This is the first album recorded by the band after drummer Rick Allen famously lost his left arm in a road accident, but even knowing that he’s using electronic assistance it’s a remarkable feat.
There are some classic tracks on here – Animal and Pour Some Sugar On Me, for example, but even away from the singles the album is pretty strong with a good variety to the tracks. Rocket, for example, uses the Apollo 11 Mission Control chatter at the beginning (but to a lesser extent than Public Service Broadcasting will do on their track "Go"), and has an atmospheric break-down in the middle where the drums thunder on, underlying some backwards-tracked vocals before the real vocals and guitars kick in again. It’s nice to have that kind of structure.
There’s a big power ballad with Love Bites, then some dirty blues-rock with Excitable. Well, not that dirty exactly – the production is all very clean and slick, but I’d argue that on this album it works for the over all sound, one where it enhances rather than diminishes the tracks. I’d probably rate this is the best of the Eighties hair metal albums, full on energy from start to finish. It’s a nice way to end this batch of guitar-based rock albums, and it's probably the best of that batch as well despite being a kind of sound that I would normally decry as horribly cheesy. Next time, a bit of a sudden swerve in style.
Comments
Post a Comment