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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best bands from the 80s you never heard, November 6, 2007
Being from Pennsylvania, I discovered Dirty Looks in a roundabout way. I had gone to college at the University of Texas at Austin in 1987 and, admittedly, I wasn't really ready to be taking my studies seriously. Hormones were driving me crazy and I spent more time studying female anatomy than my major of mechanical engineering. One of the places I frequented on the weekends was The Back Room, a place that would feature showcases of about 4 bands each night of the week, with the most popular local bands appearing on Fridays and Saturdays. I would usually arrive pretty early, having to rely on public transportation, so I'd spend a lot of time sitting drinking soda and admiring the scenery of big haired, made-up, metal chicks while waiting for the bands to go on stage. It was during this time that the DJ at the club would ALWAYS play the first four songs on the COOL FROM THE WIRE album. It was instantly catchy from the very first note of the title track, which opens the album, although I had no idea what was being said in the chorus (I thought it was something like "you, you from the wild"). The second track, IT'S NOT THE WAY YOU ROCK, also caught my interest. Here was a band that was playing straight-ahead hard rock in an era of increasingly over-produced, cheesed-up, synth-heavy poseur metal that favored image over substance. This song ended up on the soundtrack of 1988's Johnny Be Good, although it is hardly even noticeable in the film.
As the third track, CAN'T TAKE MY EYES OFF OF YOU, played, it was somewhat of a cooling off period. Not quite as catchy, at least upon first listen, but still was a pretty solid song. The wordplay within the song had a certain charm which made me think, "I don't know what he's saying, but he sounds good saying it." As it turned out, one of the lines that I got a kick out of was "Oh shimmy shimmy co-co gimme gimme more of... more of what you got for me." I still think it's pretty cool today. Then came the song for which they actually had a video - OH, RUBY. It suddenly struck me. Is this an old Bon Scott AC/DC album I had never heard? There is a place in this song where Henrik, the vocalist, breaks into a spoken part in which he sounds like a dead-ringer for Bon Scott... a band who also just happened to be on the same Atlantic record label with them, albeit now 8 years into the growling Brian Johnson era. To me, this band sounded like what AC/DC with Bon Scott would be like if AC/DC had updated their sound with a bit flashier guitar playing, i.e. more than 3-chord songs and faster solos. Upon closer listening, the Bon Scott style voice started to shine thru in all the songs, just slightly higher pitched. I had to track down this album.
When I finally found it and could afford it (I was a starving college student), I bought it and played it to death. My favorite songs from the rest of the album would include PUT A SPELL ON YOU, NO BRAINS CHILD, and GET OFF, although that's not to take away from the remaining tunes. But if I had to pick the "best of" from this album, it would include all of the songs I mentioned, possibly excluding EYES... It's such a solid album that, other than the song TOKYO, it's an album I can listen to from start to finish repeatedly and almost never grow tired of it.
But here's the major problem with this album, and quite possibly the reason for it's failing to make any impact at the time. It was released in 1987, when the LP was still a very popular music format. In fact, I don't think it was even released as a CD until 1990. Couldn't Atlantic have spared at least a LITTLE bit of money to give this gem of an album a DECENT COVER? Imagine looking at this album's cover in 12" x 12" size. What would you make of it? In an era where looks was everything, they put a black and white extreme close-up of the singer (and the singer only) making a not-so-dirty-look, and then overlaying the band's logo in hot pink over his left eye. Compare this to Poison's LOOK WHAT THE CAT DRAGGED IN or Cinderella's NIGHT SONGS and you'll see there's no comparison (well, the hot pink logo would match Cinderella at least). Who did Atlantic think they were marketing this to? Granted, they didn't wear the make up or outrageous clothes those two bands did, but the audience was still the same. I'd venture to say fans of those bands would have snagged this one if it only had a cover to lure them in. The album title also didn't help matters, even though the song itself is great. Seriously, if I said to you "Hey, check out Cool from the Wire," who WOULDN'T say "...huh?" Unfortunately, listeners of the time judged the book, or I suppose I should say ALBUM, by its cover and its title just gave no indication of what to expect.
Amusingly, it appeared I had to move to Texas to hear a band that hailed from my home state. The local Austin Z-Rock affiliate radio station played a few of the band's songs on a semi-regular basis, but the band just never seemed to catch on with the glam-crazed fans of the time. What amazed me was that this debut album, as good as it was, was about to be topped by their follow-up album entitled TURN OF THE SCREW, which was met with even less fanfare than this one. Truly a shame.
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by Dirty Looks 
