Robert Plant - Shaken 'n' Stirred

Shaken 'n' Stirred is Robert Plant third solo album following the demise of Led Zeppelin and easily his worst.  His first two solo albums; "Pictures at Eleven" and "The Principles of Moments" were a distinct and purposeful move away from Led Zeppelin and their bombastic sound but at the core they held onto Plant's blues roots.  Unfortunately, while there are a few bright spots on the album, the single "Little By Little" is one of them, the rest of the album is a mess.  The album is a mixture of synthesizers, overbearing background vocals, incoherent lyrics and over lack of musical focus.  The album has contributions from the same musicians who played on his first two albums with one exception being Little Feat's Richie Hayward assuming the drumming from Phil Collins who returned to Genesis and his own solo career.  "Little by Little" should have been the example for the entire album and it would have been much better for it.  Throughout Robert Plant's solo career, he has explored various musical genres in the hopes of expanding his sound and deliver to the listener a rich landscape in this instance it did not happen on Shaken 'n' Stirred and renewed calls from fans to return to a more Zeppelin-esque sound which would happen on 1988's Now and Zen.

The Winery Dogs - Unleashed in Japan 2013

The Winery Dogs are a supergroup consisting of former Mr. Big bandmates Richie Kotzen and Billy Sheehan, along with former Dream Theater (and a lot of other bands) drummer Mike Portnoy.  After the release of their self-titled debut album, the band toured extensively worldwide.  The release of "Unleashed in Japan 2013" is a snapshot of the set list that the band played as it only contains 10 of the 13 songs which appeared on the DVD that was simultaneously released.  The live show is a testament to the showmanship and virtuosity of the three musicians.  Of the 10 songs on the CD, four are not Winery Dogs songs and one was not released in the US.  The second song, "Criminal" was only released on the Japanese version of the debut album and did not appear on a US release until "The Dog Years" EP was released earlier this year.  Of the other non-Winery Dogs songs, one was a Mr. Big song "Shine", another was a Poison song (which Richie Kotzen was briefly a member of) "Stand", a solo Richie Kotzen song "You Can't Save Me" and a cover of Elvin Bishop's "Fool Around and Feel in Love".  Mike Portnoy has stated that The Winery Dogs are his "power trio/straight forward hard rock" band in the vein similar to that of Led Zeppelin or Cream which is one of many reasons why none of his Dream Theater songs are represented.  The full concert included another 10 songs and those have been unreleased anywhere.  There is a full concert which has been uploaded to YouTube  Mr. Big - Live in Japan 2013 which contained the remaining tracks from the debut album, as well as, a bass solo from Billy Sheehan and a drum solo from Mike Portnoy.  The Winery Dogs are currently on hiatus and hopefully will reconvene in the future.  Until then, "Unleashed in Japan 2013" is a great postcard from a great live band.

Mr. Big - Defying Gravity

This is the third studio release since the original Mr. Big line-up reformed in 2009 and released the Back to Budokan live album.  "Defying Gravity" follows the same Mr. Big formula that can be found on the 2011 release "What If..." and the 2014's "...The Stories We Could Tell" which highlights the virtuosity of Paul Gilbert and Billy Sheehan, which is not entirely a bad thing, and good straight forward hard rock/heavy metal.  One change is that drummer Pat Torpey was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 2014 has been unable to play on this and last release.  Pat does serve as "drum producer" on this album for his stand-in Matt Starr and does play on select songs when the band does tour.   Defying Gravity also acts a reunion between the band and producer Kevin Elson who worked with the band on their first four releases and recorded the band biggest hits in the early 90's.  This is where, in my opinion, is the real issue with this album.  In interviews, the band members repeatedly stated that the album was written and recorded in six days and seem proud of that fact.  At times the songs do sound like they are "rushed" but it is the production of the music which I feel is lacking.  The overall sound of the album is, again in my opinion, very muddy and lacks the power of "What If..." which was produced by Kevin Shirley or the crispness of "...The Stories We Could Tell" by Pat Regan (who also produced 1999's Get Over It).  It begs to question if the band went their separate ways during final mixing and production.  The group released three singles from this album; "1992", "Defying Gravity" and "Everybody Needs a Little Trouble".  "1992" serves as a sarcastic look back to the band's "hey day" when they had a #1 single with "To Be With You" and received heavy rotation on Mtv.  "Everybody Needs a Little Trouble" is a classic Mr. Big song in every aspect.  The album also has its obligatory ballad "Damn, I'm in Love Again" complete with acoustic guitars and does not fit into the overall sequence of songs.  The most surprising song on the album is the closing song "Be Kind" which clocks in at over 7 minutes and a slow burn/bluesy number which is not typical Mr. Big.  Mr. Big has already completed a brief tour in support of this album and, unfortunately, most of the dates were overseas and with Billy Sheehan turning his attention towards Sons of Apollo for 2018 and Paul Gilbert returning to his solo career, nothing is planned for the near future.  Having seen Mr. Big open for RUSH twice and headline once at Hammerjack's in Baltimore.  They are one band who should definitely checked out.

The Church - Priest = Aura

The Church are one of those bands that you either like or you don't.  If you do, you look past the songs that generated interest in the band like "Under the Milky Way" from Starfish and "Russian Autumn Heart" from Gold Afternoon Fix and towards albums which highlight their songwriting and musicianship.  That is where Priest=Aura comes in.  Priest=Aura is a 14 song psychedelic/ethereal experience.  From the opening notes of the title track "Aura", the listener knew that they were hearing a band expand itself musically and lyrically.  The keyboard textures and the guitar interplay between Marty Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes throughout the album are a highlight.  The album also served as the unofficial soundtrack to "The Mind's Eye: A Computer Animation Odyssey" which demonstration computer animation when the art form was still in its early stages.  The songs on Priest=Aura synchronize incredibly well with the series of short films which are on the video.  Like Dark Side of the Moon, which went along with the Wizard of Oz both of which are completely coincidental but adds an interesting element to the release which most albums can not relate to.  New drummer Jay Dee Daughtery adds a jazz-tinged element to this release that was absent in earlier releases. What is equally amazing is that lead singer/bassist Steve Kilbey was struggling with heroin addiction throughout the record  and, fortunately, it did not effect his performance and was able to recover from his addiction.  In the end, Priest=Aura is a fan favorite and establishes the direction for the band on future releases but is solid at its core.

Quiet Riot - QR III

In three short years, Quiet Riot went from the pinnacle of popularity and stardom to not just irrelevant but loathed and hated throughout the music industry.  Quiet Riot was initially formed in the early seventies and released two albums in Japan only.  Up until that point, the band was only known as the launch pad for the late-Randy Rhoads.  In 1983, a reformed Quiet Riot released Metal Health with a cover of Slade's "Cum On Feel The Noize" as its initial single.  While band members have continually stated that they hated recording the song and try to do as bad of job recording, the song become a radio staple and its video was in heavy rotation on Mtv.  That summer, Quiet Riot performed at the three day US Festival and solidified their trajectory into superstardom.  Metal Health reached #1 on the Billboard charts which kept Michael Jackson's Thriller from reaching its pinnacle.  Unfortunately, the success was short lived and the beginning of the end for the group, due to lead singers Kevin DuBrow as he continually put his proverbial foot in his mouth.   By 1986, bass player Rudy Sarzo left the group and was replaced by "original" bassist Chuck Wright.  The music industry was also beginning to change from hard rock/heavy metal bands with loud guitars to "pop metal/hair bands" with power ballads and with keyboards incorporated or in the forefront.  This album follows that formula with the collection of 10 songs (not include the 1 minute bass instrumental) having sophomoric lyrics, overbearing keyboard/synthesizer textures, quick guitar solos and simple drums.  After this album was released, Kevin DuBrow was fired from the band and replaced by Paul Shortino and would go through various line-up changes in subsequent years and play in front of smaller and smaller venues.  In reality, the band should have called it quits after this album because QR III was the proverbial final nail in the Quiet Riot coffin.