This was the second and last album from LA’s nearly guys. They seemed to play swap the member with Ratt in the early days. Ironically, Ratt would achieve success whereas Rough Cutt didn’t. I think that’s down to the fact that their songs were not that commercial.
That doesn’t make them bad, on the contrary, they did what they did very well. Bad Reputation for instance is a ripping tune and coincidentally my favourite. Any band would have given their right nut for that song, it’s just not mid eighties top 40 material. I think the closest they got to commerciality on this record is Don’t Settle For Less. It’s got a great in your face production with a massive guitar sound, coupled with a very infectious hook and chorus – this should have been released as a single.
The other song that really does it for me is Let ‘Em Talk. It has a pounding groove but with a really cool vocal melody in the main verse that no other band were doing at the time, this made Rough Cutt quite unique in how they approached their songs.
I really like this album and remember being blown away with guitarist Amir Derakh at the time as he had that little something that set him apart from the crowd. Cool record.
9/10 from The Grooveman.
