Now I know that it’s been a while since we last heard from Angel – a band that as a kid in the UK I’ve still no idea what prepossessed me to pick up ‘Sinful’ out of the import bin at the local record store and then swiftly follow that purchase with the remainder of the catalogue, but I did and that is as they say where it all began.
Angel were a band that should have been huge, I still consider ‘Sinful’ to be one of the most perfectly crafted albums ever and even though their earlier material had its peaks and troughs there was no one really like them. Formed in 1975 by guitarist Punky Meadows, bassist Mickie Jones, vocalist Frank DiMino, keyboardist Gregg Giuffria, and drummer Barry Brandt they recorded three great albums ‘Angel’ (1975); ‘Helluva Band’ (1976) and ”On Earth as It Is in Heaven’ (1977), after which Jones left and in came Felix Robinson for what should have been their commercial breakthrough on ‘White Hot’ (1978) and ‘Sinful’ (1979).
The band faded after that releasing only ‘Live Without a Net’ in the 80’s (1980) before DiMino and Meadows departed and after bringing in replacements the band folded. DiMino went on to work with UFO guitarist Paul Raymond in the ‘Paul Raymond Project’; Felix Robinson played on the debut by ‘White Lion’; Gregg Giuffria founded first Giuffria then ‘House of Lords’ but the others all but disappeared from view, Punky famously buying and running a tanning salon and Mickie Jones leaving music for film, sadly passing in 2009.
Brandy and DiMino reformed the band in the late 90’s releasing the OK ‘In the Beginning’ in 1999 but it’s been 20 years since that album. The latest reunion, and let’s hope it is one that sticks, seemed to be on the cards the moment that Frank Dimino and Punky Meadows independently released solo albums back in 2015 and 2016 (Meadows’ featuring Felix Robinson on bass) sadly this time it’s only Frank and Punky onboard for the ride along with four other musicians I really have no idea of their musical pedigree.
It’s about time I got to the review right?
Well you can give a band ‘Angel theme (Prelude)’ – 30 seconds or so of parping synths when they have 17 tracks for you I guess, and hearing ‘Under The Gun’ for the first time, if you’re a fan of old then I’m sure you’ll love that guitar, the wonderful melodies and Frank’s inimitable phrasing. This is what we were looking for as fans and whilst all the guys might not be back on board two of Angel’s main men are, and it looks from the off that this new chapter is going to be a memorable one.
This album sounds huge as you might imagine and tracks like ‘Shot Of Love’ are comfortably familiar-sounding big numbers yet seemingly less cheesy than maybe people might have accused Angel of at times in the past. ‘Shot Of Love’ indeed is a song that would have sat nicely on an album like ‘Sinful’ whilst ‘Slow Down’ that follows has more of a quirky ‘On Earth…’ feel to it as does the wonderful ‘Over My Head’ with its poppy elements and resurrected keyboard riff. It’s a song that also sits nicely with ‘Turn Around’ in terms of melody, and both are light and breezy.
Turning the dial a little more towards rock come ‘Revolution’ and ‘Standup’, both great songs with a nice lot of fire in the belly. It’s tracks like ‘1975’ though that really offer the listener even more – a song that recounts the story of the band as a ballad and it pulls it off in a wonderfully understated yet simultaneously grandiose way! I love it! Single ‘We Were the Wild’ though might just be the most savvy song here – taking the Angel sound of the early albums and upping the ante with guitar. Its a statement of intent to resurrect this band and it sounds great.
At this point I have to remind myself we aren’t even halfway in and already I’m sold.
Next up ‘I.O.U’ is pure overblown Pop Pomp in the vein of songs like ‘Walk Away Renee’ the cover that they mastered so well on their Anthology. That is offset nicely against the odd man out here where Punky gets to show his chops on the preamble to ‘Locked, Cocked and Ready to Rock’ that is ‘Punky’s Couch Blues’ which injects a bit of unexpected Blues before the hardest rocker on the album kicks in.
After that interlude normal service is resumed with the wonderful ‘Turn Around’ that gets back to that trademark Angel sound with Frank wiling just the way we like it. ‘Desire’ is a winner too, all class with some great punctuation from Punky and a sixties styled sing-along too keep it sweet. And the reborn Angel just keeps on rolling, delivering the goods at every stop. In fact some of my favorite tunes are still to come 11 songs in!
‘Our Revolution’ is another harder song driven by a stuttering riff with Frank capturing memories of the earlier catalogue and it’s this variety that keeps this return more than just an interesting footnote and threatens a real return by one of the few bands left on my bucket-list.
We close out with a real selection of songs that to me as a fan explain why Angel were and are so important. ‘Tell Me Why’ is Angel at their most gloriously Pop; ‘Don’t Want You To Go’ a beautiful spirited rocker; ‘Stand Up’ a mid-paced anthem; and ‘Sanctuary’ again a look back to the earlier works, laden as it is with keys and guitar and taken to the max. It’s a glorious run out to an album that if am honest has well exceeded my hopes and expectations.
It’s perhaps fitting that we close with a rerecorded version of ‘Tower’ a song that many fans I know hold up as the band at their very best. This album proves one thing the new line up is more than capable of writing a glorious new chapter – ‘Risen’ captures the various sounds of all the ages of Angel remarkably well and as they prove in the coda they do the old material complete justice. I’m very, very happy and can feel my ten year old self smiling too!
