New Album Review

I recently bought several new albums by both old and new artists. I got the new albums from Scorpions, Dokken and Gwen Stefani.

Scorpions - Unbreakable

You can't go wrong with a Scorpions album. I don't know how old the members are, but they still know how to rock. No, this is not the soundtrack to the movie by the same name. Like all Scorpion records, there are power ballads mixed in with guitar-heavy tracks. I have no problem with formulas - if it works, don't break it. There is nothing worse than a band changing their sound to match the latest trend in music, like Metallica did. I liked all the songs on this album, but I can imagine any being huge radio hits like "Rock You Like a Hurricane". Not because the songs aren't good, but because there isn't an audience for this genre any more and there isn't a MTV to play their videos in heavy rotation. As we all know, MTV plays almost no videos, and very little music, but that is a topic for another blog post. So I'm doing my best to let the world know that the Scorpions are alive and rockin.

Gwen Stefani - Love. Angle. Music. Baby.

Yes, that is the title of her album, complete with periods (not commas) between the words. If you think No Doubt is one of the greatest new groups and you either love Gwen Stefani or want to be her, then you need to buy this album today. Now don't expect another No Doubt-like album, because this collection of songs is much different. Gwen Stefani's fans tend to be young, much younger than me, and this album is aimed at them. If you are older than 17 you might find some of the songs too poppy, but if you are like me, you'll just enjoy her singing and unique style. I will admit that the song Hollaback Girl is really annoying and I don't know why she recorded it. One of my favorite songs is Rich Girl, which is written to the tune of If I Were a Rich Man from Fiddler on the Roof. In case you haven't figured it out, I'm one of those people who love Gwen Stefani - after all, she is closer to my age than she is to most of her fans.

Dokken - Hell to Pay

I am not ashamed to admit that I have every Dokken album, including the solo album from Don Dokken. I like his voice and all their earlier albums are made to be listened to very loudly. However, they should of stopped producing new material years ago. This album is boring and not very noteworthy. No song stood out as better than the rest, they all just blended together like a simmering pot of stew. Yeah, that's the best analogy I could think of. There are no bad songs, but maybe if there were, it would make the other songs seem better. I don't regret buying the record, but it will probably get filed away alphabetically with my other CDs soon, not to get played again for years.