BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION - Debut review



  • Paul,
    That Sweet Sista Jane has been driving me nuts since the first time I heard it! Woohoo - my absolute fav!!! However, was a bit disappointed when I heard the live version. Think they need to work on the "hard" sound a bit more :bouncer:

    "I might have been born in Liverpool, but I grew up in Hamburg." John Lennon

  • For the German speaking members of the forum, I have posted my review/staff recommendation of BBC (in German) which can be accessed through various of our major online stores:

    Thalia.at, Thalia.de and Thalia.ch, Buch.de, bol.de and some more I might have lost count of!

    Quote


    ALBUM DES JAHRES!!!
    Im September bereits sein persönliches Album des Jahres auszurufen mag etwas kühn sein, aber besser als Black Country Communion kann dieses Jahr meiner Meinung nach kein Album mehr werden. BBC - so nennt sich die Band offiziell in Kurzform - ist ein Gipfeltreffen zweier Veteranen, Glenn Hughes und Jason Bonham, mit dem Blues Gitarren Wunderkind Joe Bonamassa, inzwischen auch schon 34 Jahre alt, und dem US-Keyboard-Crack Derek Sherinian. Die Musik: ausgeprägt song-orientierter Vintage-Rock mit Anleihen im Blues, bei Led Zeppelin und Deep Purple, grandios gesungen, exzellent gespielt und produziert, mit Melodien und Refrains die hängenbleiben. Black Country Communion ist ein ganz großes Album von heute für morgen, das sich bewusst vieler Ingredienzien der ganz großen Zeit der Rockmusik, der 1970er Jahre bedient. Diese Mischung ist perfekt gelungen, und die Verkaufszahlen bestätigen, dass man dieses (und nächstes) Jahr nicht an BBC vorbeikommen wird. Dringendste Empfehlung!!!




    Anyone else interested, you should get a mostly decent translation when you put it into google! ;)


    Cheers,
    Christian


    MEDUSA

        

  • just got mine from amazon :) :) :) :) -gonna listen to it and start to go over everything david put on here!!!!!!!!!!!

  • After about 5 listens, I'm really digging the album (of course, some of this could be "New Album Syndrome").

    My favorite tunes at this time are:

    Black Country (great opener. I love the bass groove throughout)

    Sista Jane (straight ahead hard rock, in the vein of an 80's AC/DC tune. Not too in depth, but real catchy and fun to these ears)

    No Time (another bass heavy tune, sounds a lot like a Hughes' solo outtake. Good stuff)

    One Last Soul (perhaps just because I've heard it more than the rest of the album, so it's ingrained in me. My girlfriend, who's a big fan of Hughes' funkier works took to this one right away. Very catchy)

    A notch lower, but still pretty good are The Great Divide, Beggerman and Medusa (though I can definitely see this one being a "grower").

    Song of Yesterday (where Bonamassa and Shirley help with the vox) is a potential grower as well.

    Not a big fan of The Revolution in Me (Bonamassa on vox), but at about the 2:50 mark, it picks up, sounding almost Rush like (which is a good thing) to me.

    Down Again is pretty weak, IMO ... though there is a touch of a Hammond sound that I like.

    Too Late For the Sun has promise, but it plods on for what seems like forever (think Genesis' Abacab) at a certain point.

    Overall, I'd give the album a 7 out of 10 right now.
    [ame='

    ]

  • i thought it was just me! My cd wont play in my hifi either :mad: :( :confused:

    plays in my pc but makes a lot of noise in the drive and plays in the car.
    i didnt want to send it back as i wanted to play it. maybe i'll rip it and then contact Play.

    As well as reminding me of DP, Free, Led Zep, ACDC and others it also makes me think of HTP and plenty of solo stuff. this could easily be a solo album.

    Despite being a GHCP my favourite track is Song Of Yesterday - what a solo!

    :ghcp: "It's in my blood"

  • Here's a a 3-star review (out of 5) or mention ;) for the new Black Country Communion album in yesterday’s Daily Record newspaper in Scotland.

    This is Scotland’s biggest selling daily tabloid newspaper :cool:

  • Opinions are funny aren't they, i agree and disagree with some of the points that Paice30 makes.

    Favourites are definitely Black Country, Sista Jane, and Song of Yesterday [a cross between a JB solo song and On The Ledge by HTP!], which is probably the best song on the album. These three songs are worth the price of the album alone.

    I love the dual vocals :singer: :singer:

    One Last Soul is now up there, despite my initial reservations, along with The Great Divide, Beggarman, Too Late For the Sun, Stand.

    I love the initial riff and pre-chorus of Down Again but i can't get into the chorus, although it is growing on me, the more i listen to it.

    My less popular tracks are No Time, Medusa [which is probably just because it is a remake, as it is a great song performed brilliantly, and The Revolution in Me [which is like a hybrid Richie Blackmore/Steve Morse DP track only because it needs Glenn's more powerful voice].

    And i mean less popular, but doesn't mean that i don't like them!

    One of my slight niggles is the instrumental passages. I really like the Zeppelinesque instrumental part in No Time [which is like the Steve Salas songs on TWII]but it seems totally out of place in that song. Maybe it would work better in Stand? As you said i think they could have been a little more ruthless with the jam at the end of Too Late for the Sun. Although i have to be honest and say that i enjoy it!

    The other one is Sista Jane where it's this urgent/poppy commercial version of an AC/DC song that then has a long musical section at the end. Again i like it, but doesn't seem to fit in with the song type/structure. Maybe with Sista Jane, and Too Late for the Sun they could have revisited the chorus at the end of the long musical passages.

    But i am being extremely picky, and i shouldn't be, as it is a great Rock Album!

    And it is truly amazing to finally see an album featuring Glenn in the chart positions :bouncer:

    For BCC 2 [can you believe talking about that already! :D ] would like them to see if they can really establish their own musical identity. Maybe they will have to be like Life on Mars/and Ashes to Ashes tv programme. They have done the 60's and 70's and will have to do the rock music of the 80's and 90's next! :D

    Some hair metal and Grunge :eek:

  • Another good online review...

    Quote

    This is a band that will be unstoppable live. Hopefully they will put together a tour big enough to come within driving distance of home. I can wait to experience Communion live; but for now I've got the year's best new band's equally excellent debut album to hold me over. Ladies and gentlemen: Black Country Communion.



    http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/582595…d_is.html?cat=9

  • Quote


    As well as reminding me of DP, Free, Led Zep, ACDC and others it also makes me think of HTP and plenty of solo stuff. this could easily be a solo album.




    Wolfy, IMHO One Last Soul would fit very comfortably alongside any track on Hughes/Thrall.......:thumbup:

  • Well, having had a few listens now, I have to say that Song of yesterday & Sista Jane are the standouts for me so far.

    Joe absolutely f**ckin nails it on the solo in Song of yesterday, best guitar solo I've heard for a long time. And he's certainly 'channeling' Koss, Townshend & even a little bit of Angus on Sista Jane :cool:

    Oh, and the shared vocals really work well too. And as for that Hughes bloke, well, do I need to say anything?? :bow:

    Best rock album I've heard for years. Full stop.

    Now, any NZ gigs I wonder???

  • Finally got myself a copy of the album and began writing my review almost immediately.

    Now, the following words I type are something I have been holding onto, ever since this project was announced. I wanted to make sure, my intuition was in fact right. I knew, that with Glenn behind the mic and of course, Joe, Jason and Derek - that this would be the band that Them Crooked Vultures failed to be. Now I admire Jonsey a hell of a lot and Grohl is alright at what he does. But Josh Homme is most certainly not a musical equal, to John Paul Jones - he is in fact, quite an amateurish musician with rudimentary guitar skills at best. I found that Vultures album got tired, even before the last song spun - it was a hoax. Which is exactly what BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION is not. I hear four musicians on equal footing, offering up some real classic ROCK in 2010.

    The first track Black Country is an absolute ball-tearer - I was won over just from the bass line alone. The second track One Last Soul I had downloaded when it was made available and it's as equally impressive. By the time The Great Divide was into the first verse, I had began to tear up. Glenn, you are the best mate. I said it to you at The Gaelic Club gig - you said that I was the best, but nah man you are the man. Your music is powerful and moves me emotionally and I love it when my favorite bands feed my soul mate!

    What impresses me about BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION is of course the songs, but I am equally as struck how different they are from earlier works - you don't repeat yourself and everything sounds fresh, raw and kick-arse. I am also impressed with the shared vocal duties at certain times - great stuff!
    Thanks guys. Thanks for delivering the goods and I look forward to seeing you on tour. I'll be there!

    Black Country Communion's debut release, get's an 11 out of 10 from me :thumbup:

  • One other 4-star review :cool:

    Quote

    The widely publicised coming together of young blues superstar Joe Bonamassa, rock legend Glenn Hughes, ex-Foreigner drummer Jason Bonham and Billy Idol/ex-Dream Theater keyboard player Derek Sherinian aimed to produce a classic rock album for their debut, and succeeded. In a sense the resulting album sounds exactly how it should.



    http://www.jukeboxmetal.com/2010/black-cou…-black-country/

  • A 3-star album review in the October issue of Rhythm Magazine, the UK’s biggest selling monthly drum magazine!

    Quote

    Any album featuring Jason Bonham is always going to be met with anticipation here at Rhythm, particularly if you add former Deep Purple bassist/air raid siren Glenn Hughes and blues prodigy Joe Bonamassa.

    And there are times during BCC's debut disc that they live up to the hype.

  • Following on from their 8 page feature on BCC last month, UK publication, Guitarist Magazine, have made ”Black Country Communion” their October’s album of the month, along with this 4-star review :thumbup:

    Quote

    Finally, a supergroup with the stars aligned - Hughes and Bonamassa deliver an epic slab of fresh and creative classic rock.

    Whether it's the elusive factor of chemistry between the band's main instrumentalists or just serendipity , it's clear that BCC aren't in any way hampered by reputations. In fact, you can tell from the first 30 seconds - they're just having a blast!



    :cool1:

  • Another excellent review... :cool1:

    Quote

    Authenticity drips out of every track on the album. Each member of the band has been surrounded by rock music for decades and this comes across in their own particular sound.

    Black Country Communion will succeed not only due to the musical talents of each individual member, but because what we have here is an actual band having a great time making some absolutely timeless music together. This is not a forced project cooked up by a record company to sell more albums. Black Country Communion is the real deal.



    http://uweekly.com/newsmag/09-29-…e-black-country

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