{"id":18615,"date":"2019-11-05T14:41:11","date_gmt":"2019-11-05T19:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=18615"},"modified":"2022-01-06T19:48:20","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:48:20","slug":"album-review-michael-monroe-one-man-gang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=18615","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Michael Monroe &#8211; One Man Gang"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Michael Monroe \u2013 One Man Gang<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Release Date: October 18, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Since I first heard Hanoi Rocks back in 1986, Michael Monroe has been one of my favorite vocalists. Monroe\u2019s distinct vocals and signature harmonica and saxophone playing were a huge part of the Hanoi Rocks sound, and when the band disbanded in 1984, rock n\u2019 roll lost one of the greatest bands that barely anyone in America ever heard of.<\/p>\n<p>Since Monroe\u2019s 1990 solo release Not Fakin\u2019 It, I have followed his solo career. In his 32 career as a solo artist, Michael Monroe has had been some strikes and gutters along the way. In my opinion, Not Fakin\u2019 It was his finest moment\u2026 until now.<\/p>\n<p>In 2019 Michael Monroe released One Man Gang, and not only is this his finest piece of solo work, but this album also stands tall beside such legendary Hanoi Rocks releases as Bankok Shocks, Saigon Kicks and Self Destruction Blues. Kicking off with the New York-style glam\/punk of title track \u201cOne Man Gang,\u201d Monroe\u2019s distinct punk, attitude driven growl backed by some of the most hook-laden hard rock I\u2019ve heard in a long time had me smiling ear to ear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast Train to Tokyo\u201d has a very Ramones-esque feel to it and shows Monroe\u2019s love for that old school New York punk while \u201cWasted Years\u201d was a time warp back to the Hanoi Rocks days. This song would have been very much at home on the debut album. \u201cWasted Years\u201d is the show stopper on this album, and how this song isn\u2019t a fucking hit is way beyond my comprehension.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Monroe has proved that his best years are still ahead of him. With a stable band lineup and great songwriters joining him drives home, an album that I feel like Monroe has wanted to put out for years. As a fan, One Man Gang is the album I\u2019ve been hoping he\u2019d make since Not Fakin\u2019 It.<\/p>\n<p>One Man Gang is fun and beautifully nostalgic. Three-person basement hangouts, blaring Hanoi Rocks, and dreaming big are just a few of the memories One Man Gang brew up inside of me. This is an album that will bring back great memories while being more than a suitable soundtrack for creating new memories as well. Thank you, Michael, for not letting me forget.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Michael Monroe - Last Train To Tokyo (Official Video)\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NZegMf2p1J4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Monroe \u2013 One Man Gang Release Date: October 18, 2019 Since I first heard Hanoi Rocks back in 1986, Michael Monroe has been one of my favorite vocalists. Monroe\u2019s distinct vocals and signature harmonica and saxophone playing were a huge part of the Hanoi Rocks sound, and when the band disbanded in 1984, rock n\u2019 roll lost one of the greatest bands that barely anyone in America ever heard of. Since Monroe\u2019s 1990 solo release Not Fakin\u2019 It, I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":-1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,277],"tags":[2087,2080,2230,2229,905,2085,2077,180,2078,2090,2084,2086,2079,1435,2076,2196,2088,2089,1844,2081,2082,2083],"class_list":["post-18615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-music-news","tag-classic-rock","tag-classic-rock-blog","tag-folk-music-blog","tag-folk-rock-blog","tag-hanoi-rocks","tag-hard-rock","tag-hard-rock-blog","tag-heavy-metal","tag-heavy-metal-blog","tag-instrumental-bands","tag-mailchimp","tag-metal","tag-metal-blog","tag-michael-monroe","tag-music-blog","tag-occult-rock-blog","tag-prog-rock","tag-progressive-rock","tag-psych-rock","tag-psych-rock-blog","tag-psychedelic-rock-blog","tag-wordpress"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19599,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18615\/revisions\/19599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}