BY JAY ROBERTS (SPECIAL TO LIMELIGHT MAGAZINE)

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s that I have acquired through Purchase Street Records in New Bedford, MA.

The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from the 1980’s through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums.

These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

Hurricane’s Over the Edge (1988)

While this second album from the band is by far their most successful, I have to say that I found myself a little disappointed by it. Now, I remember the band when they first hit the “big time” with their top 40 charting “I’m On To You” from this album. But I can’t remember if I actually owned Over The Edge or not back then.

Now with “I’m On To You”, aside for the “na na na” part in the chorus, it was a killer song. There’s no denying how much of an earworm the track was at the time. The video for the song was all over MTV. Unfortunately for me at least, there wasn’t much else that caught my ear aside from the song “Shout” which was also a stand out number.

Instead, I found that they recorded one of the worst covers I’ve ever heard with Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen” and then closed the album with the track “Baby Snakes” which uses “recorded” phone conversations of a guy too clueless to realize that the girl he keeps calling for a date wants nothing to do with him. Believe me the song is not the least bit entertaining and in fact is rather embarrassing to realize that it passed muster to be included on the album at all.

So, while the album did have those two decent standout cuts, I seem to have otherwise missed the boat on this band because the rest of the album just didn’t appeal to me. I guess you can chalk this one up to being another case of when nostalgia for the music of your youth didn’t pay off by bringing back any fond memories. It isn’t that I think the band was necessarily horrible or anything. But in going back and listening to the album, I realized they really did very little to set themselves apart from what was at the time a bevy of similar sounding bands.

In writing this piece, I talked to the guy who runs the local comic shop I frequent about Hurricane and this particular album. He’s also big metal fan and when I brought this topic up in conversation, he was very insistent that the band’s first release, Take What You Want, was a far superior album.

Notes of Interest: The band is actually around these days with original members Robert Sarzo (guitars) and Tony Cavazo (bass) leading the group. Original singer Kelly Hansen has been fronting Foreigner since 2005. When Sarzo left the band in 1989, he was replaced by Doug Aldrich who would later go on to play for Dio, Whitesnake and he currently plays with The Dead Daisies.