WHITESNAKE
Made In Britain / The World Record
Frontiers (2013)
Rating: 7/10
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Other than a few absent years in the mid-90s when most felt that rock was dead, Whitesnake has been out there in some form since 1978, releasing a string of hits along the way ranging in style from hard rock to blues to hair metal.
Despite all of the reunion hubbub from “classic” bands over the last decade, few have been as consistent as Whitesnake. Following the release of two superb albums of new material (2008’s Good To Be Bad and 2011’s Forevermore) the band released Made In Japan (2013) and now Made In Britain / The World Record, and all while their contemporaries have struggled to even release new material.
Made In Britain / The World Record is a two-disc live set that features a wide range of Whitesnake material. It includes a nice chunk of material from the band’s latest albums as well as their biggest hits, a couple of rarer cuts, and, of course, some material from vocalist David Coverdale’s pre-Whitesnake band Deep Purple. The Made In Britain disc was recorded on the band’s 2011 tour of the UK and The World Record contains bits from shows all over the world.
Much to my surprise, this set kicks off with my all-time favourite Whitesnake song, ‘Best Years’ from Good To Be Bad. Coverdale and company (including ex-Dio guitarist Doug Aldrich and Winger guitarist Reb Beach) get the crowd pumped by rocking to the “These are the best years / Truly the best years of my life” lyric. Just like the band, the fans are aging and it becomes an anthemic lyric for the collective hard rock scene.
‘Fool For Your Loving’, ‘Forevermore’ and ‘Still Of The Night’ bring out the rock god side of the band, each getting a hefty lift from Aldrich’s metal background in my opinion. The set is balanced out by the boogie woogie blues of ‘My Evil Ways’ and the soaring hair metal anthems ‘Is This Love’ and ‘Here I Go Again’, a song that is hijacked early on by the audience. There really isn’t much cooler than hearing a huge audience sing along to a classic hit. It almost makes the song a little less cheesy knowing how it still resonates with so many people so many years later.
It’s ‘Love Ain’t No Stranger’ that highlights this disc though. The bluesy swagger of the verses combined with the arena-tinged choruses and soloing really makes this song as potent today as it was when Slide It In (1984) first hit my record player. The 2013 version of Whitesnake don’t always handle the classics as faithfully as they do this one, but this take is a certain shining moment.
The World Record disc doesn’t quite pack the punch of Made In Britain (in part due to most of the big hits being on Made In Britain) but does have some cool moments on it. ‘Slide It In’ remains as hokey as it always has been, but the crowd gives it lots of love here. I always have found this song to be like Warrant’s ‘Cherry Pie’ in that it’s a guilty pleasure. ‘Snake Dance’ is its polar opposite, with deep, chunky, blues-inspired riffing that leads perfectly into Good To Be Bad’s ‘Can You Hear The Wind Blow?’ bringing a heavier element to this disc that it largely lacks.
It’s the ballads that rule on this disc to be honest. The powerful version of ‘Fare Thee Well’ reminds me of Tesla’s acoustic albums and maybe even early Black Crowes with a different style of vocal. Coverdale sounds like he’s struggling on this one, but the band is tight as hell and carry it wonderfully. ‘Deeper The Love’ sounds a little hollow but Coverdale’s vocal is at its best on the set on this one and when the guy is on, he’s on. This disc is rounded out by some Deep Purple that sounds pretty paint-by-numbers (‘Soldier Of Fortune’ and a medley of ‘Burn / Stormbringer’) but is probably hard not to include at this point.
Overall, this is a solid set. It’s not Whitesnake’s best sounding record but it’s fair to middling as far as live albums go. Made In Britain is much better overall than The World Record but both edge out the recently released Made In Japan by a solid margin. If you are a fan of Whitesnake’s entire career or dig their new stuff like I do then there’s plenty of fat to chew on this one. The band do a good job of covering everybody’s favourite era on this double disc set.
Mark Fisher
