REVIEWS:
One of the earliest bands in the sometimes overlooked hair metal genre, the appeal of Ratt's distinct sound for me isn't really the two guitar attack of Warren DeMartini and Robben Crosby, even if their performances are generally above average and they have quite a unique tone. Nope, unlike most 80s metal acts, this band had power in their rhythm section more than anywhere else, and I feel that duo of Juan Crocier on bass and Bobby Blotzer on drums is extremely overlooked, as is the absolutely perfect production by Beau Hill on their peak period releases where the instruments come through loud and clear.
Plus, I really consider Stephen Pearcy one of the most unique vocalists of the 80s, as his tone fits their gritty and sleazy groove-dominated style so perfectly. Sure, they repeated this forumla for basically their whole career, but on their first three full length albums, Out Of The Cellar, Invasion Of Your Privacy and Dancing Undercover (the former two released while the band was in their prime and before their popularity started to decline), they were on, and it definitely worked.
--Nick Karn
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
This was Ratt's full length debut after their self titled EP in 1983, and it's one of the few hard rock albums released around the mid 80s that can boast an original sound - the guitar tagteam of Warren Demartini and Robben Crosby has a unique tone, plus the rhythm section of Juan Crocier (bass) and Bobby Blotzer (drums) is tracked brilliantly by producer Beau Hill, making this and the following Invasion Of Your Privacy very pleasurable to listen to played loud. The opener "Wanted Man" sounds like a quintessential Ratt track, with a simplistic riff that's carried to powerful proportions by that groove, and it's the best example of this album's promise. "You're In Trouble" has a great echoey feel throughout the song - it benefits most from the album's production.
"Round And Round" is a catchy, but nothing more than decent, smash single - it is a signature 80s metal song, but doesn't accomplish anything the previous two tracks didn't do better. The following "In Your Direction" and "She Wants Money", meanwhile, are just a bit too generic and a bit cliche. The second half starts out strong, however, with "Lack Of Communication" bringing back the great 'Ratt 'n Roll' sound with a force, and "Back For More" also gets the job done. "The Morning After" is pushed forward by a convincing drum performance, "I'm Insane" is a fast romper and "Scene Of The Crime" has more of that great attitude, ending this satisfying release on a high note.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Ratt's second album Invasion Of Your Privacy basically follows the same formula as the previous Out Of The Cellar, but improves on it in terms of overall power of riff, groove, hook and production. Like the previous album, it's the opening track that makes the biggest impression, this one in the form of hit single "You're In Love", which has a fantastic riff and chorus, plus a Stephen Pearcy vocal performance convincing enough that it sounds like he wants to bite your head off. "Never Use Love" continues the fascinating 'night feel' this album has (another very solid chorus here), and "Lay It Down" is an absolutely perfect and addictive combination of the band's elements - powerful hook.
"Give It All" is also highly infectious and entertaining, although "Closer To My Heart" has a slower, power ballad feel that stalls the momentum somewhat because it doesn't fit the rest of the album at all. It's made up for, however, in the challenging "Between The Eyes", which is a great mix of riffs, meaningful lyrics and nice melody. The last four songs, "What You Give Is What You Get", "Got Me On The Line", "You Should Know By Now" and "Dangerous But Worth The Risk" are all successful, worthwhile tracks that have very catchy choruses and strong playing, and help make this album an improvement on Out Of The Cellar, and also one of the better 80s metal releases. Great album cover as well.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Ratt's formula begins to show signs of becoming very stale on their third full length album Dancing Undercover, but often, the choruses and excellent grooves here are enough to make it a success. The songs within the middle of the album in particular are very successful at what they do - "Slip Of The Lip", for instance, boasts a chorus that has to be one of the coolest bass grooves I've ever heard, and the enjoyable sleaze of Stephen Pearcy's vocal delivery makes it all the better, while "7th Avenue" is another great example of the more prominent and accomplished groove style ("Take A Chance" also works to a lesser extent), and "Body Talk" will have you thinking 'power ballad', but following the intro the song turns into a fast-paced rocker (a rarity for them) with a very catchy chorus and an exceptional bridge where the intro riff is utilized in a captivating fashion.
The opening "Dance", the echoey riff rocker "Drive Me Crazy", and one of the bigger hits "Looking For Love" are also very hook-filled, radio ready, and entertaining numbers, and the closing "Enough Is Enough" has a compelling guitar riff that sounds quite different from the rest of this album (or any of the two previous releases, for that matter) in the verses (it sort of has a classic rock radio feel) but then rocks in typical Ratt fashion during the chorus. Rounding out the album are the more forgettable, although not bad, tracks "One Good Lover" and "It Doesn't Matter". Although the band is starting to lose their magic here, Dancing Undercover is still a fine showcase of their sound, and contains some of their best material ever.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
This is one of those albums that sounds almost completely insubstantial the first time you hear it, but afterwards, you realize that almost every song on here has a very solid melody that you can not only actually distinctly remember even weeks after hearing any specific song, but some of them are even well-developed enough that you'll want to sing along to them. And that's the beauty of some of the better hair metal stuff, really - the best of these songs must be doing something right when they can get me to sing along to it in any case, especially when there's obvious weaknesses going against it, like almost embarassingly simplistic riffs, idiotic, cliched lyrics, and faceless production. And despite the fact that the band are heading even more towards all of these things, it's the undeniably well-written hooks almost all across the board that make me still enjoy the album. Even though it's not exactly one of the band's best.
Like practically all Ratt albums, of course, the very best stuff comes near the beginning, in this case the opening three track stretch. The opening "City To City" engages you with its' typically nasty streetwise groove and ultra-memorable refrain, and "I Want A Woman" is a wonderful uptempo singalong a little in the "Round And Round" vein, and its' uplifting melody and riff, I must admit, does make me wish for those days when a carefree songwriting style like this ruled the land, at least a little. Then I remember the more cringe-worthy bands at least partly inspired by this one and think... 'goddamn it, what have these guys helped create?', and as a result think of the song mostly as a guilty pleasure. But as for "Way Cool, Jr."? Now that's a great song! It combines an extremely infectious, bluesy swagger that fits Stephen Pearcy's vocals so well, and it's also helped by the catchiest melody on the whole album.
As for the rest of the album, well.... it starts to slide off a bit after that, though the only two songs I'd say are definite lows would include the only one here without any sort of hook ("No Surprise") and the overwrought ballad "I Want To Love You Tonight" (that ridiculous chorus alone makes me so glad that this band rarely ever did songs like that). The rest is in pretty much the same catchy pop-metal vein - each one with a distinctive, nice hook of its' own, some quite effective (the closing "What's It Gonna Be", with its' chorus creating a very pleasurable mood, the faster paced "What I'm After") and some not as such (the more cliched "Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds" and the somewhat standard "Chain Reaction"). Decent album as a whole - not essential, but nice. That is, unless you have a complete hatred of stuff like this, in which case you shouldn't even be reading this page at all. Goodbye.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Apparently, in a desperate attempt to keep their floundering commercial prospects going, Ratt attempted to make their songs much more produced and radio friendly than previously. I mean, not that they weren't in that style before, but that material always had a groove-based, raunchy edge to it, and it wasn't really about slickness and co-writing credits with Desmond Child and other professional songwriters. In this way, Detonator can be called the Ratt n' Roll take on Permanent Vacation - generic hard rock songs that you can sing along to easily, but beneath the surface, there's little of any real substance. As far as Stephen Pearcy's endeavors into this style goes, his side project Arcade (see below) would pull off this style more convincingly than his former band, which was clearly on their last legs in terms of decent songwriting, and this would be their last album before their breakup and subsequent reformation during the slight hair metal boom of the late 90's.
However, things don't start off too badly, with possibly the three most infectious songs coming at the beginning of the album after the brief guitar instrumental "War In D". "Shame, Shame, Shame" is arguably the highpoint of the whole affair, with an unabashedly singable hook and overall nasty vibe to it. The closest thing to a hit single here, "Lovin You's A Dirty Job", is a rather good attempt at the Ratt groove, even though I've heard it before and better in earlier stuff like "Slip Of The Lip". "Scratch That Itch" shows that Pearcy is still in possession of really neat pipes, even though this album shows the by now obvious decline in his voice. Cool chorus, though. "One Step Away" is a bit weaker as a typical 'city street' ballad/rocker, but it's still not all that bad - it's enjoyable and undeniably catchy, at least.
But the rest... ehh. The only track that approaches 'horrible' is the vapid "Givin' Yourself Away" (I'll say it again - Ratt were not meant to do power ballads!), but on far too many occasions, they dive into commercial cliches. Just look at these titles - "Heads I Win, Tails You Lose"? "All Or Nothing"? "Can't Wait On Love"? All of these tracks do have recognizable vocal hooks, but they perhaps emphasize the utterly faceless commerciality of this material. As for the other two, "Hard Time" might just as well have been written by Slaughter (and that's not a compliment) and the closing "Top Secret" is decent speed, but it's the most hookless song on the whole album. So in all, this is a mostly consistently mediocre/low level good affair that can serve as a rather enjoyable listen, but there's no reason to listen to it that much.
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