Here we have an album I always looked back on fondly. Digging up the Outlaws on this instalment of A Streaming Pile of Hit - where you put the "s" in hit is up to you.
Los Hombres Malo from 1982 would be the pretty much the end of the line for The Outlaws. I was pretty late to the party having jumped on with their previous release and really didn't know a whole lot about southern rock, and even less about their countrified hybrid. I knew what I liked, and I liked guitars, and these boys were all about guitars. I know that Hughie Thomasson get's a lot of love for his playing, but Freddie Salem was no slouch. Sadly Billy Jones had left the band, and was dealing with personal issues, and eventually he'd succumb to his demons.
However, here the band was delivering some pretty heavy riffs, while still managing to incorporate the band's blend of rock and country. The opening track, Freddie Salem's "Don't Stop" is still one of my favourite Outlaws songs. It's a bit of a muddy clunky mess but there's something about it that just gets me in the feels, as does the other Freddie penned track "Goodbye" which is actually the better of the two songs he has here, but there's something about that opening riff on "Don't Stop" that I keep going back to.
By '82 though this flavour of rock was getting old, and a lot of bands who were at the top of their game were having a tough time transitioning into the '80s and The Outlaws were not going to be the exception to the rule. I suppose if there's cold comfort in any of this, it's that they went out at the top of their game. Los Hombres Malo is really an overlooked gem in their catalogue. No, I am not kidding. This is really good.
The songs and vocals by Hughie, Rick Cua and Freddie meshed well together and although stylistically they each had their own thing going on - as an album it made for a fun listen. To be honest I'd not listened to this one in a long, long time and frankly it was better than I remembered. Much better.
Standout tracks: "Don't Stop" "Goodbye" the ballad "Running" that should have been a hit. Although there is a cool version of the same song by Chubby Checker from around the same time. The album's closer by Hagar / Peterik "All Roads" was a great song and a fitting goodbye, even if it wasn't intended that way when the album came out.
For an album called "the bad men" they delivered the goods.
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