Best album of all times – Number 16: Gary Moore – Wild Frontier

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Gary Moore (1952-2011), is probably one of the “all greatest guitarists so far”. Maybe not always the fastest, but the combination technical skills, incredible melodies and a 6:th sense to catch an atmosphere has brought him to the absolute top.

As I wrote in the first post in this series – The Best Album of All Times – I will only post one album per artist and I guess that Gary Moore could hold more places than one. The hard part is to choose between the three of them Wild Frontier, After the war and Run for Cover.

In my opinion Wild Frontier is the best when it come to a complete album without any big dips, and oh’boy this album is on the safe side all the way. The difference between this album and the earlier ones are obvious but an interesting detail is the use of a drum machine instead of a human drummer.

The album kicks off with the famous “Over The Hills And Far Away” (later covered by many others for example Nightwish), followed up by the title song “Wild Frontier”. These both songs marks perfectly the change in Gary Moores style after the previous mentioned albums. The Heavy Metal is more popilicious, and the overall sound more friendly.

It continues with “Take A Little Time”. Still a really good song, but a bit after the first two tracks. In my opinion this track get’s a little bit to flirty with the new style and the chorus isn’t  far away from many other Dance-tracks.

The Loner is a true epic track with Moore showing of his rare sensitivity in creating emotions / feelings with a guitar. An awesome track!

The weakest part of this album may be the start of “Friday On My Mind”, and it doesn’t really kick off completely, but still is an okay track.

Strangers In The Darkness is a track that may be influenced by Billy Idol (?). The atmosphere, and even more, the vocals are pretty close.

Thunder Rising; a track with a heavy guitar adrenaline stamina that runs almost through the whole song, a punchy chorus and after approx 3:30 a guitar that almost sounds like a bagpipe.

Johnny Boy; a sad track with beautiful melodies dedicated to his friend Phil Lynnot that passed away 1986.

Don’t miss the last track (since it’s hidden behind a second version of “Over the hills and far away”). I’m not really sure how to comment on this track. This track is really different from the others. Some West Coast influences (?), some pop and a bit of a 70’s sound at the same time. In short, Great track! Don’t miss!

If you want to explore more songs from his previous albums I suggest:

After The War
Led Clones (With Ozzy Osbourne on Vocals)
Military Man
Empty Rooms
Out in the fields

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