Released By : Gigatone Records
Genre : AOR, Melodic Rock
Link : www.mickeythomas.com
Tracklist:
01. Gimme Shelter
02. Slaedgehammer
03. Maybe I’m Amazed
04. Champagne Supernova
05. Rain
06. Chasing Cars
07. Across The Universe
08. Supermassive Black Hole
09. Voices
10. Oh! Darling
11. Delta Lady
12. Hollywood Nights
13. Life Is A Highway [feat. Jay Dot]
14. Moneytalks
15. Tempted
16. Wah Wah
Mickey Thomas has been witnessing some kind of resurgence lately…… His band, seminal eighties outfit STARSHIP have reformed and have been playing sold-out shows across the United States, He released a great album last year as part of THE BLUESMASTERS project, STARSHIP themselves are wrapping up work on a new album due out later this year, and now Thomas has released MARAUDER, a new all-covers album wherein he pays tribute to some of his favourite songs of all time.
As with all similar releases, this is a real hodge-podge mixture, with Thomas taking on songs from artists like THE ROLLING STONES, OASIS, PETER GABRIEL, AC/DC, BOB SEGER AND TOM COCHRANE. But the underlying feature running throughout the sixteen song tracklist is a penchant for all things BEATLES related, with five numbers here being directly accredited to either THE BEATLES as a band (Rain, Across The Universe, Oh! Darling), GEORGE HARRISON (Wah Wah), or PAUL McCARTNEY (Maybe I’m Amazed).
The one true consistency running through the album is the sublime vocals of Mickey Thomas, sure there’s a couple of tracks here where his vocal style actually takes way some of the grit that made them great in the first place but overall the STARSHIP frontman is in impressive form here and shows that age hasn’t quite caught up with him yet. Musically, most of these renditions stick pretty true to the originals, leaving Thomas with the lone responsibility of making each song sound relevant enough to be on the album, something that he manages most of the way through, minus a couple of miss-steps with songs like CHASING CARS (SNOW PATROL), MONEYTALKS (AC/DC) and the horrible, horrible attempt to modernize LIFE IS A HIGHWAY (TOM COCHRANE) by adding guest vocals from rapper JAY DOT….Yep it’s as bad as you’re thinking it must be!
There is a few real gems on the disc though, maybe none more so that a great version of TEMPTED (SQUEEZE), a swamp-blues take on GIMME SHELTER (ROLLING STONES) an energy-filled rendition of RAIN (THE BEATLES) and a very interesting version of SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE (MUSE). Whether or not these songs make up enough worth to warrant a purchase is debatable, but if you are a fan of purely great eighties styled vocals, MARAUDER should definitely be on your radar. An open mind is probably required mainly due to there being such a variety of artists covered, but overall the album hits more times than it misses, a feat not usually managed on all-cover albums….
Written By ZeeZee
Rating : 7/10