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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An undiscovered gem, February 4, 2004
I have owned this CD for years but never REALLY listened to it until I heard them do "Disconnected" and "Everybody lay down" in concert, both of those songs rock like nothing she ever has done. I gave it a spin and discovered "Somebody's baby" could have been a top 40 hit. Tradin' down, Ties that bind both SMOKE! This is different in the aspect that it is LOUDER and HEAVIER than Pat and Neil usually do, I don't think the exec's knew how to market it. For the price this is worth the dough as long as your not looking for them doing blues or pop. THIS ROCKS!!!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic! So overlooked and underappreciated., April 24, 2004
I took a chance on this back when it was released, and the fact that it's an album that I still listen to on a regular basis 10 years later--despite all my changing tastes in music and the 1000+ CDs I own--really says something about it's quality. Not a single filler track on here, with a great variety of styles, from the rocking Everybody Lay Down, Crazy and Disconnected to the wicked acoustic guitar soaked Rise (you'll get chills when she hits those high notes!) The ballads Everytime I Fall Back and You and I have some soulful sweetness in their respective organ and clean guitar backdrops, and Kingdom Key is a simmering, moody number that is my favourite track here. Her incredible voice fires on all cylinders on this one. This is a great pop-rock album that delivers the goods. Highly recommended.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Grungy Rock PB Style, April 10, 2007
Pat's last album for the label she recorded for since her debut, Gravity's Rainbow is my favorite Pat Benatar album right behind Get Nervous. This may come as a shock (or surpise at least) to others since its probably an album most people don't even know about. For that it's a crying shame. Plus it's one of my favorite Benatar looks ever. That long hair, the 70's inspired clothing, the hats. Awesome! In between her 1988 album and this one, Pat recorded her blues album True Love; regarded as a flop because it didn't sell as well or gain as much airplay as other Benatar recordings, the experience left our girl more in control and happier than she had been in a long time. The idea of recording live and with a group sent her to the studio with a whole new attitude and the organic feel is very strong on Gravity's Rainbow. She rocks it out just like contemporaries of the time, this is after all an album from the 90's so don't look to it for a throw back to Pat's hey day of the 80's because these songs seem more influenced by the grungey punk that was popular around the time. Not that Pat is at all trying to be young and hip and go against her own grain, instead they've taken that raw feel and put it together with their natural ideals of melodic pop. What comes across is an album of sing along toe tappin' rockin' and smackin' grunge pop if you will. The opening of the album is actually just a few notes on a piano with a gigantic punch at the end before "Everybody Lay Down" comes flying up from the underground, this song was #1 on the Rock Radio stations and still Chrysalis opted not to release it as an official single, though promo copies were out; the song is along the lines of "All Fired Up" only instead of celebrating the people it's a throw down to the people who are just giving up on everything, "Everybody go round/ go round/ everybody lay down/ lay down/ don't nobody make a sound/ everybody lay down" before her growl comes barrelling in "everybody say hey!/ don't nobody say nooooo!" It's awesome! Then the opening guitar ripple of "Somebody's Baby" follows, "he used to be somebody's baby/ he used to matter", perhaps a strange subject for a rock single but the thought that the homeless, the drug addled, all the like were once somebody's light, the video is absolutely amazing and should've been huge. It's also very touching, you can view it on You Tube or on Pat's Classic Cuts DVD.
The rest of the album continues building up from those opening tracks, rousing rockers like "Santuary", "Tradin' Down" and "Disconnected" show that Pat didn't lose an ounce of spunk during her blues album, while the soulful "You & I" and the ballad "Everytime I Fall Back" show the toned down Pat in just as good of light as the rock songs. After the lack of promotion Chrysalis Records put into the album, and the third line of executives since Pat's signing in 1979, our girl asked for the money they owed her and walked off to do what she wanted. As for her Chrysalis swan song Gravity's Rainbow, if you find this one in the bargain bin, and you more than likely will, buy it! It don't matter if you don't remember the singles or know any of the songs, by the time you're done listening you will have a new favorite Pat Benatar album.
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by Pat Benatar 
