Robby Krieger And The Soul Savages - Robby Krieger And The Soul Savages (The Players Club)
The debut album from the new band formed by six stringer and founding member of The Doors Robby Krieger is an instrumental jam from some of the best session/veteran musicians around. Robby Krieger And The Soul Savages is a record that benefits from the experience of all those involved, free form, fluid jazz rock with impressive musicianship from all involved.
Released on Players Club there's a myriad of styles here but many of them link back to his upbringing in L.A, soul, jazz, blues, psych etc all present and correct, culminating in the album you'd want from a member of Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and one of the greatest guitarists of all time, according to Rolling Stone. A Day In L.A was the track where this band clicked, and it's one of the best cuts here, a bit The Doors, a bit surf, a bit jazz, every instrument getting chance to show off be it the harmonious clean slide guitar of Krieger the fingerstyle bass rhythms of Kevin “Brandino” Brandon, the organs/synths/Fender Rhodes of Ed Roth or the clockwork drumming of Franklin Vanderbilt.
Between them they have played with James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Ringo Starr, Coolio, Chaka Khan and Lenny Kravitz as well as being nominated for and winning several awards so it's a highly decorated group, playing some classy music. I could spend hours talking about al the artists it pays homage to, all the styles it switches between, the instrumental nuances but it's better to just listen to it. If you like the instrumental jam style, psych rock, jazz rock or funk rock you'll hear a lot to like on this record. 8/10
Grand - Second To None (Frontiers Music Srl)
Grand hit the ground running with their self titled debut in late 2022, so a follow up was always going to be in the offing. That follow up is Second To None another slick slice of AOR from vocalist Mattias Olofsson, Jakob Svensson (guitar/keyboards) and drummer Anton Martinez. The PR talks of traversing uncharted musical landscapes etc. For me though Grand are sticking to the classy style of melodic rock they outlined on their debut with the Scandi-AOR scene that is driven by Eclipse and H.E.A.T fused with the American big hitters such as Foreigner, Toto and Mr Big; vocally Mattias Olofsson sounding like Eric Martin on When We Were Young.
Olofsson's vocal is brilliant, smooth and soaring, that right amount of high pitch to bring the melodies and interact with Nina Söderquist on Kryptonite. Behind him though Svensson has the rhythms wrapped up, layering keys and synths on top of his guitars, giving some guts to Rock Bottom and rock n rolling for All Or Nothing. Martinez' percussion on Lily and Achilles Heel hitting the Jeff Porcaro sweet spot. On Second To None Grand have made sure that their second album comes from the same place as the debut but with more refinement. If that was sugar, then this is caramel. Look out melodic rock fans you're going to have a new favourite band. 8/10
Gotus - Gotus (Frontiers Music Srl)