Customer Reviews

Moment of Truth

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

 

 

Truth be told, this was not a very well received solo project from Terri Nunn...In fact, critics even ridiculed everything from Nunn's hairstyle on the front cover to the production of the album.

On closer inspection, come to find out the project was produced and handled by Prince's protogees and producer (David Z., brother to ex-Prince drummer Bobby Z. and guitaritst/vocalist St.Paul Peterson, from the Time and The Family, another Prince guitarist Levi Seacer). In fact, much of the recording and mixing, engineering was done at Paisley Park (Prince's studio headquarters at the time) ! By ear alone you would never know (there is no trace of the Purple One's "Minneapolis Sound"). Although, a few tracks have that Wendy & Lisa feel (more Prince ex-band members)...

Can they be blamed? Who knows...but in all honesty the music and vocals are not all that bad...

The lyrics on the other hand to some of the tunes (89 Lines). No doubt that some of the tracks could have easily been lifted off of or written for other pop-rock groups. Whos' Gonna Take You Home Tonight could have been also done by Heart. 89 Lines done by Madonna. A couple of other songs by Blondie...and maybe something leftover from Guns N' Roses...You get the picture.

There are some catchy moments and interesting hooks, albeit formulaic and studio polished as they come. Maybe Nunn was trying to continue the Berlin experimental and vastly underrated sound from the album Count Three and Pray from a few years before...But, at least that project had a raw experimental edge while Moment of Truth was played way too safe by the numbers (How To Be a Big Haired Late 80's Rock Star 101 course)...

Still, Moment of Truth (despite it's somewhat prophetic title), is an out of print guilty morsel to own from one of the hottest ladies in pop-rock music !

How's this for irony? While Berlin the city became unified, Berlin the group disbanded. 1991 saw lead vocalist Terri Nunn release her only solo album Moment Of Truth, which was a more mainstream affair compared to the New Wave exercises of Berlin's first two albums and the shift to hard rock in Count Three And Pray. So should that be Count Four And Sell Out? Utter nonsense, because the album, a late entry in 80's hard rock, benefits from great musicianship and Nunn's able vocal delivery. More than that, most of the songs comprise an album Heart should've made inbetween Brigade and Desire Walks On.

"Confession Time" seems like a good theme for someone on those self-discovering road trips where one might be running away or hiding from something, as that's what the protagonist of this song is on. The soft-spoken monologue towards the end offers two outcomes: "You can drive on a road to nowhere...or you can take the wheel and turn it to your heart...it's your life...it's your life." Ozzy drummer Randy Castillo helps out here.

Set to a rock beat and fuzzy guitar, the lusty "Desire Me" has the risque subjects explored in previous Berlin songs. The spoken free-association words point to that direction: "dreams/fate/nipple/salad" or in the beginning "birth/love/pain/s-x/desire"

I don't know if the sobering "Once Upon A Time" is autobiographical but it's a tragic tale of how the protagonist's father became disillusioned with life, "got high to stop the pain" and "flew high above his shame/leaving the words 'It's too late for me.'"

If someone sung about their crossing the Rubicon, their crisis point/make-it or break-it moment, it'd be the title track. There is a harrowing analogy of hanging on a cliff without a parachute with rocks crumbling below.

The reason I took to "Let Me Be The One" so easily is that it might as well be a cousin to Heart's "All I Wanna Do" and other 80's power ballads. Some great backup vocals by the Steeles make this a standout cut.

"89 Lines" is a sociopolitical monologue commentary on racism and politics, detailing police harassment, needed money for education, and the hypocritical routine of going public with lies and apologies. Many barbed lines here, including my favourite: "I ask not what I can do for my country 'cause I wonder sometimes if it cares for me." She does sing in the pre-chorus and choruses.

Martin Page wrote "Who's Gonna Take You Home Tonight", which is another 85-90 style Heart song with background vocals from producer David Z and Levi Seacer among others, which if Heart did would've been a great single. Nunn too, for that matter. Ditto for the ballad "Go Ask The Lonely," also backed by the Steeles, where Nunn's voice echoes Ann Wilson's at times.

If "Too Far To Fall" was spiced up with heavy guitars, it'd be transformed into Heart's "Back In Black II." This one nears filler status.

"Fly By Night," written by Ric Ocasek, has a funky 70's guitar and a droning fuzz guitar accompanied by sitar and airy synths. A decent song. The mid-paced "Diane" rounds things out, on comforting a girlfriend who's been hurt in love.

With the new music scene, many 80's groups and artists either had to adapt or roll over dead. Maybe this is why this late entry in 80's rock failed and given Terri Nunn's rep, this album should've done way better. Major reappraisal needed.

Terri Nunn, best known for being the front-woman for 80s New Wave band "Berlin", is easily in my top five favourite singers. She has an amazing voice that is both powerful and emotional. Her talent is admirable and I've always thought she deserves far more regonition as I find her to be one of the most under-rated artists around.

However, her one and only solo album "Moment Of Truth" is a disappointment and I would not want this to be what a newcomer to Terri discovers her through, as it could lead to them being unimpressed, which would be wrong as Terri's talent barely shines here at all. This album gives no real indication of how great Terri TRULY is, and to me that's a real shame.

However, as a die-hard fan of Terri, I find the album pleasent enough for my own ears. It has a few stand out tracks that do make it worth buying. One of them, a provocative song called "89 Lines", especially stands out from the rest. In this very creative track, white female Terri sings from the point of view of a black man where she raps some harsh truths about racism without sounding preachy or up herself. "Diane" is another strong song where Terri sings about domestic violence. These two songs alone are what makes this album worth buying.

The rest of the tracks, however, are rather mediocre, especially for Terri. "Who's Gonna Take You Home Tonight" and "Let Me Be The One" are lovely slow ballads that I enjoy listening to but the rest of the tracks I don't care for and found to be a let down.

Over all, I would recommend this album if you have experience with Terri Nunn's other music that she's recorded with Berlin, where she shows her true talent, but if you are a newcomer to Terri I would strongly suggest that you check out any of Berlin's albums first - "Pleasure Victim" would be a good place to start. But from me, "Moment Of Truth" gets a mere three out of five. Sorry, Terri.

I only had this Album once before on a cassette tape. It didn't survive endless play back and my lovely tape machien ate it...

It's soo cool that Amazon has it still. Terri has an incredible range, & I still love Berlin, & Solo Terri shines.

I recommend this Cd to any Berlin, Terri Nunn fan, if you don't have this album already, or on Cd.
It's worth getting for your Collection. For Terri's, hauntingly strong vocals.

Enjoy!! Thanx again Amazon. The Seller I bought from great too. Trader Daves, reasonable price, (Oh yes.) Check it out!
They also took such great care, in sending me my Cd. And I received it in brand new Condition.
Realy worth seeking out, and buying.
Enjoy- Lo BB

When I bought this CD, back when it was released in 1991, I really liked it. But it aged fast and it didn't age well. The first two songs--"Confession Time" and "Desire Me"--still hold up. "Confession Time" is a moody rock piece, perfectly capturing its theme of a woman on the run from a troublesome past. "Desire Me" harkens back to Nunn's work with Berlin. It's a more risque piece, with verses of sexual word-association and a driving chorus. Another one of the CD's high points is "Too Far to Fall," another Berlin-esque track that's got a danceable groove and sexy edge.

But much of the CD is bland and forgetable. Nunn attempts to show some social and political consciousness, with mixed results. "Once Upon a Time" (about a drug-addicted father) and "Diane" (about an abused woman) handle their movie-of-the-week themes competently, though making no real impact lyrically or musically. Making more of an impact--for all the wrong reasons--is "89 Lines," which has Terri rappin' from the point of view of an African-American man. Yeah, it's as ridiculous as it sounds. And the songs "Let Me Be the One" and "Who's Gonna Take You Home Tonight" justify all those Heart comparisons.

Most disappointing, though, is Nunn's reserved singing. Part of what made Berlin so exciting was Nunn's voice, which often dressed up the band's so-so songwriting. But for her debut, Nunn holds back, singing a lot of these mediocre songs by the numbers, only occasionally treating us to the full volume of her range. Much of "Moment of Truth" sounds as if it were meant to be background music at Applebee's.

Had I reviewed this CD when it was first released, I probably would've given it four stars. Listening to it now, it's more of a two-and-a-half star effort, but I'll be kind and round up to three.

I really love this CD. I have ever since I first heard it. When "Desire Me" got into full swing (at the 7 second mark), I just about jumped. Nothing like new music, sometimes it grabs right a hold of me.

"Fly by Night", has this guitar rift that threads it's way through the song. That rift leaves me constantly wanting more and at the end of the song delivers. I can't get that ending too loud.

As for "Desire Me", it's just plain "Jacked". Well before the end of my 1st time listening to it, I was hooked. I'll be listening to this until they close the lid. Somebody should get Karmin to create a cover for it. They'd do this song justice.

"Who's Gonna Take You Home Tonight", Let Me Be The One", "Too Far To Fall" and "Diane" are all really good songs. That's why this is one of my regulars, it's that good.

I'm eternally grateful to my buddy for introducing this CD to me and the girl at Strawberries that found a copy for me.

Oh Yeah, thanks Terri Nunn and company, you guys created a great CD. :)

The best way to describe this album is as utterly unremarkable late 1980s guitar rock. It's a shame, really, that the frontwoman for Berlin, one of the best guilty pleasures of the New Wave period, made her solo debut with such a boring collection of songs. Granted, the seeds for this were planted in the guitar-oriented follow-ups to Berlin's sultry, synthesizer-heavy debut, PLEASURE VICTIM. But MOMENT OF TRUTH is more consistently pedestrian than even Berlin's COUNT THREE AND PRAY, which at least boasted a couple highlights, including the chart-topping "Take My Breath Away."

Four songs on MOMENT OF TRUTH verge on being okay (let's not call them "good")--maybe two star efforts on an overall one-star album. They are "Once Upon a Time," which is faintly reminiscent of Berlin's better numbers before indulging in a useless guitar solo, "Fly By Night," which sounds like one of The Cars' weaker songs (not surprising, since it's written by Rick Ocasek), "Let Me Be the One" (the album's first single), and the unintentionally funny "89 Lines," on which Nunn raps and gets political--singing from the point of view of an African American male!

None of the numerous faceless collaborators in the album's lengthy creative credits (Ocasek is the only name that sticks out) was able to provide a single moment of the kind of blissful sensuality Berlin was able to produce. However, Nunn, with her distinctive voice and aggressive sexuality, has definite star quality. Had she released this album in 1988 or 1989, when many of the songs were penned and big-haired generic guitar rock was all the rage, she might have enjoyed a breakthrough. But by 1991, new sounds were taking over the airwaves. MOMENT OF TRUTH was barely noticed. Nunn has herself admitted in later interviews that the album is a directionless hodgepodge, although that description implies more variety than actually found on the album.

Interestingly, after a ten year hiatus, Nunn has reclaimed the Berlin moniker and is enjoying a mini-comeback. The new Berlin studio album, VOYEUR (actually Nunn's second solo effort, since no one else from Berlin is actually present), is much more worthy of a listener's time.

This CD is a complete riot. The "89 lines" song is beyond preposterous. Terri does in fact rap poorly (maybe just talk fast?) about being black. I never though about it until reading other reviews, but maybe she was rapping as a black guy, not woman. Either way, it's really stupid. No social message can make up for this. Racism rah rah, we don't care about the important messages in your song.

If you're feeling tired, "Go Ask The Lonely" will put you to sleep really fast. It really sounds like a 45 being played at 33.

"Fly By Night" is probably the best song on the CD, since it's complete with vocals you can actually hear, and obligatory 80's saxophones.

"Who's Gonna Take You Home Tonight" is a gem since it has lots of generic backup singers it it and it sounds like it was recorded from the back of a bar. Something is odd about it for sure.

If you have the rest of the Nunn or Berlin CDs, you need this one since it will add some variety to an otherwise boring collection.