Sometimes, listening to a band’s first cries, especially when
\nthey’ve established a name and reputation for themselves, is a bit
\ndifficult. It’s hard to put aside what you know about the band in
\nthe present and try to look at them through musical granny
\nglasses.<\/p>\n
That’s kind of the position I’m in as I sit here in the Pierce
\nMemorial Archives, listening to
\n1985<\/i> from Chicago-based rockers Enuff Z’Nuff. Musically,
\nChip Z’Nuff and crew were sound, but they had fully developed
\neither their own sound or the mixture of Beatles and Cheap Trick
\ninfluences that would shape their music down the road.<\/p>\n
This disc – complete with liner notes written by one Howard
\nStern – originally was put out when the band was in limbo. They had
\njust parted ways with Arista, and their future wasn’t exactly
\nclear. (Fortunately for them, things began looking rosy real
\nquick.)<\/p>\n
Even back then, there was a lot to praise in these first
\nrecordings (which were first released in 1994). Tracks like “Day By
\nDay,” “Marie,” “I’ll B The 1 2 Luv U” and “Goodbye, Goodbye” all
\nshow the talent that these guys had then… and still do. Donnie
\nVie’s vocals are just as powerful, whether you’re listening to the
\n11 tracks on this disc or Enuff Z’Nuff’s most recent
\nrecordings.<\/p>\n
Yet something about the band’s sound does strike me as being –
\nwell, not odd, but different. Of course, this is that Enuff Z’Nuff
\nstill was searching for their own unique musical voice – something
\nI wouldn’t have expected them to have this early in their career.
\nBut the Cheap Trick influence also seems to be downplayed in their
\nsongwriting – that’s probably more shocking to me.<\/p>\n
\n1985<\/i> also has its share of guilty pleasures (“Catholic
\nGirls”, “Aroused”)… but there are some clunkers as well. Their
\nchoice of cover tunes (“Tears Of A Clown”) is questionable; by
\nputting their own stamp on this song, a lot of the magic is
\nquashed. Likewise, “No Second Time” and “Hollywood Squares” just
\ndon’t have the same kind of fire as the top-notch material.<\/p>\n
Credit should be given to the band, though, in regards to the
\nuncredited bonus track “You Got A Hold Of Me”. I hate wading
\nthrough dead air on a CD to get to what usually ends up to be a
\nstudio outtake or a half-assed attempt at a song. Not only does
\nEnuff Z’Nuff kick into the bonus immediately, but it’s a fine song
\nas well.<\/p>\n
\n1985<\/i> is not an album for everyone; newcomers to the band
\nmight pick this up and wonder just what has happened to the band.
\nAlthough it’s a disc that’s ideally geared towards the die-hard
\nfans, this disc has enough on it to please most listeners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6133],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-36889","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-enuff-znuff","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36889","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=36889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36889"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36889"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}