Detective Live from The Atlantic Studios Review by Gary Hill
This new release is a live album from Detective. It was originally released as a promo album, part of a series of live promo discs. They were (as you might guess) limited releases. So, this CD release is welcome. This band is probably best known for front-man Michael Des Barres and keyboardist Tony Kaye.
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2017 Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.
Track by Track Review
Help Me Up Here is a straightforward rocker. This is nothing fancy. It's just a solid tune.
Got Enough Love A bit Zeppelin-like, this rocker is classy stuff, too. I like this one better than the opener, but the opener was a great tune, too.
Recognition More of a melodic rocker with a power ballad kind of structure, this is great stuff. Tony Kaye really adds a lot to this despite the guitar rock basis of it. The bass even gets a little funky on this.
One More Heartache There is a bit of soulful groove to this thing. It's a solid rocker that again has quite a bit of Led Zeppelin influence built into it. Kaye gets to shine a bit on this tune, too. There's a section at the end, after the extended instrumental segment that has a definite soulful bluesy vibe.
Detective Man Guitar leads this off in style. The tune is a pretty basic thing, but the jamming is top-notch.
Grim Reaper While this is another pretty standard rocker, it works really well. It's actually one of my favorites here.
Fever More rather standardized rocking tunes ensue here. This is another strong cut on a disc full of them. I dig the cool hard rock groove of this one in particular. There is a cool little break mid-track that makes this even more magic.
Nighingale This is a rock ballad that works well here. It shifts to a more full on rocking mode later in the piece. That section gets some killer jamming, too.
