In your face rock & roll!
10/03/1999
(4 out of 5 stars)
"SOK's second album is a little bit more ambitious than their debut. The first half of the album is great. The album opens up with the doomy "Bad Little Woman". The Shadows' try a few different styles here such as eastern style rock ("The Behemoth"), Byrdsian folk-rock ("Three For Love"), and a five-minute rip-snortin' version of "Hey Joe". The best song on the album in my opinion is "I'll Make You Sorry" which was written by lead guitarist Joe Kelley. The second half of the album falls flat with some uninspired blues workouts. The Sundazed version of this disc includes two singles; "Willie Jean" and the punky "I'm Gonna Make You Mine"."
Smokin' Chicago mid-60s blues-inspired garage-rock
hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 01/16/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This Chicago quintet's 1967 long player (their second and final with the original lineup) represents the peak of their muscular punk-blues creativity. Expanding on their previous year's debut (titled after the album's hit, "Gloria"), the band stretched beyond the Chicago blues classics they'd sullied so perfectly the first time out. They still take time to apply their suburban garage sound to Jimmy Reed's "Peepin' and Hidin'" and a fine cover of Willie Dixon's "Spoonful," but the real growth is on their originals and well-selected contemporary covers.
The opening cover of The Wheels' obscure Irish single "Bad Little Woman" lures the listener in with a seductive vocal intro before lashing back with hard blues. The hyper-Diddley beat of "Gospel Zone" and its pulpit-inspired vocal are overlayed with distorted and reverbed guitars that drive home its lustful lyrics. The Eastern psych-inspired instrumental "The Behemoth" throbs with a brooding bassline pounding beneath the cascading guitar lead. From there the group launches into a Beau Brummels-styled folk-rocker, "Three For Love," and a lengthy workout of "Hey Joe" that shows off their blues-jamming talents.
Joe Kelly's "I'll Make You Sorry" leads off side two of the original vinyl, reestablishing the strutting garage style with which the album opened. The rave-up cover of Tommy Boyce's "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day" is bluesier than was ever imagined for The Monkees debut album, and "New York Blues" is a low-and-slow 12-bar blues instrumental. The original album is augmented here with the mono single version of "Gospel Zone" and two non-LP singles, "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" and "Willie Jean." The first single was the band's then-current tough-as-nails garage rock release, the second was their LP followup. The band's swan-song, "Someone Like Me," can be found - strangely - on Sundazed's reissue of the "Gloria" LP.
The band would break up shortly after the release of this second album, only to be resurrected as a bubblegum act on Super K in 1969. This second and last album by the original lineup is superb, and a must-have for anyone who loves '60s garage rock. Production note: Sundazed has reissued the album from the stereo master, which to this reviewer's ears, isn't as moving as its mono counterpart. The soundstage is often fractured, the overdubs obvious, and the use of pan-pots to move instruments around is distracting. The three mono bonus cuts give the listener a taste of the mono LP's muscle. One can only hope that Bear Family will include both mono and stereo should they ever get around to a box set! [©2006 hyperbolium dot com]"
IT JUST GETS BETTER WITH THE SHADOWS
randy allen | Wichita America | 06/11/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you liked debut GLORIA, you will LOVE Back Door Men, all cuts are great. My favorites are Hey Joe, I'll Make you Sorry, and Bad Little Woman. Chi-Town Rock, Blues and Punk at its best, music friends.. it doesn't get any better than this, to this day it sounds as good as when it was released in the SIXTIES. As the Godfather would say "BUUYYYY ITTTT..""
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1