Mick Ralphs CD: "It's All Good"

Sleeve and track listing

Angel Air SJPCD052.

Review

I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive at the prospect of this one. Nothing to do with Ralpher, more to do with when I heard he had played all the instruments himself. I feared a repeat of his disappointing (for me) first album. However, I needn't have worried, as this is miles better than its predecessor.

Short by modern standards, what it lacks in terms of quantity is more than compensated by the quality of the material on offer here, a collection of blues-orientated tracks with Mick's guitar well forward in the mix. Apart from the funky opening and closing tracks, Mick's guitar crunches in the way we all remember it from years past. In short, this is more like it!

This is clearly an album by a man enjoying himself once more, enjoying putting down an album's worth of the music he loves. Yes, Mick plays all the instruments (apart from the live track, which is from Bad Company's 1999 US tour) unless you were told otherwise you'd believe this was a full band contributing.

Surprisingly for Angel Air, the booklet is somewhat sparse, but what the heck, it's the music you buy CDs for and this has been well worth the wait. Recommended.