Tower City - A Little Bit Of Fire
Tracks :- Talking To Sarah Little Bit Of Fire Ain’t Nobody To Love I’ll Sleep Tonight Moonlight Surrender Closer To The Heart Stop Runnin’ When It All Falls Down Something About You Hooked On Hope Down All Night Love And Money Total playing time : 56:26 m:s Producers : Tower City (Mike Slamer on tracks 7 & 8) Label : MTM Music Year : 1996
This one was recorded quite a while before it got a release on MTM. In fact, the musicians concerned are still together, but are operating under the name Colorvine and are sporting a much more 90’s sound.
If you were disappointed at the direction Def Leppard adopted on their last outing, then this album could be for you. The first two songs scream prime-time Def Leppard at you.
Then Ain’t Nobody To Love gets heavy and I hear elements of Kiss in this bombastic effort. In amongst the other Def Leppard workouts, such as Surrender, quite a few of the songs remind me of hard rocking AOR bands like Honeymoon Suite and Talisman/Eyes, examples being Mr Moonlight and Closer To The Heart Most of the songs are worthy of a mention, but the quality drops at the end with Something About You, Down All Night and especially Love And Money all below par.
Before I started actually writing this review I had a higher rating in mind. Somehow the further analysis that the review required has altered my opinion slightly. It’s a case of the whole being less than it’s constituent parts, because listening to the majority of the songs on their own I start to wonder just why I can’t get more excited about the album as a whole. I know AOR/Melodic Rock isn’t exactly known for it’s innovation, this is just too generic for it’s own good. This is well executed melodic hard rock. A few touches of originality here and there and this might have gained an extra point. Disgruntled Def Leppard fans should keep an eye out for this one.
Rating : 7/8
