Strangeways - Greatest Bits | ||
Tracks:
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Album Cover: |
Label: Hangdog Records Ltd Producers: ? Year: 1999 Total Playing Time: 74:37 m:s Review date: 30 June 1999 |
| Web site: www.hangdog.co.uk
Email: | ||
| Rating: 8.0 | ||
| Verdict: A perfect introduction to one of the best AOR bands the UK has ever produced. | ||
| OK, I'll admit to being a right plonker and not buying "Native Sons" and "Walk In The Fire" when they were originally released (on vinyl). They've been on my wanted list for a long time. Well, now the band have won back the rights to their material and have released all 5 albums, plus this best of album containing one unreleased track. Strangeways' discography and the number of tunes used for this compilation are as follows: debut (1), Native Sons (6), Walk In The Fire (4), And The Horse (2) and Any Day Now (2). The tracks for this compilation were selected by the votes of fans that visited the web site.
After an unsuccessful debut, the band replaced vocalist Tony Liddell with American Terry Brock for "Native Sons" and "Walk In The Fire", before returning to the original vocalist for the last two albums. The albums featuring Terry Brock are superior AOR which nods it's head in the direction of Journey. The songs from these albums bear testimony to this. After that a change in style took place, much to the dismay of their fans, with the band going for a more mature AOR style as purveyed by the likes of Peter Gabriel. I'm a cautious sod when it comes to spending my hard earned cash, so I went for this best of package first to get a feel for all the albums before committing to further investigation. A tape of "Native Sons" had already introduced me to it's charms and together with the "Walk In The Fire" material, these are my favourite tracks. These tracks are simply 'classic AOR'. Tracks like "Love Lies Dying", "Shake The Seven" & "Where Do We Go From Here" are examples of prime time AOR and "Where Are They Now" is an absolute killer tune. The later material tends to sit uneasily with the 80's AOR material and breaks the flow of the album somewhat. Taken in the context of the original albums, I'm sure it works perfectly well, but the less open minded AOR fans will have a tendency to hit the skip button and move on. The unreleased track is from these latter day sessions. This album is the perfect introduction to the band and indeed would serve well as your 'only' Strangeways album. If you're looking to investigate Strangeways further, then it could test the water on those 4th and 5th albums. If you're a narrow minded AOR nut then these won't interest you and you might be better off just buying "Native Sons" and "Walk In The Fire". I can't see existing fans being too interested in this album due to the fact that there is only 1 unreleased track to tempt you. | ||
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