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.

SURVIVOR – WHEN SECONDS COUNT (1986)

In 1986, when I was still too young to have a license, Survivor released their sixth studio album When Seconds Count. As luck would have it, their subsequent tour included a stop at a venue I could get to…if I could convince my father to take me. With him not being a rock music fan, this wasn’t all that easy to finagle.

But he knew I wanted to see the band and while I’d seen a country music act in concert before, this would be my first rock concert. So, two tickets were purchased and off we went. I remember that I had a Chicago Bears baseball hat and was wearing that because the band’s hometown was in fact Chicago, Illinois. In my completely naive thinking, I thought maybe that would get me somewhere so that I could maybe meet them or something. I also brought a camera so I could take photos and I still have them to this day. Not that they are very good shots but still, I’ve got live photos from the one and only time I saw the band in concert.

But before the tale of that concert continues, what about the music? Well, much like the majority of Survivor’s first seven albums, When Seconds Count is a standard bearer for the best of what the melodic rock (then called pop rock, I believe) had to offer. Great hooks, big choruses, exciting uptemp rock songs and powerful ballads. Add in a powerhouse dynamic singer like Jimi Jamison and it is no surprise that I was so eager to get my hands on the album. While I was in well into my heavy metal awakening by this point in 1986, Survivor was still one of my favorite bands.

The album opens with “How Much Love”, the first of three singles that were released to promote the album. The strange thing is that despite it having a high energy driving tempo and an incredible melodic hook, the song didn’t do much on the singles chart. It’s too bad too because it is a fantastic song in total and really gets you pumped up as the album opener.

The next song is “Keep It Right Here” and it starts off more like a ballad with a keyboard intro from Jim Peterik with only spare instrumentation to go along with it. The opening portion of the song is more about Jimi Jamsion’s vocals setting the stage for more of a dramatic presentation of the song. But as the song progresses, things grow more upbeat and at one point, the song bursts out in full force as Jamison cuts loose vocally.

The song “Is This Love” was the first single from the album and it was the only one that actually charted. It ended up reaching #9 on the charts and the article I read said it was the last Top 10 hit for the band. The song’s title could give the impression that this is a ballad track but instead, the music is rocking right from the start. The keyboards and guitars blend together perfectly. And I like the way Jamison’s vocals are shown to be both melodically soaring at times and then there’s more of a gritty vibe to other parts of his performance.

Now, if you want your first taste of a ballad, you have to check out the song “Man Against The World”. While it didn’t chart as When Seconds Count’s third solo, I have always loved this song and think of it as one of my personal favorites on the album. It starts off slow with that hook-filled piano/keyboard sound. But as with most power ballads, the song grows far more intense and the slow delivery picks up and becomes far more in-your-face for the majority of the track’s run time. The bridge for the song is killer as well.

The first side of the album closes out with the song “Rebel Son” and back when I was dumb enough to think I was “a rebel” (spoiler alert, really not the case), I loved the title and the song as a whole even if the lyrics might not be a perfect fit for my delusions of being a grand rebel. Like a couple other songs on the first side, the song starts out slow with just a smattering of music, led by the keyboards. But then like being shot out of a cannon, the music explodes out of your speakers and you find yourself treated to one hell of a great rock track!

Before we get on to Side Two of the album, I should get back to telling you a bit more about that concert I attended. If I remember correctly, the opening act was a keyboardist named Steve Mullen. I do remember that I liked his set and I think I met him after he finished. I tried looking him up online but I can’t be sure if I have the right guy or not.

Anyway, then Survivor came on stage and man it was fantastic. Well, for me anyway. At one point, my dad took a break and went outside the venue. When he came back, some seats had opened up as people moved around. And that’s when drummer Marc Droubay tossed a drumstick in my direction. It landed in my dad’s seat. Or rather where his original seat was. When he came back, he had moved over a couple of seats and it just landed in the empty seat where someone else was faster than me at grabbing it.

ARGGGGH! I can’t pretend I was mad or anything it was just funny considering how I like to get stuff like that when I go to concerts nowadays. But hey, I got my Survivor T-shirt at the merch stand so I was happy regardless.

Survivor’s show was fantastic as the band ran through a slew of hits and teenage me was having a ball. And then came the encore…which I’ll talk about after Side Two of the album!

I’ve always wondered how the song “Oceans” came into being. If I ever meet Jim Peterik, I’ll have to ask him that. Not that it isn’t a damn good song, but it has always struck me as being a bit different than the other songs on the album. It’s got a great little sound and it is not quite as keyboard-heavy as other songs, so maybe that’s why it seems so markedly different to me.

The album’s title track is an absolute killer track! While the song’s uptempo throughout (at times it has a nice thump to it thanks to bassist Stephan Ellis and drummer Marc Droubay), the main lyrical passages are just slightly slower in delivery than the chorus. When said chorus kicks in, you can hear that extra heft infused into the band’s performance. Plus I love the line, “Funny how you speak of forever / Only to wind up restless and bored” a lot. I don’t presume to know how other Survivor fans feel about this song but I would’ve loved to see this song as a single. It’s another of my personal favorites.

“Backstreet Love Affair” features that slightly slower start that ramps up to something more akin to a full on rock and roll track. Peterik’s keyboards feature a lot on this song and there’s one part of his playing that I really found myself drawn to as I listened to it for this article.

As for “In Good Faith”, it is a power ballad of the first order. Initially fueled by Peterik’s keyboard playing and that more dramatic vocal presentation from Jamison, the “ballad” gives way to the “power” for the song’s chorus. Survivor always seemed to have the ability to write great ballads back in the day but the best way to know how good this song is will be realizing just how well it holds up more than thirty-five years later.

The album closes out with the song “Can’t Let You Go”. And it is gritty little number. It opens with a cool sounding guitar riff and then goes on to deliver a great dose of rock and roll. Jamison’s vocals have more of a gritty tone to them which I think helps give the song a different edge. And Frankie Sullivan’s guitar work is excellent. If I’d been able to see the band more than once, this would’ve been a song I would’ve been very excited to hear if it had been included in the set list.

Oh about that encore, I’m sure you can imagine what song the band saved until then. Yes, big surprise, it was “Eye of the Tiger”. And the crowd actually left their seats to get closer to the in-the-round stage. Eventually I worked my way down as well. I ended up getting close enough that when Jimi Jamison was in front of me, he looked down and gave me a high five. I pretended that it was because he saw the Bears hat on me even though he wasn’t from there. Still it was SO COOL for teenage me at my first rock concert to get that high five of acknowledgement from Jamison.

So as you might’ve guessed long before now, I remain a staunch fan of Survivor’s music to this day. And the myriad of reasons why are amply demonstrated on the When Seconds Count album. I play this album a lot and each time I do, it just brings me joy as I listen to each song. I can’t think of a better endorsement than that.

NOTES OF INTEREST: Here’s something I didn’t know until I started looking up information for this article online: Along with other albums from Survivor’s catalog, When Seconds Count went out of print for a brief time in 2009. However, the band’s catalog was then reissued and remastered by Rock Candy Records. The Rock Candy edition contains the song “Burning Heart” as a bonus track. It was originally released on the Rocky IV movie soundtrack. As a single, the track peaked at #2 on the Billboard chart.

While there were only three singles released in the U.S., a fourth song (“In Good Faith”) was apparently released as a single in Germany.

Since he was brought in late in the process for the previous album Vital Signs, singer Jimi Jamison had no writing credits on that album. But for When Seconds Count, he co-wrote four of the songs with Survivor’s main writing team of keyboardist Jim Peterik and guitarist Frankie Sullivan.

Styx guitarist Tommy Shaw is credited with providing backing vocals on When Seconds Count.

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.

HERETIC – BREAKING POINT (1988)

It’s kind of funny how things work out sometimes. You see, I didn’t actually intend to write about an album featuring the late vocalist Mike Howe just three days after what would’ve been his birthday.

But I guess the universe decided it had other plans. But it sure took a roundabout way of getting me to write about the Heretic album Breaking Point. I’ve had a copy of the album on vinyl for I can’t remember how long. And while I had listened to it when I first got it, I can’t remember playing it much since that point. The fact that I don’t have a great record player was certainly a factor, but I just simply never got around to it much in the first place.

But then I saw Metal Church in concert a couple months ago. And the night before that show, the band did a signing at the local record shop, Purchase Street Records [in New Bedford, MA]. Because Metal Church guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof had co-produced this Heretic album, I decided to bring it with me to have him sign.

And yet, that still isn’t why you are about to read this article. Instead, it is because a couple weeks ago, the record shop posted a photo online of some cassettes they’d just gotten into the store. And there in the lower right hand corner, just barely able to be read, was a cassette edition of Breaking Point. As soon as I was able to get to the store, I grabbed up the cassette because I knew I wanted to write about it. And thus, here we are.

Two years prior to the 1988 release of this album, Heretic had released an EP called Torture Knows No Boundary. But Mike Howe wasn’t in the lineup yet, though he did join the band sometime soon after the EP was put out. And while he does lend his vocals to Breaking Point, you can be forgiven for seeing this as kind of his audition for Metal Church because he ended up leaving Heretic for Metal Church before 1988 was out.

Now, I had said I hadn’t listened to the album in a while. And while my original listen to it when I got the vinyl left me thinking the album was good, I don’t remember being overly blown away by it either.
Funny how time changes an opinion though.

The first side of the album opens up with the band’s namesake song “Heretic”. The opening serves as a bit of a mood setter before the song kicks into a much higher (and relentlessly faster) gear. The tempo becomes explosive, the sound of the song immediately gripping you and Mike Howe’s vocals shine through quite nicely.

The lineup for the band on this album also included the founding guitarist Brian Korban (who wrote eight of the album’s ten tracks), bassist Dennis O’Hara (who wrote “The Enemy Within” and “Shifting Time”), plus Bob Marquez on guitar and Ricky Merick on drums.
Korban certainly sounds great on a lot of the guitar work he’s involved with on the album. The opening track of Side Two is the instrumental “Pale Fire” and it is one hell of a track. It has an acoustic vibe to it and it is deceptively sedate. You can feel the intensity of the playing as you listen along. I did think it an odd placement in the track listing for an instrumental to open a side of an album, but “Pale Fire” really works.
But getting back to the first side of the album, after “Heretic” the next three tracks follow a roughly similar path in regards to tempo. They are all fast-paced rockers designed to not really let you catch your breath. What makes each track individually is how the band varies them up just enough so they don’t all run together.

On “…And Kingdoms Fall”, the song’s tempo is offset by a killer set of lyrics that when you read them now take on a slightly more somber tone as it relates to just how Mike Howe passed away. If you can, look up the lyrics. I know when I did, my sadness over his passing washed over me once again.

I think my biggest issue upon re-listening to Breaking Point was how some of the songs had some really mediocre lyrics in the chorus. Case in point: While I really liked the main lyrical passages of “The Circle”, the chorus mind-numbingly pedestrian.

But I got over that when the next song on Side One, “The Enemy Within” started playing. As I said, it is a fast-moving number that just really seemed to hit the mark perfectly with me.

As for the closing track on Side One, “Time Runs Short” was featured more of a deliberate take in the delivery…for the most part at least. In the main portions of the vocals, the song is almost like a set piece type of song. The anchor track to tie the side together with a sense of drama thrown in the mix. The delivery does get a bit harder-edged during the chorus but then switches back to the more methodical style. It is just a darn good song in my book.

Of course, then we move on to Side Two. After that “Pale Fire” instrumental opening things up in a more measured tone, Heretic slips into full throttle mode with the song “Shifting Fire”. There’s a grittier feel to the delivery and the overall style of this song made for another track I felt came off like a winner for me.

Of course as fast as that track was, “Let ‘Em Bleed” took things up a few more notches. The pacing for the song is viciously intense. The entire band is just shredding on this killer track.

You’ve heard of that movie I Spit on Your Grave, right? Well, despite a kind of boring chorus, the song “Evil For Evil” serves up lyrical content of a woman getting her revenge on whomever done her wrong. Well, at least that’s what I got out of listening to and reading the lyrics as the fast-paced track rolled along.

While Side Two opened relatively slowly, those next three tracks all had quite a sense of pulse-pounding metal rhythms. But much like the first side of the album, the closing track (“The Search”) of Side Two was more of a methodically delivered and filled with dramatic tension set piece. The lyrics are plentiful (it is one of the album’s longest songs in terms of just how many lyrics there are) and you get the sense that you are being taken on a musical journey.

I can’t lie to you. The first time I heard Breaking Point, it was fine. But even with the added interest of Mike Howe on vocals, I just didn’t quite get into the album as much as I would’ve perhaps liked to have done. But all these years later, I’ve found a new outlook on the album and while Heretic might not have been successful with the album, Breaking Point does indeed have some pretty great sounding material you’d be remiss to not go give another listen to for yourself.

NOTES OF INTEREST: After Heretic broke up, Brian Korban and Dennis O’Hara would go on to form the band Reverend with, oddly enough, ex-Metal Church frontman David Wayne. However, in 2011 Korban and O’Hara would reunite Heretic bringing back former frontman Julian Mendez (the singer Mike Howe replaced back in 1986. Stranger still, the Breaking Point album contains a dedication to Mendez. O’Hara only stayed with the reformed band for 2011, but the band is still active today. They released two albums 2011’s A Time of Crisis and 2017’s A Game You Cannot Win.

In 2013, Metal Blade Records released a 3-CD box set called From The Vault…Broken and Tortured that included the Breaking Point album, the Torture Knows No Boundary EP as well as bonus tracks and a live DVD of the band.

The current lineup of the band includes guitarist Stuart Fuji. He’s been with the reformed lineup since 2014. However, he appeared on the Breaking Point album as a session keyboard player. However, he was credited as Stu Fujinami.

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.

DON HENLEY – THE END OF THE INNOCENCE (1989)

It has been nearly 3 1/2 years since I first wrote about a Don Henley solo album for The Cassette Chronicles series. That first article was about his first solo album I Can’t Stand Still and while there were some great songs on the album, I was not overly thrilled with some of the other material that release had to offer.

Such is not the case with Don Henley’s third solo album (I’m skipping over solo album #2 Building The Perfect Beast for now) The End of the Innocence. But before I dig into the album and each of the songs on it, there’s some housekeeping to take care of regarding my fandom for Don Henley.

See, I’m not exactly sure when it began. Yes, I’m a big fan of his solo albums and his work with the Eagles. But I can’t remember if I had heard the Eagles music before his solo work or the other way round. I know the song “Dirty Laundry” from that first solo disc is the one I remember as my earliest confirmed memory but I’m not sure if my mind is blanking out previously hearing anything from the Eagles. It’s rather annoying that I can’t be sure of this.

Regardless of that lapse in memory, what I can say is that I loved the album when I first heard it and I still love it to this day.

The album opens with the title track and much like with I Can’t Stand Still, Henley doesn’t shy away from embracing more topical concerns with the lyrics. “The End of the Innocence” is unsparingly political in nature but it is somewhat easy to forget about that when you wrap yourself in the music. It’s got an almost pastoral sound in the opening with the piano playing a giant role in the song. Henley manages to be directly on point without being strident about things. The juxtaposition of pointed lyrics with a gentle music score really works here and since it went to #8 on the singles chart, plenty of others seemed to agree at the time.

Next up came the song “How Bad Do You Want It?” which forgoes that more sedate style of the title track and instead opens up with a nice solid drum beat in the intro and a far more uptempo pace the the track overall. Your foot will be tapping with this one.

The song “I Will Not Go Quietly” is a pretty rocking song in its own right, with Don Henley’s vocals fitting together with the music rather perfectly. But what makes this song stand out that much more is the fact that Guns ‘N Roses singer Axl Rose provides harmony vocals for the track as well. And given the difference in the way the two singers sound, it makes for an interesting point-counterpoint style when their vocals become intertwined with each other. I like the gritty/dirty sound from the guitar track on the song as well.

I’ve always liked the song “The Last Worthless Evening”, but for all that enjoyment, I never knew the origins of the song until doing a little research for the article. It was apparently inspired by Henley meeting actress Michelle Pfeiffer at a party and things not exactly going well. It’s not quite a ballad because despite having a slightly softer delivery, it still moves along at a decent clip. Of course, it makes me wonder how this song resonates with Don Henley more than three decades later.

With “New York Minute”, you get a killer opening that seems to set the stage for any kind of dramatic presentation you could want. That intro is incredible all by itself because you can almost picture the opening shot of movie or something. And as is the case with a lot of the songs on The End of the Innocence, you’ve got some incredible lyrical lines. The song’s main portions are more softly delivered while the chorus amps up the music. It’s not really a ballad but you can probably see how it might be mistaken for that. Of course, once you listen to the lyrics, the “story” conveyed there brings all that dramatic tension forth for sure.

On the second side of the album, you get the song “Shangri-La” as the opening track. It’s got a very spare opening but once the music kicks in, there’s this uptempo kind of funky feel to it. At first listen back in the day, I wasn’t quite sure what I thought of the song but as I listened to it a number of times, I really dug how this song was put together and that opinion remains in place nowadays too.

On the song “Little Tin God”, Henley delves back into more topical lyrics but as is usually the case when he does this, the message doesn’t overwhelm the song itself. Plus, as Henley puts fake religious people on blast, he does it with a lyrical panache that makes you able to hum along to the song. And oddly enough, this song is still pretty relevant in the here and now if you pay even the least little bit of attention to real world stuff.

The song “Gimme What You Got” is a nicely paced rocker. The guitar work (from album co-producer Danny Kortchmar) is fantastic and with lines like “Cause a man with a briefcase can steal more money / than any man with a gun”, you can’t help but appreciate the cynical tone of the song throughout.

The materialistic nature of today’s society is the focus of “If Dirt Were Dollars” might seem like it could put people off with the somewhat nihilistic outlook. But you’ve got a bouncy musical score and the way Henley has with the lyrics here are just GREAT! “She should’ve have the Oscar, she must have been miscast / her 15 minutes went by so fast” is such a killer line (among many).

The album closes with the song “The Heart of the Matter” and it is a killer pop ballad. “The more I know, the less I understand”… man that is such a great line. The song went to #21 on the singles chart which kind of surprises me because I think I still here this one on the radio every so often. I would’ve thought it had charted higher. It’s sweet and reflective without being cloying, which isn’t easy to do given how many ballads don’t hold up thirty years later. But this one certainly does.

As you can see, I don’t think there is a bad song on this album. From first track to last with the varied song styles and a sharp set of incisive lyrics, The End of the Innocence album proves to be a standout release in every conceivable way.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The End of the Innocence album ended up selling six million copies in the US and peaked at #8 on the Billboard album chart. Don Henley ended up winning the Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for this album.

Though the album featured three Top 40 singles, it actually had a total of five singles released from it. However, the songs “How Bad Do You Want it?” and “New York Minute” did not chart. The latter song does have an interesting second life beyond the album though. It has been used on three different TV shows: Friends, Black Monday and The West Wing, where a line from the song was used as the episode’s title.

Besides the previously mentioned Axl Rose guest appearance, the album was packed with a number of other notable guest musicians including Bruce Hornsby, Toto’s David Paich and Jeff Porcaro, Mike Campbell and Stan Lynch from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Melissa Etheridge, Sheryl Crow, Patty Smyth and Edie Brickell plus more than a few others as well.

When I saw Don Henley on tour for the album back in 1989, it was Edie Brickell & New Bohemians that opened up the show for him.

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.

GENESIS – INVISIBLE TOUCH (1986)

I figure it has been a while since I’ve run straight forward into another act of musical blasphemy…so why not get it out of the way this week!
You know there are two distinct styles to the music of Genesis, right? There’s the pop hits edition that sold millions of albums and led hit videos as well. Of course, that means critics mostly deride this version of the band. And then there’s the art-rock version of the band that was led by Peter Gabriel that seems to still endear itself to the fan base and critics alike.

The thing is, I’ve NEVER really gotten into that art-rock version of the band. See…MUSICAL BLASPHEMY!

Nope, for my own personal tastes it is all about the version of Genesis that featured singer/drummer Phil Collins, guitarist Mike Rutherford and keyboardist Tony Banks (the latter two played the bass parts on the Invisible Touch album.) Whether rock and metal or pop music, the music of the 1980s is what has always hit home the most for me.

And the Invisible Touch album definitely hits all the right notes for me. But what kind of amazed me as I researched the album is that the band went into the studio with nothing in the way of advance material written for what would become a six times platinum release in the US. That is just incredible, especially when you are always reading or hearing about how bands will usually go into a studio with at least some material ready to work on. (By the way, check out the Wikipedia page for the Invisible Touch album. It is incredibly detailed about the creation of the album.)

There are only eight songs on the album (nine if you count the fact that “Domino” is a song in two parts) and amazingly enough, Genesis released five songs as singles. More eye-opening is that all five of the songs hit the Top 5 on the singles charts. Four of those singles make up the first side of the album.

The leader of that particular pack of songs is the album’s title track. It hit #1 (the band’s only #1 hit) and it leads off the album. Phil Collins has reportedly said it is his favorite Genesis track and while I’m sure there are other contenders in my own personal song ranking, this one has to be near the top at least. It’s got this fun bouncy hook-laden sound to it that just gets my foot tapping every time I’ve heard the song over the ensuing years since I first heard it. I also like how uptempo the music is. Not just speedy for a pop song but there’s some real fast moving music going on here and I love the way the vocals come together with the music to give you just a great pop -rock song!

The song “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” has an almost eerie kind of tone to it as the song starts but over the course of its relatively long run time, the song grows into more of a rocker with a coinciding intensity coming into play as well.

“Land of Confusion” is a pretty damn good song all on its own. It’s got a fast beat to it with some pretty interesting guitar work (from Mike Rutherford) on it. And the lyrics are pretty pointed here as well. Of course, the song drew more interest because of the video that was made for the track. It was all done with puppets including versions of the band members themselves. Even all these years later, that video remains a superbly done bit of film work.

The first side of the album comes to a close with the ballad “In Too Deep”. Now, this is where I’d typically write about my disdain for ballads of the 1980’s because they don’t hold up. But not this time. In fact, not only does the song still remind me of when I first heard it, I actually found myself humming along during the chorus when I was listening to the album for this article. It is just damn good and even a cranky SOB like me can admit it.

The second side of the album opens with what I think is one of the band’s better, in completely unappreciated rock songs. Seriously…”Anything She Does” just has a full-throttle feel to it with the band running through the song in almost a fast and furious kind of way. It bursts out of the speakers right from the start, with an additional bit of musical fuel provided by a horns sound deepening the sound. It’s got a driving hook to the song throughout, but I loved the way Phil Collins attacked the lyrics with his vocal performance on this one. And that chorus…KILLER!
The song “Domino” has two parts to it and it is a song that is almost certainly overlooked a lot because the combined running time for the song is over 10 minutes long. You definitely weren’t going to hear this one on the radio or see a video for it on MTV.

According to the Wikipedia page, guitarist Mike Rutherford thinks it is one of the best things Genesis ever did. And kudos have to go out to Tony Banks who wrote the lyrics. Because this is some really deep sounding stuff the band is saying here. It sweeps you up as a listener and carries you along throughout the song(s) as a whole. The first part, “In The Glow of the Night” starts off a bit slow then drops a killer thump on you powered by the drums. The tempo switches back and forth throughout before fading out as soft as it started. And then the 2nd half of the track, “The Last Domino” kicks in and it has a smoking delivery to it. So good that you almost forget it is part of a bigger whole and not simply a song that stands out on its own. When I listen to this song, I can’t help but get caught up in it.

After that, Genesis slows things down a bit with the hit ballad “Throwing It All Away”. Now I can’t remember exactly why but when this was getting a lot of airplay back in the day, I remember really liking it a lot. I can recall singing along to the song. Not that it is any kind of groundbreaking track or anything. It’s pretty much a straight up love song. But I loved the intro on the song and I remember just thinking the song sounded great back then. As I listened to it in the here and now, I can’t say anything has changed about my thoughts on the song. It’s just a really solid ballad track that still holds up well.

Now, in the 1980’s, I wasn’t really much of a fan of instrumental tracks. And the first time I head “The Brazilian”, the final track on Invisible Touch, my thoughts were something akin to “Why the hell are they putting an instrumental track on the album?” I didn’t know much about the band’s past at that point so I think it might be understandable that I would ask that question. I just really didn’t get the song initially. But over the years, as I played the song through each time I put the album on, something happened and I found myself getting into the track more and more. Back in the day, Dokken’s “Mr. Scary” was probably the only instrumental I could honestly say I liked right off. But time has made “The Brazilian” a track I greatly enjoy when I hear it.

So while I’m likely to face some slings and arrows for not being much of a fan of the first part of the Genesis musical journey, I’m okay with that. I am an unashamed fan of their more radio friendly pop music and the Invisible Touch album is undoubtedly a master class of how to make classy hit music/songs and have them stand the test of time!

NOTES OF INTEREST: As mentioned above, the Invisible Touch album sold 6 million copies in the U.S. The album got reissued in 2007 with a couple of different mixes added.

While all three members of the band co-wrote the music together, each of them provide lyrics for various songs on their own. They had three songs that got cut from the album (“Do The Neurotic”, “Feeding The Fire” and “I’d Rather Be You”) that were used as B-sides for the singles that were released and later included on a couple of Genesis box sets.

While “Invisible Touch” hit #1 on the singles chart, “Tonight, Tonight Tonight” hit #3, “Land of Confusion” hit #4 and “In Too Deep” hit #3 on the chart. Oh, and the video for “Land of Confusion” won a Grammy Award.

While it wasn’t officially released as a single, there was apparently a video made for the song “Anything She Does” as well. At the time of the writing this article, I hadn’t yet gone online to find it but I’m sure I will have done so by the time the article posts.

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.

DIO – THE LAST IN LINE (1984)

At the time this article posts, it will be three days past what would’ve been the 81st birthday of Ronnie James Dio. And it will have been more than thirteen years since he passed away.

He is ever missed, and still the best.

And in that spirit, I thought I’d mark the occasion of his birthday by writing about the second Dio album The Last in Line.  I didn’t come to my Dio fandom until 1987’s Dream Evil album, so clearly I had to go back in time to get my hands on his catalog once my love of Dio was born.

It didn’t take me long to get into this album back when I first bought it. I was familiar with two of the songs from hearing on the radio (again, after the fact). But what gets me is just how well this album holds up. I guess you can attribute it not only to the great songwriting employed, but the great performances from everyone involved as well. I mean, the album is almost 40 years old and yet it still pulls you in with the force of a black hole.

The album opens up with the song “We Rock”. It is a perfect song to kick off any album with because it is just a relentlessly fast song that is powered not just by a great vocal turn from Dio  but the guitar riff employed here is just insanely good. It’s funny how the song opens up this album but I’ve heard it used as a show closer on live performances from that time.

The album’s title track came up next and man this is such a classic song. It was the first one released as a single from the album and it still resonates strongly today. I love the way the song starts off in a far softer style before the track just explodes into a far heavier rock sound. Dio shines particularly bright on this song. I realize that’s stating the obvious of course, but when you take his performance along with the lyrics…this is amazing. Plus the line from the chorus that reads “We’ll know for the first time. If we’re evil or divine” is just EPIC!

And while there are songs on the album that play as maybe a little deeper in the subject matter than others, I love it when the band goes full throttle with a straightforward rocker like “Breathless”.

Of course, the band knows how to create an atmosphere to set up their songs as well. The intro to the song “I Speed at Night” actually feels like a revving engine. The song is a blazing sonic attack and the guitar solo from Vivian Campbell is just flat out great.

The closing track on Side One is “One Night in the City” and while the rest of the first side is pretty much all uptempo, this track employs more of a methodically precise pacing even during the song’s faster portions.

The second side of The Last in Line has only four songs on it. And two of them, like “Breathless” are more geared towards that flat out rock your socks off style. “Evil Eyes” is the first song on the 2nd side which gets you as the listener ready to pump your fists in the air in lightning quick fashion. As for “Eat Your Heart Out”, I really hope it never gets dismissed as simply an “album track” because it is a killer track as well.

That said, I found the other two tracks to be a little more involving for me. That’s back in the day and as I listened to the album to write this piece. “Mystery” was the third of the three singles released from the album. If I’m being honest, it is also the one that probably sounded the most like a song geared towards being played on the radio a lot. The song’s intro leans heavily on the keyboards. As the song progresses, it has a great hook while still keeping itself as a pretty uptempo number. The melodies here are great. The funny thing is that while I’ve heard this song so many times over the years, as I was listening this time around I was struck by how much I liked the lyrics. Lines like “And is the wise man always right. No, he can play the fool” just hit me different for some reason. Stone cold classic cut in my eyes.

The album wraps up with Dio’s epic jaunt “Egypt (The Chains Are On)”. The band establishes a mood pretty quickly. In the intro, you hear sounds that make you feel like you can hear the wind blowing across a desert. Once the band comes in fully, musically speaking, the song tempo ranges all over the place. This gives the song a depth and scope that feels bigger than its just under 7-minute running time. I loved when the drums (from Vinny Appice) kicked off the song into a more aggressive gear complete with a lights out guitar solo.

It’s not breaking any new ground to say that Dio’s The Last in Line album is a flat out classic record. But when you get to the chance to appreciate a master at work, how can you not follow through on doing just that? Ronnie James Dio may have left this world, but every day you can listen to his music is one to celebrate fully. So go ahead and give The Last in Line another listen. It’s a great way to honor Dio’s legacy and just give you some fantastic metal music that will always leave you better than before you started listening to it. What more needs being said?

NOTES OF INTEREST: The Last In Line album, which peaked at #23 on the Billboard album chart is one of two Dio albums that was certified platinum (Holy Diver was the other one). It got a 2 CD reissue in 2012. The second disc had 12 live tracks on it.

The songs on the album had music written by Dio in varying combinations with guitarist Vivian Campbell and bassist Jimmy Bain. The lyrics were all written by Dio, who also produced the album himself.

Though he played on the tour for Holy Diver, keyboardist Claude Schnell (ex-Rough Cutt) didn’t appear on a Dio release until The Last in Line. He spent seven years with the band. He’s appeared on albums by Y&T, Neil Turbin, Gary Hoey, Loudness and Doro as well.