When I say that this is unexpectedly good I mean no disrespect, but I really wasn’t expecting this sort of quality recording from a band largely unknown outside of the US and on their third reunion, this time without former main man Steve Plunkett. But the truth is that original guitarist and bassist Steve lynch and Randy Rand have made some beautiful noise here with new vocalist Simon Daniels and sticksman Marc Wieland after a few years hitting the Festival circuit stateside.
As openers go title track ‘Get Off Your Ass’ might just be the best song Autograph has recorded, sure those that grew up with iconic tunes like ‘Turn Up the Radio’, ‘Friday’, ‘Send Her to Me’, ‘Just Got Back From Heaven’ and my personal favourite ‘She Never Looked That Good For Me’ might disagree, but hell it’s definitely up there if you can bear to put aside for a minute your teenage memories that so often colour our appreciation of the music of our youth.
More remarkable though is that this is an album that doesn’t stop there and though it includes five tracks from 2016’s heavier, keyboardless ‘Louder’ EP including the live version of the obligatory ‘Turn Up the Radio’ the other five new tracks here all rock considerably.
Those familiar with the EP will know that, though edgier and harder edged than their eighties outings it still retained that trademark sound and had some great cuts, none better perhaps than ‘You Are Us, We Are You’ and the spectacularly catchy AOR anthem ‘I Lost my Mind in America’ which would have given vintage Foreigner a run for their money.
On to the new stuff then: the soaring ballad ‘All I Own’ more than passes muster, whilst ‘Meet Me Half Way’ swings and rocks with the best of them before ‘All Emotions’ hits the ground running, sweeping you up in a sweet melodic chorus that offsets the grit of the verse and ‘Ready to Get Down’ gets a new party started. This indeed is something special.
The album of course had to end with that song and it is of course a roaring live rendition showcasing the great pipes of new vocalist Simon Daniels. The best thing about ‘Get Off Your Ass’ though is that here it’s just another great song.