Midnight Rose - Paul Rodgers
Sun Records (Released: September
22nd, 2023)
Available on Vinyl LP and CD
- "Coming Home"
- "Photo Shooter"
- "Midnight Rose"
- "Living It Up"
- "Dance in the
Sun"
- "Take Love"
- "Highway Robber"
- "Melting"
'Voice' needs
better songs.
It has to be said that despite
all the touring Paul has done over the years, his solo career, as a recording
artist, is sparse. If we remove all the 'live' albums ('Loreley',
'Glasgow', 'Montreux', 'Free Spirit' and others like the 'concert
live' releases) we cut his output by pretty much two thirds. Then if we
remove albums of covers, 'Muddy Water Blues' and 'The Royal Sessions'
we are actually left with only four solo albums released between 1983 and 2023.
That's four albums in forty years! It's true to say Paul has NOT been lazy.
We've had Bad Company in various guises during this period, The Firm, and of
course Queen, but four albums in forty years is pretty much unprecedented I'd
say. Those we are left with are 'Cut Loose' (1983) 5/10, 'Now'
(1997) 8/10, 'Electric' (1999) 5/10, and finally after 24 years 'Midnight
Rose' (2023). There are some great 'moments' on the prior three. 'Live
In Peace' from 1983, is an example, and re-imagined beautifully by The
Firm, but it's only really 'Now' that stands up as something I'd go back
and play. It could use a better mix, but it's a pretty solid album. What lets
the others down generally isn't the performances, it's the songs. 'Now'
has a much better balance than anything else here, but even that isn't without
some filler. However, if you can pick up the Japanese release, with the two
extra songs, it's a strong collection, and the best thing Paul has done, with
what I also consider the best band he has ever had over all his solo term,
albums and touring.
So given the 24 year gap between
the sub-par 'Electric' and this, you might expect an album that contains
NO filler at all. 24 years should provide enough time for an abundance of great
material... Or maybe not. Over the years Paul has sometimes sprinkled the odd
new song into a show. 'War Boys', 'Far Distant Shore' and 'Lift Your
Glass' popped up around 2006, none of them are here, but 'Highway
Robber' goes back to Bad Company in 1974. There are two very good versions
of it recorded by them, and it was in fact put forward for the 'Straight
Shooter' reissue, but Paul vetoed it. 'Take Love' goes back to
Queen, where it was performed 'live' in 2006, and I understand recorded
for 'The Cosmos Rocks' (2008), though it wasn't used. I seem to recall 'Photo
Shooter' goes back quite a way too, as Paul has played this in the past
with Howard Leese and Todd Ronning from what I remember. So a selection of
songs from quite a long period. The best of the best?
Well this album cuts out at 30
minutes, and only eight songs. By today's standards it's short. I don't really
mind that, as Paul has worked with the LP in mind. He loves his vinyl. However,
I can't say if the vinyl for this album is all analogue to pressing (AAA), but
I can say the digital version provided for review sounds a bit squashed.
Produced by Bob Rock, you can hear his 80s pedigree. Great drum sounds,
everything well recorded, but getting 'everything' on here is part of
the problem, and some of the mixes could be better. Also given production
credits are Cynthia Rodgers and bassist Todd Ronning. Really? Too many cooks
and all that... It might explain some of the problems maybe... I assume the
drummer is Rick Fedyk, (both he and Ronning get a writing credit for 'Living
It Up'), but in the press blurb no guitar player/s are mentioned. Howard
Leese? More than one guy? I don't know.
Straight in, and 'Comin Home' reminds me a little bit of 'Cut Loose' but it's so dense. Every gap, as we move
into the song a bit, is filled with random guitar licks, which actually don't
add anything. The arrangement is pretty good, and Paul sounds great. No issues
there at all. Time has done nothing to wither this man's voice. He sounds like
he's in his twenties! Nice middle eight here, which breaks the song up, and
punches out of the heavier tempo for a bit. So far, okay. The guitar solo seems
to come from a number of different chopped up takes, audibly so, and doesn't really
lift the song, or go anywhere sadly. Not great, but it's one of the better
tracks here. I can understand why it opens the album.
'Photo Shooter' sounds
like a cross between The Firm & The Law. Clunky lyric and guitar riffola
filling every gap between the vocal performance lines. Very cluttered. The
slide guitar is a nice touch, but it's everywhere like a rash. I'm sure I can
hear someone playing the kitchen sink here. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, nice
enough guitar solo, back to the chorus. No real dynamics. It's like being on a
mid-tempo runaway train, balls to the wall, flat out all the way. No subtly on
show here, thick black lines, no shading. Okay, but really a bit of a b-side.
'Midnight Rose', the title
track, is again, okay. Not the best lyric (lots of 'not alone'
repeats, and the same verse three times), but nice piano and slide guitar.
Howard on mandolin I guess. Another song and arrangement that really just
doesn't go anywhere. No climax, no crescendo, no build up, verse, chorus,
verse, chorus. Very basic stuff. The vocal is a bit too loud in the mix as
well.
'Living It Up' has a
pseudo-Hendrix feel, including the best guitar playing on the album, with lots
of Frank Marino type licks. Great solo tone too. I understand what Paul is
trying to put across here, but it's another clunky lyric (he's 'not alone'
again....) This would likely kick ass 'live', especially as an opener,
and I can see why this was the first thing released for public consumption when
the album was announced. Seems like more time was taken with this. The arrangement
actually has some dynamics, some really nice drum and bass touches in there.
Also the song does feel like it's going somewhere as it moves through the
changes. The best track so far.
Photo Ó Victory Tischler-Blue
'Dance In The Sun', is 'Midnight
Rose' with a flamenco (ish) guitar filling every gap. This isn't a great
song despite some nice moments in the arrangement (some great drum parts).
There are guitar fills everywhere, and they suffocate the song. Where there
isn't guitar (even sometimes where there is) there are superfluous wailing
backing vocals.
'Take Love', is another
electro-acoustic type song (think 'Radioactive'). Seems to me most of
this album was written acoustically. Like the previous song, too much female
wailing going on for me. The Queen version of this was pretty good, but
immediately here there's those random guitar fills everywhere again. So far
there are four out of the eight songs that work out pretty much the same.
Verse, chorus, verse, chorus... Where is the middle eight? A bridge? A key
change? Some kind of dynamics other than dropping the band out for a couple of
lines? What saves this is Paul's vocal. He sounds great here, but that endless
arbitrary guitar just wears me out. Cramming every space in the audio field
makes the album a tiring listen.
'Highway Robber' isn't as
good as the Bad Company version, period. It was interesting coming from that
time, and perfect for the 'Straight Shooter' reissue a few years ago as an unreleased
song. Unreleased because it wasn't as strong as the other material there at the
time. Good, but not great. For that, 'See The Sunlight' and 'All
Night Long', from the same period, showed how much material Bad Company
were turning over at that moment. Remember then they were also using non-album
b-sides like 'Little Miss Fortune' and 'Whiskey Bottle'. An over
abundance of material meant they could be selective to what was used where, and
what was NOT used, something I don't think was the case with this album! This
is the longest cut on 'Midnight Rose' at just over five minutes... It
seems like ten!
'Melting', the final cut,
is actually my favourite song from the record by FAR. It moves in a different
way to anything else on here, and in fact this could have been from 'Muddy
Water Blues' or even 'Now'. While there is still too much
indiscriminate solo guitar 'filling' going on in places, it's not so
exhausting here. I think this is a great song. It has a fantastic vocal
performance, and the best lyric on the record too. In fact all the players here
sound very fine. It's a refined performance by all involved. It also breaks,
what Michael Heatley rightly refers to as the "relentless transatlantic
rock backing", in his 'Record Collector' magazine review (2/5
Stars). I'm reminded a little bit of 'Voodoo' on the Queen album. Not
that it sounds the same, but that it's the highlight of an otherwise pretty run
of the mill set of songs. Music by numbers, or going through the motions. Call
the rest of it what you will.
So, eight songs, but only three
that really appeal to me personally, one if I get really harsh, and honestly,
four here don't really work for me at all. 30 minutes is enough. Surely Paul
has better songs than this? We needed much more material of the calibre of the
final song, and less 'Photo Shooter', 'Midnight Rose', 'Dance in The Sun',
verse chorus repeat. The production overall is a bit exhausting, (or rather
it's the mixes) but in fact, if asked who I thought could produce Paul, Bob
Rock (Metallica, Bon Jovi, Tragically Hip) would have been on my list, top 3,
along with Kevin Shirley (Baby Animals, Black Crowes, Joe Bonamassa) and John
Custer (Cry Of Love, Automatic Slim, Dag). However, Bob needed to reign it in a
bit, pull the band (guitarist) back, and perhaps listen to some of the Free
stuff to get a feel for Paul, as much of this is too frilly and jumbled. It
needed a bit more restraint, and some more work on the majority of the song
arrangements. There's no room for any of the music to breathe at all. Far too
much going on in such undemanding songs, or maybe that's why there's so much crammed
in there! Trying to make things sound better than they actually are. Much on
show here is pretty basic, rudimentary songwriting, very linear, and there is
little done to elevate to songs, to lift them, and make them fly.
Having said all of that, I think
generally fans of Paul will be getting what they want, and anticipate. I wasn't
really surprised by anything here. It was all pretty much as expected. Great
vocals, some decent band performances, but a lack of really great songs.
Of the record, Paul himself has said "My new album 'Midnight Rose' grew
from sparks of ideas I had, The sparks developed into a raging fire when the
band and everyone involved brought their absolute 'A' game. I think it is my
best album to date, I like it. I hope you do too."
In fact this album sits behind 'Now'
for me. It's a 6/10, and I have to wonder what happened to the guy who wrote
some of my favourite songs, and lyrics. However, Paul is 74 in December, and
he's already said there are no current plans to tour with this record. I'm sure
that will disappoint a lot of people, but that may change if he needs to
scratch the itch. But you know what, he's living happily in Canada with
Cynthia, and his catalogue with Free and Bad Company speaks for itself. This
might not be something I'm going to play endlessly (or much at all), but the
man has done enough, and at this stage I'm grateful for the bits here I do like
as additions to his very considerable cannon. This isn't a bad album,
it's just not as good as it should be for someone like Paul Rodgers. The
expectation should he high after so long, and this just doesn't deliver. He's
better than this, but having not done any proper solo recording for so long,
and seemingly not an awful lot of song writing for a while from the sound of
material on offer here, the lack of that kind of activity shows in the finished
result, which is generally okay, but rarely great.
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David Clayton
Free Appreciation Society
September 2023.
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Other voices below...
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Paul Rodgers
Midnight Rose.jpg)
Two stars/five
Sun 5047806263 (CD, LP)
Nice voice, shame about the songs
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Rock god Rodgers needs no
introduction, and his vocal chops remain enviable at age 73. Midnight Rose
breaks a 25-year silence in terms of original solo material but has a “lockdown
project” vibe, vocals somehow detached from a relentless transatlantic rock
backing. Sun Records labelmate Ian Hunter could teach him a thing or two about
dynamics, if not singing
It’s no coincidence that Paul’s
most recent work has focused on songs by Muddy Waters, the Stax R&B stable
and a revisit to his Free heyday. There’s nothing here to approach that calibre
of material, the autobiographical 'Live It Up' and Bad Company-reminiscent
'Highway Robber' the relative highlights. Since Rodgers is now a naturalised
Canadian, maybe a phone call to Bryan Adams next time?
Michael Heatley
(Record Collector)
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