Artist: Alannah Myles
Year Released: 1989
Format Owned: CD
Band Lineup: Alannah Myles (vocals), Kurt Schefter (guitar), Bob Bartolucci (guitar), David Wipper (guitar, mandolin), Steve Webster (bass), Jorn Andersen (drums) and an additional cast of thousands according to the sleeve notes.
Track Listing
1. Still Got This Thing
2. Love Is
3. Black Velvet
4. Rock This Joint
5. Lover of Mine
6. Kick Start My Heart
7. If You Want To
8. Just One Kiss
9. Who Loves You
10. Hurry Make Love
I remember hearing "Black Velvet" for the very first time and deciding that I really needed to go and buy this album, because the song was so good. While none of the rest of the album can really compare to the standout track, I also didn't remember ever being too disappointed in it, so when this week's random selection method (whatever CD my 3 year-old son pulled out of the bookcase) picked this album to review I was really looking forward to seeing how it stood the test of time.
Well, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news in that there are some good songs on the album not called "Black Velvet", the bad news is that there are only three good songs on the album not called "Black Velvet", namely "Still Got This Thing", "Rock This Joint" and "Hurry Make Love". The rest is a mix of sub-Poison cock rock, though I suppose you can't really call it cock rock with a female vocalist, and power ballads that sound like the stuff Ann and Nancy Wilson fired out first thing in the morning before they'd had a cup of coffee and remembered how to write songs.
The album starts off well enough, and while "Still Got This Thing" is obviously late-80s rock with far more synthesiser in there than is strictly necessary it's also a solid blues-rock track that suits Myles' voice perfectly, and to be honest if someone told me it had been written by ZZ Top then I would believe them, because that's exactly who the guitar sounds like. Admittedly 1980s ZZ Top rather than top notch early 1970s ZZ Top, but that's not all bad. "Love Is" is forgettable, but as well as being the best I can really say about it, it's also the worst thing I can say about it. There's nothing really wrong with the track, but there's nothing about it that stands out either, an acceptable piece of filler for a stronger album, but to put it as the second track of an album warns of what's to come as it sounds like something INXS would have tossed off for a b-side. We then come to the absolute gem that inspired me to buy the album in the first place. "Black Velvet" is simply a great track, with the majority of the track being simply vocals over the bass and drums with the odd guitar fill thrown in. It also has one of the best middle eights of all time. "Rock This Joint" is a nicely loose piece of rock'n'roll, with the bluesy riffs feeling like they walked in from a completely different album. The guitar fills after the "Hey, hey, hey" part of the chorus especially feel like they should be on a Buckcherry or GnR album.
"Lover of Mine" is quite frankly a poor piece of sap that Roxette would have dismissed as being overly sentimental crap. Probably been used over some make-up/break-up montage in a made for TV movie, that's how poor it is.
"Kick Start My Heart" sounds like Poison and then the horns come in and tip it over the edge into the utterly ridiculous. Poor effort all around really. "If You Want To" could be a decent song, but it just sounds so 80s that it hurts, and then the chorus kicks in and just makes things worse. I really wanted to stop listening at this point, but I kept going to the bitter end. It's definitely the synths that are annoying me, because "Just One Kiss" is a decent enough track until they come in during the chorus, then I want to break things, or puncture my own eardrums. "Who Loves You" is in the same category as "Love Is", it's inoffensive (except for the synths obviously) but really it's nothing more than filler and is completely forgettable. "Hurry Make Love" is a good solid acoustic blues-rock track which could do with being a bit longer just to make up for everything that's gone before.
Rating: 4/10
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