Sven, the Easy Whey

Overall Album Score: 6.9 out of 10

I was shocked when I wrote my review of Pat Benatar's Tropico. I called it Benatar's greatest album --- and one that was forgotten with time. It was an art-friendly album that alienated her fan base (who worshiped her AOR work), but it greatly increased her songmanship and instrumentation standards.

It is of the greatest sadness for me to report that her follow-up makes all those advances seem like bad ideas. This is one horribly messed-up album! Most notably, the instrumentation has taken quite a severe nosedive ... these tracks all have an ugly, cluttered quality. It was as if they were just adding layers of sounds onto each track without considering the damaging, overall effect that would have. That's quite a disappointment considering their previous work was more innovative than anything else. Also, another very damaging factor, is that the songwriting isn't nearly as good. The catchy melodies that are prone to stick in your mind are AWOL.

So, what's left? Bat Penatar's voice? ... I suppose. She seems partly trying to regain her AOR image here. She's singing loudly most of the time even though it's drowned out by the horrible instrumentation some of the time. There's not really a whole lot appealing about the album. The only nice aspect is that it isn't banal most of the time --- I'd certainly rather see them be unusual rather than just aiming straight for radio singles. But they were, in a way, aiming for radio singles ... well nothing really stuck. The only song that comes close is "Sex as a Weapon," but even that comes considerably shy of matching her similar-minded hit "Love is a Battlefield."

Overall Album Score: 6.9 out of 10 (Well, I guess "Tropico" was a fluke. This album tries to go down the same general road but with disasterous results.)

Average Song Score: 7.1 (The songwriting didn't even warrant one memorable song. What an unfortunate waste.)

Album Tilt: 6.5 (Sloppiness abounds.)

Artist Rating: 7.0 (I'm certainly being nicer here than I could be, but I do want to reward their general aim to be complex instead of banal.)

Track Reviews

Sex as a Weapon 8.5/10

This is a heavily produced '80s pop song ... that makes sense considering this album came out in 1985 --- one year before 1986, arguably the nadir of pop rock. The melody is OK and the instrumentation is rather busy with synthesizers going off in and out of the speakers. It's not too polished sounding, which immediately levels it above a Madonna track. She doesn't forget that she is the tough chick, and she gives a loud vocal performance!

Le Bel Age 8/10

This is entering banal territory ... I hate to say. It's not quite there, but it's close. The arrangements are pretty interesting though for such an '80s album. There's a pretty intricate layer of synthesizer and guitar sounds ... and, what, a xylophone? Melodically, this isn't very interesting, but somehow it manages to stand above other songs of the era.

Walking in the Underground 7/10

This was a tad misfired. It starts quietly with a bit of a cheesy saxophone. Then there's a hard rock section that sounds a little too much like Journey for taste. This is a very heavily produced song, and they went too far with it. The melody isn't that good...

Big Life 7/10

This is another loud song ... The drums are mixed too loudly, and the whole effort is rather uninspiring. The heavy guitars are worth something I suppose ... at least they're not stupid synthesizers. The whole effort seems pretty common to me...

Red Vision 5/10

What a mess. The instrumentation is not only way too loud this time (to the point where I can't make heads or tails out of Benatar's vocal performance) but any melody is absolutely indiscernible. This is just a loud collage full of worthless sounds, it seems. That's not exactly compelling... ick...

7 Rooms of Gloom 7/10

It begins with Benatar talking ... and then it evolves into an incredibly banal arena rock that is kind of fun, but worthy of Journey. It's loud, heavy, obnoxious ... and it's not too pleasant. The melody doesn't even save it ... boring...

Run Between the Raindrops 6/10

A ballad of sorts that really suffers from overproduction. You can discern a melody somewhere, and it's not the worst, but then you get all these weird cluttery notes screwing everything up ........ what the heck were they thinking?

Invincible 8/10

They're getting a little more mainstream with this track, which means it fortunately means it's much less cluttery and a little more tuneful. The drums are freakishly loud, but that was the sign of the times! This track is straight radiola, and it doesn't aim to be anything else.

The Art of Letting Go 7/10

It's a shame these songs are coming out so poorly, because it seems like they're trying to be a little bit unconventional. This one features enormously irregular instrumentation, but it still tries to appeal to the '80s radio. I certainly would rather have this than normal stuff, but it just didn't work here. Nothing about this song is really appealing to me.

Do you want to leave some comments about this Benatar fellow? Then send me a message here.