Album Review: Sami Yaffa - "The Innermost Journey To Your Outermost Mind"

 

A man with an impressive musical CV, Sami Yaffa is probably best known for his stints with Hanoi Rocks, the New York Dolls and, most recently, in his old Hanoi bandmate Michael Monroe's solo band. Surprisingly though, unlike the other three surviving members of Hanoi's imperial phase line-up (Monroe, Andy McCoy and Nasty Suicide), he's never put out a solo album. Until now.

To be honest, I really wasn't sure what to expect here as Yaffa has been a guy who's lent his talents to a very varied selection of bands down the years from the straight ahead glam rock of Jetboy to the more experimental Mad Juana but the truth is that The Innermost Journey To Your Outermost Mind sees him drawing on all of his experience across the board to come up with something genuinely different - it's there from the way that the languid Queens of the Stone Age style opener Armageddon Together gives way to the furious punk rush of Selling Me Shit although even this promptly then goes into a spaced out almost psychedelic mid-section before going back into full blast for the finale.

Thereafter, Yaffa takes this whole trip to wherever he damn well fancies and it makes for a supremely engaging and enjoyable album - while Fortunate One and Last Time (probably the most Hanoi-ish sounding track on here) could almost be American Caesar era Iggy and Germinator is a pure punk rush which sounds like a cross between the UK Subs and Social Distortion, Rotten Roots and You Gimme Fever dip their toes into reggae and the gorgeous acoustic-led album highlight Down At St Joe's sits nicely along the more reflective end of Michael Monroe's output in recent years. Elsewhere, the scuzzy blues riff of I Can't Stand It could almost be the bastard lovechild of the Stooges and Danko Jones, Look Ahead goes into gypsy rock territory with Yaffa sounding uncannily like the Urban Voodoo Machine's Paul-Ronney Angel and closer Cancel The End Of The World is a full on six minute glam-psychedelic jam which really has no right to work as well as it does.

Like I said earlier, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this album but consider me impressed - The Innermost Journey To Your Outermost Mind shows off Yaffa's full range as a musician and songwriter and the result is an enjoyable and varied album which I guarantee you'll have on repeated listen over the weeks ahead. This one will, I feel, definitely be up there when we come to do our Albums of the Year list in a few months' time.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 (9/10)

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