La Guns Tales From the Strip 2005 Shrapnel

This is L.A. Guns first album of original material since the departure of founding member and guitar whore Tracii Guns. Tracii has recently joined Quiet Riot- it’s good to see that he hasn’t come crawling back to L.A. Guns like he usually does, because Stacey Blades proves himself to be more than a worthy successor on this album. Does anyone actually miss Tracii? I certainly don’t. It doesn’t look like the band does either, because Tales From The Strip rocks from start to finish. A sort of concept album; all the songs are about Hollywood, vampires and gypsies. But then, that’s what most of L.A. Guns songs are about. And if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It begins with It Don’t Mean Nothing, a song that hits you like a truck and sounds perfect coming out of a loud car stereo driving at high speed. The same can be said of Shame, Original Sin and Hollywood’s Burning. Nearly every song has a great chorus and Phil Lewis, a man older than the Hollywood Hills, can still belt out a tune. You can tell that the band have just written what they know about rather than following trends- there are mentions of Hollywood, Sunset Strip, vampires, the Rainbow and the Whisky throughout, and it pays off. There are two instrumentals on Tales From The Strip- 6.9 Earthshaker and Amaneger, and my only criticism would be that perhaps having two instrumentals is a bit much- but it is a very minor criticism and I guess it all comes down to personal taste. Vampire, for me, is an epic song, and the highlight of the record. It is the best thing I’ve heard them do since Over The Edge from the Hollywood Vampires album. When Phil sings about walking round Hollywood, you almost wish you had been there with him... LA really must have looked different back in the 1800’s. You always expect a new L.A. Guns album to be good. You just don’t expect them to be this good. 8.5/10 Suzie