Artist: GLENN HUGHES
Album: RETURN OF CRYSTAL KARMA (2CD)

Release date: 2000
Media type: CD

Return Of Crystal Karma(often abbreviated to R.O.C.K.) is a studio album by former Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Trapeze vocalist/ bassist Glenn Hughes. The album was released in 2000 on SPV and Nippon records.

Return Of Crystal Karma is Hughes’ seventh solo studio album, his sixth since 1992. The album has a similar bass driven funk sound to 1999’s The Way It Is, although R.O.C.K. has a slightly more serious tone.

R.O.C.K. was performed by a set band throughout the album, unlike many of Hughes’ previous albums which had featured multiple musicians and guests. Regular guitarist JJ Marsh makes his third appearance on a Glenn Hughes album and co-wrote many of the tracks. The rest of the band is made up of keyboardist Hans Zermuehlen, Hughes’ regular drummer of the period Gary Ferguson and Laurence Tolhurst (former member of The Cure) who contributed some electronica parts.

One of the tracks featured on the album is a song called Gone which was written by Hughes and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath for their abandoned 1996 album project. At the point of R.O.C.K.’s release Hughes’ considered it unlikely that those sessions would be released due to their prolific bootlegging. However Iommi decided to release them in 2004 as The 1996 DEP Sessions, Gone also features there.

The instrumental track Owed To J is named in reference to the instrumental Owed To G, which featured on the Deep Purple album Come Taste the Band.

Hughes decided to give himself the moniker ‘Funk Man’ in the writing credits for the songs. This is the only occasion where he has referred to himself as such.

TRACKLIST CD:

"The State I'm In" – 4:58 (Hughes, Marsh)
"Midnight Meditated" – 4:27 (Hughes, Marsh)
"It's Alright" – 4:31 (Hughes, Marsh)
"Switch The Mojo" – 4:33 (Hughes, Marsh)
"Gone" – 5:51 (Hughes, Iommi)
"The Other Side Of Me" – 3:50 (Hughes, Zermuehlen)
"Angela" – 5:57 (Hughes, Zermuehlen)
"Owed To J" – 5:58 (Ferguson, Hughes, Marsh, Zermuehlen)
"This Life" – 4:52 (Hughes, Zermuehlen)
"Days Of Avalon" – 5:58 (Hughes, Marsh)

Live In South America (Bonus CD):

"You Kill Me" – 4:38 (Hughes, Sales)
"Neverafter" – 6:46 (Hughes, Marsh)
"First Step Of Love" – 6:12 (Hughes, Thrall)
"No Stranger To Love" – 8:06 (Hughes, Iommi)
"Coast To Coast" – 10:23 (Hughes)
"Your Love Is Alright" – 9:40 (Galley, Holland, Hughes)

LINE-UP:

Glenn Hughes – Vocals/ Bass
JJ Marsh – Guitars
Gary Ferguson – Drums
Hans Zermuehlen – Keyboards
Laurence Tolhurst – Electronica