I haven’t had a music review in quite some time, so here goes…
Whitesnake was my favorite band in the 1980’s. Some might say I was obsessed with the band. Some might be correct. Their 1987 album was my introduction to the band, but I grew to love the older stuff, too (you know, the stuff that no one even heard of, post-Deep Purple). While I’ll admit I was a little disappointed in the follow-up to the 1987 album, Slip of the Tongue, I was still a huge fan of the band at that time. I even bought David Coverdale’s solo album and his album with Jimmy Page. And, I even ventured to buy one of the Whitesnake albums he did with Adrian Vandenberg. It was not so good. Who would have thunk?
I caught wind that Whitesnake released a new album this year. I checked out the reviews on Amazon and they were surprisingly good. In an attempt to recapture my youth, I plunked down $10 and bought their latest cd (and, that’s probably the least amount of money I’ve ever spent on a Whitesnake cd).
First impressions were eh. Nothing really stuck out. But, for me that’s actually a good thing. If I like an album on the first listen, I’ll be sick of it in two weeks. After a couple more listens to it, I have to say some of it is sticking. I’ve had a few songs stuck in my head for days now.
I will say this. While I love David Coverdale’s voice, I don’t consider him to be a great lyricist. He tends to repeat a lot of themes and actual lyrics in his songs. While this was ok when I was in my teens, now I just find it annoying. Some of the songs on this album are just a little too sappy–it’s almost like he’s phoning it in. However, his voice still sounds amazing. The music is pretty good, but not great. The sound is kind of what you would have expected if Whitesnake had released an album between Slide It In and 1987, though I don’t want to give the impression that this album is better than Slide It In, because it is not.
So, if you’re a die-hard Whitesnake fan, you’ll probably like this. Otherwise, feel free to skip it–it’s not like you’re going to hear any of this on the radio, anyway.