A fun band and a fun album.
4
By BrianSwaldi
The Chilli Pipers are always good for a fun Celtic experience and this album is no exception. While not as good as Bagrock, it's probably just slightly better than Breathe.
Overall, the song selection is pretty good. I don't know why, but AC/DC is so amazingly good for pipes. With this cover of It's a Long Way to the Top, it's no surprise that pipes fit well as the original version already had pipes in it.
That being said, it's not perfect by any means. Some of the songs are dragged down by long sections with no pipes at all. Also, the pipers have never produced a song with vocals that are even close to their level of skill with pipes and percussion. The second I heard any form of singing on this album my brain shouted "no vocals!" I knew that meant that this song would be weaker. There were several songs that were tracking to be 4 star songs, but the vocals and other non-pipe instrumentals drug them down to 2 star songs. Take away the fantastic pipes and percussion, they are little more than a very cheesy lounge act.
The stats on this album are middle of the road. Lots of 2 and 3 star songs. In fact, the lower the star count, the more songs that fall in that category. There's one 5 star song, two 4 star songs, four 3 star songs, five 2 star songs and one throwaway. On every Pipers album, there's always one total junker. On this album, that song is Amazing Grace. They went gospel on it. It was such a terrible choice as Amazing Grace is already such a great celtic song for pipes. They could've played it more or less traditionally and it would've been great, but instead it feels just wrong. I find it very hard to throw away any song with pipes, but the Pipers make it a necessity about once per album.
