Review: All I Know - Vanity Kills (Deluxe)
All I Know, nee niet de song die Art Garfunkel opnam in 1973 voor zijn debuut album, maar de bandnaam van 4 “ young guns “ uit Kortrijk. Hmmmm, young guys nu ook weer niet meer, want dit is een heruitgave van hun in 2010 uitgebrachte CD en het is de voorloper van hun nieuwe album die er eind dit jaar aankomt.
All Night Long, een vrolijke opener, klinkt zeer Amerikaans. Je zou niet denken dat dit uit de Kortrijkse klei ontsproten is. De grens ligt ergens tussen rock en pop. Het heeft een groot aaibaarheidsgehalte. Bad Boy, “ Mama’s gonna get you … “, meer feel good pop/rock met een aanstekelijk refrein en knappe gitaarsolo in het midden. Dit kan zo op de radio.
Asphyxia, mooie piano-intro, de zanglijnen, de gitaarakkoorden … dit is Bon Jovi. Het klinkt enorm nineties. Toen deze plaat werd uitgebracht waren we natuurlijk nog niet zo ver van de 90’s af als nu. Ik stel mij spontaan de vraag, wat is er gebeurd of beter, wat is er niet gebeurd in 2010. Dit is echt een knappe ballad. Rain, ook weer een mooie intro en dan Rock ‘n Roll à la REO Speedwagon. Wat mij na vier nummers opvalt, wat een goeie stem en vooral de harmonie tussen de muzikanten. Dit nummer klinkt groot, echt knap.
Turn Back Time, slingert verder op het catchy, melodieuze rockpad. Het brengt me zo terug naar mijn twintigerjaren en het komt gewoon uit Vlaanderen.
I Need You, bouwt rustig op, nineties keyboard, dito gitaren. Ik zie dit nummer als een MTV – videoclip zo verschijnen op mijn jaren 90 lampentelevisie. Into Your Heart, kan alleen maar bevestigen wat ik hierboven al beschreven had, knap geproducete nummers, Amerikaans klinkende, feelgood rock en die typische gitaarsol. Top.
Sweet 17 en Teenage Queen liggen in de lijn van de vorige nummers.
All The Way, intro ligt qua stijl tussen The Sex Pistols en AC/DC en hier en daar een cowbell wat ik wel kan pruimen. Hope and Dreams sluit af. Breekbaar begin, geen drums, enkel klassieke gitaar en zang. Maar het “ ontploft “ niet.
All I Know, een leuke ontdekking, voor sommigen een herontdekking.
Deze Kortrijkse band heeft wel wat in hun mars. Er is een 90’s revival aan de gang en deze plaat past daar perfect in. En, Guy Mortier, als je dit leest, deze jongens haalden geheel onterecht de halve finale van Humo’s rockrally 2010 niet. Foei Guy
(Alain Mares)
2022 DELUXE EDITION BONUS TRACKS
Track by Track Commentary by AIK:
So, here it is, everything that wasn't good enough to go on the album
Nah, what follows is everything that we recorded in the period leading up to the 'Vanity Kills' album. Some of this stuff might be pretty rough to some ears, but hey, that's what the skip button is for
13. Only You (Compilation Track)
This track and the next one stem from the original recording sessions in '07/'08, and was first released on the independent first press cd in Sept. '08. It was left off the 'Melodic Rock Records' re-issue in '10 and replaced by 'Turn Back Time' & 'All The Way', which were actually written for a second album. We felt we were moving in a different direction songwriting-wise, and older faster stuff like 'Only You' didn't fit with the newer stuff. The 2 replacement tracks were recorded in June '10 specifically for the re-issue, with
Bram Steemans (Janez Detd.) on drums.
14. Consume Me (Compilation Track)
Most of the music for this one was written by
Lennart Bossu (
Amenra ), based on an idea that was originally meant for
Janez Detd. We fleshed it out and I wrote the lyrics and vocal melodies. This and 'Teenage Queen' are the only 2 'Vanity Kills' songs that have never been played live, unlike 'Only You' which was played regularly in the '07-'10 era. Again, as above, too fast for what we were aiming for. Both tracks were later officially released on the 'Melodic Rock Records' compilation CD 'The First 100' in 2019.
15. Running Away (Compilation Track)
In '12-'13 we recorded our 'lost' second album. 13 tracks in all, 12 intended for the album, and this one wich was left off. In 2013
Andrew McNeice asked us if we had any new material ready to go, so we finished this one quickly and he released it on the 'Melodic Rock Records' compilation CD 'This One Goes To 11'. This one features
Sam Bouckaert on backing vocals, who was our drummer in 2011 when we were writing and arranging most of the new stuff. The second album, in case you were wondering, was about 95% done but never finished. We played our last show in June 2012. Till now.
16. My Time (2008 Outtake)
Written around the same time as 'Only You', and pretty much in the same vein, this was actually recorded with the rest of the 'Vanity Kills' tracks, but never mixed as we felt it was out of place. I never really liked the lyrics either, I thought they were too negative. As it turns out, while researching this reissue, the master session files appear to have been accidentally erased, so this one could not be remixed. What you have here is the original rough mix, straight from the studio floor. Only played live once or twice in early '07.
17. All Night Long (Summer 2007 Demo)
Original pre-production home demo. Early and incomplete lyrics. These demos were intended as a blueprint for Karel De Backer (Flip Kowlier), to prepare for the recording of the drum tracks. This was a key track for the direction we were heading in with the album.
18. I Need You (Summer 2007 Demo)
All 4 of these Summer '07 demos were recorded at
Michael Neyt's parents' house. The mixing desk was in a spare room, vocals were recorded in the bedroom. Off duty time was spent in the swimming pool. This one has a different vocal melody in the verses. It was recorded like this during the album sessions, but then we re-did the verses later on. I seem to remember Michael didn't like the original.
19. Sweet 17 (Summer 2007 Demo)
This one was missing the intro melody, so we cheated a bit when remixing these demos and edited the intro. For some reason this one seems slower than the album version, but other than that we didn't stray too far from the demo. Everything was in place, even the guitar solo.
20. Asphyxia (Summer 2007 Demo)
'Asphyxia' was written on acoustic guitar. This was the demo that was sent to David Poltrock (De Mens) who wrote the piano arrangement. This demo has the original bridge vocal melody, which I never liked and re-wrote when we did the album. None of us can remember who played the crappy acoustic guitar on the demo
By the way, the working title for this one was 'Carrie'. I'll let you figure that one out for yourself
21. Make Belief (June 2007 Demo)
The following 2 tracks, as well as stuff like 'Only You', 'My Time', 'I Wanna Rock You', were part of the songwriting leading up to the album. We had kinda reached a dead end with all that fast pop-punky stuff, and wanted to move in a different direction for the album. These two were only ever available on our Myspace page in '07 (remember those days ?).
22. And Nothing But The Truth (June 2007 Demo)
This one and 'Make Belief' were also used for auditioning drummers when we were prepping for the album release in '08. Both were played at every show up till about '10. There was a 3rd track recorded at this session called 'Kill The Pain', which we only played live once or twice, and was even faster. That was the point where we said 'no more', so we didn't even mix it. Trust me, you're not missing much.
23. Rain (2008 Original Mix)
We did demos for every track on the album, but 'Rain' was the only one that was instrumental, the words hadn't been written at that point. The 4 demos on this reissue are the only 4 that were somewhat 'presentable', the others all had issues, ranging from comedic temporary lyrics to way too many mistakes. Back to 'Rain', this is the original version, how it was recorded, before we sent it off to the US to have it remixed by legendary producer Beau Hill (Alice Cooper, Europe, ...). See if you can spot the differences !