Album review: NAZARETH – Rock ‘N’ Roll Telephone

In this interview extract, Dan McCafferty talks about stopping touring and the new album (3:21)

The feature version of the interview will be broadcast on Sunday 22 June at 13:00 GMT on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio

Nazareth - Rock 'N' Telephone

Union Square Music [Release date 09.06.14]

If this is the last Nazareth studio album with Dan McCafferty – all I can say, is what a way to go! If the album is tinged with a little sadness – after McCafferty announced his retirement due to ill health – it is nevertheless a wonderful swansong. The irony perhaps is that whilst touring is a no-no, the singer hasn’t ruled out further recordings although the band announced Linton Osborne as his replacement.

From the catchy opener ‘Boom Bang Bang’, the harder ‘One Set Of Bones’ and the even catchier ‘Back 2B4′ to the heavier ‘Not Today’ and a rocking ‘God Of The Mountain’ the album pretty much sums up all that has gone before.

The band had a string of successful albums in their seventies heyday and should probably be more cherished than they are now. They could show a hard rocking, bluesy side and a softer pop-edged twist but always with McCafferty’s gravel-voiced tones in evidence. Their slower side is well represented here by ‘Winter Sunlight’ and ‘The Right Time’.

McCafferty who with Pete Agnew (now the only remaining original member) has stayed resolutely faithful to the cause and has left a phenomenal recorded legacy, even if the band became less popular in the 80s and 90s. ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Telephone’ is an admirable addition if not quite up to the band’s comeback ‘The Newz’ in 2008. This package is bolstered by a second disc with two excellent bonus studio tracks and five so-so live tracks recorded 2000-2008.

As a bookend to the McCafferty era, it doesn’t come much better than this. ****

Review by David Randall

David Randall presents ‘Assume The Position’ on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio every Sunday at 22:00 GMT.

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