This is album number two from Portland’s hard rockin’ groovers. The first thing you notice when placing the needle on the record is how loud and in your face the production is. Bruce Fairbairn did a killer job that’s for sure.
The album blasts into gear with Rockin’ On Heaven’s Door, a track of two halves. The main groove is a hands in the hair stomper, then the tempo shifts gears into a hard rockin’ stomper. Killer tune! The title track follows and is co-written with Bryan Adams’ conspirator Jim Vallance and this has hit single written all over. A huge big sing-a-long party tune. Next up is Stop The Lightning. There is all sorts of studio wizardry at the intro before we settle into an AC/DC style riff, with the vocals and harmony sounding like prime time Kiss. Love the intro to Nature Of The Beach, such a great swing to the groove and the hook and chorus are huge. Miss Mystery is next up and it’s a decent enough tune but it’s not a single, not like the title track should have been.
Side 2 opens up with Swing Time, this was also released as single and so it should have been. A superb kick ass rocker and my favourite track on the album. This song is all that was great about American hard rock at this time. Bombastic Plastic is just a simple riff played over a loud stomping groove and is what I call a rock night special. Loud guitars burst into life on We Got The Fire with a kick ass up tempo groove. These guys know how to write a catchy rock song! The groove slows right down for Strange Things at the intro and the verse, but explodes into life at the chorus. The album closes out with Two Wrongs Don’t Make It Love, an old school dirty blues but with lots of sleaze and huge guitars.
Another band that should have been huge but Lady Luck was not on their side.
9.5/10 from The Grooveman.
