Once again the
Y&T team have made a superb job of remastering and reissuing two more albums from the band's back catalogue.
'
Earthshaker' was originally released in 1981 but like Montrose and early Hagar material, it owes more to the seventies' hard rock ethic than to the eighties.
Two reasons for that. One, rock was still finding its way, looking for an identity. Two, recording technology was still primitive - you really had to cut it in the studio to make an impression.
'Earthshaker' does just that.
'Dirty Girl' echoes Led Zeppelin's primal, sexual rock'n'roll howl and sets the standard here. It's a sinuous hard rock song with a strangely beguiling melody.
'Squeeze' is let down by an ordinary tune, but is more than redeemed by Meniketti's incendiary axework.
Few bands could mix the tender and the tough, the muscular and the mellow like
Y&T.
'Rescue Me' shows a maturity and sophistication well beyond what any band had the right to achieve on only their third album.
'Hurricane' sweeps all before it and
'Knock You Out' punches way above its weight.
The excellent '
Black Tiger' and phenomenal '
Mean Streak' followed in '83 and '84. In turn, they were followed by 1985's '
In Rock We Trust'. Unfortunately, it proved that the purple patch enjoyed by the previous three releases had come to an end.
By no means a bad album, it's just that it didn't reach the same altitude, though a few tracks aim high.
'
Rock&Roll's Gonna Save The World's a ballsy opener. '
Masters And Slaves' is a pounding, hard hitting, worth-buying-the-album-for track. 'I'll Keep On Believing' displays a distinct
AOR tendency.doesn't make them bad people, of course.
The album peaks in the middle with the fast and furious '
Break Out Tonight' and never really rises to that height again, although the second half provides more entertainment that most other releases in that year.
In both cases, the reissues boast great liner notes, with candid and often humourous, track by track comments from the band members.
Well worth reading.
Ratings:
Earthshaker : 7/10
IRWT : 6/10Written by
Brian Monday, March 19, 2007
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