Visiting 1993's Blue Murder - Nothin' But Trouble
Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2025 5:57 pm
I say visiting instead of "revisiting" because I've never hard this record, and didn't know it existed until the internet. Engineered and self produced by Sykes - probably not a good sign. Credits say Kalodner is involved, but I am willing to bet his involvement was a couple phone calls of encouragement at best. Okay, here we go:
1. We All Fall Down - Really good song! Sykes is leaning into his Thin Lizzy years, aping Phil Lynott's vocal delivery and lyrical style here.... could have easily been on Lizzy's Thunder and Lightning. Production is a mess, but I guess this is about what we can expect when the record was recorded(!) and produced by John. The (again, fucking fretless) bass is too prevalent, but unlike the self-titled record it's not so loud that it makes the guitars sound tiny.
2. Itchycoo Park - Cover of the Small Faces. Some of Syke's best singing. Overall sound is shit - compare this to the original tune recorded in 1969, and even the mono mix sounds so much better than a record cut 25 later. Syke's solo ABSOLUTELY SMOKES.
3. Cry For Love - Sykes is trying to do a grungy Still of the Night kind of thing here, and I think I'm hearing some No More Tears influence as well. I know I said it a lot in the other thread, but THE FRETLESS BASS IS ATROCIOUS AND COULD NOT BE MORE OUT OF PLACE. Where's the chorus??? Oh right... there isn't one. This is another one of those songs that's a shame, because you listen it and know that Coverdale could have come up with a monster hook over this riff. 7 minute song that goes nowhere, but there's lots of great soloing.
4. Runaway - Jon Bon Sykes over here. This is the ballad and it's a lot better than ballad on the last record, but man "Take these broken wings of love, and learn to fly and rise above" are some awful lyrics. This song is SIX minutes for no good reason.
5. Dance - Unexpected departure into pure hairmetal! Very Sludgy riff! It's good.... until John starts singing. As with the other songs, it's worth the price of admission for the solo section, but the sooner your forget about the rest of it, the better. Love the playing, but the production...man, the rhythm guitars sound like a 5150 dimed right into a Tascam cassette recorder.
6. I'm On Fire - There's another singer on this song for some reason. I would say they're going for a Van Halen sound, but it's more like... Blue Murder trying to sound like Bulletboys trying to sound like Van Halen. Yeah, this sounds like a song not good enough to make it on a Bulletboys record. Ever wanted to hear Van Halen with an annoying fretless bass? Look no further! Not an awful song, but doesn't fit with anything else on the record.
7. Save My Love - Talk about a left turn! RnB! This obviously starts out as a rewrite of Chaka Khan's "Sweet Thing" done in the style of Glenn Hughes. This is actually pretty good! Basically sounds like something Richie Kotzen would do, but with a Les Paul. DAMN that neck position solo is SWEET. This is definitely a highlight.... has the most plays on Spotify besides the single.
8. Love Child - More hairmetal! Blue Murder does their own Unskinny Bop here.... pretty good. Kind of has a chorus! This song has this major/minor push and pull thing going on. Very George Lynch-y solo. Another song that's 5-and-half minutes when it should have been 3:20 at the MOST.
9. Shouldn't Have Let You Go - This is everything that was bad about the first record - super loud fretless bass, tiny sounding guitars, godawful lyrics. I think they're going for a Warrant-ripoff here. Worst song so far.
10. I Need An Angel - ANOTHER 7 minute song? Yeesh. Completely forgettable melody, some shit lyrics about needin' a woman. There are some "Is This Love" harmony guitars and a nice solo section, but everything else is fucking bad. I cannot imagine being in the room playing this song and at 4 minutes in there are still 3 whole-ass minutes to go.
11. She Knows - Fuck, another completely forgettable ballad. But this one has a bass solo and some strings.
I don't know about you guys, but I enjoyed that a lot more than the self-titled. If they had managed to release it before grunge hit, I bet they could have sold an extra 500 copies.
1. We All Fall Down - Really good song! Sykes is leaning into his Thin Lizzy years, aping Phil Lynott's vocal delivery and lyrical style here.... could have easily been on Lizzy's Thunder and Lightning. Production is a mess, but I guess this is about what we can expect when the record was recorded(!) and produced by John. The (again, fucking fretless) bass is too prevalent, but unlike the self-titled record it's not so loud that it makes the guitars sound tiny.
2. Itchycoo Park - Cover of the Small Faces. Some of Syke's best singing. Overall sound is shit - compare this to the original tune recorded in 1969, and even the mono mix sounds so much better than a record cut 25 later. Syke's solo ABSOLUTELY SMOKES.
3. Cry For Love - Sykes is trying to do a grungy Still of the Night kind of thing here, and I think I'm hearing some No More Tears influence as well. I know I said it a lot in the other thread, but THE FRETLESS BASS IS ATROCIOUS AND COULD NOT BE MORE OUT OF PLACE. Where's the chorus??? Oh right... there isn't one. This is another one of those songs that's a shame, because you listen it and know that Coverdale could have come up with a monster hook over this riff. 7 minute song that goes nowhere, but there's lots of great soloing.
4. Runaway - Jon Bon Sykes over here. This is the ballad and it's a lot better than ballad on the last record, but man "Take these broken wings of love, and learn to fly and rise above" are some awful lyrics. This song is SIX minutes for no good reason.
5. Dance - Unexpected departure into pure hairmetal! Very Sludgy riff! It's good.... until John starts singing. As with the other songs, it's worth the price of admission for the solo section, but the sooner your forget about the rest of it, the better. Love the playing, but the production...man, the rhythm guitars sound like a 5150 dimed right into a Tascam cassette recorder.
6. I'm On Fire - There's another singer on this song for some reason. I would say they're going for a Van Halen sound, but it's more like... Blue Murder trying to sound like Bulletboys trying to sound like Van Halen. Yeah, this sounds like a song not good enough to make it on a Bulletboys record. Ever wanted to hear Van Halen with an annoying fretless bass? Look no further! Not an awful song, but doesn't fit with anything else on the record.
7. Save My Love - Talk about a left turn! RnB! This obviously starts out as a rewrite of Chaka Khan's "Sweet Thing" done in the style of Glenn Hughes. This is actually pretty good! Basically sounds like something Richie Kotzen would do, but with a Les Paul. DAMN that neck position solo is SWEET. This is definitely a highlight.... has the most plays on Spotify besides the single.
8. Love Child - More hairmetal! Blue Murder does their own Unskinny Bop here.... pretty good. Kind of has a chorus! This song has this major/minor push and pull thing going on. Very George Lynch-y solo. Another song that's 5-and-half minutes when it should have been 3:20 at the MOST.
9. Shouldn't Have Let You Go - This is everything that was bad about the first record - super loud fretless bass, tiny sounding guitars, godawful lyrics. I think they're going for a Warrant-ripoff here. Worst song so far.
10. I Need An Angel - ANOTHER 7 minute song? Yeesh. Completely forgettable melody, some shit lyrics about needin' a woman. There are some "Is This Love" harmony guitars and a nice solo section, but everything else is fucking bad. I cannot imagine being in the room playing this song and at 4 minutes in there are still 3 whole-ass minutes to go.
11. She Knows - Fuck, another completely forgettable ballad. But this one has a bass solo and some strings.
I don't know about you guys, but I enjoyed that a lot more than the self-titled. If they had managed to release it before grunge hit, I bet they could have sold an extra 500 copies.