Stylus over Substance (Volume 5) - Pat Benatar, Alex Harvey, Rough Trade, Men at Work & Don Henley

Oh man, my platter runneth over. I'm not complaining, but I am running out of room which sucks. However, over the last several months I've got more albums to listen to than I have time. Again, not complaining it's a challenge and as they say, "Challenge accepted."

I probably should have spent more time with the Alex Harvey as this was my introduction to his music, but I'm holding out until I can find something by SAHB, then I'll wax and pontificate on shit I know nothing about. It won't be worth the wait, but you never know.

• Pat Benatar - Get Nervous (1982)
• Alex Harvey - The New Band - The Mafia Stole My Guitar (1979)
• Rough Trade - For Those Who Think Young (1981)
• Men at Work - Two Hearts (1985)
• Don Henley - I Can't Stand Still (1982)
  

Pat Benatar - Get Nervous (1982) Other than the single "Shadows of the Night" I really had no idea what to expect on Get Nervous. It's unfair I know but I never really thought much of her. Oh the big songs from the late '70s were killer, and Neil is a gifted guitar player but I never bought any of her albums. Not my thing. It's cool listening now and catching up. I've picked up her first five studio albums over the last year and each album had something to offer outside of the hits. 

This was a big album going platinum in Canada and the U.S. and the album still sounds great. I don't think of this as being from '82. There's something about the songs that still feels fresh - at least to me. Then again, I've been listening to this style of music so long now that there's a certain element that seems to reside outside the space time continuum.

It's funny even knowing what the hits were, I still find myself listening to hear if there were any buried treasures that should have been big. The big songs were the big songs but the album is enjoyable all the way through, what more could you ask for really?

Alex Harvey - The New Band - The Mafia Stole My Guitar (1979) Over the years I'd heard of SAHB (Sensational Alex Harvey Band), but other than having the song "The Boston Tea Party" on an anthology I had no idea what the band was about. I know the band was revered in some circles, and like so many other bands their influence exceeded their commercial impact. When I found a copy of The Mafia Stole My Guitar I snapped it up. This would become my future point of reference for better or worse. The album opens with "Don's Delight? an instrumental composed by saxophonist Don Weller. It was pretty cool, and also pretty short, and then the weirdness ensued. It wasn't punk, and it wasn't progressive rock either. I can't really pigeon hole this one other than to say it was weird - good weird. Musically this was pretty ambitious, and I have to say it didn't collapse under its own weight. 

I had enjoyed the first side, but the opening cut from side two was jaw dropping. As a kid "Shaking All Over" was a song I associated with The Guess Who (more accurately, Chad Allan & the Expressions) but here Alex takes the Johnny Kidd & the Pirates classic and turns it inside out, abandoning the classic guitar riff, instead opting to turbo charge the song add a dotted delay on the guitar and give it a face lift that doesn't sound like anything else I would have been listening to back in '79. The second side was another kaleidoscope of musical colours, anchored with Alex's unusual but earnest delivery. The album closes with "Just a Gigolo"/"I Ain't Got Nobody" at the time the medley was associated with the inimitable Louis Prima (who to me would always be the ape from Disney's The Jungle Book) - here Alex took the song and kept the bones intact and added his own flourishes. Makes me wonder is David Lee Roth used this as his blueprint for his '85 version.

I love albums like this.

Rough Trade - For Those Who Think Young (1981) The band was on a roll after scoring with "High School Confidential" a year earlier and the band dropped their third album December 30, 1981. Why they didn't just wait a day or two and release it in '82 must have been a marketing decision. Although they would release an album a year up to their best of collection in 1985. For Those Who Think Young would mark the their short run on the Canadian charts. For me, I kind of purposely ignored the band, thinking (wrongly, it turns out) that they sucked. 

After being very late to the party when I finally got their break through album Avoid Freud, I found this one in the dollar bin shortly after and was pretty excited to see what was buried in the grooves. Right from the opening track "All Touch" I was hooked. The band set up, and knocked over one solid track after another. The band dropping one new wave tinged alternative pop nugget after another. Now, admittedly Carole Pope's delivery and ballsy swagger may have been the source of my initial dismissive opinion of the band when I was in high school, but man was I wrong. Sure my tastes were more rock, and with my diet of April Wine and Styx perhaps my adolescent brain just couldn't handle what was going on.

Whatever the reason, I'm on the wagon now, and this album is pretty freakin' awesome. There isn't a dud in the bunch.

Men at Work - Two Hearts (1985) Oh, so this was what this album sounded like. It's a weird album, and I suppose this is one of those "You had to be there" albums, because if it was a blind listen there are actually a lot of enjoyable elements to Two Hearts but mostly it's one of those now generic bland synth heavy mid '80s AOR albums. That you either loved or just dismissed. Men at Work only released three albums, and each album was a exercise in diminishing returns. If you take the best songs from their first to releases you have a hell on an album. The band by this time had been reduced to Colin Hay who wrote and sang the majority of the songs, and Greg Ham who played, keyboards, saxophone, and sang and wrote a couple of the songs. Guitarist Ron Strykert also doubled on bass on many of the tracks, and would also leave the band while the album was being recorded, but still got his picture on the gate-fold. 

The quirkiness was compressed out of the band, and the songs were all polished and sparkly ... and very often somewhat lifeless, but they were slick. Having Bob Clearmountain help mix your songs won't hurt in that respect. Heck, while Colin's voice is still a distinct part of the sound, the sense of a wink and a nod in the delivery is missing. The opening track Man with Two Hearts" announces the new direction, and I have to give credit where due - it's a solid song and feels like Men at Work. However, the song that really jumped out on the first listen through was actually one of Greg Ham's compositions, "Stay at Home" sounded like a really solid Nik Kershaw or Level 42 track. 

I'll run this one back and listen again. It may not have been a great Men at Work album, but it was a pretty slick AOR album that likely suffered from being a Men at Work album. It may have been generic, but I also like this kind of stuff once in a while.

Don Henley - I Can't Stand Still (1982) In '82 both Frey and Henley unveiled their first solo albums post Eagles. Glenn was first with his No Fun Aloud, and then a couple month's later Don would return fire with I Can't Stand Still. Both records were on Asylum, and I'm pretty sure whoever was tasked with counting money was rubbing their hands in anticipation. Both albums would manage to go gold, but it would be Don who was making a case for stepping out from the long shadow cast by his old band.

Bringing on Danny Kortchmar and Greg Ladanyi to sit in the producer's chair (I'm assuming there were two) the music was a departure, but was still steeped in the echoes of the '70s. The first side sets the tone. There are some rockers, and mid temp ballads and Don was assisted by old friends like J.D. Souther who co-wrote a couple of the songs and Timothy B. Schmit appears several times on backing vocals. Of course, this is the album with "Dirty Laundry" and that alone puts this album over the top. The dual leads courtesy of Steve Lukather and Joe Walsh didn't hurt either. There may be three sides to a story as he sings on "Long Way Home" yours, mine and the cold hard truth, but Don certainly seemed pretty adamant about getting his side across.You got the sense Don was just getting started and he was building something.