The Rock Thread

Cocteau Twins - "Treasure" (1984)

I've been revisiting some of the early Cocteau Twins releases recently which has seen me remembering & better coming to terms with a difficult part of my life during the mid-1990's. I think their third full-length "Treasure" might be the best of the albums I've heard from them too as it beautifully summarizes both of the group's signature sounds i.e. whispy dream pop & darker ethereal wave. Interestingly (but perhaps not too surprisingly) though, it's the deeper & lesser-known material that really floats my boat with "Aloysius", "Otterley", "Beatrix" & "Donimo" all playing very strong roles in my life at the time. I think "The Spangle Maker" E.P. from earlier that year may be even better than this release in my opinion but there can be no denying that "Treasure" is a beautiful, lush record that you can float around in during moments of introspection. 

For fans of Beach House, Dead Can Dance & Mazzy Star.

4/5

Rainbow - "Live in Germany 1976" (1990)

After checking out this excellent double live album, I'm gonna add it to "On Stage" (my personal favourite) & "Rising" as the Rainbow releases I can see myself returning to in the future. "Live in Germany 1976" is a collection of recordings from that tour with the vast majority of them being drastically extended & littered with creative improvisation & jamming. It really works most of the time though & gives you that true live band feeling. Dio's performance is wonderful as usual but I think this might be the only one of Ronnie's releases where I think he's actually been outdone as Ritchie Blackmore's contribution is spectacular here. How about the sweep-picking in 1976 then!? You can easy tell where Yngwie got his inspiration from. Anyway... this should be essential listening for Rainbow-heads & hard rock fans in general.

For fans of Deep Purple, Dio & Scorpions.

4/5

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - "Axis: Bold as Love" (1967)

As a guitarist myself, I've always held Jimi Hendrix up as the rarified gem of the rock music world that he was. But that doesn't mean that I simply froth over everything associated with him though as I think people have a tendency to be misled by his iconic stature at times. Jimi's 1967 sophomore album is a pretty good example of that as it's generally regarded as a timeless classic yet the song-writing is a little inconsistent if you examine it in closer detail. There aren't any weak numbers included as such, but there are a number of obviously less significant filler tracks scattered across the release which have a big enough impact on the overall package to see me only finding the strength to award "Axis: Bold as Love" a middling score overall. Sure, "Castles Made of Sand" is an absolute masterpiece & sits amongst my very favourite Jimi pieces while "Little Wing", "If 6 Were 9", "One Rainy Wish" & the title track are all very solid examples of the early psychedelic rock sound. But it would be remiss of me to simply ignore the handful of short, poppy & fairly inconsequential (if still fairly catchy) tunes that fill the space between these more successful creative endeavours & it's for this reason that "Axis: Bold as Love" is the Jimi Hendrix Experience record that I rarely reach for with 1968's "Electric Ladyland" & 1967's "Are You Experienced" (in that order) both being on semi-regular rotation for most of my life.

For fans of Cream, Robin Trower & Funkadelic.

3.5/5