There’s a lot of albums out by ‘former lead singers of 80’s bands’ recently – the latest comes from ex-Ratt frontman Stephen Pearcy. Indeed ‘SMASH’ hits the shelves just weeks after the latest talk of the reformation of that multiple platinum selling rock band. There is of course already a band out there using that name led by drummer Bobby Blotzer though his version now seems on shaky ground as the other surviving original members take to the courts for the rights to the name. Branding of course as Axl Rose well knows is all that matters.
Ratt of course have broken up before, reformed before, and Pearcy has said more than once: (as Blabbermouth reported most recently in 2014) ‘I Never Want to Be Involved with My Band Again’. But hey let’s leave that saga to others and get to the music.
Ratt were a pivotal band for me and in reality the very ground zero of what became Hair Metal. I still remember buying that first EP on the day of release and knowing that something big was going to happen. For once I was right, and next came Platinum success, excess and tragedy and then the law of diminishing returns kicked in. Pearcy was always very involved in the creation of Ratt’s music, and whatever you thought of his voice technically he fitted the band perfectly. You also imagined that were any member to put out a kick-ass solo album it would be him.
Sadly even though I loved the first ‘Arcade’ album (the band he put together with Fred Coury of Cinderella), neither of his other Projects ‘Vicious Delite’ or ‘Vertex’ really grabbed me. Of his three solo albums to date (4 if you include the acoustic Ratt cover album ‘Stripped’) in truth he’s been a little hot and cold. I loved the first 2002 solo album ‘Social Intercourse’, but 2005’s ‘Fueler’ rejected his Hard-Rocking past trying to go after a ‘modern’ audience and 2008’s ‘Under My Skin’ was better with some cool songs but sadly a fair bit of filler too.
‘Smash’ is undoubtedly Pearcy’s best solo effort to date, but it again isn’t all Ratt –by-numbers as he sticks to the diversity of previous releases, though it may well be his most Ratt-like of releases. In all honestly it’s just down to better songs and, to be fair, the production by Beau Hill (who did Ratt’s first four albums) is superb.
The material here is all driven by attitude and that is a real part of the charm here – it’s delivered with such brash confidence that even the lesser songs make you sit up and take notice. Oddly it’s a case of worst step forward: starting out with ‘I Know I’m Crazy’ is perhaps the only misstep here as the brooding modern rocker is neither representative nor particularly good, so please allow that slip. The album really gets going with ‘Ten Miles Wide’ a Ratt-like hard rocker.
Elsewhere the album takes a few twists and turns from its solid Hard Rock base – there’s the country twang of ‘What Do Ya Think’; and two heavier numbers in ‘Dead Roses’ and ‘Jamie’ which don’t work quite as well as some here for me, but they add variety and I’m sure will please many.
But it’s the straight ahead rockers like the hooky ‘Hit Me With Your Bullet’ which will really please Ratt fans as well as the sleazy late-Zeppelin style ‘Shut Down Baby’; the hard rocking and melodic ‘Want Too Much’ and the rather fun ‘Lollipop’ and power ballad ‘Rain’.
Best of the bunch? There are a few contenders and ‘Shut Down Baby’ certainly is in the mix but it’s either the wonderful confident seventies-styled rock of closer ‘Summer’s End’ (which again channels Zeppelin) or ‘Want Too Much’ a Ratt-style rocker that take the cake!
Let’s hope the next Ratt release is this good!
