A Lot of Bottle embodies all of the characteristics of great blues-rock records: sadness, anger, alienation, sarcasm, humor, and a certain unapproachability which was even felt through the most accessible material. Track lists differ depending on what version you have but there are some stone-cold biggies that have made it across the various versions over the years. "Reap What I've Sowed" is driven by yet another massive Haycock slide guitar riff while Derek Holt's vocal dedicated to money hungry hangers-on feels like it comes from the bottom of some faraway well, giving the track a very disjointed effect. But the real payoff is the solo section where everyone puts the hammer down like a ton of bricks and then some. This is blues-rock gone proto-punk. "Seventh Son" is the next tour de force, where Cooper's robotically cold vocal treatment has you convinced he could be at least a good candidate for the role, right? The second half features a long, progressive-ish coda that veers into King Crimson territory at times, even. The final epic is a cover of Muddy Waters' "Louisiana Blues", where they expertly draw out the mood of the original. In between there are shorter tracks which essentially are offshoots of these three main epics, and are all worth listening to at least once...but it does bring me to my one small beef with this album. It feels like there is a slight bit too much filler, and in reality, the record keys on the axis of these three mammoth tracks.
Death by rotary telephone!
An intoxicating mix of symphonic sounds and raw-boned soul courtesy of frizzy-haired frontwoman Carol Lloyd, who comes off like a Janis clone but turns out to be much more versatile and just...her own undefinable style. And her band mates are more than a match for her, too. Maybe the covers are a little too obvious and/or maudlin (they hit "Come Together" and "Ruby Tuesday" within the same album), but you have to admire the ambition. This is the album Jefferson Starship wish they made.
Has a cover which looks more like you are about to check out a Rush album, and by and large the vibe is that of Van Halen taking over the elder statesmen of hard rock role. So, that knocks off a lot of listeners from the jump. But, at least now, the material feels like it is coming from a real, emotional place, and not some celebrity ego trip, like the previous record. Another interesting aspect was tension between Hagar and the rest of the band. You can feel a distinct chill between him and everyone else when you listen to the album as a whole. None of this makes for an essential listen, but this is definitely the sleeper in the VH catalog.
The messy and labored "F.U.C.K." album - it took slight over a year to record - somehow breathed a new commercial wind into the group, right at the cusp of the grunge movement. I fail to understand how it happened, for this is easily the least fun, least interesting, least musical, and most preachy VH record to date, most likely cut as a response to the party-laden OU812. But at least it retained characteristics of the group which fans could relate to, while this version went off the deep end into populist cliché and pandering, as "Right Here, Right Now" can certainly attest to.
