September 2000

This month I have chosen albums that are pretty much on the edge of the genre so some of you might think, "What the hell is this artist/album doing here at all?" Hopefully after reading the reviews you'll give them a chance and I'm sure you'll recognize how good they are and how biased you were before giving them a spin.

This section of Loud & Clear aims to introduce some hidden treasures of the music industry, bands that didn't sell big all around the world but still they were there close enough and created precious albums. Some of them might be familiar to most of you (especially to the diehard fans of AOR/melodic rock) but I try to dig up bands that weren't topping the charts, and some of them might be "new finds from the past" for some of you.
If I can draw only one person's attention to one album that he/she didn't know before, and that person falls in love with that album, it was already worth doing . I choose albums from the 1989-92 era because IMO this was the best period of AOR/melodic rock so far. Even if you disagree with the word "best", these years were the most productive and commercially best selling ones of AOR/melodic rock. The reviews I write are not "holy script". They represent my opinion and feelings. I gladly get into discussions, arguments about them, so in case you have contra arguments, comments, suggestions, etc., please feel free to drop some lines to my email address.

Bandi bandi@gtbbp.hu

Cher - Love Hurts
(Geffen 1990)

Those youngsters of you who only know HER from the second part of the 90s might wonder what this techno-latino wannabe chick is doing here? Well, Cher (or should I say the ones managing her?) have already changed her image and music more then Jani Lane (Warrant) changed his own. And that's considerably A LOT.

Back in the second half of the 80s and the first some years of the 90s (so basically when melodic rock music ruled the world) Cher was releasing great albums of this kind. Back then she was involved with rock musicians (for quite a while with Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi) and both her music and image changed according to that. What a great impact?! Otherwise we wouldn't have those tattoos on her butts. Now, let's move on to less attracting (?) fields: her music. Taking a look at the songwriters/musicians involved in the production of an album always tells us a lot. Now look at this list! Just to mention some of the songwriters: Diane Warren, Desmond Child, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, some of the producers: Peter Asher, Richie Zito, Steve Lukather, Bob Rock. I don't think I have to introduce these people to you. If I do, just email me for private lessons. Now let's see the songs and the musicians. "Save Up All Your Tears", a great Diane Warren/Desmond Child rocker opens the album that was also released on one of Bonnie Tyler's albums. With its piano chording and huge refrain melodies this song could stand as perfect example for the commercial soft rock anthems of those years. As far as I remember the song was on the charts with both ladies' versions. More of the piano treatment is the next ballad, a re-recording of a Boudleux Bryant song from the 1960s: "Love Hurts". Even if you don't like Cher's attitude or personality, with this song she proves she CAN sing (too). The band includes half of Toto, and Gunnar Nelson is involved in the backing vocals.

Still not convinced this album is for you??? Some more Diane Warren songs of the album might convince you, but no matter who wrote/produced/played the songs on this album, all of them have bombastic sound, great vocals, and outstanding musicianship. However my personal favorites of the album are other songs that involve the Toto guys: "Could've Been You", a mid-tempo rocker with great guitar riff and an extremely catchy vocal line fitted on it. The song was written by Arnie Roman and Bob Halligan, it has great lyrics, even better background vocals, and Steve Lukather's solo is a gem. The other one is "Who You Gonna Believe" written by Steve Fontano and the Marquez brothers, one more of that catchy rocker kind. By the end of the album you'll get more of the ballad-like treatment, lots of pianos, layered background vocals, the typical quality stuff.

If you liked last month's Hall/Oates album, you'll love this one too. The album is finished by the re-recording of Cher's all time big hit "The Shoop Shoop Song". Okay, I understand that most of the rockers got annoyed by this song (and its video) but my suggestion would be that if you can't rise above that simply ignore that one song because the rest of the album is really good quality melodic rock music.

Chicago - 19
Reprise 1989

Most of you might have the following biased stereotype picture in your mind when hearing the name Chicago: gayish looking guys in shiny clothes with Vaseline in their hair playing commercial music that John Travolta wannabe guys are dancing to in discos. Well, think again. I'd say their albums from the 80'ies (their 17-19) are good quality AOR albums with great sound, wonderful arrangement, (you might remember that half of the band is the brass section that gives a very special arrangement to their songs), and having more vocalists taking the lead, the songs are very diverse.

This album is from 1988/1989 (depending on which part of the world it was released in). The connection to some of the albums reviewed here is Diane Warren (again and again, this woman is a genius). She (among others) penned the wonderful ballads "I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love" and "Look Away". The album also features Dan Huff on guitars who has been working with Giant, Doro, Lou Gramm, Van Stephenson (just to mention some of the well known melodic rock artists of his carrier). Dan is a well-known producer but he wasn't involved as producer here, those duties were done by Chas Sandford and Ron Nevison. They created a crystal clear, very balanced sound for the album that does not over-emphasize the horns but still gives a very thick, orchestral sound to most of the songs. The keyboard sounds are awesome; lots of synth pads strengthen the thick sound of the brass section. As you might have expected from the names involved, the vocal parts are more than perfect. As everybody in the band, well at least everybody who's not having something (his instrument) in his mouth is singing, plus there are additional background vocals too, the refrains are monumental.

The songs are very diverse, the Warren ballads are like the ones we are used to from her, lots of isolated piano notes with strings orchestration and huge refrain. But we have funky flavored party rock songs like "I Stand Up" here with great groove and lots of horns in it, almost movie soundtrack sounding songs like "Come In From The Rain", that features a brass section tune that could fit to any movie. Or Bruce Springsteen / Bryan Adams like mid-tempo rocker anthem like "Runaround" with a drum sound that punches right into your belly. And for the fans of big vocal harmonies we have "Victorious" here that has a refrain with lots of vocal layers that reminds me of those vocals-only (usually Afro-American) groups.

The album is definitely a good start to tear down your walls of prejudice against Chicago; I'd recommend you to check it out. As both Chicago and Cher had massive distribution all over the world they can' t be that hard to find.

Another female fronted poppy AOR album with songs from Diane Warren (who else?) again. Unfortunately this one opens with one of the most commercial pop songs of the whole album, "With Every Beat Of My Heart", that might disappoint the hard rockers, but a great mid-tempo Diane song "I'll Be Your Shelter" washes the bad taste away, a real radio friendly tune with its na-na-na refrain. Taylor's voice sounds surprisingly Afro-American on this one; I can even hear some strange accent that Dionne Warwick also has.

"Love Will Lead You Back" is the usual top quality, keyboard driven ballad by Diane with another awesome vocal performance from Taylor, one of the highlights of the album. Then another poppy tune turns the hopes of hard rockers down but while it is playing you can always check the promo photos of the artwork out. Actually, this one isn't that bad at all, the vocals and the keyboard sound are great, and the ones with some soul music in their collection (like me) will definitely love this one too.

The title song is Diane Warren again, an old-school mid-tempo guitar driven, brass synth supported rocker. Personally I find it average and prefer the other two Diane songs, but the die-hard rock fans might be happy about the solo that is played by Blues Saraceno (solo, later on Poison). The faithful rockers will get a heart attack hearing the disco sounding drum machine on "Up All Night", and I do not even try to convince them to give a chance to this song because it's just one of those boring dance tunes. But "I Know The Feeling" is another soul flavored ballad with great keyboard sound and beautiful vocal harmonies, similar to Celine Dion's or Whitney Houston's ballads. However both of those ladies have considerably better vocal abilities than Taylor, she isn't bad either.

After an easy-to-forget dance song "Wait For Me" the album finishes with two Ric Wake songs. He was also responsible for the production too that is not bad but I could have done with more guitars and less drum programming. Anyway, his songs bring the rockier feeling back, "You Meant The World To Me" is a mid-tempo rockabilly tune with an entertaining brass section and great female background vocals, while "Ain't No Good" is a guitar riff driven rocker with an arena shout-out refrain supported with awesome female vocals again.

Though this album might not please everybody (mostly because of the too many poppy songs) it contains some pearls that everyone could be happy with. Don't pay big $$$ for it but if you see it in a second hand store or at a sale, be sure to pick it up.

Marty Friedman - Scenes
Sharpnel 1992

Marty Friedman must be known to most of you as the ex-guitarist of Megadeth, however his instrumental solo albums were nothing like that, rather in the vein of Tony MacAlpine's speeding-scaling style. But this one is a lot different from that and it makes the album a lot more entertaining. When talking about this album, it is essential that partially it was produced by Kitaro. Some might ask right away: Who??? Kitaro is Japan' s Vangelis, a synthesizer wizard, know for great sounds, and extraordinary arrangements. His touch is obvious on the album and the melting of Friedman's virtuoso guitar playing and Kitaro's arrangements give a wonderful, moody, and very entertaining mix.

There aren't any kick-ass speed metal anthems here; most of the songs are very mellow, ballad like tunes filled with eastern sounding scales and crystal clear guitar sound. Some of the tracks do not even have any drums for minutes long, just keyboards and guitars. My favorite tracks are the opening "Tibet", that has the feeling expressed in the title, "Night", an almost acoustic sounding guitar piece with only a synth pad companion for the most of the song, and "West", one with a similar arrangement. But the rest of the album is very enjoyable too, a very pleasant surprise if you got tired of guitar virtuoso-wannabes, who believe "the more notes you can play in a second the better you are."