Bon Jovi broke when I was too young to really be aware of them – I was not yet five when this album came out. And they had peaked before I was really conscious of the music on mainstream radio – my family listened to oldies stations – and before I was conscious of my …
Tag: Arena Rock
Don’t say No (1981) by Billy Squier
I’m pretty sure the first time I heard “The Stroke” was in an arena. I had no idea what it was and I couldn’t figure out why half the audience (at least) seemed to know the song. Too recent to be “classic rock” when I was growing up and too “rock” (I guess) for those …
Candy-O (1979) by The Cars
Did you want to read a hot take about the second Cars record? Well I have one for you: It’s better than their “classic: debut album. (Shock! Horror!)
KISS (1974)
For a band that looks scary – well one of the members looks scary – and with their kind of stage show, this is some pretty tame blues rock. Much like Alice Cooper, the appearance and show match the music in a way that can only be described as incongruously. It’s a wonder how these …
The Good Will Out (1998) by Embrace
I am listening to this record for the third time, and about to talk about it on my music anniversaries podcast, and I’m wondering why the hell I bothered. I don’t like it, nobody requested it and it isn’t really a big deal, is it?
The Cars (1978)
The Cars’ debut album marks the point where, for better or worse, New Wave goes commercial. Basically very previous (American) New Wave album was too arty, too quirky, too herky jerky to connect with the average listener. But Ocasek and company found how to merge New Wave with that basic American need for big dumb …
Pyromania (1983) by Def Leppard
I struggled with just giving Hysteria my usual three listens and so I was not looking forward to this record. The good news is that it is better than Hysteria. The bad news is that claiming anything is better than Hysteria is damning with faint praise.
Cuts Like a Knife (1983) by Bryan Adams
I’m Canadian, so like every Canadian under a certain age, I know Adams’ hit singles rather well, whether or not I wanted to know them at all. But this is the first record of his I’ve ever heard. It sounds very much like I would expect Bryan Adams to sound (and I’ve heard the title …
Destroyer (1976) by KISS
I think you can regard Bob Ezrin as the “Phil Spector of the ’70s”; a man who focused on creating a dense wall of sound. And, though I don’t like this production style, I think it suits certain things. When Ezrin’s style matches the artist’s material, it works wonders (see, for instance, Berlin or The …