Tag: poison

Poison certainly divide opinion that’s for sure. I was in the camp that derided them and thought they were all that’s bad about rock n’ roll. When you look a little closer, they maybe kept big rock alive as they were still filling out stadiums and were all over radio and MTV, whereas some of their contemporaries were falling by the wayside.

This album alone made them stars, it’s rammed full of hit tunes. Nothin’ But A Good Time, Look But You Can’t Touch, Fallen Angel, Your Mama Don’t Dance, and the huge all over the world track Every Rose Has It’s Thorn. They must have been doing something right as this album sold by the shed full. If you keep it simple with a chorus to remember, you can’t go wrong.

So yeah, I’ve come to appreciate the music they made and give credit where credits due.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

From the sublime to…well, the album I reviewed before this one was by Plini, so from one end of the spectrum to the other.

Now, a lot of not very nice things a have been written and spoken about Poison, some of them justified I may add but people do forget that they sure know how to write a catchy rock song. Cry Tough, I Want Action, and Talk Dirty To Me all have that something that appealed to a huge section of the rock community in the late 80’s. Their albums sold in the squillions and a heavy rotation on MTV made Poison a household name. If you don’t take it all too seriously, then it’s just rock n’ roll right?

Well, I like my rock with a bit more substance but occasionally when there’s a full moon and wolves are howling I will play this just for the hell of it. The thing is CC is not a bad guitar player and I always thought he was too good for them. On that note, I’m going for Play Dirty as my favourite tune because CC riffs it up and plays a nice solo.

7.5/10 from The Grooveman.

Ah, Poison. The band that everyone loves to hate, and the band that were blamed for the death of melodic rock and the birth of grunge. Of course, we all know now that that the death of rock was premature and today there are some killer rock bands still releasing great music. One thing that people forget about Poison is that they sure know how to write a catchy, memorable tune. Plus, CC Deville has some serious chops.

This is album number three for them. They changed their style slightly to get away from that bubblegum rock tag and tried to write in a more “serious” way. Produced by Bruce Fairbairn, who has the touch of gold for this type of band, and the album duly went triple platinum. Ironically, the songs with the most impact were Unskinny Bop and Something To Believe In – the songs that were more bubblegum pop than the rest of the album.

There are lots of little references to old blues here, mainly due to little intros like on Ball And Chain that either are pure genius or designed deliberately to make them seem a more serious band. Either way, I think they are cool and add colour to the album. My favourite track however is opener Strange Days Of Uncle Jack, a definite step away from the norm that proves the band can rock hard with the best of them.

Let’s face it, Poison write tunes that make people happy, and what’s wrong with that?

8.5/10 from The Grooveman.