Advantages: Speaks to everyone, mix of different styles, great vocalists
Disadvantages: May not appeal to those who dislike blues rock

...tunnel you have been following. This is a theme which again crops up in Deacon Blue's work and reminds us that there is always hope, whatever our circumstances and that we must not give up our dreams of a better life. ♣♣♣ IS THIS FOR YOU? ♣♣♣ Well, I hope I have managed to share a little of what makes this group special. Someone said to me recently that they considered Deacon Blue to be "the poor man's 'Texas'". While I grant that there are similarities between the two I think this is doing something of an injustice to Deacon Blue. Lorraine McIntosh is every bit the strong vocalist that Texas' Sharleen Spiteri is and for me Texas have always been that bit more country-influenced than Deacon Blue. "Our Town" really has something for everyone I think, whether your taste lies in fast blues rock, slower... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: superb songs, lyrics and vocals
Disadvantages: takes a few listens

...Here it was. The long anticipated second album after the world wide smash of their debut album, Hot Fuss. Released in the UK in October 2006 on the Lizard King label the critics were sharpening their knives in anticipation due to Brandon Flowers, the lead singer, describing the album as "one of the best albums in the past twenty years" and that it would be "the album that keeps rock & roll afloat." The amazing success of Hot Fuss, hype surrounding the second album release and claims of grandeur by Flowers made for a heady mix of both excitement and trepidation when Sam's Town was released. The album takes its name from the Sam's Town Hotel and Gambling Hall, a hotel-casino in Las Vegas, the hometown of the band. Sam's Town is nothing like I was expecting. Whereas Hot Fuss was influenced by 80's New Wave with the end result being... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Brilliant collection covering the peak of Van Zandts' career
Disadvantages: None that I can think of

..., it is interesting to hear the songs played out on a grander stage, and hushed backing vocals help add depth to the more plodding songs such as 'Many A Fine Lady', which is all but crushed under its banal and needless band arrangement. The tracks re-recorded later will be improved; of the rest, 'The Velvet Voices' has an orgasmic opening of choral voices, before landing in a pleasant country groove (this is probably TVZ's most obviously 'country' album, due to the instruments used), and 'All Your Young Servants' fails to distinguish itself from the other contemplative cuts. Townes wrote many 'Talking Blues' in his career, popular with live audience due to their humorous words, but the only properly recorded one here is 'Talkin' Karate Blues', not the most politically correct song ever, but he tries his best: "'Yankee don't like my race'/I said, there... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: A compilation of great songs from a great musician
Disadvantages: Disadvantages?!

...When James Marshall Hendrix died in September 1970 at the age of just 27, the world lost a great, talented musician who was a definite icon and innovator in music...and here comes a "definitive" greatest hits album of Hendrix's work - "Experience Hendrix". Released in the UK in 1997, the two-disc edition includes one CD of twenty of Hendrix's releases from numerous years of work... "Purple Haze" - 2:52 "Fire" - 2:43 "The Wind Cries Mary" - 3:20 "Hey Joe" - 3