Album of the Month: Music for the Divine

Glenn Hughes
Music for the Divine
2006, Frontiers Records

Produced by Glenn Hughes and Chad Smith

Glenn Hughes is a man who hardly needs any introduction, though I'm about to give a brief one nevertheless. Hughes is one of the best singers in the music business. He's perhaps most famous for singing and playing the bass on three of Deep Purple's best albums^[1], Burn, Stormbringer and Come Taste the Band during the mid-seventies. His career following his departure from Purple has been a bit of a mixed bag, but since the early 90s he's been regularly and consistently releasing solid solo albums. Favourites of mine include 1994's AOR masterpiece From Now On and last year's Soul Mover. To that list I'd like to add Hughes' latest album, Music for the Divine.

Music for the Divine builds and refines on the direction Hughes took with Soul Mover, which features a more funk rock approach than earlier Hughes records, though Hughes is certainly no stranger in that genre. Given the involvement of Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, who co-produced both albums, the funkier style should perhaps not be particularly surprising.
Stand-out tracks include opener The Valiant Denial, Steppin' On, You Got Soul and Black Light.

Glenn Hughes' fantastic singing voice, the excellence of the other musicians involved and the impeccable song writing all come together to create not only the album of the month, but one of the musical highlights of 2006. Highly recommended stuff, and essential to all fans of good rock music.

^[1] In my humble opinion, MkII fans need not freak out

The Reign of Madness, Ended

Just to post a quick follow-up to previously reported events, I'm happy to report the issue at hand came to a happy and not particularly dramatic conclusion. I mailed the CD store in question, they apologized and sent me the right CD, I sent the wrongly delievered CD back to them. They even paid the postage fee. I'm still not quite sure how such a mix-up is even possible, but I'm beyond caring at this point. I can now rock out to Savatage's sophomore album without having to worry about such matters. Well, until next time I receive a CD I did not order, at least. This was not the first time. In the future I should just buy CDs readily available in the local, offline CD stores. The problem with that is that I'm not really looking to complete my thus far non-existent Britney Spears collection.

And for those wondering whether this whole ordeal was the reason for me taking a brief hiatus from blogging...no.

Madness Reigns

One of my favourite bands is the American heavy metal band Savatage. I have all of their albums, save for one, The Dungeons Are Calling. I ordered a bunch of CDs, including Dungeons, from an online CD store. However, the package I received did not contain Dungeons. Instead they'd sent a CD featuring music by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.

Let's review:

• Did receive not ordered CD featuring music by Norwegian 19th century composer Edvard Grieg
• Did not receive ordered CD featuring music by American 80s heavy metal band Savatage

How on earth is it even remotely possible to confuse the two? I figured the two CDs' article numbers must be similar, but no! I've checked the store's website, the article numbers are not even close!

Here's an interesting coincidence, though: One of Grieg's most famous compositions is In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt. One of Savatage's most famous albums is Hall of the Mountain King, whose title track is based on Grieg's composition.
However, I did not order Hall of the Mountain King. Had that been the album I ordered, I could possibly understand the mix-up. The album I ordered was called The Dungeons Are Calling. No Grieg reference there whatever.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like Grieg's music, the compositions for Peer Gynt in particular. But that wasn't what I've ordered. The Grieg CD was much cheaper than the Savatage album. Not a good trade-off for me, seeing as I'm being charged for the Savatage album. Time to raise hell with the customer service, in other words. I except to receive the right CD within the next six months. Stay tuned. On second thought, don't.

Note: the title refers to a line from the lyrics to Savatage's Hall of the Mountain King: "Madness reigns...in the hall of the mountain king!" Indeed.