Three albums in.

You know of my joy in getting hold of a new album, well we're only halfway through February and  there's three little gems to talk about. Namely, Magnum's 'The Serpent Rings,' Those Damn Crow's 'Point of No Return' and Snake Oil & Harmony's 'Hurricane Riders.'
Originally I'd pre ordered Magnum and Those Damn Crows to arrive as soon as they came out but once I'd been made redundant I cancelled them, Tara more recently ordered Snake Oil & Harmony on a pre pre order!  getting it about a month before it goes on general sale (arrived on 14th Feb)
So, the albums.
Magnum's 21st studio album is pretty good. I have to say that as with their last album you can tell very easily its Magnum, their style and song structure changes very little. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so, consider a great band like Queen. Their 1982 album 'Hot Space' is a travesty to put it mildly, a change of direction going all disco and funk, not a rock track anywhere near it. Do I want this of Magnum? No!
Their formula works, they never made the A List but have been around for years and can still tour and pretty well fill venues. What more can you ask?
Though they have tried a few small differences this time, there are orchestral arrangements on both 'Where are you Eden?' and 'The Serpent Rings,' they work very well. 'Not  Forgiven' was released as a single (though I'm abit confused where singles fit in with things in these days of downloads) which I've heard on Planet Rock afew times. The title track is very good and we're looking forward to seeing them again in April They will no doubt play a couple of tracks off this album so I'd better get listening.
Those Damn Crows release  their second album which has shot up the charts to (as of today) come in at number 14. 'Who did it' is the single most played and is a great track, the whole album is very good with 13 tracks it fairly rattles along. Shane Greenhall has a great voice, this band is definitely up and coming, we saw them supporting The Quireboys two years ago and I'd like to see them again. In fact we've just missed them as they tour brought them to London last week, though it was mid week as well which doesn't help.
Snake Oil and Harmony are bit of a change of pace. I'd put them in the style of The Eagles type of rock music, in fact Danny Vaughn used to play for The Illegal Eagles a very good Eagles tribute band. He is very good and excels at whatever he does. His day job is with Tyketto and his partner on this album is Dan Reed of The Dan Reed Network.
The songs are quite varied, sung by both though I must say I prefer Dany Vaughn's voice to Dan Reed. The latter has written three tracks on his own including one called 'Aberfan.' This is about the terrible disaster of 1966 when a slag heap slipped and buried a school killing 116 pupils and staff. Not a very uplifting subject  and a little obscure for an  American to write about but there you are.
Well, hardly an in depth look at each album but I think you get the impression I like them. The reviewers of Planet Rock magazine gave all the albums a respectable three out of five.