Music : Summershine

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- My favorite from Bill
While it bears little resemblance to his other works, at the core, VOL is still very much intact on Summershine. Some criticize the album for its polished, pop influenced sound, but that is what drew me to it. My husband is an avid fan of all things VOL and Bill Malonee related, and I had a hard time listening to Bill's vocals and seemingly endless rough and acousitc sounding albums. Until I heard Summershine. By alternating other works with Summershine, I could finally appreciate the complete brilliance of Bill's lyrics and intentionally unfinished sounding songs.
I love this album, it is essential for long road trips and keeps my rolling along through the summer.

Rating:

- ANOTHER GREAT VOL CD!

Maybe one day, the glitz and bling of the meat market music scene will fade and artists like VOL get the recognition they deserve. But I don't expect to see MTV change it's format anytime soon.

Some folks might call this more of a POP cd than VOL's earlier cds but everything about VOL you like is here. SUMMERSHINE is upbeat with great production and gives a glimse of things to come with Bill's incredible solo work.

Puttin' Out Fires (With Gasoline) is my favorite on the cd.
This version of It's Not Bothering Me is GREAT - even better than the one on the ROOM DESPAIR bonus cd for AUDIBLE SIGH.

I'd put this up there with AUDIBLE SIGH and TO THE ROOF OF THE SKY - not to be missed!

Rating:

- An Awesome Farewell Album
"Summershine is the best and last Vigilantes Of Love cd. With this recording, they took their best shot at the commercial bulls eye, and hit it dead center with a quality album that is full of talent and creativity. This one should have taken them over the top. There should have been heavy air play and an MTV video. There should have been sales fugures to put smiles on the faces of record company executives.

But that didn't happen. But it's through no fault of the band. They have worked their butts off for years doing as many as 175 concert dates a year in the U.S., Europe and Canada. Compass Records must have dropped the ball with Summer Shine. The first two lines of track one, "You Know That (Is Nothing New)," unknowingly sums up this cd best: "You're the treasure no one opened, you're that diamond no one found."

Bill Mallonee has been putting his heart and soul into the art of the Vigilantes Of Love for a dozen years. How many times has he had his hopes high with the excitement and anticipation of the next new VOL album breaking through? How many times has the music industry, through indifference and lack of adequate support, crushed his hopes? Without a doubt, Mallonee is doing what he loves. But the Vigilantes deserved a wider audience. The mass public has been cheated out of hearing a great band.

Music runs through the veins of Bill Mallonee. He always bounces back. He has never given up. His spirit is strong and full of hope. In "She Is Fading," he sings: "Summer Shine and everything that makes the woeful heart to sing - chances better than you think - throw your hat into the ring - check your pulse hope all is well - reverse spin on the carousel."

Mallonee was a man with a guitar, a song, and a message for anyone who wanted to interpret his words any way they saw fit. You just had to enjoy the music and sing along with your voice or your heart. If you got what he was saying, well, that was just a fine and dandy flavor of icing on an already tasty cake of rock and roll call the Vigilantes Of Love.

The vigilantes are no more. But the singer did not throw in the towel. He merely reversed the carousel and went back to being Bill Mallonee. He just released a new solo cd; his fourth since the demise of VOL.

It is my opinion, no, let me rephrase that, it is my dream that before Bill mallonee retires, he will release one more VOL album. No matter how many years or solo albums down the road, I think he will do it. A major label will pick it up. They'll promote it the way it should be promoted. And it will finally be his break-out effort. The cd will result in two or three hits and Bill will finally get the recognition and money his talent deserves.

But the dream doesn't stop there. His new record going gold will generate interest in all his past Vigilante releases. Major labels will begin negotiations over the master tapes. New fans will start buying Killing Floor, Blister Soul, Audible Sigh, and everything inbetween. Bill will be blown away with huge success. And he'll handle it well, in his style. Can you imagine the Vigilante songs that kind of experience would create?

Rating:

- Lost and Found
Summershine is a little different from the more traditional Dylanesque V.O.L. material that precedes it. This album is rooted musically in well crafted pop songs that harken back to The Who, The Beatles, and most other Brit pop. But what really makes this disc standout is that the songs don't simply tell a story, but take you on the journey. Bill Mallonee is simply the best lyricist I have ever heard. This album came out around 09-11-01 and was lost along with many more important things. These were the songs that lifted my aching heart. While Bill still puts out brilliant music this was V.O.L.'s swan song. It is so easy to understand why the change in direction was necessary. This band knew that they had created a masterpiece that never reached its potential in sales or recognition. Truly a tough act to follow. I own over 2,000 albums. This one makes my all time top five. To me this disc is like finding your favorite sweater in the bottom of your closet in November.

Rating:

- End of a band, end of an era
Summershine turned out to be the swan song of the Vigilantes of Love. Most of VOL CD's were distinctive and unique from each other. Summershine is no exception. Front man Bill Mallonee managed to merge brit pop and folk/Americana into a new hybrid. The songs are thus full of contradictions; bouncy yet stark, hopeless in subject but full of warm melody.

While the attempt was admirable, the result seems to disappoint. For fans that are used to the deeper, more poetic lyrics of earlier band releases, the lighter tone seemed off the mark. For Americana fans, who had been brought to the band through efforts such as To the Roof of the Sky and Audible Sigh, the music was too pop.

I think overall the work is decent, it holds up ok, it is just not up to the standards that fans had understandably come to expect from a really good band.

The end of a band, the end of an era.

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