Bonnie Tyler - Faster Than The Speed Of Night

Oh, look what the dollar bin puked up. Bonnie Tyler's 1983 Jim Steinman produced and directed mega over the top opus Faster Than The Speed Of Night. I brought the album home which was in surprisingly good shape, and even the liner was decent. This would be fun. Everything about this release screamed cheese, especially the cover. I'm not sure if it was a deliberate nod to Steve Martin, but it sure does look like she's got an arrow through her head. Was she letting us know she was a wild and crazy guy? Of course you'd have had to live under a rock not to have heard "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and I will admit I like the song. Heck after almost forty years the song is part of the fabric of pop culture.

Still, I was expecting very little from the rest of the album and was prepared for a lot of bloated filler. The first cut is a cover song, an interesting (in a good way) interpretation of John Fogerty's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" If you're going to cover something, make it your own. Then up comes the first of the two Steinman penned songs on the record. "Faster Than The Speed O Night" which is pretty cool. I've heard it before, but in the context of the album it's setting the foundation for what is shaping up to be a decent listen. If that's Bonnie at the end of the song with the glass shattering high notes that's amazing.

There's one part that cracked me up from "Getting So Excited" when there's a single line of  seductive female dialogue, "I'd do anything for love, but I won't do that." Jim Steinman waited a decade to flesh out a song where it would be up to Meat Loaf to tell us what he wouldn't do.

The big moment is still Steinman's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and finally being able to read the credits I can see who laid down the other vocal part. Rory Dodd nails it, and was no stranger to working with Jim Steinman ,but he's the secret sauce here.

The second side while good, isn't going to get played as often. More covers, one of which was a Blue Oyster Cult track "Going Through the Motions" and another was Bryan Adams' "Straight from the Heart" which is really the only song on the album that doesn't work for me here.

One of the first things I had to let go was my unfair comparison to Kim Carnes (who weirdly enough I am a big fan of). Although both women have a husky vocal delivery, Bonnie has power and range that are frankly rather astonishing.

This wasn't what I was expecting, I had hoped to take a lot of unfair shots at the album and generally take the piss because I spent a buck on what I was hoping would be a novelty joke.

Joke was on me.

The band here is wicked. Rick Derringer lends his guitar work throughout the album, and frankly he's an absolute monster. I've always liked him, but you tend to forget how much he did for other artists. Then there are Max Weinberg, and Roy Bittan both from the E Street Band, who in a year would be riding an incredible wave when Springsteen dropped Born in the USA. Heck even Paul Schaffer makes an appearance.

I got way more than I expected for my dollar. If I'm lucky maybe I'll find something by Culture Club and can shit on that instead. Sadly, knowing my propensity to revisit thing, chances are I'll like what I hear.