If an alien landed and seemed curious about eighties' melodic rock, as he probably would, play him this. There can be few albums that encapsulate that sound so succinctly, so completely as '
Small Change' and '
Beat Street'.
This double CD set is great value. Credit to ATM Records for putting it together.
'
Small Change' was released in1981, and featured new vocalist, Henry Small, replacing the enigmatic, accident prone Ron Tabak.
There's a strong Jim Vallance presence on this album. No surprise there as Vallance was one of the founding members. Also no surprise perhaps that the strongest material on '
Small Change' was written by Vallance and his new writing partner, Bryan Adams.
Strangely, the treatment on the opening track '
Don't Let Him Know', (written by Vallance and Adams) bears more than a fleeting resemblance to Marillion, mark one. Mercifully, by the chorus we're well into melodic rock territory.
'
Turn On Your Radar' has a gleaming pop shine. '
Hole In Paradise' is the best song
Foreigner never recorded.
'Rain' (putting aside the clichéd lyrics) and '
Stay' (again written by Vallance&Adams) are two magnificent melodic rock ballads, as good as anything you're ever likely to hear, anywhere, anytime.
Elsewhere, Small proves himself to be no mean songwriter. With '
When Will See You Again', he's written a contender for outstanding album track. Bruce (Shadow King/
Foreigner) contributes the rather anodyne
'Heart And Soul' and Richie Zito pitches in with an okay co-write with Small on 'Cadillac Club'.
Best known now as a producer of some note (and success) Zito sticks strictly to strutting his songwriting stuff on '
Beat Street' (1983). Most of the songs here are co-writes with Small.
There's an undeniable (and welcome)
Foreigner influence also apparent on '
Beat Street'. The uninitiated would find it easy to mistake '
Dirty Mind' and '
Blue Collar' as tracks taken from
Foreigner's '
Double Vision' album. Indeed '
Blue Collar' and '
Hot Blooded' are virtually interchangeable.
'
Is He Better Than Me' and
'State Of The Heart' are above average
FM radio fodder, while 'Modern Times' is a poorly judged special FX nightmare.
Criminally underrated, Hall is in fine voice throughout both albums. '
I Don't Want You Anymore' proves that he and Zito can write and perform a ballad that's (almost) up to the Vallance&Adams standard.
Prism were yet another case of talented band not making that illusive breakthrough.
But as an example of high quality eighties' melodic rock, there were few finer albums than these two.
Written by
Brian Wednesday, March 14, 2007
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