BIG GUNS: THE VERY BEST OF RORY GALLAGHER
Rory Gallagher (Sony/BMG)

THE cover art is mocking in its simplicity. Instead of the fancy-schmancy pictures and high falutin’ art most albums strut on the jewel case, all you see is a bruised, battered and downright disreputable-looking Fender Stratocaster jauntily angling off into the distance on a plain white background.
But then again, when a musician is lauded by Bono as “one of the top 10 guitar players of all time” and Gary Moore as “an example to us all”, does he really need to resort to shiny CDs, sequinned jackets and stretch limos to prove he has mojo?
I had never heard, or heard of, Rory Gallagher before, but one listen to this compilation was all it took to get me hooked on the Irish master’s brand of blues.
I was stunned to later hear that many fans of his original work were disappointed with Big Guns, feeling that the remixing and re-mastering did not live up to his original creations.
Newcomers though, will be blown away by the blistering pace, mesmerising technique and evocative lyrics of Gallagher, who died, aged 47, a decade ago.
The double-disc, 24-track set samples music from every stage of his long and prolific career, including stuff from his early days with blues trio Taste as well as numbers from the posthumous 2003 acoustic album, Wheels Within Wheels.
The studio recorded offerings are pretty good, the choicest morsels being Out On The Western Plain, with its brilliant, finger-picking country blues melody, and Tattoo’d Lady.
However, Gallagher is at his raw and ferocious best in the live performances, especially Bullfrog Blues, Messin’ With The Kid and Used To Be. I would like to say he is part Clapton, part Berry and part King, but that would be a disservice to him because it’s all nothing but Gallagher.
Selected tracks: Tattoo’d Lady, What’s Going On, Bullfrog Blues, A Million Miles Away

Rating: HHHH

FOOTBALL FEVER
Various
Sony/BMG

IT must be a tough job coming up with a football-themed compilation. After all, how many times can we churn out a CD with We Are The Champions, The Cup of Life and The Final Countdown (the latter of which are on this CD, by the way)?
Yet, that’s no excuse to dish out an album that is as bad as this one.
I mean, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that nine out of 10 football fans aren’t going to be too excited about buying a “football-themed” CD with the likes of Britney Spears, Pink and Tata Young on it.
I kid you not. What songs like Stronger (Spears), Get the Party Started (Pink), I Believe (Young), Beautiful Girls (Sean Kingston), I Believe I Can Fly (R.Kelly) and Sunny (Boney M) have to do with the beautiful game is quite clearly beyond me.
Those whose brainchild this album is will probably justify it by saying the song themes were inspired by football. They’d probably deliver a sermon about how sport is meant to uplift and encourage.
Well and good. But seriously, who cares? We want songs we can chant to, mock our rivals with and cheer our team on with. Can you imagine us singing Hips Don’t Lie when Torres embarks on a mazy dribble? Or Modern Talking’s You Can Win If You Want when our team’s a goal down?
I don’t think so.
Selected Tracks: Can I not choose any?

Rating: H

RISE AND FALL, RAGE AND GRACE
The Offspring
Sony/BMG

COULD this be the same punk-metal Gods who stormed the music world back in 1994?
Could this be the same awesome foursome that sold more than four million indie label albums on the back of some divinely anarchic tunes?
Could this be the same fellows whose no-holds-barred approach to music-making and live performing made them the idols of MTV?
There are so many things right and yet so many things wrong about their latest album which, at 41/2 years in the making, was long enough in coming.
Though there are fiery teeth-rattlers like Hammerhead and Trust In You and sardonic social commentaries like Stuff Is Messed Up, there are also made-for-radio numbers like You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid and emo-pop garbage like Kristy Are You Doing Okay.
It’s as if the process of growing mature and older has also resulted in them getting softer and flabbier.
There is nothing here to match the brilliance of Come Out and Play and Self Esteem or even the goofball aesthetic of Pretty Fly, Why Don’t You Get a Job or Hit That.
We all watched them rise and I feel that we are witnessing the beginning of what could be their fall.
I’m just afraid their descent is going to be accompanied neither by rage nor by grace but by the insipid sounds of the eminently forgettable power ballads they seem to be leaning towards.
Selected tracks: Hammerhead, Stuff Is Messed Up

Rating: HH½

PURE BALLADS 2008
Various Artistes
Universal Music

I’M just wondering why they included 2008 in the title since most of the songs on this double-disc set aren’t even close to 2008.
In fact, many of the songs aren’t even ballads, which isn’t to say they aren’t darn good songs in their own right.
After all, Juanes’ high-tempo La Camisa Negra would make you want to get up and get jiggy more than it would put you in the mood for love, as ballads are wont to do. And Norah Jones’s jazzy breakout hit, Don’t Know Why is more suited to sultry Sunday afternoons than it is to nights of passion.
Stevie Wonder’s evergreen My Cherie Amour is way too sunny and boyish to ever qualify as a ballad in just about anybody’s book.
Also, I don’t think neither Nelly nor Kelly would agree with you if you told them Dilemma was a ballad.
Yet, there’s something about the 36 songs on offer that just does it for me, the misnomer of a title notwithstanding.
But somewhere between Hoobastank’s The Reason, Sting’s Fields of Gold and 10cc’s I’m Not In Love, I just decided that I like this album. Don’t ask me why.
Selected tracks: The Closest Thing To Crazy (Katie Melua), Linger (The Cranberries), Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word (Elton John), Everlasting Love (Jamie Cullum)

Rating: HHH