Axel Rudi Pell – The Ballads IV

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German guitarist Axel Rudi Pell’s ongoing series of compilation albums centred around the many ballads he has written and recorded over his 22-year solo career is a thing of mixed opinions. On the one hand, how many compilations of previously released material does one artist need? On the other, some fans like to have all of the sombre moments of Pell’s music collected into one place. Though moving on to a fourth ballads collection does perhaps negate that benefit somewhat. Nevertheless, a fourth entry this is, and as on the previous ones Pell has included three brand new recordings so that there’s at least something here for fans who have all of the albums. All of the previously released tracks included here are taken from his last four albums, Mystica (2006, three tracks), covers album Diamonds Unlocked (2007, three tracks), Tales of The Crown (2008, two songs) and The Crest (2009, two songs). It could be argued that these aren’t perhaps old enough yet to find much value in being collected together on a compilation, but The Ballads IV is really only intended to appeal to the fans who like the series of releases anyway. Although including Phil Collins cover In The Air Tonight again, when it has already been included on The Best of Axel Rudi Pell is a bit much for anyone’s tastes. The most important thing though is the new songs. All three are at the beginning of the CD, and the first is a brand new Pell ballad entitled Where The Wild Waters Flows. It’s good, but it is just another Axel Rudi Pell ballad. More interesting are the other two tracks, both covers. One is super-ballad Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. The holy grail of ballads, Pell and vocalist Johnny Geoli do one of the better jobs of covering it to date. The other is Dio rocker Holy Diver, completely rearranged into a piano ballad. Fans of the song and of Dio won’t be able to help feeling the additional emotion hearing it in this way will conjure following his death in 2010. All in, this has about as much value to fans of the band as any of the other ballad albums. At the right price, it’s worth buying for the three exclusive new songs. Many though may find themselves purchasing just those three as single-track downloads rather than buying the full CD, and perhaps re-recording existing ballads as new acoustic versions or ideas of a similar nature would have been a better approach. Such is the sad decline of the industry.

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2011, Compilation Albums, Heavy Metal, Quick.Play Reviews, Axel Rudi Pell