Sometimes, I think I was smarter when I was younger.<\/p>\n
You see, there were albums that came out when I was a teenager
\nthat I refused to even consider purchasing, even if I had a
\nconstant stream of money running through my pockets. (I didn’t, of
\ncourse.) But now that I’m a decade older, I see some of these same
\nalbums in the used record stores for a dollar or so, and I
\nimmediately snatch them up.<\/p>\n
When, oh, when, oh, when will I learn that I knew something then
\nthat I refused to recognize now? Take for example the self-titled
\nrelease from the hard rock quintet L.A. Guns… please. This band
\nproved that the metal explosion that occurred in the mid-’80s was
\nclearly stretching itself thin at times, and these guys were about
\nas musically thin on their first album as Calista Flockhart at a
\nWeight Watchers meeting.<\/p>\n
At the mike you have Phil Lewis, who doesn’t sound like he could
\nwhip out a powerful vocal line even if you placed his manhood in a
\nhydraulic press. You’ve got lead guitarist Tracii Guns and rhythm
\nguitarist\/keyboardist Mick Cripps, who combined maybe put together
\ntwo – count ’em, two – solid guitar lines and no killer solos.
\nYou’ve got bassist Kelly Nickels, whose presence just isn’t felt on
\nthis album. And you’ve got drummer Steve Riley, who didn’t even
\nplay a single beat on this album. (Nickey Alexander handled the
\ndrum chores.) All I can think is, “Steve, you left W.A.S.P. for
\nthis<\/i>?!?”<\/p>\n
Does it seem like I’m being a bit harsh? Just wait until you get
\ninto the music. The whole first half of this album has an
\nincredibly poor mix – I mean, if the production value of this disc
\nalone had been improved, maybe I’d have had a rosier picture of the
\nband. But the metal mush that songs like “No Mercy,” “Electric
\nGypsy” and “Sex Action” become… eeewww!<\/p>\n
Things don’t necessarily improve on the second half. The
\ntwo-song set “Cry No More” and “One Way Ticket” sounds like a poor
\nman’s Great White, only much less convincing in Lewis’s vocals.
\n(This is the one area where I will give props to Guns and Cripps’s
\nguitar work, though.) “Hollywood Tease” is the first ray of hope
\nthe band has, though a weaker than expected chorus and a sudden
\nending to the song hurt its chances. All I can say is that by the
\ntime you get to the album closer “Down In The City,” you’re ready
\nto jump out the window if only to alleviate the pain.<\/p>\n
\nL.A. Guns<\/i> probably could have been a better album, with a
\nfew major improvements. First, as stated, would have been some real
\nproduction on this disc; Jim Faraci just fails on this one. Second
\nwould have been stronger vocals, though I wonder whether Lewis
\nwould have been able to deliver. Third would have been a little
\nmore focus on the guitar work – c’mon, Tracii, turn up the amps and
\nshred on that thing, man!<\/p>\n
There were hundreds of metal releases in the ’80s. Some were
\ngood, some were bad.
\nL.A. Guns<\/i> most definitely qualifies as one of those bad
\nreleases that you can’t wait to scrape off the bottom of your
\nshoe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6393],"rating":[11203],"class_list":["post-36731","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-l-a-guns","rating-rating-d-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36731"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36731"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}