A Tribute To Budgie - Never Turn Your Back On A Friend: 50 Years Later

 

 

A Tribute To Budgie - Never Turn Your Back On A Friend: 50 Years Later
Pale Wizard Records – 2023
Rock, Classic, Hard, Seventies, Stoner
Rated: ****

We just read the news that we all will soon be celebrating 50 years of the Sparks' classic 1974 LP 'Kimono My House'. Another great album in the great re-imagining series set up by that awesome Pale Wizard Records. And this news has come on the heels of another release in that 50 Years Later series… One you surely will have seen pass by somewhere in your feed, cause the A Tribute To Budgie - Never Turn Your Back On A Friend: 50 Years Later has been melting ice away across the globe and hitting it out of the park with a forearm smash! The Budgie re-imagining has been righteously done by some of the best underground bands. Alunah kicks things off with an awesome rendition of Breadfan! Probably the most famous Budgie track thanks to the various cover versions and Metallica’s first and foremost. But we most confess most of those versions pale in comparison to this opening version of Alunah, both the vocals and the postponed intensity, give the track the air and breathing room it always deserved. Both Firegarden and Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell give honorable versions of Baby Please Don’t Go and You Know I’ll Always Love You. The later one turning way more psychedelic and garage. But when Regulus starts riffing You’re The Biggest Thing Since Powdered Milk, and the vocals kick in, it sends goosebumps down your spine, and you immediately remember you should listen to their damn fine Pulse album from last year again. Perfect tone and riveting guitar work later on turns this one in another definitive cover version. Up next is In the Grip of the Tyrefitter’s Hand, performed by Syncolima gives the damn fine bass lines a bit more highly deserved spotlight and thanks to the vocals adds a bit of grit and rawness. Great Electric Quest adds some instrumentation to Riding My Nightmare turning it into a more classic rock version than the soft ballad used to be. One of my favorite songs of the original album was the prog rock Parents and hearing it being delivered by Sergeant Thunderhoof, a band that has grown so much into their own thing, since last years This Sceptered Veil, is the icing on the cake. The vocals once again carrying the emotionality the song always had, extending the scale even, and the guitar wails, dense riffs, and later clean noodling all give the right kind of soul. It was the ending track of the original album, but since there’s more time left for this vinyl release, the boy added three bonus songs. Guts, Forearm Smash and Melt The Ice Away. Of which the final track on this album, Melt The Ice Away, taken from the 1978 Impeckable album, performed by Solar Sons is a rendition that this track demanded. Classic, proto, mixed with some more stonerrock riffage, turns Melt The Ice Away in a fiery full speed driving song. Loving it! Just like the rest of the album, perfect production, and a virtuous way to give Budgie and this album more attention. Hey, and when the original Budgie drummer, Ray Phillips gives it the universal nod and sends a message of thanks for the work done, you know it’s done good!

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