Album Review - Poison - Look What The Cat Dragged In

Life was once very simple. Even up to a couple of years ago I quite happily existed in a world where Heavy Metal was the Law and was brought to me by true men in tight leathers, riding motorcycles and proclaiming how God damn METAL they were while screaming their hatred for the wimps in the reviled "false" metal scenes.

One of the main focuses of my favourite bands wrath was Glam Metal, and I was right there in the front line with them. I couldn't find any worth in a bunch of (usually) drugged up guys with big hair in skimpy women's clothing and painted in the very best of their mothers make up drawer. I appreciated the works of a certain Mr Jovi of course, but then who doesn't?

Bands like G'N'R, Motley Crue, Warrant and Poison turned my stomach. I couldn't bear to hear their puny, sub Aerosmith riffs with them badgering on about how many girls they were shagging or how many drugs they were taking. Then for some reason something changed...

I think I finally climbed down of my high horse onto a slightly lower one and started to appreciate that some of this Glam Metal rubbish was actually enjoyable, good time music. The turning point may have been watching Sab Bach at Sweden Rock 05, which I thoroughly expected to hate but ended up with my fist in the air joining in the chorus of Youth Gone Wild.

I still despised Motley Crue and that twat Axel Rose with a flaming passion (as any sensible person should) but I discovered that some of these bands actually had something to offer. The object of this review, Poison has been my latest discovery.

The reasons for my getting my hands on a copy of this album were fairly simple. Firstly I heard Talk Dirty To Me on the Guitar Hero 3 soundtrack and secondly they are playing Sweden Rock this year so I figured I might as well work out if they were worth going to watch.

Despite really liking Talk Dirty I still approached this album with caution. After all just look at the preening pansies on the front cover. How could they get together enough good songs to stop me flinging the CD straight out my window?

After warming up my throwing arm I pressed play on the Stereo and my expectations were immediately confounded. Instead of a crappy glam riff I got an anthemic drum beat with some arpegiated chords. I cranked up the volume and listened with growing warmth towards the band as Cry Tough reverberated around the room. It gave me the impression of a L.A. strip version of Bruce Springsteen, proper "one for all, all for one" music built for the stadia of the world. It's a great opener and one that I look forward to hearing live.

One thing that did immediately hit me was how dodgy the production of this album is. I had to turn it up much louder than normal to get the desired neighbour bothering effect. Also the producer was clearly none to bothered about getting a proper drum sound out of Ricki Rockett's kit as its tinny as hell and at points gives the impression that it was being played by a nervous 12 year old in front of his disapproving parents.

Next song I Want Action was more along the lines of what I was expecting, a song about going out on the town looking for love with the ladies. It doesn't really do anything for me but didn't offend me as much as it could have. Mind you that spoken word "Hey sweetheart, slide on in" section is rather embarrassing. I'll bet the band though it was waaaay cool at the time though.

It wouldn't be an 80's rock album without the obligatory ballad and I Wont Forget you fills that role in great style. It's heart tugging, tear jerking material about that girl that got away and has some fairly nice lead work by C.C. Deville. I got to say that I much prefer it to any of the bands other ballads (yes, even that one about flowers and cowboys).

I get the feeling that I should hate Play Dirty; any song written about "playing dirty, like dirty boys do" would normally have me running for the shower in order to wash the ghastliness of the lyrics away. But after several listens it's got its claws into me and I actually don't mind it. Still feels a bit wrong really...

In saying that, the next two songs are without doubt terrific. The albums title track comes onto you like a sleazy Judas Priest and is a paean to those mornings where you wake up with a splitting headache, promising yourself you would never do what you barely remember doing last night ever again only to haul yourself out into the big city night all over again that evening. A superb song that really could have done without Bret Michaels slightly disturbing cat impression to be honest.

Talk Dirty to Me is by far and away the high point of the album for me. It's simple, almost punk guitar lines and seriously catchy melody are fantastically executed. The chorus will worm its way into your head and happily live there for days on end. The way the vocals rise on the "Down the basement, lock the cellar door" line gets me singing along every time.

The last great song on the album comes in the form of Want Some, Need Some. The bawdy, upbeat riff is exactly the sort of classic Rock 'n' Roll inspired stuff that I was looking for. It returns to the theme of looking for love with that special person and the emotive "Maybe if I close my eyes everything will be all right" pre-chorus gets that sense of longing across perfectly.

Alas the album then descends into the depths of Glam Rock hell with its next two tracks Blame It On You and No.1 Bad Boy. Both are equally horrible and tawdry filler. Let's just examine the opening lines from Blame It On You for a second:

"She's got pizzazz
Like a razzmatazz
I'd like to slide it in
But where do I begin"

Now is that horrific or is that horrific? I seriously wanted the uptight Army official from Monty Python to storm into my room, press the stop button and shout "Stop it, stop it!! This started off as a nice little 80's rock album but now it's just got silly".

The last track is a straight up Rock 'n' Roll number called Let Me Go To The Show. As you can imagine its Poison's political think piece dwelling on the instability of the Middle East and ... nah, its actually just a throw away song about Brett arguing with his mother about him going to see "those bad boys playing that Rock and Roll". It's a decent track but nothing all that special.

Look What The Cat Dragged In is certainly a whole lot better than I could ever have imagined it to be. Its main problem is that it's only 38 minutes long and out of its 10 tracks at least 3 of them could be classed as sheer filler. This defiantly has a negative effect on the album as you are really only talking about half an hour of worthwhile music. But in saying that some of the tracks are so strong that it's still good enough to be counted as a Hair Metal classic.

Written by Stuart
Friday, April 4, 2008
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Ratings

Stuart: 7/10

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