is brilliantly over-the-top.

How this one shaped my music taste: There’s nothing I like more than an epic ’80s sax solo!

Track 10: Heart – Alone

This one is really special to me.  It’s a gorgeous rock ballad that has really spoken to me throughout various periods of my life, and always makes me quite emotional.  Beautiful lyrics, beautiful guitar solos – epic, epic song.

How this one shaped my music taste: I adore huge overdramatic rock ballads.  Really!

Track 11: Kiss – Crazy Crazy Nights

Great singalong party song from Kiss.  I love those rocked-out verses and the chorus is mega, especially once you hit the key change.

Due to being hard of hearing, and thus having a lot of issues with background noise, I’ve always found it difficult to make out what singers are singing about – I am the queen of misheard lyrics – but this nice, simple chorus is easy to sing along to.  Great job!

How this one shaped my music taste: I have a soft spot for key changes.  I even quite liked it when Westlife used to do their terrible cheesy ones with the accompanying standing-up-from-stools-on-stage.

Track 12: Billy Idol – Mony Mony

Another great singalong rock chorus that even hard-of-hearing types can make out!  In later life, I grew to love other Billy Idol songs even more than this one, but that nice simple ‘mony mony‘ lyric has a special place in my heart.

How this one shaped my music taste: ’80s pop rock, ’nuff said.  It also strongly shaped my fashion taste, due to the accompanying picture of Billy Idol in the record sleeve with all his spiky hair and black leather and general rock attitude.  By the time he showed up in The Wedding Singer a decade later, my love of the ’80s rock look was set in stone.

Track 13: Whitesnake – Here I Go Again ’87

More classic ’80s rock!  Brilliant singalong track that is only enhanced by the over-the-top video and all its ridiculous double Jaguar bonnet cartwheeling.  Not bad for a band from Middlesbrough.

I have to say I prefer this version to the version they originally did in 1982, probably because this is the one I heard so often in childhood, due to this compilation.

How this one shaped my music taste: Hair metal.  I love it and I won’t apologise.

Track 14: The Alarm – Rain In The Summertime

Great feelgood track with lovely jingly instrumentals.  I’ve seen this performed live, when the band played at Beautiful Days 2010.  I dragged Geth to see them, purely because of their presence on this compilation, and he was not impressed!  What I found out that day: playing a song entitled Rain In The Summertime, when outdoors in the British summer, is just asking for it, and the inevitable downpour that struck that evening meant that we had to shelter in the Big Top indoor stage.  We did end up getting engaged that night, so you can’t complain.

How this one shaped my music taste: I have a whimsical appreciation for songs about rain.

Track 15: Marillion – Sugar Mice

Bit of a slow one, but it builds in a great epic fashion, culminating in an awesome epic guitar solo.

How this one shaped my music taste: I really love songs that build well.

Track 16: Wet Wet Wet – Sweet Little Mystery

Great upbeat pop – always been a fan of this one.  I really like Wet Wet Wet’s ’80s stuff, before they got all grown-up and introspective in the ’90s.

How this one shaped my music taste: I appreciate nice, simple pop songs.

Track 17: Curiosity Killed The Cat – Misfit

Really like this one – my favourite Curiosity Killed The Cat track.  As a kid, not being familiar with the idiom, I used to get upset by the band’s name (I love cats).

How this one shaped my music taste: I never judge a band by their name.

Track 18: Los Lobos – La Bamba

A cover of the Ritchie Valens classic.  The cover is very close to the original, but deliberately so as it was recorded for the film La Bamba, which was about Valens, so I’m not going to call it a pointless cover – instead I’ll just enjoy the tune, which is a great party track and was played at every birthday party I went to in the late ’80s.

How this one shaped my music taste: Sometimes the oldies are the goodies.  (And now that it’s the ’80s hits that are the oldies, this has never been more true.)

Track 19: Fat Boys and Beach Boys – Wipeout

Great surf-themed song.  The Fat Boys’ cackle at the start of the song is another thing that scared me as a kid (they also looked pretty scary in their album sleeve picture, which I seem to remember involving snakes), but once the song gets going it’s great, especially when the Beach Boys’ harmonies kick in.

How this one shaped my music taste: I never judge a band by the way they look.  This has served me well in the goth scene!

Track 20: Bananarama – Love In The First Degree

Another pop classic from Bananarama – I absolutely adored this one as a kid and still love it now.

This is another one where the album sleeve picture made a big impression on my young brain.  The band members were all fully clothed themselves, but they each had a topless dude as an accessory.  This is something you’d be less likely to see in pop music today, where female artists are usually hugely objectified and barely clothed.  In some ways, we’ve gone backwards since the ’80s. </soapbox>

How this one shaped my music taste: Bananarama’s music, for me is the epitome of the fun and intelligence that pop music and lyrics used to have.  If pop music doesn’t have that – which, nowadays, it usually doesn’t – it’s not pop music in my book.  It’s that simple.

Track 21: Cliff Richard – My Pretty One

The vocals are far too saccharine for me, ’cause it’s Cliff Richard, but the instrumentals are actually really nice!

How this one shaped my music taste: I know not to listen to Cliff.  Is that cheating?

Track 22: Karel Fialka – Hey Matthew

‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).

I’ve always loved this one – a really, really interesting song with vocals that, despite having a nice melody when you listen closely, sound almost spoken in some ways, actual spoken word from a child that manages to be interesting rather than annoying, and great screechy electro hooks.

How this one shaped my music taste: I have a soft spot for spoken word.

Track 23: Jan Hammer – Crockett’s Theme

So much better than his main theme for Miami Vice!  I’ve always adored this tune.

How this one shaped my music taste: I love a good instrumental soundtrack.

Track 24: Nina Simone – My Baby Just Cares For Me

Love the plinky piano on this classic track.  Can’t remember why it was in the charts again, but I’m not complaining!

How this one shaped my music taste: I really like interesting piano stuff.

Track 25: Erasure – The Circus

One of my favourite Erasure tracks – but then, I love everything they did in the ’80s.  This is a gorgeous song.

How this one shaped my music taste: More great synthpop that cemented my electro addiction.

Track 26: The Housemartins – Build

Lovely track from the Housemartins – beautiful introspective lyrics and nice slow tune.

How this one shaped my music taste: Sometimes, there’s something beautiful about a slower song.

Track 27: Level 42 – It’s Over

A slower one from Level 42, with really interesting instrumental lines.

And no, I’ve still not booked tickets to that October gig I keep going on about.  I will get round to it soon, I promise!

How this one shaped my music taste: Speaking of slower songs, they can be really musically interesting as well!

Track 28: ABC – When Smokey Sings

Adore ABC, adore this track.  I love that epic intro, Martin Fry’s vocals, the instrumentals – everything.

How this one shaped my music taste: I love songs that bang in right from the start.  Start as you mean to go on!

Track 29: Squeeze – Hourglass

Great jaunty song.  That chorus is just awesome, typical bit of fun from Squeeze!

How this one shaped my music taste: I really appreciate songs that have something whimsical about them.

Track 30: The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl – Fairytale Of New York

An all-time classic.  One of my favourite Christmas songs, and one I learnt to adore early in life, thanks to this compilation.  Just beautiful.

How this one shaped my music taste: Though you might not be able to guess at the moment, due to me being super curmudgeonly about them when it’s springtime, I adore Christmas songs.  I get my playlist on the go in early November and I watch the music channels religiously in the lead-up to the festive season.  Very few of them are as good as this one, but the genre is special to me.