Tipton, Entwistle & Powell - Edge Of The World Review
Posted by Evocator Manes on 11.14.2006
Recently unburied archives of a period surrounding a solo release best left forgotten...
Tipton, Entwistle & Powell Edge Of The World
2006
Rhino
4.0
You know what would have been great? If Glenn Tipton, the ace guitarist for Judas Priest, could have done a solo album without bringing Glenn Tipton, the shitty hack of a vocalist. Not only did he completely ruin his solo venture, Baptizm Of Fire, with his unholy caterwauling that makes cats fucking sound like opera arias, but he also ruins this album, recorded prior to getting Atlantic's approval/support to drop a solo disc in the first place. When you recruit and hold three aces in your deck going in and those three aces are among the top of their profession at their respective instruments and things still fall, there's a problem. John Entwistle and Cozy Powell (to say nothing of Don Airey on keys) left this as their last recorded legacy and while parts of it go along well with Tipton's manic guitar shredding (Friendly Fire has some serious axe fireworks going on), this is no great testament to the iconic status of both in the annals of rock history.
It all comes back to those dreadful vocals (think of a really bad, really drunk, really off-key Billy Squire merged with the worst of Ian Anderson). A lot of bitching has been going on about the lack of Entwistle and Powell's stamp. I completely disagree on the Powell commentary, by the way. You can definitely tell it's him, particularly during the fills. Those bitching seem to forget this was always designed primarily as a Tipton vehicle, first and foremost, a factor which probably led Tipton to the unfortunate decision to do the vocals himself. Had he had anyone remotely competent on vocals, this would have been a decent, if not passable good, album, firmly entrenched in the 80's mode of songwriting, yes, but not bad by any means. As it is, it's near impossible to get past the vocals, which get worse as the album progresses. The production, while cleaned up, still seems to have a bit of the demo feel to it. Worse yet, Tipton inexplicably has turned up the vocals, which drown out almost everything else...it is noticeably awkward to be able to order the sounds in terms of loudness and a hallmark of bad production. In this case, it is vocals, then guitar, then keys/drums. Bass is either lost entirely or incidental.
Tipton is no great lyricist, either, as the fully reprinted lyrics in the booklet indicate. The front cover features a neat meshing of a stylized version of the leading letter of their respective last names, but it's doubtful this was intentional for the solo release...credits and the story behind the album are there. There's some sort of goofy sun-logo thing on the back of the booklet and the backside of the traycard has what looks like a collage/composition shot of the main 3 players.
The 411: Even Judas Priest fans were facing a push trying to give support to the wretched Baptizm
Of Fire album, which was sadly re-released in conjunction with this one. This album, in many ways,
is better, partially because that one was such a huge disappointment, but without Cozy Powell on the
kit, this one would lose a lot and be about equal. As it is, this album is of interest to potentially more
people, such as fans of any of the participants or music historians, but Tipton's horrendous vocals will
likely render the entire experience as dreadful. If you can find it cheap, get it. Otherwise, avoid.
