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Artist: Bret Michaels |
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Does
Bret Michaels really know what he wants to be at the moment? Does anyone
really know? Answers on a post card to…He’s been The singer of a
glam rock band during its ‘…cat dragged in’ era,
a cool, mature rock singer who wrote the ultimate rock ballad
‘Every Rose has its Thorn’, and now it seems he wants to be a star
on the embarrassing reality show ‘Rock of Love’, as well as solo
artist. This album ‘Rock my World’, his sixth in total and the greatest hits compilation, has a collection of each genre he has been through musically, plus a more up-to-date style too, so there’s a bit for everyone who’s followed him throughout. The first single ‘Go for that’ is a far meatier song that we’re used to hearing him sing, a heavy guitar affair with thumping drums (by a certain Lucky Chucky, of all names), and I’m not sure if his voice is good or strong enough for such heavy sounding songs as this, so he’s more comfortable in the tamer but still rocky ‘Driven’, with its hints of country rock in its chorus. The second single ‘Fallen’ is what he is best at, the rock ballad where he seems to write from the heart, along with ‘Bittersweet’ both sounding like they’ve come from Poisons heyday when they could do no wrong and should had been the worlds top rock band but for ego trips and in band spats. Releasing ‘Start Again’ in the third single seems as if he’s aiming at the sk8er boy/girl gang as it has that throw away power pop guitar/drum sound to it with dare I say easily thought up lyrics (stand up and take a bow Ms. Lavigne) Michaels definitely likes those mid-paced country tinged songs all electric and acoustic guitars so ‘Songs of Life’ and ‘Strange Sensation’ should come to no surprise, painting the picture that he should be playing at the Gruene Hall in Texas as the songs like this go down a storm. The one song that stands out the most is the heart-wrenching ‘All I Ever Needed’, predecessor to his most well known song of the eighties, that is in similar vein but again with that country tinge with the violins and horizontal slide guitar. A cowboy’s delight for sure! ‘Menace to Society’ send you right back to his glam rock roots with the seventies sounding guitars and drums, while all along you get the impression that Michaels is totally loving every minute of it and he sounds exactly as he did at the beginning of his musical life with his former band where this song wouldn’t sound out of place. Ahh the memories…Another ‘youthful’ song ‘Right Now, Right Here’ really sounds well out of place by now but he comes back into proper rock mode with ‘It’s My Party’, which could well pass for a Beastie Boys track when you listen to the guitar work by Pete Evick and the shouted chorus. ‘Rock My World’ as an album is not a bad one, its just some of the songs aren’t quite him. I think he’s past doing a couple of them now and should concentrate on the more mature side of the music where he sounds at his best as most of these prove. Bret Michaels began his sold out tour in April of this year and it would be interesting to see what size venues he playing at as I’d be thinking he won’t have the pulling power on his own as he would have with Poison, and personally after seeing ‘Rock of Love’ on TV, that’s where I’d rather he was. Review by: Bob |
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Tracklisting: 1. Go That Far 2. Driven 3. Fallen 4. Bittersweet 5. Start Again 6. Songs Of Life 7. Strange Sensation 8. All I Ever Needed 9. Menace To Society 10. Right Now, Right Here 11. It's My Party 12. Untitled |
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All content copyright of The Mayfair Mall Zine unless otherwise stated. |
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