Customer Reviews

Dangerous Curves

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Or should that be scimitar? Where the diluted Stiletto, Lita Ford's followup to her breakthrough Lita album, only had a few songs to recommend it, such as "Lisa," Dangerous Curves shows Lita Ford back in top form, showing even more teeth than she did on Lita, teeth meaning her ferocious lead guitar and powerful vocals that belts out lyrics in songs like "What Do Ya Know About Love".

The chugging and hard-driving "Larger Than Life" with its visceral 80's drum and pulsing guitar attack demonstrates that she still teeth sharp enough to take on many male metal rockers. This is by far the heaviest song here. And if Cinderella and Britny Fox took heed, they would've come up with something like "What Do Ya Know About Love." Well, maybe not, as Lita's asking the question to the stereotypical macho type in snakeskin boots who's spreading himself all over town at the cost of little girls cryin' out loud.

The single "Shot Of Poison" isn't as hard-driving as "Kiss Me Deadly," with the same synths and guitar combination, only more radio-friendly. With Jim Vallance as co-songwriter and Heart's Howard Leese providing extra guitars, it was sure to make the Top 40.

"Bad Love" is a hauntingly stark and bitter ballad, with tempered keyboards and fiery guitar, even better than "Lisa." It's the end of the road with this song, with "I could never forgive you/and I damn sure won't forget/in heaven or hell every tear that I've cried/will come back to haunt you yet" being a pretty cold way to say "end of story." With the keyboards, I can picture Heart doing this on their 80's Ron Nevison albums.

"Playin' With Fire," also co-written by Jim Vallance, is another slamming tune, that could've been a single with the catchy chorus. "Little Too Early" is another singleworthy tune due to the lighter sound (at least compared to the other songs here).

The chugging rhythm section in the beginning does indeed mimic a train going down the tracks in the Bon Jovi-ish "Hellbound Train," with the wild as all-out protagonist's baggage being a devil in the brain, a fistful of whisky, a suitcase full of sin, and my favourite, "a thousand nasty habits underneath my skin."

"Black Widow," a throwback to harder-edged 80's metal, with the multiple backing vocalists in the chorus, is a chilling look at a seductive human equivalent of that deadly spider. Best lyrics: "Making love on a suicide bed/once you taste that poison darling, you're dead."

"Holy Man" begins with Lita and company singing the chorus a capella a la Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name," but with a melody like Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven Is A Place On Earth." The similarities end there, and there's a reverse theme going on in the religious motifs. She demands to be lead into temptation, fair enough, but the analogy is completed when "You made the darkest night in my life into Judgment Day," which is a dark equivalent of "you made the brighest night in my life into heaven." She really catches fire for this one--pun intended.

"Tambourine Dream" is a mid-paced song, while the closing "Little Black Spider" is a short quiet electric guitar instrumental.

This album should have been another musical hallmark for Lita Ford, so why was it overshadowed? In looking at its release date, 1991, the answer comes in two words: grunge, Metallica.

Does anyone remember when a "rock" album could be a fun listen? That was the great thing about commercial metal, it wasn't that hard to find an album you could "party" to. Try that with yer 90's grunge or more recent grind core stuff. Lita was about having a good time without a lot of pretense. This was her fourth solo album in a career of 15 years by this point and the hard work showed. This one rocked just a little harder than the previous "Stilleto" and was a little more concise in the songwriting. Lita collaborated with Jim Vallance on one track, covered a Rainbow tune and continued her writing with David Ezrin. Hooks galore in radio hits " Shot of Poison" and " Playing with Fire", brutal rippin rock in "Hellbound Train" and "Larger Than Life", a true anthem in "Holy Man", a little experimental on "Tangerine Dream" some great ballad work on "Bad Love" and closed off with a neat instrumental in "Little Black Spider" In other words, variety in a way you don't find a lot anymore and again, great guitar work from the finest woman player in rock. And here's proof that for the late 80's, early 90's, she was the hardest working as well. Get this while it's in print!

Lita, Lita, Lita...
This is by far Lita Ford's best album. She may be best know for skimpy, tight costumes and singing duets with Ozzy Osbourne, but this album shows that Lita's all about heavy metal melodies.
From the high pitched squeal of the opening note and Lita's raucous request, "Can we turn it up a little louder please?" you know your in for a hard rock ride you'll never forget.
While her previous albums had one or two gems like "Kiss Me Deadly" or "Hellraiser", the songwriting and production were always a little weak.
Each song on this album is finely crafted, from lyrics to licks and everywhere in between.
I credit the intensity of songs like "Larger Than Life", "What Do You Know About Love" and "HellBound Train" to the talented group of backing vocalists that includes one, Jeff Scott Soto, the most underrated voice in Heavy Metal.
Lita herself is of course the driving force, as is evidenced by her sultry vocals on the tracks "Bad Love" and "Black Widow".
The album is rounded out by "Playing With Fire", "Holy Man", "Little Too Early" and "Tambourine Dream" just rock and roll, plain and simple.
Some have criticized the album for being too slick or commercial. In my opinion, Lita finally hit her stride with Dangerous Curves, definitely for the first, but hopefully not the last time.
If you've been a fan of any Lita Ford song, buy this album-it's Lita at her best.

I recently put this on at a party and everyone was groaning, "what year is THAT from?" I guess it does sound like a relic from the Poison/Ratt/Twisted Sister era, but Lita's got some great grooves on this CD, beginning with the sinful "Shot of Poison" on down to the hellacious "Hellbound Train". "Holy Man" and "Tamborine Dream" show off a nice, commercial hard-pop sensibility, and "Little Too Early" is a ferverishly catchy ditty(co-written by one of Lita's heroes, Ritchie Blackmore). But "Black Widow" and "Bad Love" don't measure up as the "slower" songs(not really ballads)and I didn't much care for "Larger Than Life" which is trying too hard for pop single status. B+ overall, and the blurry-blue shots of Lita in the booklet are menacingly sexy.

Released at the tail end of hair metal's popularity, 1991's decidedly non-dangerous Dangerous Curves was Lita Ford's fifth studio album. Fresh from a major hit with her Sharon Osbourne managed 1988 album Lita (which featured a guest appearance by Ozzy Osbourne), Lita came up with the most radio friendly album of her career. Naturally, radio completely ignored it.

I never was much of a Lita Ford fan, but I have to admit I really enjoyed this album. Dangerous Curves is far removed from Ford's harder rocking early albums, but it's more melodic, which is a plus for my tastes. It actually sounds a lot like the first Vixen album. The songs are completely catchy, upbeat, and easy to sing along to (not that I'm admitting to singing along with Lita Ford songs or anything). It's commercial fluff, but in the best possible way. I can see how fans of Lita's earlier albums might be put off by it though.

Unfortunately, the success that she enjoyed with Lita did not carry over to Dangerous Curves. Whether that is due to the absence of either (or both) Osbournes or just the musical climate at the time is anybody's guess. It would prove to be her last major label release and aside from 1995's grunge-influenced Black, was her final studio offering for the better part of two decades.

This is one of my absolute favorite CDs for driving on the freeway in the summertime with the windows down and the music turned up LOUD. There isn't a bum track on the disc, so while I never have to use the 'skip' button, I frequently hit 'back' for an encore of "Shot of Poison," "Playin' with Fire," and "Little Too Early." Take it from a child of the '80s who loves this stuff.

This is one of my absolute favorite CDs for driving on the freeway in the summertime with the windows down and the music turned up LOUD. There isn't a bum track on the disc, so while I never have to use the 'skip' button, I frequently hit 'back' for an encore of "Shot of Poison," "Playin' with Fire," and "Little Too Early." Take it from a child of the '80s who loves this stuff.

I would place this as Lita's most overall enjoyable album, despite the fact that there are some bigger hits and very memorable songs on both Lita and Stiletto. This may be a bit slick for some tastes, but to me it is just an enjoyable listen from beginning to end. Shot of Poison seems to be every bit as good as Kiss Me Deadly. Bad Love is a good ballad. Virtually every song has good hooks. She plays her badgirl image for all it's worth. I find it every bit as good as the best albums by Poison, Bon Jovi,Crue,etc. And she's sexy. And she can play guitar just as well as the guys in those bands. If you like catchy pop metal, doubt you'll be dissapointed.

Released at the tail end of hair metal's popularity, 1991's decidedly non-dangerous Dangerous Curves was Lita Ford's fifth studio album. Fresh from a major hit with her Sharon Osbourne managed 1988 album Lita (which featured a guest appearance by Ozzy Osbourne), Lita came up with the most radio friendly album of her career. Naturally, radio completely ignored it.

I never was much of a Lita Ford fan, but I have to admit I really enjoyed this album. Dangerous Curves is far removed from Ford's harder rocking early albums, but it's more melodic, which is a plus for my tastes. It actually sounds a lot like the first Vixen album. The songs are completely catchy, upbeat, and easy to sing along to (not that I'm admitting to singing along with Lita Ford songs or anything). It's commercial fluff, but in the best possible way. I can see how fans of Lita's earlier albums might be put off by it though.

Unfortunately, the success that she enjoyed with Lita did not carry over to Dangerous Curves. Whether that is due to the absence of either (or both) Osbournes or just the musical climate at the time is anybody's guess. It would prove to be her last major label release and aside from 1995's grunge-influenced Black, was her final studio offering for the better part of two decades.

This album rocks from the get go! It sounds just as good today (2009) as it did back when it was released in 1991.