great new songs and standards from Quo

Slowly but surely you think Status Quo is trying to get away from their famous 12 bar boogie that made them the single most successful chart group in British history,and then the album ends with a rousing,rocking 16 minute version of their previously recorded "4500 Times".THANK GOD!This is a surprisingly good album-and the new songs written by Quo are the best-"Like A Zombie","All We Really Wanna Do",and "Fakin The Blues" open the album with a great vitality and Rick Parfitt's "One Man Band" is classic Quo.The title track,written by keyboardist Andy Bown is a beautiful song,as well as another pretty tune "Warning Shot".The cover songs like "Let's Work Together","Bring It On Home",and the"Price Of Love" are O.K.,but the 13 of 16 songs here are best written by Quo.Put the headphones on and listen to the final track,"4500 Times" and listen to Quo perfect the 12 bar boogie.This track is Quo at it's best.

Status Quo - these days nothing changes

Dedicated Quo fans have one big problem, and that is how to combine their love of Quo's 1970's releases (which all were much better than anything the band have released in 20 years) with their fanatic loyalty towards the band. I'll tell you what they do. They pretend or fool themselves to believe that every time Quo release a new album it's a return to their heyday sound. The fact is that most of the later albums sounds very much the same! "Rock til you drop" sounds pretty much like "Under the influence" which sounds rather the same as "Heavy traffic". If you don't believe me - listen to the following songs, and tell me I'm wrong:

Twenty wild horses
Like a zombie
Rhythm and blues

"Rock til you drop" is a rather pleasant album, but I still think that Status Quo continues to deliver light rock 'n' roll these days instead of the hard boogie approach you'll hear on "Piledriver" and "Quo" to just name just a few. Don't let this review scare you away - if you buy this album I think you'll find yourself humming along with the songs, keeping the beat with tapping a foot to the floor, maybe whistle a little and you don't have to turn the volume down when your parents come to visit you. But you'll probably not engage yourself in any headbanging or imaginary guitar playing because those days are long gone.