Turn That Noise Down - Gary Moore

So many well-known albums turn 30 this year and Steve Taylor-Bryant and Susan Omand travel back to 1992 to revisit some of the sounds of their youth that made parents shout "Turn that noise down!" This week, Susan revisits After Hours by Gary Moore ...

You know I said last week that most of the albums this year for me would be ones where I only know one song? This is one of the exceptions and was an instant buy for me as soon as it came out in 1992. I love Gary Moore. Right from his days in Thin Lizzy in the 1970s, which spawned the sublime Parisienne Walkways, through his heavier, hard rock 80s portfolio with band members from the likes of Deep Purple, Whitesnake and Rainbow adding thump behind Gary’s glorious guitar and guest vocals from Phil Lynott and Glenn Hughes, and on into the 1990s where he returns to his Celtic folk rock, bluesy roots, I have been a fan, devouring everything I can find. So yeah, this one was a no-brainer, it was a constant on my CD player and it really lived up to expectations.

After Hours builds on 1990’s Still Got the Blues, which itself cemented Moore as one of the top Blues guitarists in the world. Like that album, After Hours again features guest appearances from blues legends BB King and Albert Collins. Unlike Still Got the Blues though, there a lot more tracks this time written by Moore himself, rather than covers - although the four covers (out of 11 songs) that are there are absolute stonkers, not least John Mayall’s rocking Key to Love with that incredible guitar solo.

The album starts with the uptempo downbeat (I know what I mean) Cold Day in Hell and this sets the tone for the rest of the album. His cover of the short and sweet Don’t You Lie to Me comes next, counterpointed brilliantly by the full six minutes of Story of the Blues. Another rock n roll shorty, Since I Met You Baby, sees BB King doing his thing brilliantly and his laugh at the end never fails to raise a smile. The synth on Separate Ways makes it the most “poppy” sounding soft rock track on the album, but this is soon blasted out of the water, literally with that brass and phenomenal guitar, by the bop that is Only Fool In Town.

Mayall’s Key to Love is next and makes a superb contrast to the song that follows, the gorgeous Jumping at Shadows, a song by Duster Bennet that gives me goosebumps every single time. The Ice Man, Albert Collins, adds his distinctive style to the cover of Little Milton’s The Blues is Alright and this is a brilliant assault to the senses after the stripped back Jumping at Shadows. The pace winds back again for The Hurt Inside. Nothing’s the Same rounds out the album and it’s a song that I would have loved to hear Phil Lynott’s voice singing, it is this album’s Parisienne Walkways. Glorious.

All in all, then, it’s exactly what I wanted from a 90s Gary Moore album at the time - bluesy but modern sounding, with blasts of hot brass but still as cool as you like, and with Gary Moore’s sublime guitar work front and centre in every song. It’s hard to believe that it’s been eleven years since we lost him, his work throughout the decades remains timeless.

Image - Amazon