Band : Glenn Hughes

Album title : First Underground Nuclear Kitchen

Label : Frontiers

Distributor : Rough Trade

Release date : 09/05/2008

Release : CD

With an album title shortened to F.U.N.K. , one should not be surprised to find the musical direction on such album to be mainly geared towards that direction...especially not when said album comes from the delightful Glenn Hughes , who's always shown a great passion for the genre...and has frequently lifted it to something quite of his own thanks to his expressive and very specifically Soul-full vocal array!

Since a couple of years now, the Staffordshire, UK born singer/bassist resides in Rancho Palos Verdes (California), but the musician still comes over to Europe (and the rest of the world, for that matter) with every new album. Following the release of his last studio album, June 2006's Music For The Divine (review posted 18/07/2006), Hughes drafted new members for his touring band in guitarist Jeff Kollman , keyboardist Anders Olinder , and   drummer Mark Mondesir , taking 'em on a run of UK dates before starting a European tour in November. Halfway the same month Hughes performed at the Kremlin Palace in Moskow as part of the 30 th anniversary of Russian outfit Zemlyane , alongside a guest cast comprising Rick Wakeman , Black Sabbath 's Tony Iommi , Kingdom Come , Nazareth , The Animals , Bonnie Tyler , and Ken Hensley . That same month would see Hughes guesting on the latter's Blood On The Highway album. In early 2007 Demolition Records New York's division released the album in the States, and during February and March Hughes continued to promote the album with an extended tour on Russian and Ukraine stages. During May, the singer would join Italian act Moonstone Project on stage for a series of concerts when they were playing Deep Purple songs. Then, in quite a short time, Glenn befell some very special honours. First, was invited by the mayor of   Kavarna, Bulgaria, to play again in the town on May 6 th , and on that same day the singer was made an honorary citizen of the town. In his honor, a specially commissioned picture of him was painted on a building at the Central City Square. He was also invited by the mayor of Tzaribrod , Serbia to play at a freshly built concert hall on May 9 th . Brandnew and nameless, the site was given the title of Glenn Hughes Music Hall ! More honours came with Glenn being a guest presenter at both the 2006 and 2007 Classic Rock Awards . More live activity took Hughes to successful tours of South Am eric a, Italy, Norway and Spain, playing two solo dates in London, Bulgaria, and Greece, but another highlight would come when he played at the famous Whisley A Gogo (in Los Angeles) and BB King's (New York) in completely sold out venues!

The new album sees Glenn again working in the studio with drummer Chad Smith (of Red Hot Chili Peppers ) with more musical input coming from guitarist Luis Maldonado and keyboardist Anders Olander . Nevertheless, there was still some space for a couple of guest appearances, and guitarist J.J. Marsh (who's worked on Hughes albums before) puts in some acoustic and electric guitar on two songs, while George Nastas (another GH old-timer who's played on the Feel and Soulfully Live albums) brings additional acoustic guitar to two others, and keyboardist Ed Roth plays keyboards on "Never Say Never" and Fender Rhodes piano on "Love Communion" . Musically, what you get is a mixture of more excited songs with a more Funky impact (album opener "Crave" , the album title song, "Love Communion" , "We Shall Be Free" , "Never Say Never" , "We Go To War" ) and ballads where the singer's Soul mood transpires more effectively ( "Satellite" , "Imperfection" , and album closer "Where There's a Will" ), due to the fact that the additional Funk feel in those songs brought in through the keyboards in stead of the bass. Big exception to the Funk rule comes with the great (and with 6:22 also somewhat lengthier) but completely devoid of Funk "Too Late To Save The World" , which sees The Voice Of Rock making his highest pitch on the album,and the inclusion of cello keyboards. Great semi-ballad indeed! For a listening session of the Funkily Soulful "Love Communion" , surf to myspace.com/glennhughesonline, where you'll also find an 11-minute medley of the whole album...ain't that nice...as well as an announcement by Glenn himself concerning the worldwide tour that's coming up starting of May (Belgium: Spirit Of 66 in Verviers on the 30 th , Holland: Zoetermeer's Boerderij the day after and Helmond's Plato on June 1 st ) ... and the promo video of “Love Communion” plus various other video footage. After Europe comes the US and more, with dates running into November!

The album's rating? Hah, do you need ask? After all, this guy has been in my list of favourite singers from the very first time I heard his work with Deep Purple , and I've since learned to love éverything he's ever done! So...? Top rating, of course, and definite addition to that "Best Albums Of 2008" of mine!!!

98/100

Tony.