Joe Molland - This Way Up

This is Joey Molland's first solo album in nine years. It has been released on his own label, Independent Artists. Joey has been known as "Joey" on all the Badfinger releases and solo albums since 1970. Joey is referred to as an artist named "Joe Molland" on the CD cover.

Joey's two previous solo albums, After The Pearl and The Pilgrim featured some good songs, but, often lacked fire in Joey's singing and playing. This new CD, A Way To Be, also has lots of very good musical hooks, and is a step up melodically from The Pilgrim. Joey's greatest strength is his writing - he is very underrated in the annals of rock - and he doesn't disappoint his fans on that end.

Lyrically, Joey talks a lot about his views on the world condition, his feelings for his wife, Kathie, his disappointments in life, reminisces of his childhood, and how he feels he should be looked at.

Production-wise, Joey has lessened the snare impact from The Pilgrim, and that is a welcome relief. The recording quality is fair, the mixes murky, but I suspect much of the buried quality of the vocals is intentional. Joey's voice has lost a lot of its power over the years and has become increasing raspy. There are many notes in his beautiful melodies for which he sounds very strained, versus well-seasoned.

This CD starts off with three strong songs. "Mirrors" is one of Joey's best ever. Written back in the early 90's, it is upbeat, all the sections are catchy, yet, oddly, the instrumental section feels like it is missing a an uplifting lead guitar break (it just repeats the main riff of the song). I would have expected Joey to show off his lead guitar playing here, to punch up such a strong tune. The track has a late 70's - early eighties power-pop feel, sort of like The Motors or Bram Tchaikovsky.

Next up is "Happy," another older tune of Joey's which is pure bubblegum, in the best sense. It has another sumptuous riff, an unusual bridge that serves the song well, and a pretty tight arrangement.

Following is "A Way To Be". This is an anthemic tune, not unlike John Cougar's 80's work, which cleverly teases you with a couple of choruses of no vocals, so that when Joey's two-part harmony does enter, it has a strong impact. His voice is at its best on the chorus. He sounds lively here, more like the Joey of old. The verse lyrics are very hard to understand though, unless you read the lyric sheet, which is, fortunately, included. There is a guitar solo, very simple and rather nondescript.

"The Bust" is structured around three useful sections, an intro riff, verse, and chorus. There is tons of reverb on everything. The lead vocals are buried, with the organ consistently upfront. You sense that Joey is trying to hide his voice here. Good melodies, and excellent bass playing from T. Lecher help salvage this track.

"This Must Be Love," a mid-tempo ballad, starts out with Joey very subdued. The arrangement builds nicely to the climatic chorus, which is slightly marred by Joey not being able to sing the highest notes well. Again, the guitar solo is incredibly simplistic. The song goes on and on and fades out on chorus repeats.

The next song, "Moonlight", goes back to 1981. It was a demo featured on Basil, and it is a more complex tune than usual from Joey, with lots of chord changes. It has a very good, inventive chorus. Again, Joey's singing hampers the song a bit. The keyboard pads are way up in the chorus sections. It does have a jazzy guitar solo, reminding one of Joey's lead playing on Badfinger's live version of Pete Ham's "We're For The Dark."

Joey goes left-field with the next tune with "Another Honeymoon." This is in a 1920s, '30s music hall mode, not unlike "Knocking Down Our Home" from Magic Christian Music. It is piano-based and Joey sings it very low energy all the way through. It comes off, I suspect, to show Joey can write in a different style from his usual rock/ballad tradition. Obviously, he has a soft spot in his heart for this kind of music, as Pete Ham did.

"When I Was A Boy" is a slow tune, kind of a late-80's feel, with keyboard pads. On the chorus Joey is not able to emote forcefully because of the limitations of his vocal chords, which, if strong, would have nicely offset the ominous build-up and interesting chord changes of the verses. The guitar break is very relaxed, no real guitar solo happens. The songs ends with a very long fade during which Joey vamps on the lyrics of the '50s standard "On Broadway."

The next tune is one of Joey's best compositions ever, in my opinion, "Angels Like Us." It has been much discussed by Molland fans for years and years, as Joey used to play it at concerts a lot in the 1980's. Finally, it has been recorded and released. Joey didn't put it on The Pilgrim, and many fans who liked it, had hoped it would be here. Well, it is here and the version is slowed-down, flat, and a bit forgettable. Granted, I'd say if there ever was a tune of Joey's crying out for great harmonies, background vocals, etc. this was it. Joey sings all vocals on the entire CD. On his CD, The Pilgrim, Joey used his wife, Kathie, a bit, and I would have liked to have heard her on this CD to add some more color. She sounded a bit like Linda McCartney on the previous CD, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. I am surprised, really, that she was not a part of the actual recordings on this CD.

"What Else (Nothing)" is a Lennonesque song. The first guitar solo just echoes the vocal line. The ending bridge section includes work from Joey's son, Joe Jr., and his lead guitar gives some welcome edge. He uses a bit of a more modern sound than Joey Sr., with lots of delay. Hopefully, he will have more for us to hear in the future, as he comes from the Molland's musical bloodlines. Doug Molland, Joey's brother, also plays acoustic guitar on this CD.

"Tell Me" is a great country-ish song from Joey. It has a very tasteful, nice guitar opening. The voice is a bit more upfront. The song is in a slightly better key for Joey's singing. Joey effectively doubles his voice at key spots. The organ stands out nicely. There are tasteful guitar fills. At the very end, Joey's massed raspy vocals grate a bit, but overall, this is an excellent track by Joey.

"Three Minute Warning" is the Joey rocker in the tradition of "I Got You," "Moolah Rey," "Love Me Do," "Vampire Wedding," and many others. I've always been a big fan of his rock'n'roll stuff and have generally found these types of tracks pretty consistently good to great. This song would be on the lower end of that spectrum for me. Solid, but not that memorable, and Joey's overall energy level is a bit below the thumpers of the past.

The ending song, "Isn't That A Dream" sets a nice mood. It is a preachy song, talking about the world's status. The song has been around for years; it's chorus never hit me as much as the plaintive verse. This version has no memorable ending guitar solo or instrumental breaks like the final Joey anthems on Say No More, After The Pearl, and The Pilgrim. I would have liked more drama and passion.

In final analysis, Joey has written a lot of good tunes here. The lead-off bang of the first three songs makes this a worthwhile CD on their own accord, while "Moonlight" and "Tell Me" only sweeten the pot even more. There are no bad songs, Joey doesn't ever release unlistenable tunes, but I have to say what disappoints me most is the lack of firepower from Joey's ax. You see Joey play live and he can be amazing and exciting. But that type of fretwork does not manifest itself on this CD, except in very small spot doses.

I think this is a CD certainly worth buying for Badfinger fans, Joey fans, and anyone who loves power pop. In fact, Joey's songwriting craftsmanship still blows away most of the similar types of artist out there today, who fall under that genre title. But, again, I feel he would be best served by an outside producer, who might push him and motivate him to unearth more of his inherent passion and musical skills. And maybe to expand on the relatively straightforward song structures and arrangements he usually pursues on his CD's. At the very least, Joey deserves to have some songs covered. I hope Joey's agent/manager can also have some success selling his material to other artists. Joey's writing is still that good.

To order the CD, go to http://www.joeymolland.com/badfinger/featuresmain.htm

Joe Molland - This Way Up

Badfinger guitarist Joey Molland's third solo effort is now out on his own "Independent Artist" label, and is called This Way Up". It's an album that all Badfinger fans eagerly have awaited, since the release Joey's last solo album "The Pilgrim" in 1992. And Joey does not let his audience down. He has improved quite a bit as a songwriter, and melodically, "This Way Up" features some of Joey's finest moments. Though it may not be a collection of 13 potential singles, Joey's commercial abilities shine on this new record.

"Mirrors" which opens the CD, is a very strong power-pop song and was always a personal favourite of mine. "Happy", is perhaps a little too "happy", and the arrangement doesn't do much to help this. It would have benefited from a heavier arrangement, with the distorted guitars more up front. "A Way To Be" and "The Bust" are two nice rock/pop efforts, but both leave little more to be desired.

After going through the first 4 songs, it also becomes obvious that Joey's voice have lost a lot of its strength, and therefore has been buried a bit in the mixes. The first new song (Mirrors and Happy, have been out on different demo releases from Joey), that really caught me, was "This Must Be Love". A very heart-warming song, and one of Joey's best love-songs ever. Joey has some extremely nice guitar sounds on this track. I really love that song. "Another Honeymoon", is a piano based, old-school type of song, and is fresh as a change of style, but overall not too memorable. "When I Was A Boy" is a nice moody song.

Next is "Angels Like Us", and this track really caught my attention. The chorus reminds me a lot of the Harrison song "If Not For You". It has a nice feel, good melody, and is simply a great country/rock song. It's also much better produced than many of the other songs on the album. "What Else (nothing)", is one of Joey's most elegant ballads. It would have benefited from some acoustic guitars, and to be honest a better singer! I hate to admit it, but Joey's voice sounds very trashed on this song. Still I consider it one of the strongest tunes on "This Way Up".

"Tell Me", is a great country song that reminds me a lot of one of my favourite tracks on "The Pilgrim": "This'n That". It's a very simplistic, optimistic song, that also has a nice production. Joey sings it very well. When you think of how many great rockers Joey has written through the ages, the only full on rock'n roll song on the album "Three Minute Warning", is a major disappointment. Actually it's pretty awful! Joey can do much better than this!

The CD closes nicely with the reflective "Isn't That A Dream". And overall there is no doubt that "This Way Up" is Joey's -to date- strongest solo effort. It's simply a collection of good songs. Though many things could be said about the production style, arrangements (some more Badfinger inspired guitar licks please!!) etc. I just choose to see it as a nice little album, with its obvious high and low points. There is no doubt that it will find its way to my stereo many times in the future.