Unguarded Review

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(More customer reviews)Before this album was released, the Christian music industry knew a totally different Amy Grant. This was the woman who had given them praise classics like "El Shaddai", touching melodies like "Fathers's Eyes", and sweet, reflective tunes like "Giggle".
The first 10 seconds of this album revealed another side to Amy's talent. The hard-driving beat of "Love of Another Kind" marked the beginning of Amy's cross-over into popular rock... And I, for one, was thrilled! Always shooting from the hip, Amy Grant delved into this new style of music with an honesty message of hope that shines with each successive track.
This is fun music: music to crank up in the car as you drive down the road. "Find A Way" and "Wise Up" join "Love" as the albums most "rocky" and catchy tunes. "Everywhere I Go" is a beautifully arranged and well written expression of hope, and "Who to Listen To" speaks of the choices we face when we choose who to trust. By far, the most fun tune is the aforementioned "Wise Up" which has been the cause of more near-accidents on the American highway than should probably be counted.
The title, "Unguarded" comes from a background lyric in the song, "Fight" ...'I've got to stay open, keep defenses all down (unguarded heart) Don't want to be hiding, when the love comes 'round. '
There are four covers to this album, with Amy striking different poses in her now infamous spotted jacked. As a plus, listen for then-husband Gary Chapman doing background vocals on many of the tracks.
I wanted to point out that my opinion here is a bit biased...I am quite the Amy-fan. For the diehard Amy-ite, this is one of the best albums she has ever done and if you don't have it, you should click the button NOW. For the casual or non-fan, this album contains many fun songs with a definite 80s flare, and I really do believe that you would enjoy them.
Rock on, Amy!

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Beat the System Review

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(More customer reviews)This cd was influenced by the keyboard sound of the mid '80's. That being said, it applies that sound very nicely. The electric keyborad has come and gone from time to time in pop culture, however, this album does not sound dated because the songs are very solid. All of the early Petra albums are great anywayl.

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All for Love Review

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(More customer reviews)This being New Edition's third complete album, 'All For Love' was the last of their successful bubblegum records. 1986 was around the corner and the sound of music was changing and rap was becoming more popular in mainstream media - which meant fans wanted a more mature sound. In some respects, they got that from "All for Love" and once again, New Edition managed to keep going. The best way to describe this album is that it is a sequel to the previous one, with little change in formula. The album opens up with "Count Me Out" which employs the same sonic elements as "Cool It Now", but the song is still able to satisfy. "A Little Bit Of Love (Is All It Takes)" is the album's standout track, and sounds different than any of their previous material. The album mellows out on "Sweet Thing", another personal favorite of mine. New Edition manages to drop another classic on us in the form of "With You All The Way", which is a distant cousin of "Lost In Love" sonically. After one listen, you cannot deny its power however and quickly realize that this song is a gem.
"Friends" is a mellow song featuring Ricky Bell, Ralph Tresvant and Bobby Brown, and is the last song in the first five song line-up that is consistently good. This song is innocent yet seductive at the same time, and illustrates the growing up that New Edition must have been going through during this time.
"Kickback" is O.K. Then on "Tonight's the Night", Ralph is able to convey a deep adolescent yearning for intimacy with his loved one. "Whispers In Bed" is the most risque of the ballads on this album, but somehow maintains the same innocence that we have come to expect from New Edition in the early to mid 80s. "Who Can You Trust" is another solo Bobby joint which is nice and catchy - too bad he was not around to push it as a single, it may have had a chance since it sounded somewhat different. The N.E. posse gets together on "School", a rap about the importance of staying in school. The message is good but the format is extremely cheesy. You have to give them props for the effort though.
The title track (and last one) is utterly disappointing. To sum things up, the album starts off strong and goes downhill after "Friends". But it is still a good one to have for any NE fan in that it still has relevance in three hit singles and some noteworthy album tracks.

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Afterburner Review

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(More customer reviews)First of all, let's get one thing straight. This isn't the true ZZ Top as the hardcore fans identify with. Anyone that's a substantial fan of ZZ Top knows that the heart and soul of what makes ZZ Top such an amazing band is found in their blues and boogie rock of their early period (Tres Hombres, Rio Grande Mud, Fandango...etc.). This album is not of that period, and to compare it to that material is a waste of time, because this album was not trying to be what ZZ Top was in their early career.
The truth about Afterburner is that it was made as ZZ Top's true take on the synth-infested, digitized world of 80's mainstream rock, and that's exactly the period that it should be compared to. Whether or not Top was trying to "sellout" in order to garner more mainstream success or just wanted to fiddle around with the sounds of the period is something I sure don't know the answer to. However, I can say one thing for certain; their end result was quite an impressive production.
Many reviewers slam this album for its massive use of synthesizers and other digital equipment and mixing. However, I on the other hand have to praise it for what it's done. Afterburner really seeks to go after its synth-sound headfirst and it puts the synth material at the heart of all of the songs on the album.
I truly view this almost as somewhat of a concept album in that it takes the popular synthesizer sounds of the 80's and tries to take them from the backing track area of most mainstream rock of the time period, and it moves them into the forefront of every track. These are songs led along by their synthesized compositions. The synthesizers own the rhythms of each track, and that's somewhat of a major difference between most music of the 80's which used synthesizers to help back up the rhythms. In this album, Synths are not part of the songs, they are the songs.
So, what we have is an album embracing the technology and style of the time while still adding in some of the blues rock style that ZZ Top has always had in the past. The guitar playing is still often quite heavy and bluesy, like Gibbons style shown on older albums. These aren't the Van Halen-esque solos popular during the time period, but instead it truly is Gibbons being himself and playing his own style.
And, to be frank, this album really rocks harder than most of the music it was trying to emulate and stem from during the 1980's. Just listen to the ending solo to "Rough Boy", for example. This solo is far more "soulful" than most guitar parts coming from other mainstream rock of the same time. Arena power ballads and hair metal of this time period couldn't touch the raw emotion of Gibbons guitar playing throughout this album.
And that, to me, is what makes this album so well done. It retains much of the synthesized sound of the time period, but the music itself is far less "cheesy" at its heart than most contemporary releases. There's soul to this stuff, and there's rock there too.

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No Description AvailableNo Track Information AvailableMedia Type: CDArtist: ZZ TOPTitle: AFTERBURNERStreet Release Date: 07/06/1987

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