Any time that life tends to start dragging me down, there are
\nalways certain albums in the Pierce Archives that I can take
\ncomfort in. I go there, slap it into the turntable\/tape deck\/CD
\nplayer, crank up the headphones, and let the music work its
\nmagic.<\/p>\n
And with a lot of music that has either a negative or a
\nnihilistic message these days, someone thought we needed to be
\nreminded that positive music has been created and can be enjoyed.
\nThat’s the premise for
\nBack On My Feet Again<\/i>, a collection of 16 happier tracks.
\nAnd while there are some questionable inclusions on this
\ncollection, it overall does the trick.<\/p>\n
Spanning four decades of music, this collection takes the well
\nknown (The Beach Boys’ “Don’t Worry Baby”, Joe Cocker &
\nJennifer Warnes’s “Up Where We Belong”) and mixes it with the
\nnot-so-familiar or lost through time (The Five Stairsteps’ “Ooh
\nChild”, Ollie & Jerry’s “Breakin’… There’s No Stoppin’ Us”).
\nI remember many of these songs well, and many of them still see
\nactive duty on my turntable – but even I was surprised to hear some
\nof these songs for the first time in years.<\/p>\n
Exhibit “A”: Santana’s “Winning,” a song I grew up with. Had it
\nnot been included on this compilation, I not only would never have
\nknown who did it (until I eventually picked up that album) but also
\nwouldn’t have heard it for a few more years. While this might not
\nbe Santana’s best work, it still is a great song, and is one that
\ndoesn’t deserve to be buried in obscurity. The same thing I can’t
\nsay for Matthew Wilder’s “Break My Stride,” a song I absolutely
\nhated as a teenager. My opinion hasn’t changed at all with the
\npassage of well over a decade.<\/p>\n
Two remakes on
\nBack On My Feet Again<\/i> are a tad questionable. I love the
\nsong “I Can See Clearly Now,”having grown up with Johnny Nash’s
\noriginal version. So, I have to wonder why the producers chose to
\ngo with Jimmy Cliff’s version of the song. Cliff does a decent job
\nwith it, no question about it, but Nash’s version is far superior,
\nand has a more natural groove to it. Likewise, I question why
\nChantay Savage’s slower version of “I Will Survive” is used in
\nplace of Gloria Gaynor’s more energetic version.<\/p>\n
\nBack On My Feet Again<\/i> contains many songs that should bring
\nback smiles of memories past. It has been years since I heard
\nManfred Mann’s “Runner” and Pat Benatar’s “Invincible,” two more
\nsongs that have unfortunately been dumped into the annals of rock
\nhistory. Both songs have held up well with time, and it’s great to
\nhear them again. Likewise, I don’t ever remember hearing The Four
\nTops’ “Indestructible” or The Five Stairsteps’ “Ooh Child,” so
\nthese were nuggets of gold waiting to be harvested.<\/p>\n
I do question whether Boston’s “Don’t Look Back” is a song of
\nhope and inspiration, but it is a good track nonetheless. Soul II
\nSoul’s “Keep On Movin'” is another song that doesn’t seem to fit;
\nthis one seems to stretch on a little too long than I would have
\nliked it.<\/p>\n
Instead of considering
\nBack On My Feet Again<\/i> as a mood-elevation album, I would
\nrather consider it to be a collection of positive-feedback songs,
\nmany of which have been out of the spotlight for some time. While
\nnothing will ever take the place of whatever music you use to break
\nyou out of a deep funk,
\nBack On My Feet Again<\/i> helps to break the mood. At the
\nabsolute worst, it’s a pleasant collection spanning the whole
\nspectrum of popular rock music – and that’s something to smile
\nabout right there.<\/p>\n
(Caveat: I was informed by the publicist working this album that
\nit would be released today; both CDNow and Music Boulevard have a
\nrelease date of September 15.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5827],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-39311","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39311"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}