Hard Rain - When The Good Times Come | ||
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Album Cover: |
Label: Eagle Records Producers: Tony Clarkin Year: 1999 Total Playing Time: 50:57 m:s Review date: 30 June 1999 |
| Web site: www.hard-rain.demon.co.uk
Email: | ||
| Rating: 6.5 | ||
| Verdict: Go back to what you're good at please. Hard Rain are trying too hard at being something other than Magnum. | ||
| After Bob's excellent solo album with the guys from Ten last year, I was really looking forward to the new Hard Rain album. The first Hard Rain album wasn't quite the radical departure from Magnum that many of had expected, so I was curious as to what Bob and Tony would do this time. I kinda expected a few synths and drum machines with it ending up something akin to the latest Scorpions offering.
Well, this time Hard Rain have ventured further from Magnum territory. I don't know quite how to describe it. The sits at the fringes of AOR and is a mixture of rock, AOR, soul and even a bit of gospel. "Rock Me In Ya Cradle" & "No One Can Show You The Way" are slowish numbers in the Magnum style with female backing vocals that work fine. "When The Good Times Come" and "Talks Like A Lady" are what happens when Magnum meet Aerosmith. "Showtime" is the best tune on the album and is a jazzy tune in the David Lee Roth style. "Lightnin' Strike" is an uptempo tune which follows on from the debut album. There isn't much to say about the other tunes as they're all distinctly average. On "An Ordinary Day" Sue McCloskey sings lead vocals, but the opportunity to try something new is lost as Sue's performance is very similar to how Bob would have handled the tune. I like to think I'm open minded enough to give whatever Bob & Tony throw at us a fair hearing. Forgetting about the change in style, the songs just don't seem 'special' enough to get me interested. I think Hard Rain are trying too hard to 'not be Magnum', when the facts indicate that Bob & Tony are most comfortable when writing and performing Magnum style material. If Magnum were still in existence and this was side project then OK, but this is disappointing as their primary project. This is an album for die-hard Bob & Tony fans only. | ||
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