GLENN HUGHES – Soulfully Live In The City Of Angels

For more than thirty years, Glenn Hughes has had the most soulful voice in rock ‘n’ roll … no doubt about it. During these decades, Hughes has sung for acts like Trapeze, Deep Purple, Hughes/Thrall, Black Sabbath, HTP, plus on several solo albums.

On Soulfully Live In The City Of Angels, he gives us live tastes from the majority of his career. Trapeze is represented by “Medusa”, “Seafull”, and “Coast To Coast”, – “First Step Of Love” covers his Hughes/Thrall period, while his Deep Purple heydays are summed up with “Mistreated”, “Getting Tighter”, and “You Keep on Moving”. The other four tracks, “Can’t Stop The Flood”, “Higher Places”, “Written All Over Your Face”, and “Wherever You Go” represent his solo releases.

The album was recorded in Los Angeles in front of a smaller audience consisting of friends and selected www.glennhughes.com-visitors. The session was also filmed in favor of a DVD release. None other than Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers plays the drums, and Kevin DuBrow (Quiet Riot) appears as a guest on vocals.

The band is tight and well-balanced, and even though one might prefer Hughes’ 1994 release Burning Japan Live as a live album (forget about Glenn Hughes / Joe Lynn Turner – Live In Tokyo 2002), it’s sure a pleasure to listen to the man taking care of the bass playing himself (Europe’s bass player John Leven handled the task on Burning Japan Live).

You sure get some funky moments on this recording! However, it never gets as funky as it gets soulful. The album’s title sure fits. Glenn Hughes proves, whether or not we are talking about last year’s Written All Over Your Face or the classic Mistreated, that he knows how to let his soul flow through every note like none else in rock music.

Even though the great “You Keep On Moving” has lost some of its dynamics along the way, Hughes’ vocal powers, variation, and great improvisation skills makes every song utterly pleasant to the listener. JJMarsh’s emotional guitar playing doesn’t make it worse. “Coast To Coast” is one of several great examples.

The CD also contains one or two studio bonus tracks, depending from which continent you are buying it. Mine has got one, “The Healer”, which is a laid back tune. It conveys a strong melody and a heartfelt sound, but is still a quite uninteresting closure of the album.

The DVD edition doesn’t add a lot to the CD, unless you fancy poor video productions loaded with over and under exposed pictures and amateur framing. Some interviews as bonus material won’t justify buying it.

Soulfully Live In The City Of Angels (both the CD and DVD) is out on the 20th of September. Get prepared for one of 2004’s most enjoyable live albums!