Bloodletting

This is Boxer's finest, I think.From start to finish, a relentlessly solid album and particularly precious for fans of Patto & the unbelievable talents of guitarist Ollie Halsall...Some great covers, including what could be the definitive version of the Lennon/McCartney song 'Bulldog',Highly recommended.

Boxer's 2nd album, "Bloodletting", is just as good as their debut, "Below The Belt", it just never got the hit they deserved. Sadly this album never got released in 1976, it did get released in 1979, after Mike Patto and Keith Ellis both passed away.The album had 9 songs, 4 were covers and all the covers were great renditions in "Hey Bulldog", the band has a great time on this one, "Dinah-Low", written by Terry Stamp, who wrote "Town Drunk", on their debut. They do a great job on Neil Young's "The Loner", and kick it up on the tour de-force of Leonard Cohen's "Teachers", with the sharp welding guitar of Ollie Halsall. Mike Patto gave us some great originals in "Why Pick On Me", "The Blizzard" and "Love Has Got Me".Boxer was just an unlucky band, just didn't get the right break, sadly 3/4 of the band have passed away.

Track this down; it's worth finding and playing again and again. The live version of Leonard Cohen's "Teacher" is an explosion of raucous chaotic energy, and the crowd eats it up. Patto's vocals, as always, raw and uncompromising. Halsall's guitar, as always, lyrical and loony and like a knife. Too bad these guys only put out two albums. Buy this and see what the whole Timebox/Patto/Boxer sound was all about, and why it still matters.

Virgin records refused to release this album in '76 and the band disintegrated in financial turmoil. Ollie lost his Gibson SG in the process to the creditiors. This was the third album for Ollie and the second for Mike that was recorded and not released. By the time Virgin got around to releasing this album in '79, Mike Patto and Keith Ellis were dead. The music is a lot slicker on this album than Below the belt but lacks the originality of the first Boxer album. Most of the songs sound like someone else although done better than that someone else would do them.Hey Bulldog - solid Beatles cover and good start to the album. Ollie was the fifth Rutle after all.The Blizzard - Continues with the Beatle theme or could be a Paul McCartney tune(not McCartney lyrics though)Rich Mans Daughter - Supertramp with decent vocals. A really good songBig City Fever - Stepping into Steely Dan territory.The Loner - Neil Young cover far better than the original studio version but not better then Live Rust version (1979).Why pick on me - The best song on the album. Sounds like a Patto song and would fit onto Roll 'em smoke 'em...Love has got me - A soul verse and a bad company chorus. Not sure this one really works.Dinah Low - Terry Stamp cover. However, Ollie and Tony Newman did play on the original version so its almost a Boxer song anyway.Teachers - Leonard Cohen meets heavy metal.Great album. Shame it was too late to save the group.

As might be expected, with Mike Patto's vocals and Ollie Halsall on guitar, Boxer sound similar to the original Patto. The album starts off strongly with a decent cover version of Lennon's "Hey Bulldog" and contains a couple of good Mike Patto compositions, particularly "Love has got me", but also has other less successful covers and a few rather mediocre originals. Tellingly, Halsall has no writing credits whatever, and he doesn't produce much of the startling guitar work he was previously noted for - he left the band immediately after the album was finished and you wonder if his heart was in the project in the first place. Worth a listen but there are no lost masterpieces here.

Lacks killer material, debut self titled album is the one to buy. There is nothing new here that has not been done better before

Item as described. Highly recommended.

Unfortunately this is a CDR. Beware