Rory Gallagher Jinx (FLAC) Remastered 2000

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Rory Gallagher - Jinx (Remastered).
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Artist...............: Rory Gallagher
Album................: Jinx
Genre................: Blues Rock
Source...............: CD
Year.................: 2000.
Ripper...............: EAC (Secure mode) / LAME 3.92 & Asus CD-S520
Codec................: Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)
Version..............: reference libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917
Quality..............: Lossless, (avg. compression: 54 %)
Channels.............: Stereo / 44100 HZ / 16 Bit
Tags.................: VorbisComment
Information..........: Flac Level 8.

Ripped by............: Me on 25.01.2009
Posted by............: Me on 25.01.2009
News Server..........: news.astraweb.com
News Group(s)........: alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.metal.full.albums

Included.............: NFO, LOG, CUE
Covers...............: Front Back

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Tracklisting
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1. (00:03:35) Rory Gallagher - Big Guns
2. (00:04:08) Rory Gallagher - Bourbon
3. (00:05:09) Rory Gallagher - Double Vision
4. (00:05:51) Rory Gallagher - Easy Come Easy Go
5. (00:05:05) Rory Gallagher - Jinxed
6. (00:04:42) Rory Gallagher - Lonely Mile (Bonus)
7. (00:04:18) Rory Gallagher - Loose Talk
8. (00:03:13) Rory Gallagher - Nothin' But The Devil (Bonus)
9. (00:04:39) Rory Gallagher - Ride On Red, Ride On
10. (00:04:47) Rory Gallagher - Signals
11. (00:02:56) Rory Gallagher - The Devil Made Me Do It

Playing Time.........: 00:48:23
Total Size...........: 264,66 MB

NFO generated on.....: 25.01.2009 12:50:19

:: Generated by Music NFO Builder v1.19 - www.nfobuilder.com ::

Review from Starling.rinet.ru

I think Jinx certainly indicated that Rory needed a break - which he did take immediately afterwards, releasing nothing for about half a decade. It's not a bad album (dang, for my money Rory never really made a bad album, what with his conservative and rigorous style), but it just kinda lacks the spark, if you know what I mean. It's somewhat of a cross between his early Seventies and late Seventies period; overall, more mellow and less ass-kicking than the last few albums (and also a kind of a relief for fans who weren't happy seeing Rory metamorphose into the big-metal-riff tear-it-down arena-rock prince), but certainly not an exact return to the acoustic-and-slide-drenched sound of Tattoo and its whereabouts. And by avoiding the extremes, it manages to come off kinda faceless, like a pale shadow of what has been done before.
Not that there aren't any prime numbers here. No Gallagher fan can live without adding 'Jinxed' to his collection; this painful, emotionally acute blues ballad should certainly be counted in at the very top. The thick ethnic percussion layers were a wonderful idea, as they serve to make the overall mood even more somber, but of course, it's the splendid guitar work and the vocals that do the trick. I mean, sometimes... well, I don't know how it happens, but sometimes you get this hundred percent sincere groove going on when everything seems to work and you don't really know why. There's a goddamn thin line between filler and revelation, you know, but the way Rory intones 'I don't care what anybody thinks - this must be some kind of jinx!' is certainly revelation. Now that I think of it, I really can't think of any blues-rock hero that would do those 'power ballads' as convincingly as Rory. Clapton's approach is totally different - usually much subtler and with loads more (occasionally grating) sentimentality; the Allman Brothers were good, but way too 'impersonal' as far as their songwriting went; and Ten Years After really did that stuff very, very rarely. Rory is da man when it comes to expressing his feelings in aggressive ballad form. That's why 'Easy Come Easy Go' is another excellent song on the album, even if it suffers from exaggerated sentimentality in the verses.

There are some top quality rockers as well. 'Double Vision' has the advantage of building upon a classy CCR-like riff, which pulls it out of the mediocrity range. The hilarious 'Devil Made Me Do It' is catchy as hell (although if I'm not mistaken, it's not a Rory original). And then there's 'Loose Talk' which closes the album and is the album's only "experimental" number. Maybe I'm mad, but I thought I heard a sitar out there in the background in the first verse... could it really be so or was that a weirdly processed acoustic sound? And then, while the song begins as a straightforward blues-rocker, it occasionally switches into hot funky mode. Plus, the guitar solos are scorching.

But really, what I'm doing here is trying to put in a good word for a somewhat mediocre and inconsistent record just because Rory was such a nice guy. There's not a single rocker on the record that I don't mildly enjoy while it's on, but then again, Jinx came on the heels of the totally devastating Stage Struck, Rory at his hard rock peak, want it or not, and the overall tone on all of these rockers is milder and more restrained. The album opener, 'Big Guns', might come close to the fury and anger of Stage Struck, but it certainly doesn't top it. The solos are mixed in way too quiet, the guitar tone in the riff is nowhere near as jagged and "rebellious" as before, and, well, by all means it's merely a compromise. And the same goes for almost everything else on here. Besides, the riffs themselves, apart from 'Double Vision', don't go any place special. And the tempos are slower, too. Mid-tempo almost all the way, which really doesn't put the melodies above KISS level - of course, I'll take Rory's worst song over KISS' best any time of day because of the attitude, but see, Jinx does very little to eliminate the rumour of Rory not being a good songwriter at all. I mean, what, 'Hellcat'? THIS is a good song? What would be distinguishable about it? The basic three-chord riff?

Oh well. I guess this must have been some kind of jinx anyway. And besides, your style may be good, but if you're really conservative about the very soul of your melody-writing and your arrangements, how many blues-rock albums can you record before you start mercilessly running out of even minor ideas? Like I said - it was only too well that Rory took a long break