Warrant - Born Again
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Devils Juice |
| Genre | Hard Rock |
Jamie St James
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Vocals
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| Tracks | 12 |
Joey Allen
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Guitar
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| Runningtime | 45 Min. |
Erik Turner
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Guitar
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| Label | MTM Music |
Jerry Dixon
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Bass
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| Release | 31 March 2006 |
Steven Sweet
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Drums
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| Country | USA |
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Keyboards
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| Similar artists | Black 'n Blue, Aerosmith | ||
In the ever flowing stream of reunited bands the time has come for Warrant. The band was actually extremely successful during the late 80's and early 90's. Their debut album Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich for example reached as high as number two in the US charts. Their second album entitled Cherry Pie were an even bigger success featuring several top ten hits which received massive airplay on MTV.
My personal relation with Warrant is reduced to the most successful singles and that was nothing that caught my interest back in the days. When it comes to the man behind the microphone it's a whole different thing. Jamie St James was the singer in Black 'n Blue during the 80's and they are one of the most underrated bands from that era if you ask me. Their first two albums are absolutely brilliant and I rank the second album Without Love as one of the best in the genre ever to be released. Black 'n Blue however never reached the stardom they rightfully deserved and when they decided to disband just after the release of their fourth album it never reached the front page news.
Given the thought what I've just said, you maybe already have guessed that I'm thrilled to once again hear Jamie St James' voice and my enthusiasm doesn't stop there because Born Again actually sounds a lot like Black 'n Blue. The album opens up with Devils Juice which is quite reminiscent of early Aerosmith, a song that is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary but works quite fine anyway. Dirty Jack sounds a lot like the sleazy kind of hard rock that we heard a lot of in the 80's, a fact that is consistent through the entire record. So far so good but nothing special either.
However, things start to happen when we reach track three, Bourbon County Line, with its bluesy verse and great chorus that has a melody that is sneaking up on you after a couple of listens. The next track Hell, CA clicks right away for me. The melodies are infectious and this is vintage Black 'n Blue all over, totally awesome! Angels reminds me of Faster Pussycat, a decent song for sure but the chorus could be a bit more challenging I think. Up next is one of the highlights because Love Strikes Like Lightning is probably my favourite track on Born Again. The verse sounds almost exactly like Sweet Emotion by Aerosmith but I have decided to regard this as a salute rather than a theft and just for the record, the chorus is fantastic!
A couple of tracks later we find another chart buster (in a perfect world that is) entitled Down In Diamonds with an extraordinary chorus that obviously has one single purpose and that is to stay in my head forever. The riff based Velvet Noose, the sleazy Roxy and the speedy Good Times finishes off the album in a good way.
Even though Born Again both musically and lyrically offers absolutely nothing groundbreaking and out of the ordinary I still can't get enough of it. Actually I find it refreshing to hear a band from the 80's recording an album that actually sound like the 80's. The only thing that is updated is the production but the song writing is screaming out 1986. Maybe the sound could be heavier with a bit more punch and the song writing a little more even since the best songs are so much better than the least good ones. Apart from that I am excited to be thrown twenty years back in time. Welcome back!
See
also review of: Louder
Harder Faster
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Production
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Vocals
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Compositions
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7 |
7,5 |
8 |
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Summary
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8 chalices of 10 - Hawk |
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