Mountain
Over The Top
(Floating World)
★★★

THE muscular US hard-rock outfit formed by bass player and former Cream collaborator Felix Pappalardi and larger than life guitar ace Leslie West in the late 1960s may never really have fully captured the imagination of audiences on this side of the Atlantic, although one of their finest creations, Nantucket Sleighride, was used as the signature tune of ITV’s long defunct politics show, Weekend World.

This splendid anthology captures the cream of Mountain’s relatively meagre recorded output from their short stint together in the early ’70s alongside a few tracks which were captured for posterity by the reformed band assembled by West and drummer Corky Laing a decade or more later. Don’t Look Around, Theme For An Imaginary Western and an epic near 20-minute live rendition of T-Bone Walker’s Stormy Monday are the best of an excellent bunch.

Soul Asylum
Slowly but Shirley
(Blue Elan Records)
★★★

SOUL ASYLUM are probably still best known for their Grammy award-winning 1993 hit, Runaway Train, but the classic alternative rockers have assembled a very impressive body of work during the past three decades or so, and Slowly but Shirley represents the latest addition to their guitar led repertoire.

The band have gone through a whole host of line up changes since forming in Minneapolis in 1981 but lead vocalist Dave Pirner has remained at the helm throughout their lengthy existence, and the veteran frontman is in typically fine fettle as the current incarnation of the quartet serve up crisply memorable gems such as Freak Accident, High Road and Waiting On The Lord for your listening pleasure, with New Orleans multi instrumentalist Ivan Neville chipping in on keyboards to lend a little added spice to the proceedings.

Michael McDermott
Lighthouse on the Shore / East Jesus
(Pauper Sky Records)
★★★★

AS a performer who can happily cite musical influences as diverse as The Who, Tom Waits and traditional Irish music it seemed only natural that Michael McDermott would one day release an album which reflected both sides of his creative personality, and this splendid two-CD set is the result.

The contents are divided equally between an acoustic and an electric collection, giving full rein to the Chicago singer-songwriter’s penchant for affecting lyrical imagery and innate flair for conjuring memorable melodies from a clear blue sky.

Selecting musical highlights is a difficult task when you’re confronted with such a wealth of exemplary material, but if pressed I’d plump for Berlin At Night, I Am Not My Father and Lighthouse on the Shore.