By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period 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.

I, NAPOLEON – I, NAPOLEON (1991)

These days it isn’t all that easy to find a band or an album that not only have I never heard in full, but a band that I don’t really recall ever hearing about much less having heard their music.

Such is the case with the band I, Napoleon. Fronted by singer Steve Napoleon (who also provided keyboards and some percussion as well as co-producing the album) and featuring Joe Fazio on bass, Dave Imondi on drums and Doug Stratton on guitar, the band released their self-titled album in 1991 and it apparently sank like a stone. 80s metal was on its way out, grunge was on its way in, and this one so completely bypassed my radar that I am not sure I ever heard of it before. I ended up not feeling too bad about me missing out back in 1991 when I discovered that there is apparently only a single video of the band playing live and that was on the Into the Night program hosted by Rick Dees.

But a few weeks back, I was watching a video on the Flipside Vinyl Community with JC Youtube channel and he mentioned this album. Oddly enough, I then found a copy of the album on cassette at my local record shop, Purchase Street Records, a few days after I watched the video. So I knew I had to give it a shot.

The first thing I noticed is that the cover art is pretty striking. At least for me, it really grabs the attention. The next thing of note was discovering that the album has eleven tracks on the cassette, yet  the CD edition (which is apparently available through the French record label Bad Reputation Records) has a twelfth track entitled “My Backyard”. In the interest of providing as full a look back on the album as I could, I went online to listen to that song, which I’ll talk about later in the article.

I’ve seen the band’s sound compared to Extreme, Saigon Kick, Kik Tracee and Shark Island. But for me to really form an opinion, I have to lock in and check out the album for myself.

The first side of the album (Side Day) opens with the song “Perfect Absolution”. The track begins with a brief acoustic guitar run through and then Steve Napoleon’s slightly rough and gritty vocals cut in. Once the first verse finishes, the song blows up into much more of a full rocker, though the tempo still feels a little restrained.

The song “Go to Pieces” finds the vocals feeling a bit plaintive with what seemed to me as having some extra bit of emotion dripping from the performance despite the song being more of a rocker than any kind of ballad track.

“Don’t Wanna Sleep Alone” rocks pretty hard, but I think what made me like this song a bit more was the way the drums got way more of a featured spotlight with the song. There’s a continual solid thump to the song’s rhythm and I really liked it.

The way “Come Back Soon” opens, I have to say I didn’t really care for it. I felt it was just a bit out of place in a rocker type track. When that same vocal affectation returns as the song closes out, it just made me cringe. If you eliminated that from the song, I would’ve like this one so much more.

The song “Everytime I See Your Picture” was originally a Top-40 hit in Canada by the singer Luba that was released in 1983. A power ballad, the song is actually pretty good, holding up better than I would’ve thought it might. I didn’t listen to the original song for comparison’s sake but I do like the way this version came out.

The second side of the album is listed as “Side Night” and it opens with the song “Love / Hate”. There’s a strong drumbeat running throughout this song straight from the opening where it pretty much powers the intro, but you can hear it threaded into the music of the entire song as well.

Much like the song “Perfect Absolution”, even when “Love / Hate” is rocking an uptempo driving tempo, there are still moments in the track where it still feels like they aren’t quite putting the pacing peddle to the meddle. At that point in my listening session, I was beginning to wonder if this just what I was hearing or if it was done with specific intent from those making the music.

Some comments I read online mentioned “Whipped Silly” as one of the stronger tracks on the album, but when I listened to it, I found it to be merely “okay”. I thought it lacked something and just didn’t feel like it was anywhere near being one of the better tracks on the album.

Another thing my research let me discover is that people felt the band’s vibrant sound also had a darker tone to it. And if you look at the titles on the second side of the album, you’d be hard pressed to argue. “Feels Like Suicide”, “I am the Idiot” and “Sweet Cyanide” are song titles that don’t exactly scream “Party Time!” to the general audience. Not that I mind a darker lyrical tone to various songs, but damn…

“Feels Like Suicide” opens with that smooth and quick acoustic guitar intro that I thought was going to fade into some kind of explosive rocker, but for the most part this track kept the pacing and instrumentation uniform throughout. Instead, the song serves more as a showcase for the song’s lyrics and the almost venomous delivery that Steve Napoleon employs for his performance.

“I Am the Idiot” is a full bore rocker. The pacing is fast and furious and the various instruments performing on the track all get their moment to shine in the song’s progression. I really dug everything about how this song was done.

Meanwhile, I liked the way the guitars built to a crescendo in “Sweet Cyanide”. It gave that rising sense of anticipation leading into a rather cool guitar solo for the track. The vocals had a grand intensity throughout but there were moments where Steve Napoleon seemed to bring a bigger sense of the grandiose to certain lines in the lyrics.

“Concerto in D Minor” is technically the end of the album on the cassette. When the instrumental ends, so does the cassette. But as I mentioned above, there is another song on the CD version of the album. I don’t know if it was always there on the CD or if it was added as a bonus track in any reissue from a reissue label. But I went to YouTube and check out the song. That song, “My Backyard” has a keyboard “riff” that plays through the song as its most identifiable component. It’s a solid enough song until the end where another vocal affectation kind of annoyed the hell out of me.

Usually when I listen to an album that I’ve never heard of before I come away wondering what happened to make me miss out on the release. But if I’m being honest, I don’t get the notion of calling the I, Napoleon album some kind of underrated gem of an album. Sure it’s a GOOD album but I wasn’t blown so much away that I would call it a great album. There’s some fantastic guitar moments and you can’t say that Steve Napoleon doesn’t leave a mark with his vocals. But a lost classic or underrated gem? I just don’t agree. Still, with the album marking its 35th anniversary this year, I am glad that I’ve finally been able to give the album a good listen.

NOTES OF INTEREST: Steve Napoleon (aka Steve Batky) was the drummer for the much heavier band Witchkiller.

While Doug Stratton is credited as the guitarist for the band, John Dillabough is credited with playing guitar on the album as well. Some sources I saw said that he was majorly involved in the creation of the album playing a lot of the instruments not just guitar but I haven’t seen any firm confirmation either way.