a l b u m r e v i e w s


GOOD RATS
COVER OF NIGHT
Frontiers Records FRCD 048
Produced by: Good Rats
Released: OUT NOW / Website
Closest Relative: Billy Squier
GENRE: Hard Rock
OVERALL: 65%

  1. Cover Of Night
  2. Evil Little Boy
  3. Major Minor Chords
  4. Crazy, Wild & Angry
  5. Hotline
  6. Thunder Rocks My Soul
  7. Snakebite
  8. Love On The Beach
  9. She's Staying Home Tonight
  10. Football Madness
  11. Feelin' Good Again
  12. Get It Right

The Good Rats have been going along nicely for many years now, releasing albums in their native USA to good results, while backing other bands live like Rush, Aerosmith, Meatloaf, Ozzy, Grateful Dead, Kiss, Journey, Heart, Bruce Springsteen and Styx.
This release sees the bands last US release Tasty Seconds repackaged and re-titled for European and Japanese release.
The line up includes Peppi Marchello on vocals with his two sons; Stefan on drums and Gene on guitar, along with Denis Perry on fretless 5 string bass. Gene Marchello is known more for fronting his own band project Marchello in the late 80's.
The problem with this album is its diversity and they running order of the tracks. The different styles of the tracks could have been grouped together to offer some sort of consistency, but the way things are, each tracks sounds totally alien to the next one.
The opener Cover Of Night is instant classic, it's just pure catchy guitar driven anthem rock. Great stuff you think...what's next?
Evil Little Boy is the answer - it's totally different. It has a swagger and style to it that takes several listens to get to know.
Some may not even take to it. Then comes the totally off the wall track Major Minor Chords. This song sounds like it come off any mid seventies Queen album, but with a renaissance feel to it and is far too abstract for your average rock fan to get into it.
Then there is the heavy duty rocker like Crazy, Wild and Angry that has a similar feel to track 2, but guitar shredding like track 1.
Hotline then goes back to the funky hard rock style.
Thunder Rocks My Soul is a ballad turn rock anthem, Snakebite is a furious metal head track, Love On The Beach is a good Van Halen style song, She's Staying Home Tonight is a Queen style pomp rocker, Football Madness is a dorky heavy rocker, Feeling Good again is a big heavy ballad and finishing the album is Get It Right, a song that lacks in production qualities and sounds out of place to the sound of the rest of the album.
To describe the sound of the album more, vocalist Peppi sound dead on for Billy Squier, while the music is a blend of styles crossing 80's party rock, straight ahead commercial rock a la Billy Squier, with Queen-ish tinges in places.
BOTTOM LINE: Basically I can't recommend anyone goes out of their way to get this. It's an album of mostly OK songs, but recorded or compiled in a too varied and mixed style to gain any consistency or rhythm in listening to it.
Nothing comes close in quality to the opener Cover Of Night, which overshadows the rest of the album.
PRODUCTION: 60% SONGS: 70% VIBE: 63%ATTITUDE: 68%
ESSENTIAL FOR: Fans of American style 80's party rock.

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