What's New In Dad Rock: Alan Parsons, Mike + The Mechanics, The O'Jays

This monthly column highlights some of the best new music by Dad Rock favorites as well as some new music you might like even if the last music you bought new was the debut album from A-Ha. Generally, I only review stuff that is streaming because I want people to sample new music without being afraid of dumping more ignored tracks into their iTunes playlist.

Mike + The Mechanics: Out Of The Blue

Mike Rutherford's Mike + The Mechanics had a string of hit singles in the mid-to-late 80s, driven by the vocals of Paul Young and Paul Carrack. But the hits dried up in the mid-1990s and Paul Young died in 2000. The band broke up in 2004 after Carrack decided the group had "run its course." But Rutherford revived the group in 2010, adding new vocalists Andrew Roachford and Tim Howar. Mike + The Mechanics has toured regularly ever since and unlike a lot of bands from the 1980s, it has released several musically solid albums of new material. "Out Of The Blue" is the third release by the new configuration and while 2017's "Let Me Fly" was a top ten album in the U.K., it's not surprising if you didn't know the band was still around. 

All of which might explain the slightly odd decision to only include three new tracks on "Out Of The Blue." The album's remaining 14 tracks are "2019 versions" of some of the band's hits and while that sounds like a recipe for severe musical disappointment, it turns out to be an interesting creative decision. Generally when a band recreates some of its hits, it's done because the band doesn't own the original masters (see Def Leppard) or they are just trying to sucker fans into buying an inferior version of familiar songs. But these remakes feature the band's new vocalists and the arrangements are tweaked to accommodate a new band and a new decade. Not every reworking is successful, but there are some really fun takes, which I didn't expect. As for the three new tracks, while the title track is the one being pushed as a single (although it's unclear what radio station is airing a format that plays new classic rock), I'm more partial to "One Way," which has a more classic Mike + The Mechanics sound. I'm not sure that "Out Of The Blue" is going to win the band any new fans. But if you liked the band during its glory years, you'll enjoy this new-ish lineup.



Nils Lofgren: Blue With Lou

Even at the height of his solo career, Nils Lofgren was never known as a guy capable of belting out a tune. I think it's fair to describe his voice as an acquired taste even back in the 1970s and the years have not been kind to Mr. Lofgren's voice over the ensuing decades. Combined that with an album entitled "Blue With Lou" that I thought meant he was focusing on singing the blues. Instead, he's mostly cranking out mopey mid-tempo shuffling rock tunes that are mercifully mostly forgettable.



The O'Jays: The Last Word

If you love the classic soul-pop sound, the 1970s are likely your favorite decade. From Stevie Wonder to the Spinners, the decade was crammed with hundreds of songs that managed to retain the funkiness of the black club scene while still being accessible enough to mainstream America to become hit records. And while The O'Jays had been plugging away since the early 1960s, their golden period was in the 1970s. After they signed with Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia International label in 1972, they had a string of still-memorable hits, including "Back Stabbers," "Love Train," "For The Love Of Money," "I Love Music" and "Usta To Be My Girl."

While the hits dried up in the 1980s, the group has continued to tour and regularly record new music. And now they're back with what the group promises to be their "final studio album." And while it's easy to be cynical of retirement claims, two of the three members of the current O'Jays (Eddie Levert Sr. & Walter Williams Sr.) are original members and the third member (Eric Nolan Grant) has been with the group since the 1990s. So this is likely the final chapter in the recording history of The O'Jays.

It's a rare classic soul group that is still releasing new music and I can't think of another act that has managed to release an album as consistently entertaining as "The Last Word." Produced by the Grammy nominated producers Steve Greenberg, Mike Mangini and R&B legend Betty Wright (the trio behind Joss Stone's "Soul Sessions"), along with the songwriter and rock/pop mastermind Sam Hollander (Panic! at the Disco, Weezer, Neon Trees), the album sounds timeless without feeling dated. If you were a fan of their 1970s albums, "The Last Word" will feel as comfortable and familiar. But the orchestration has been tweaked just enough to seem contemporary in 2019.

In their heyday, The O'Jays were known for releasing music with a message and a groove and there is also plenty of that in evidence on this album. Tunes look at the precarious state of social and criminal justice in America, the intolerance coming out of the Trump Administration and look back at how little has changed since the group was founded back in 1963.

Despite the respective ages of the trio, the vocals only occasionally sound weak or threadbare. But even when the vocals aren't at the level of the classic O'Jay recordings (like on the Bruno Mars/Patrick Monahan-penned "Enjoy Yourself"), they are still formidable enough to intimidate all but the most talented newcomers.

This might be the swan song for The O'Jays, but it's a pretty damn strong way to say goodbye.



Alan Parsons: The Secret Album

2019 has been banner year for Dad Rock bands coming back one last time with a new release. Alan Parsons' last solo studio album, the electronica experiment "A Valid Path," was released back in 2004 to almost notice. But Parsons has always been known less for his solo work than for his work with with Eric Woolfson as The Alan Parsons Project. In fact, that's what Parsons has focused on over the past two decades as he has toured regularly playing the FM hits by APP that everyone who was alive in the 80s and 90s has had drilled into their heads like little worms of progressive-sounding ear candy.

The Secret Album has a theme of sorts and is built around Parson's love of magic. Although to be honest, it's the rare listener who could actually figure out the over-arching theme of the tunes. But if you're a fan of Parson's work, you'll be happy to know that while none of the songs will make you forget "Eye In The Sky," none of them are awkwardly bad, either. And in fact, a couple of them will slide quite nicely into the setlist of the next Alan Parson Project tour.

The vocals are done by Parsons and members of his long-time touring band, with the exception of "Miracle" (Jason Mraz) and "Sometimes" (ex-Foreigner lead singer Lou Gramm). Weirdly, those two songs are a couple of the weakest on the album. And as nice as it is to hear Gramm singing again after a flurry of reported health issues that have kept him sidelined for years, there are a couple of spots where the vocals are uncharacteristically shaky.

I find myself torn over albums like this. I'm glad to see Parsons still creating new music that is more than just a pale reflection of his glory years. But I'm not sure how non-fans are going to hear the album, given that the number of radio stations in the U.S. likely to play a track probably can be counted on less than two hands.



Little Steven: Summer Of Sorcery

While he's best known musically as co-founder of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes as well as the long-time Bruce Springsteen sideman and member of the E-Street Band, Steven Van Zandt has also released a series of tragically overlooked solo albums. His first solo albums were billed as being by "Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul" and the music was a classic rock of East Coast horn-driven rock & soul that was very reminiscent of his work with Southside Johnny. But the majority of his solo releases in the years since have been heavy on politics and musically a scattershot of styles & influences. He devoted an album to unrest in Central America and was created the anti-apartheid group Artists United Against Apartheid, which released the single "Sun City."

Little Steven has described "Summer of Sorcery" as a return to that early R&B sound and generally speaking that's true. Songs like "Love Again" and "Soul Power Twist" would fit comfortably on a Southside Johnny album and "A World Of Our Own" has a classic girl group sound that sounds as if were an outtake from the work he did with Ronnie Spector.

But the album has everything from blues-tinged rock to mambo and the result is an album that manages to be uniformly strong, but musically so scattershot that it's difficult to enjoy as a whole. "Summer Of Sorcery" is an album that has three or four songs that nearly anyone will enjoy. The problem is that the album is so diverse that everyone will have a different set of favorites.



Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: Black Star Dancing

Although it sucks for both brothers, neither Liam or Noel Gallagher have created anything as musically interesting apart as they did while they worked together in Oasis. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds was formed in 2010 following the break-up of Oasis and "Black Star Dancing" is a track off that band's fourth album. And like most of Noel Gallagher's solo work, I find myself wanting desperately to enjoy the track even though it sounds like a generic rock tune with all of the interesting bits edited out. Sigh.


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