Back in 1978, Eddie Money had the tiger by the tail. With songs
\nlike “Baby Hold On” and “Two Tickets To Paradise,” his self-titled
\nsolo debut burst forth onto the scene, catapaulting Money into the
\nland of superstars.<\/p>\n
Ah, but the fickle finger of fate hasn’t been particularly kind
\nto Money over the years. While he’s occasionally made it back onto
\nthe radio with some hits (“Shakin'”, “Take Me Home Tonight”), he’s
\nnever quite reached the levels of fame and success that he had with
\nalbum number one. Likewise, people haven’t seemed willing to give
\nMoney a chance to prove that he’s still a voice that’s important
\nenough to be heard in the ’90s.<\/p>\n
His latest effort,
\nReady Eddie<\/i>, is a step in the right direction, showing not
\nonly that Money can still rock out with the best of them, but also
\nthat he knows when to turn on the charm in a ballad. If only he had
\nbeen able to keep that energy level going throughout the album,
\nthis one could have been a contender for some serious action.<\/p>\n
Money gets off to a shaky start on “Ready To Rock,” a song that
\nis eventually undermined by its bland-sounding chorus. Two words:
\nharmony vocals. But Money quickly overcomes that first hurdle,
\nthrowing the rock gear into overdrive with numbers like “So Cold
\nTonight” (which has a great sound due to a minimal rhythm line –
\npow!) and “Let It Go”. Both songs should erase any doubts one might
\nhave had about Money as a bonafide rock star. Even a more rough
\nedge to his vocals seems to add the right texture to these
\nsongs.<\/p>\n
But Money also shows that he’s well suited for ballad land as
\nwell – as if “Fall In Love Again” from a few years ago didn’t prove
\nthat. “Don’t Say No Tonight” might not be a ballad in the truest
\nsense of the word, but it does show the more sensitive side of the
\nrocker. Before Jerry Falwell can get his self-righteous boxers in a
\nknot about this one, let me state for the record: this song is not
\nabout getting a girl to go all the way, it’s about a man asking his
\nlong-time love to make the commitment he’s willing to share in.
\nIt’s a little saccharine-sweet, but it’s effective.<\/p>\n
Likewise, “Turn The Light Off” is a song about the contentment
\nand security our hero has found sharing his life with the woman he
\nloves. Admittedly, this one might send the rock fans running for
\nthe exits, but if you take the time to really listen to the song,
\nit proves its mettle very quickly. I can’t see this song getting
\nlots of play at weddings, but oh well.<\/p>\n
\nReady Eddie<\/i> continues in a successful vein with tracks like
\n“It’s Gotta Be Love” and “Can’t Go On,” but the formula seems to
\nget a little tired by the time that “Need A Little Rock” and
\n“Broken Down Chevy (God Only Knows)” finally make their way to your
\nheadphones. Perhaps that is the greatest disappointment I have in
\nthis album: that Money wasn’t able to maintain such a level of
\nexcellence for the entire disc.<\/p>\n
And it’s not that Money should change his mode of operation.
\nIndeed, the bulk of
\nReady Eddie<\/i> is very good, and the disc as a whole is quite
\nlistenable. It’s just that after 20 years in the business, one
\nwould think that Money would know how to weed out the weak material
\nand put together an album that engages the listener from note one
\nto the final fadeout. He comes close on this one, but doesn’t seem
\nto be able to throw it into the final gear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7437],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39071","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-eddie-money","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39071","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=39071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39071"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}