THE RETURN

Do you recognize the album cover or know the name of the band? Well, if you do you are older than I am. I was a little boy when these people were making a name for themselves. Vanilla Fudge was a band known for doing covers of popular songs by injecting their psychedelic blues-rock into every groove on a record. That was then and this is now. Has that much changed? Not really, they still kick ass and sound great. They serve notice they are back with a vengeance very quickly on the rockin' opener "Ain't That Peculiar" and renew their classic rendition of "You Keep Me Hangin'On" in their own unique way. They even do an out of character rap in Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy," which by the way, rocks the house down. The only song on the CD that did not seem to fit was "I Want It That Way," it seemed as if they were trying to force their style of music on the song, and it did not work. Other than that, this is a great recording.

I can only hope I have the energy, soul, and emotion that this group has when I get into my fifties. We seem to be going through a rock 'n' roll renaissance lately with 60s and 70s bands reemerging and catching everyone by surprise with the great music that is being produced. They are that good, and much of what is recorded today is not worthy of your listening so it is a real treat to take this all in. There is not only the audience that they left behind in the 60s that will be thrilled to hear this, there will be excited new listeners wondering why they never heard of this group. I got a wakeup call with Vince Martell's solo album Endless High last year. I found out what a great guitarist and vocalist he was and wondered then if he would get the Fudge back together because he was having so much success. I am glad that he did. They have also stayed current with an attractive website with updates on all the group members.

For all the hangers on and all of those that have been wondering what this band sounded like, here is your chance to hear them in present day. I encourage you to delve into their back catalog as well, it is excellent and well worth your time and hard-earned bucks.

Hey...you soul/prog freak....this one´s for you !!! VANILLA FUDGE are back !!!! The 2001 release by the FUDGE....with the cover art, resembling their debut albums- cover art !! And funnily enough most of the contents of this particular album...really are remake´s from their great debut album!!! With the GREAT "You keep me hangin´on" their all time super track !!! This remake..are powerfull...super...and absolutely wonderful !!! Im in awe.....these guys are absolutely supergrandprogmusicians!!! So......if your heart longs for progmusic from times past !!!? THEN this is absolutely for you!! This is the ONLY group...who ever...had a sound like (no one else??) blending.... soul and progmusic !!! VANILLA FUDGE really are the most extreme power soul/prog musicians in town !!!! I loved their first one....and i do LOVE this their ultimative LAST ? one !!! If you are partial, to UK prog music !! I really want you to listen to VANILLA FUDGE those American prog icons!!! Its like you never heard it before!! Wonderful .........ah..........so good !!!!!

Well I was quite amazed to see that these guys had come back for an album and still had three original members (out of four), but by the time they had gotten to Belgium in 04 so I could catch their live show - man these guys kick the butts of many younger bands a third of their age - they had lost Vince Martell, but his replacement was no slouch either.

So this album, if you are taking a look at the track listing, IS NOT a live album, but a studio re-recording of some of the classic tracks that propelled them in the legend plus a few other 60's Motown classic receiving similar treatment as did YKMHO. Yummy I hear from the peanut gallery!! Unfortunately this album is rather a miss than a hit some tracks losing all flavour (Shotgun) and others REALLY dragging on (Rare Earth's People Get Ready) and some simply needles (Stewart's closing track)

Actually VF is using the old and tried and proven formula without worrying about whether it has aged well or not or whether their music can handle modern recording techniques. With moderate success, they do manage to record their essence but the recording is of average quality but the real sad thing is that the music in itself fails to convince at least on this recording (but live it is a whole different ballgame), as if these guys were only giving 50%. Even the potentially more exciting stuff as Argent/Zombies's She's Not There or Donovan's Season Of The Witch are clearly sub- par being given a really heavy guitar/metallic feel to suiting the original rearrangements. Actually, Season (even if sub-par in this version) manage to remain the highlight of a rather listless album.

Best avoided unless you are a real unconditional Fudge fan. In that case find your closest candy store instead of the record shop.

Eighteen years ! Yes 18, between their previous album and this one !

Almost the original line-up (only Stein is missing on the keys). This album is a mix of old songs (mostly covers, but not only) and new covers. So, several songs from this album are covers from covers. Not very original IMHHO.

What is truly extraordinary are these instrumental introductions. Brilliant, phenomenal, monsieur! A trademark, of course. Just a pity that in the case of the opening song :" Ain't that Peculiar", it is as much as you would get out of it. But don't worry the next two songs are excellent although that I still believe that the reprise of "You Keep." was not really necessary (but still, far much on purpose than the poor "Shotgun" which features some good instrumental parts though).

People Get Ready (nothing to do with Rare Earth) is another one based on the same principle, but this gospel mood is not welcome to my ears). Most of these songs are well performed and get a serious refreshing and devastating new youth (Tearin' up My Heart, Good Lovin).

This album is very much "soul" oriented of course. But the combination with these wild and powerful sounds works alright for most of the tracks (I Want it that Way which features a fantastic guitar work).

There are no less than three different versions of this album (with or without D'Ya Think. and a radio edit of Tearin' up My Heart.

I've had pleasure while listening to this heavy music again. Not very original but I guess that you can call this nostalgia (She's Not There). And since Appice has been played a while with Rod Stewart, it is not surprising to get a cover for "D'Ya Think I'm Sexy" (which he co-wrote by the way, Appice, I mean). After another disjointed overture, the song develops in a harder mood. Forget about the disco influence and jump into this very heavy piece of music (even flirting with some rap towards the end).

Three stars for this good come back.