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.

SWEET F.A. – TEMPTATION (1991)

After I found myself a little surprised to have enjoyed Sweet F.A.’s first album Stick To Your Guns, I guess it was only a matter of time before I discovered that the band’s second album was also in the Big Box of Cassettes I have to pull potential article material from.

Though the album was released in 1991, this copy that I listened to was brand new from the long defunct Strawberries record store due to the fact it had never been opened from the original plastic wrapping.

Because of various writing projects recently, I didn’t have time to listen to the album at home. Instead I listened at work and ended up with some feedback from my co-worker as well. I had joked with him that I was going to punish him for some imaginary offense by making him listen to the album with me. He likes blues, jazz and classic rock so I really didn’t think he’d like this album.

To my surprise, he actually seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. We differed on some of the songs we liked individually but his final analysis was that it wasn’t at all a form of punishment to listen to the album with me.

Which is a good thing, because like Stick To Your Guns, I was genuinely surprised to find myself enjoying much of what they had to offer on Temptation.

The album was produced by Howard Benson, who had done the band’s first album as well. He must really have been in tune with the band because they sound great and do a good job at varying their material within hard rock style. This little twist from song to song was also mentioned by said co-worker as a reason why he ended up liking what he heard.

At first, I was worried that the Indiana-based rockers might fall victim to the sophomore jinx. The first side of the cassette is rather hit or miss. It opens with the mostly fast paced rocker “Bad Boy” which has a real gritty and sleazy feel to it.

But after that, the next three songs are a bit pedestrian at best, gawdawful at worst.

The band rebounded with “Storm Is Movin’ In” which has a very cinematic feel to the music. This effect is deepened with that grittier edge to singer Steven David De Long’s vocals. The song starts slow with the combined music and singing giving the song an extra dimension. When it switches to a more fast paced rocker, the cinematic vibe is lost but the song still remains top notch.

“Vices” closed out the first side and while the pacing is good, this song ended up being one that just didn’t come completely together for me.

The second side of the album was far better in my opinion. “Please Oh Please” was a fantastic track, blazing out of the speakers. I’d venture to say that it is one is one of my favorites from either of the two albums. But the next song, “Paralyzed (By You)” really shone brightly as Sweet F.A. fashioned a song that had a deeply noir-ish feel to it. I could imagine hearing this song on a dark night filled with potential for bad things, rain coming down to further depress the scene. It was darn near ART to my ears.

I didn’t really care for “Liquid Emotion” or “Ta Kill Ya Sunrise” that much, but the instrumental “1800” that led into the latter song was really ear catching.

Paying a bit of homage to their roots, the band’s song “Indiana Heart” a midtempo groove driven track was another track that I would love to hear over and over. Finally, if you are looking for a song that is about nothing more than pure attitude, you’ve got the balls out album closer “Reckless”. It is audio adrenaline to the Nth degree.

Though Sweet F.A. recorded just two albums, I think they had something special. It might’ve not been fully refined but had they arrived on the scene a few years earlier, the level of their success would’ve been far greater. They might be consigned to the deepest section of the Where Are They Now section of musical memory for most people, but after listening to Temptation as a follow up to Stick To Your Guns, I just know that I would’ve been a fan had I actually heard them when these albums had been originally released.

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.

SALTY DOG – EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY (1990)

I’m not sure if using a well-worn cliche as your debut album’s title was a bit too much in the way of tempting fate, but in the case of Salty Dog it just might’ve been the harbinger of bad things to come.
Powered by a blues driven rock sound that was apparently compared to Led Zeppelin but owed just as much to the actual blues music, Salty Dog ended up being a one album wonder. This was in spite of the fact that they actually had a pretty damn good sound to their music.

While researching a bit about the album, I learned that the band pretty much went down the drain soon after the album was released. Singer Jimmi Bleacher left the band and, despite a try at going forward with a new singer, the band pretty much dissolved from that point.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Every Dog Has Its Day isn’t a showcase for what was and might’ve been with the band. Or for those with a darker viewpoint on life, a fitting epitaph instead.

The album kicks off with “Come Along,” the first of the two songs to be featured upon the original release with music videos. The thing that struck me was that despite this track being the best known of the band’s songs, I found it a bit wanting. Yes, there was a hook that draws you in at first but I thought there was something missing that left the song just this side of completely satisfying.

Musically, the entire album is pretty strong. I thought the various aspects of the guitar playing from Pete Reveen was both lively and energetic. There’s a variety of styles employed within the confines of straight up hard rock. The cheeky vibe of “Just Like A Woman” finds the band loosening up a little while the one pure ballad track “Sacrifice Me” has a much deeper emotional feel to it.

Of the 13 tracks, there are 12 originals plus a cover of the Willie Dixon song “Spoonful.”

What really got me hooked on certain songs was when the band was firing up the rock tempo on “Cat’s Got Nine” and “Ring My Bell.” On these types of songs, singer Jimmi Bleacher really sounds good.

However, there was one particular part of the album where I just found myself a bit irritated. Bleacher’s voice has a screechy/whiny aspect at times. For most of the album it is kept in check, but on songs like “Where The Sun Don’t Shine,” that Willie Dixon cover and “Heave Hard (She Comes Easy),” that whiny tone is unrestrained and quite frankly ruins the songs.

The second of the songs that got videos was “Lonesome Fool” and it employs a banjo threaded throughout the musical soundtrack. Right up until the end, the song is actually quite good. But there’s a spoken word ending verse to the song that takes it from good to downright ridiculous.

That said though, songs like the rocker “Keep Me Down” and the gonzo paced closing song “Nothin’ But A Dream” help give more heft to the album as a whole.

While circumstances conspired against Salty Dog having any kind of sustained success, this album does stand up to the idea that they had some serious talent in the band. While it does have some peaks and valleys in terms of song quality, Every Dog Has Its Day finds itself as Exhibit A in demonstrating what might’ve been for this band had they been able to hold things together.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The album’s producer was Peter Collins who also worked with Rush, Queensryche and Gary Moore.

Every Dog Has Its Day has been reissued twice on CD. The first time was in 2010 via Bad Reputation Records and then in 2016 by Rock Candy Records. The reissues came with four demos as bonus tracks.

For those that might be wondering what the band’s secnd album would’ve sounded like, you’ll able to fulfill that desire starting with the day this article goes live. On March 23, 2018, Escape Music will release Lost Treasure, which contains 11 tracks that were recorded years ago. The songs feature singer Darrel Beach who was recruited to the band after Jimmi Bleacher left the group.

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.

SWEET F.A. – STICK TO YOUR GUNS (1990)

The band Sweet F.A. is one who’s name I remember from the 80’s metal era, but I would’ve been hard pressed to guarantee that I’d ever actually heard any of their music.

I know that I never owned either of the band’s two albums before starting this series. This article concerns their debut release and when I first played it, I ended up feeling that the opening track, “Prince of the City,” was vaguely familiar. The song was an energetic rocker with a big amped up chorus so it was definitely a song that would’ve caught my ear back then. I still can’t say for sure but chances are that I knew the song.

While I enjoyed “Nothin’ For Nothin’,” the song that came next on the tape, I can’t say that the rest of side one was all that appealing. “Rhythm of Action” was hampered by a deliberately plodding pace that left one feeling rather pale, cold and dead inside.

As for the rest of the songs, two start out slow and progress into more of a rocking track while “Daily Grind” is a fiery rocker from the start. The problem is that none of them really felt like more than filler to me.

Of course, when you get to the second side of the album, things change up a bit. The lead track is “Whiskey River” which is a balls out rocker and a killer tune. Singer Steven David DeLong (as well as the rest of the band) had the glam/sleaze rock look but his voice had a raspy and rough edge to it that gave the better tracks on the album a little extra kick to them.

While the title “I Love Women” isn’t exactly in the vicinity of original, the actual song isn’t bad. And there’s a slickly cool vibe to the rocker “Breakin’ The Law” (which is NOT a cover of the Judas Priest classic).
Admittedly, the power ballad “Heart of Gold” and the closing track “Southern Comfort” left something to be desired, but you also had a stunningly intriguing track like “Devil’s Road.”

The material’s quality may ebb and flow a bit but I found myself rather surprised to be enjoying a lot of what Sweet F.A. had to offer on Stick To Your Guns. I don’t really see a need for them to jump on the get back together after three decades apart bandwagon, but for its time and place, they and this album were entertaining.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The band released one more album, 1991’s Temptation, before they called it a day.

The sides of the album are listed as Side F and Side A. When I first took the cassette out, I thought I had to rewind the darn thing. Also, the title track is the only song whose lyrics are included in the liner notes.

The album’s producer, Howard Benson, played the keyboards for the release.

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.

HURRICANE – SLAVE TO THE THRILL (1990)

For those not paying close attention, this is the third Hurricane studio album that has been featured in this series. I really enjoyed Take What You Want and had serious reservations about their most successful album Over The Edge. By the time Slave To The Thrill was released, I had consigned the band to the recycle bin of my personal musical interests. It would figure of course that, having now listened to the album, I did so one album too early.

Guitarist Robert Sarzo had left the band (though he did receive one co-writing credit on the rather mediocre sounding “10,000 Years”) and been replaced by Doug Aldrich. I don’t know if it was the addition of Aldrich but the music on this album is decidedly heavier without sacrificing much in the way of melody.

Of the 12 songs on the album (11 tracks are listed but track 8 is actually an uncredited instrumental called “FX” which is a mere trifle of a thing), the band wrote four songs on their own and co-wrote six more with outside writers. The remaining two songs were done entirely by outside writers. I mention this because other than a couple of misfires, this album is such a cohesive whole that you would never think there were so many irons in the songwriting fire.

The first side of the album is rocking out from the start. The song “Reign of Love” goes full out from the first notes and stays that way throughout the song. In fact, the first four tracks are all fast paced tracks that excel at getting your motor revved up. “Dance Little Sister” has a nice little rhythmic groove to it. The only negative was the ballad “Don’t Wanna Dream.” I know every track can’t be a home run, but this was another in a long line pedestrian at best ballads from the era.

Side two had much the same kind of makeup as Side one. I mentioned the disappointing “10,000 Years” earlier in this article, but other than that the songs were all rather good. “Temptation” is an explosive track while “Let It Slide” made me think of a song you’d hear in some kind of Western movie.

The band really had something going on with this slightly altered, heavier edge to their music. Doug Aldrich kills it throughout the album and for my money, singer Kelly Hansen’s vocals have a welcome more aggressive and somehow deeper feel to them.

I know that it isn’t usually a welcome thing to find out that you have misjudged or dismissed something before you should have. However, I don’t mind admitting I was wrong when it comes to something musical. I was right in my relative disdain for Hurricane’s Over The Edge, but I should definitely have stuck around for this follow up. Slave To The Thrill live up to its title billing by providing one musical thrill after another.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The original release of the album contained the album cover with a naked woman sprawled on a machine. It must’ve caused at least some bit of controversy because later pressings of the album had the nude woman removed. The version I have includes the woman.

Frank Simes co-wrote “Reign of Love” and “Young Man,” two of the album’s stand out tracks. He’s perhaps best known having toured as the musical director for The Who, solo Roger Daltrey, Stevie Nicks and Don Henley.

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.

JOHN CAFFERTY AND THE BEAVER BROWN BAND – ROADHOUSE (1988)

If the only thing you know about John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band is the big hit single “On The Dark Side” from the Eddie and the Cruisers movie, you can be forgiven. It remains the best known song the band has ever recorded.

Unsurprisingly, the band is really quite tied to that movie (and its sequel). But in between being featured band on the soundtracks for both movies, there were a couple of albums that were the band standing on their own. While ultimately unsuccessful spotlighting themselves outside of the spotlight of the movies and soundtracks, this third album is actually rather intriguing. This is another album that found its way to me without ever having been opened.

(As an aside, I should say that I found the soundtrack for Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! to be an outstanding album. I play it to this day and love it every single time.)

The band is from Rhode Island and that’s also where the album was recorded. Their sound is pure classic rock and roll (additionally fueled by keyboards and saxophone) which tends to be an immediate earworm for me. Cafferty wrote all the songs on Roadhouse and his voice only serves to further enhance the quality of each track.

On side one of the album, the opener “Bound For Glory” kicks off with an audio punch in your face as the song rocks straight from the first note. “Victory Dance” was a pretty cool number as the lyrics used every possible sports metaphor about winning that you can imagine. I wasn’t crazy about the song “Killing Time” but otherwise each of the remaining five tracks were actually quite good. “Song & Dance” was the single that was released from the album. It’s another fast paced track though while I enjoyed it, it didn’t chart when it was released originally. At first I thought I wasn’t going to like “Wheel of Fortune” but the song grew on me and I did like the featured guitar solo.

Overall, the second side of the album was good, but I do have to say that I wasn’t quite as enthused about a couple of songs. It opens with a slightly less in your face rocker in “Penetration” which the 12 year old inside me couldn’t help get a chuckling about. Perhaps not the reaction that the band would hope for but I just couldn’t help myself. But that admittedly immature reaction was quickly set aside for the song “Wishing Well” which I found myself getting into sync with quite nicely.

I liked the music for “Customary Thing” but was a little iffy about the vocal performance at least in spots. It felt like the vocals were stuff far down in the mix so as to make a couple of lines a bit hard to discern what was being said. “Higher Ground” slowed things down considerably. Featuring a big backing vocal sound, the song seemed to be aiming for being a bit more dramatic in scope. The song “Road I’m Running” closes out the album. It’s got a strong opening guitar lick and only improves from there.

Having started out as a bar band, John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band may have scaled the heights, but they never seemed to forget those roots. “On The Dark Side” may be the song that everyone knows and can sing along to. But whenever I listen to any of the albums they are responsible for, I can see myself watching them in a club or other venue and just being incredibly entertained. Rock solid rock and roll music, what more can you ask for from any band?

NOTE OF INTEREST: Though the band hasn’t released a new studio album since 1989, they are still actively touring throughout New England and across the country.

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.

LION – DANGEROUS ATTRACTION (1987)

How often have you come across this dilemma? You are a fan of either a band or a particular musician but when you go back and listen to some previously unheard earlier material, you find it rather unsatisfying to say the least.

After I listened to the full-length debut album from Lion, I had that exact feeling. I’m a big fan of Doug Aldrich from his time with Dio, Whitesnake and his current gig with The Dead Daisies. Heck, I even met the guy when the latter band opened for Kiss on their “Freedom To Rock” tour.

But listening to Dangerous Attraction left me feeling pretty cold towards the majority of the music. Released in 1987, the album’s material comes off to me as run of the mill stuff that a number of bands did far better.

The songs range from out and out rockers to slow burn pieces and every stylistic choice in between. But there are glaring examples of eye rolling choices such as “Death On Legs” which moves along briskly but is quickly forgotten once the song ends. Even the more anthemic tracks like “Hard And Heavy” due little to get my adrenaline pumping.

There are nine songs on this cassette but the first side is definitely the weakest part of the album. The song “Never Surrender” is actually quite enjoyable with its rocket fuel pacing and anthem like chorus. But it is side two that features songs that are at least a tiny bit more appealing overall. “Powerlove,” “After The Fire” and “Shout It Out” are all rocker tracks that will peak your interest, even if only for a little while. Sadly, the same can’t be said for “In The Name of Love”. That track hits all parts of the song spectrum, starting out slow and steadily increasing its pace until it is a full blown rocker. Not quite a power ballad in my book, but probably close enough to it. What would’ve been more interesting to me was if the song had been something more than dreadfully boring.

Singer Kal Swan wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album. The liner notes credit the band as a whole for producing the album but the Wikipedia page lists Swan as the sole producer. As for how he sounds, it’s fine but I just didn’t connect with his vocals that much save on that “Never Surrender” song.

I wanted to like this album because Lion was one of those bands I remember from back in the day but never actually got around to checking out. But the album really doesn’t rise to much beyond a nod of the head to the nostalgia for the musical era that it came from and a shrug of the shoulders as I move on to other musical adventures.

NOTES OF INTEREST: There was a 10th track on the album (I’m guessing the CD version but I could be wrong about that called “The Transformers (Theme)”. The band recorded it for the animated Transformers movie, but it was not included on the cassette that I have.

The release of Dangerous Attraction in the US came via Scotti Bros. Records. The label was the longtime home of the melodic rock band Survivor.

The band broke up in 1989 after the release of their second album Trouble In Angel City.

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.

CYNDI LAUPER – TRUE COLORS (1986)

I recently acquired a CD edition of the reissued Cyndi Lauper debut album She’s So Unusual. I had loved the hits from the album but found that I didn’t like most of the album cuts that filled out the rest of the track listing.

Of course, the main reason I ended up with True Colors, Lauper’s double platinum second album is for the title track. While I am not usually much for being sentimental unless it involves a sports team winning a title, that ballad is just so dead on perfect that even this cold black heart is momentarily lifted.

Unfortunately, it is the only one of four singles from the album that I ended up liking upon this particular look back. While “Change of Heart” (which featured a guest vocal appearance from The Bangles) hit #3 on the singles chart, I have no memory of it at all. Worse yet, when I listened to it for this article it did absolutely nothing for me. I didn’t care for “Boy Blue” either. As for her cover of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”, I understand the need to do your own interpretation of a song but this was just too far afield for my taste.

Now, normally you’d be right in thinking I was about to go on a long diatribe about why I didn’t like this album. However, in the end I did like it. The reason for this is that the album tracks are a really decent collection of songs that struck far more of a chord with me.

Comprised of 10 tracks in total, the first side of the album started off weak with “Change of Heart” and “Boy Blue” being joined by the upbeat but mediocre “Maybe He’ll Know”. But after “True Colors” comes a solidly grounded song in “Calm Inside The Storm”. Lauper co-wrote the song (one of six co-write credits for her on the album) with Rick Derringer, who also played guitar on the track.

Side Two opens with that Marvin Gay cover I previously mentioned, but after that the songs are surprisingly strong. While I would normally consider the song “Iko Iko” a musical version of flying pest, for some reason Lauper’s rendition actually worked for me. “The Faraway Nearby” and “911” are faster paced tracks that succeed in getting your heartbeat elevated. As for the album closer “One Track Mind”, I thought the song was a track that at first didn’t seem like something Lauper would’ve done but soon realized it was a really good match between the singer and the song.

In writing about She’s So Unusual, I said that the album was pretty front loaded. On this follow up release it is the so-called “deep tracks” that are the real backbone of the album. The headline song is of course the title cut but otherwise it is the songs most might’ve missed if they didn’t buy the album that make True Colors a worthy addition to your music collection.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The guest list for True Colors is both diverse and interesting. Drummer Anton Fig appears on two tracks on the album while guitarist Adrian Belew plays on “What’s Going On.” Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers played on “Change of Heart.” Rick Derringer played on guitar on “

Billy Joel sang on “Maybe He’ll Know” while Aimee Mann provided vocals on “The Faraway Nearby” which was the second of two tracks that featured guitar work from Rick Derringer as well. And perhaps most eclectically, Pee Wee Herman is credited as a “guest operator” on “911.”

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.

LAURA BRANIGAN – TOUCH (1987)

Before I became a full on rock and metal fan, my musical appetites were pretty much sated by the weekly American Top 40 countdown on Sunday mornings on 92 Pro-FM out of Rhode Island. Casey Kasem would count down the hits each week and I’d make a list of each week’s songs in a notebook.

Once I delved into the rock world, I stopped doing that. But in the category of guilty pleasure music, I kept a love of certain pop groups or solo performers. Survivor would probably be the main one as they have always remained one of my favorite groups. But Laura Branigan would definitely be another artist that fit into the guilty pleasure grouping. Of course now, I don’t consider it anything more than music that I like but in the mid ’80s, there wasn’t much in the way of rock and pop crossover. At least in terms of fandom.

The weird thing is that despite having a number of hits, I can’t help feel that Branigan is somehow very overlooked these days. I know there is different ways her memory is kept alive but you never really her name mentioned much and that’s a shame.

She had a really good and powerful voice, sang some great hits and invariably had some pretty good albums. Her biggest hit was the song “Gloria”, but there was also tracks like “Self Control”, “Solitaire”, “How Am I Supposed To Live Without You” and then probably my two favorites “The Lucky One” and “Spanish Eddie”. Heck, I still have a cassette copy of her Hold Me album that I bought when it came out.

My enduring fandom for her thus leads me to her 1987 album Touch, which saw her taking more of an active role in the recording of the album. Another notable aspect I found while listening to the album is that there’s more of an adult contemporary sound to the material as opposed to straight up pop songs. I got to listen to this as a completely new album as I’d never heard it before and the cassette was still in its original wrapping.

As you might imagine, the 80’s tendency to overproduce the music is in full effect on the album. It doesn’t hamper every song but the studio magic was less than magical at times.

The first side of the Touch album was an iffy affair. The opening song “Over Love” had a really good rhythm to it, midtempo in pace and a solid effort. But that production problem reared its unwelcome head on the next track “Shadow Of Love”. The heavy handedness ended up making both the vocals and the guitar solo sounding off and almost as if it was warped.

Meanwhile, “Meaning Of The Word” was slow and grating on the ears. The cover of “Power Of Love”, which was originally recorded (and co-written by) Jennifer Rush, did nothing for me either. The song did become a top 40 hit for Branigan.

I did really love the song “Angels Calling” though. The song is an uptempo track that holds up well all these years later.

Side two was a far stronger sampling of Branigan’s material. There are six songs and five of them are total keepers. The only song that made me want to bang my head against a wall to make the horror stop was “Name Game”. The opening was atrocious enough but then the chorus just made it worse. Making Branigan (who received no writing credits on Touch) sound like a demented cheerleader from hell in the chorus was a crime against her and her fans too. Oddly enough, the main lyrical verses of the song aren’t all that bad.

The lead track on side two is a song called “Shattered Glass”. While it was only a Top 50 on the regular chart, it became a Top 20 hit on the Billboard dance chart. It is undeniably charming which kind of surprised me. The song I liked in terms of wishing it had become a pop hit would be “Whatever I Do”. It has all the right ingredients to have become a hit including a big ear catching chorus. “Spirit of Love” has a really cool sounding, albeit quite brief, guitar solo. The title track to the album and “Cry Wolf” are also solidly grooved songs that please the musical palate.

Musical tastes were changing in 1987 so it doesn’t surprise me that this album only managed to chart at #87. But it is a little sad to think that Laura Branigan couldn’t have more success with Touch because there was a surprising number of good songs to work with on the release.

Touch certainly demonstrates to me why Branigan should be far better remembered. I don’t think she gets her due as a standout 80’s performer and wish things were different. I mean if no-talent hacks can sell millions these days, Branigan should’ve been monstrously successful by comparison.

NOTES OF INTEREST: Laura Branigan died in 2004 from a brain aneurysm.

Other artists to cover the song “Power of Love” include Celine Dion and Air Supply. The Air Supply version featured Toto members Steve Lukather (guitar), David Paich (keys) and Steve Porcaro (keys, synth).
The CD edition of Touch contains a bonus track called “Statue In The Rain”.

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.

TORA TORA – SURPRISE ATTACK (1989)

The debut studio album from the Memphis based rockers might not be familiar enough to most rock fans that aren’t devotees of the 80’s metal music scene but for those of us that are, Surprise Attack introduced us to a blues-based rock band that had some pretty solid music to offer.

I write this with the knowledge that while I didn’t have this album in my collection from its initial release, I have a very soft spot and fond recollection of the band’s likely best known song “Walkin’ Shoes.”

While Surprise Attack managed to peak at #47 on the album charts, that song has remained a huge memory for me even nearly 30 years after the fact. The funny thing is that as much as I loved that song, I’d totally forgotten about the album’s opening cut, “Love’s A Bitch”, which has just as big a commercial vibe to it, but it didn’t get released as a single. “Phantom Rider” was another of the band’s single releases. It features a pretty intense solo from guitarist Keith Douglas, but in all honesty I was relatively unimpressed by the song.

The first side of the album is a bit hit and miss for me. The song “28 Days” moves at an even faster clip than “Love’s A Bitch” with singer Anthony Corder spitting out the vocals in rapid fire succession. It’s darn good. I also enjoyed the song “Guilty” which was the third of the album’s songs to get a single release. The song is good all the way through, but the use of a big backing vocal track on the chorus helped sell the song that much more.

As I said, I didn’t care for “Phantom Rider” which closed out the first side of the album, but I found “Hard Times” to be even more problematic for me. It’s got the swampy, Southern Rock underpinnings that would usually make me really get into the track, but the vocals kill the song for me. They come off as entirely too whiny and screechy for anyone to truly enjoy them.

Side two fares much better. After leading off with “Walkin’ Shoes”, the band doesn’t coast as they blow through three more incredible sounding rockers. I wouldn’t ever claim that the lyrics are going to get you into any philosophical conversations, but when you just want to rock out, songs like “Riverside Drive”, “She’s Good She’s Bad” and “One For The Road” will do the job of raising your adrenaline levels. The only real nitpick is that the album ends on a bit of a down note with the slow syrupy ballad “Being There.” I can’t decide if the song as a whole irritated me or if I was wishing that they’d done a better job of sequencing it in the track listing. For me, an album should open and close on an extended rocking romp through your mind, unless a ballad is so outstanding that you can’t help but be moved by it. That is not the case with “Being There.”

The band followed up Surprise Attack with the album Wild America which demonstrated an apparent maturity in the songwriting but sold less than the debut album. That’s okay though. While Tora Tora may be one of those “obscure” 80’s bands that only the cognoscenti remember, I know that I am glad to have their debut album in my collection. It is chock full of some straight on rock and roll and when it comes down to it, I want to be entertained by the music I choose to listen to. This album does the trick for me!

Notes of Interest: The band broke up in 1994 after their third album, Revolution Day, got lost in the shuffle of record company changes and wasn’t released. The album did finally see the light of day in 2011 via FNA Records.

The band got back together in 2008 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of getting their record deal and they are still active today.

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.

BLACK ‘N BLUE – NASTY NASTY (1986)

After a more streamlined sound on their album Without Love failed to attract a big audience, Black ‘N Blue went back to a more raw production sound for Nasty Nasty.

The album’s title track might best sum up why the band never really went anywhere in their career, they just never had the right combination of timing and material. The album’s producer was Gene Simmons. This was the first of two albums he produced for the band. The music for the title track ended up forming the basis of the Kiss song “Domino” which appeared on their album Revenge.

A lot of the albums I write about in this series find me arguing that a particular album is an underrated gem. With this album, I’m taking a slightly different direction. I don’t think the album is a gem. It’s pretty much a product of its time, but not really all that different from what you could’ve heard from a number of bands at the time.

There’s nothing particularly bad about the album and it is competently played. The band is obviously tight particularly with the guitar work from Tommy Thayer and Jeff Warner. The nine tracks combine eight fast paced rockers and one “single-worthy” song in “I’ll Be There For You” (written and produced by Journey’s Jonathan Cain) which, despite its obvious quest for commercial success, is the worst song on the album.

But while I’m not here to argue for its inclusion in the debate over greatest rock/metal album of all time, I also can’t say that I didn’t enjoy Nasty Nasty either. I loved the guitar work on “Kiss of Death”, the song that closes out side one. The strike first-strike hard attack on “12 O’Clock High” and “Do What You Do” are definitely ready to get the blood boiling with each song’s unrelenting musical soundtrack. I love the way singer Jaime St. James (billed as “The Voice” in the liner notes) spits out the vocals on these two tracks without sacrificing clarity. The album’s closing song “Best In The West” sounds as if it captures the band in live performance though it isn’t made clear whether it is just a studio track with audience sounds spliced into the mix or not. But either way, it finished the album off in rousing fashion.

I missed out on the band back in the day. Oh sure, I’d heard of them of course. I saw ads for them in the plethora of music magazines I read at the time, but they just never captured my imagination. Black ‘N Blue might not have reached the summit of the 80’s metal years, but unlike a lot of bands that came after them, when you look back you won’t find yourself horrified by their music. It’s straight forward hard rock and while originality points might be in short supply, you won’t find yourself feeling cheated out of your time when listening to this album. You might even find yourself with a newfound appreciation for the band.

Notes of Interest: The band broke up in 1989 but reunited sporadically over the years and have been a fully active band since 2008. They released an album called Hell Yeah! in 2011. They were supposed to play a show near me in Massachusetts last year but the show ended up being canceled. I would’ve loved to see them live though.

Ex-Kiss drummer Peter Criss and Keel singer Ron Keel are credited with performing vocals on the song “Best In The West”. Keel guitarist Marc Ferrari played guitar on the song as well.

Though credited on two songs on the album, John Purdell played keyboards on only one song, “Kiss of Death”. The other song he got credited for, “Promise The Moon”, was originally intended to be on the album but got pulled in favor of “I’ll Be There For You”. The error wasn’t explained until the album was remastered in 2003. Purdell worked with Ozzy Osbourne, Heart, Alice Cooper, Dream Theater, Cinderella and Quiet Riot before his death from cancer in 2003.