Cinderella - Long Cold Winter [5 bonus tracks] (1988)

Year: July 5, 1988 (CD Sep 10, 2010)
Label: Bad Reputation (Japan), BAD100801
Style: Glam Metal, Hard Rock
Country: Clifton Heights, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Time: 65:25
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 508 Mb

Cinderella were really asking for the hair metal label when they dressed up like a cross between the New York Dolls and a Madison Avenue transvestite on their debut album “Night Songs,” even if musically they sound nothing like Poison, Warrant, Winger, or Ratt, the truest examples of that genre moniker. Cinderella actually sounded like a toned down AC/DC with ballads, incorporating more blues than their reputation would belie. Tom Keifer strutted around like the cock-of-the-walk with his throat ripped out (before singing like he just had his throat ripped out almost caused to him literally have his throat ripped out), and the remainder of the band followed suit, riding the blues with a small infusion of glam to some truly classic albums.
If you’ve never heard “Gypsy Road,” I suggest you just stop listening to music right now. It’s the best song off “Long Cold Winter,” their career in general, and arguably of the entire genre itself. That ballsy, bluesy riff is the kind that generations should pass down when teaching their young how to properly rock (something that is sadly in major decline). “Gypsy Road” is the blues drenched pinnacle of “Long Cold Winter,” and sets the tone for what is easily their dirtiest and prettiest album at the same time. Even though 90% of power ballads seemed a tad forced due to record company execs demanding them as they bent over songwriters crying tears of sheer terror onto the pages of the contracts that so ripped them off, but “Don’t Know What You Got Till It’s Gone” is absolutely sincere.  It has that towering chorus, those pleading verses, that tear-jerking refrain. It’s like Warrant’s “Heaven” or Steelheart’s “I’ll Never Let You Go” if Jani Lane or whoever Steelheart’s lead singer could write better ballads. The story behind “Long Cold Winter” is the singles are the real stand-outs but the lesser known tracks are great blues jams. “Last Mile” is a melodic clinic that showcases great chorus harmonization and should have been much bigger, and “Coming Home” is arguably the most underrated song in the history of “hair metal.” I’ve seen Cinderella live twice and believe it or not that song is the one that resonates the most.
“Long Cold Winter” stands as one of the greatest pillars of 80’s hard rock, eclipsing “Night Songs” which is good in its own right and annihilates everything else they ever did. I like “Gypsy Road” so much that I get pissed off when somebody plays “Shake Me” or “Nobody’s Fool” or any other song than “Gypsy Road” itself. Tom paid the price for his screeching, as the guy can barely talk anymore, but his balls-out approach on this album was probably worth it.
(sputnikmusic.com/review/47434/Cinderella-Long-Cold-Winter/)

01. Bad Seamstress Blues - Fallin' Apart At The Seams (05:19)
02. Gypsy Road (03:56)
03. Don't Know What You Got (05:55)
04. The Last Mile (03:52)
05. Second Wind (03:59)
06. Long Cold Winter (05:24)
07. If You Don't Like It (04:10)
08. Coming Home (04:57)
09. Fire And Ice (03:22)
10. Take Me Back (03:20)
11. Push Push (bonus track live) (03:13)
12. Once Around The Ride (bonus track live) (03:32)
13. Shake Me (bonus track live) (05:12)
14. Galaxy Blues (bonus track live) (05:55)
15. Jumpin' Jack Flash (bonus track live) (03:13)

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Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) - Now And Zen [Japanese Ed.] (1988)

Year: 29 February 1988 (CD Mar 25, 1988)
Label: Warner-Pioneer (Japan), 32XD-945
Style: Rock, Arena Rock
Country: West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England (20 August 1948)
Time: 47:08
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 320 Mb

Robert Plant's 1988 release 'Now and Zen' was a hugely significant milestone in this process of reeducation, an album I already knew well from my youth, and one I'd not re-listened to since the advent of the compact disc. My childhood memories were that this was an overwhelmingly cheesy 80s album and I approached this rediscovery with a fair amount of scepticism born from investigating most of Led Zeppelin's back catalogue in the interim period; my expectation was that this album would fall rather short in comparison but, to my great surprise, the reality was quite different.
Like a lot of rockers who made their name in the 60s and 70s Robert Plant was widely regarded to have gone hopelessly adrift by the mid 80s. By 1987 he'd released three solo albums and each had been an exercise in denial; here was an artist going to untold lengths to hide from his rock heritage. 'Now and Zen' marks the point Plant stops trying quite so hard at distancing himself from his roots and allows himself to throw some of those familiar rock god shapes again; tellingly he even goes as far as inviting old stomping partner Jimmy Page to play on one of the album's singles 'Tall Cool One'. As successful as this reunion proves to be, intriguingly it's a more unexpected collaboration that reveals itself as the true secret to this album's success.
This release sees keyboardist Phil Johnstone establish himself as a perfect songwriting foil for Plant, a partnership that would continue long into the future. While guitars certainly flesh out many of the arrangements here they remain in the most part an embellishment, rather it's the keyboard that forms the musical backbone in the place of any rhythm guitar. This inspired choice gives the sound an unexpectedly rich pop lustre that you perhaps wouldn't have thought Robert would run with. Surprisingly this sound is one that fits bluesy horndog Plant to a tee as he sands off the rough edges of his voice to deliver a masterclass in smooth and faintly mystical pop vox. Whether tackling the consummate 'ballad-writer's ballad' 'Ship of Fools', rockabilly doo-wopping 'Billy's Revenge' or the super-slick dance pop (and unexpected masturbation ode) 'Dancing on My Own' the man never fails to impress.
Looking back at Plant's solo career you can't help but see 'Now and Zen' as an all important confidence boosting shot in the arm that paved the way for future successes like 93's eclectic 'Fate of Nations' and the well received Jimmy Page collaboration 'Walking Into Clarksdale'. He'd eventually settle into the traditional elder statesman 'tasteful' genre territories of folk and country but strangely his song writing would never again match the immediacy and easy melodic charm of the tracks included here. The 80s sucked hard for a lot of us, and Mr Plant more than most you'd think, but it's important to remember they weren't all bad. Just mostly terrible.
(full version: sputnikmusic.com/review/70638/Robert-Plant-Now-and-Zen/)

01. Heaven Knows (04:06)
02. Dance on my Own (04:30)
03. Tall Cool One (04:40)
04. The Way I Feel (05:41)
05. Helen of Troy (05:06)
06. Billy's Revenge (03:33)
07. Ship of Fools (05:01)
08. Why (04:15)
09. White, Clean and Neat (05:28)
10. Walking Towards Paradise (04:43)

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Traveling Wilburys - Volume One [Japanese Ed.] (1988)

Year: 18 October 1988 (CD Nov 28, 1988)
Label: Warner Bros. Records (Japan), 25P2-2327
Style: Classic Rock, Folk Rock
Country: Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Time: 36:22
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 255 Mb

Charts: AUS #1, AUT #3, CAN #1, NOR #2, NZ #2, SWE #2, SWI #6, UK #16, US #3. UK: PLatinum; US: 3x Platinum; AUS & CAN: 6x Platinum.
The Traveling Wilburys were a British-American supergroup formed in Los Angeles in 1988, consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty. They were a roots rock band and described as "perhaps the biggest supergroup of all time".
Originating from an idea discussed by Harrison and Lynne during the sessions for Harrison's 1987 album Cloud Nine, the band formed in April 1988 after the five members united to record a bonus track for Harrison's next European single. When this collaboration, "Handle with Care", was deemed too good for such a limited release, the group agreed to record a full album, titled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, released in October 1988. Following Orbison's death in December 1988, the Wilburys continued as a quartet and released a second album, incongruously titled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3, in 1990.
The release of their debut album was much anticipated because of the stature of the participants. The band members adopted tongue-in-cheek pseudonyms as half-brothers from the fictional Wilbury family of travelling musicians. Vol. 1 was a critical and commercial success, helping to revitalise Dylan's and Petty's careers. In 1990, the album won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.
Although Harrison envisioned a series of Wilburys albums and a film about the band, to be produced through his company HandMade, the group became dormant after 1991 and never officially reunited, though the individual members continued to collaborate on each other's solo projects at various times. Harrison died in 2001, followed by Petty in 2017, leaving Dylan and Lynne as the only surviving members.
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveling_Wilburys)

Album recorded and mixed in the analog domain - AAD. That is, a minimum of digital processing.
A=Analog. D=digital. The first letter stands for how the music was recorded. The second letter for how it was mixed. The third letter stands for the format (all CD's will have D as the last letter).

01. Handle With Care (03:19)
02. Dirty World (03:29)
03. Rattled (02:59)
04. Last Night (03:51)
05. Not Alone Any More (03:25)
06. Congratulations (03:29)
07. Heading For The Light (03:36)
08. Margarita (03:16)
09. Tweeter And The Monkey Man (05:27)
10. End Of The Line (03:27)

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Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones) - Talk Is Cheap [MFSL-CD] (1988)

Year: 3 October 1988 (CD Feb 1992)
Label: Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (US), UDCD 557
Style: Rock, Pop Rock
Country: Dartford, Kent, England (18 December 1943)
Time: 47:07
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 292 Mb

Like Paul Hogan goading wannabe muggers in Crocodile Dundee as he unsheathed a whopping blade (“That’s a knife? This is a knife”), there were no half-measures when Keith Richards retaliated to Mick Jagger derailing the Rolling Stones in favour of his ill-advised solo career 30 years ago. Reluctantly at first, Richards formed a band that rocked and made what was hailed as the best Stones album in years.
The civil war between the two Stones flared in 1983 after Jagger sneaked solo opportunities into the band's new CBS mega-deal and released MTV-geared She's The Boss. This soured recording of Dirty Work, but touring behind his album with another band (playing Stones classics) ignited Keith's own offensive.
Like a polar opposite to Jagger’s synthesised clatter, Talk Is Cheap brimmed with humble soul and rolled like a train, with Keith in fine voice. Studded with loose, joyous rockers (Take It So Hard, How I Wish, the Jagger-directed You Don’t Move Me) and gorgeous ballads (Make No Mistake, Locked Away burnished in authentic Memphis soul), it sold a million and ignited Keith’s solo career, while precipitating the Stones’ return.
(loudersound.com/music/albums/keith-richards-talk-is-cheap-review)

01. Big Enough (03:17)
02. Take It So Hard (03:16)
03. Struggle (04:10)
04. I Could Have Stood You Up (03:13)
05. Make No Mistake (04:52)
06. You Don't Move Me (04:50)
07. How I Wish (03:32)
08. Rockawhile (04:39)
09. Whip It Up (04:02)
10. Locked Away (05:50)
11. It Means A Lot (05:21)

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Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath [3" CD Single] (1988)

Year: 1988 (CD 1988)
Label: Castle Communications (France), CD3-5
Style: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal
Country: Birmingham, England
Time: 16:37
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 106 Mb

3-inch compact disc single. Limited Edition 5000. Special Edition. This 3" compact disc single is suitable for any compact disc player using the special adaptor as supplied.
(Description on the back cover.)

 

 

01. Paranoid (02:48)
02. Iron Man (05:55)
03. War Pigs (07:52)

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