Joe Lynn Turner - Rescue You
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Music CD Cover Artist: Joe Lynn Turner Edition: Music CD CD Release Date: 2004-09-21 Music Label: Wounded Bird Records Soundtracks:
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| New | New Usually ships in 1-2 business days | $10.82 | ||
| Used | Used Usually ships in 1-2 business days | $9.20 |
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Free Music Notes for Rescue You Album
Free Music Review: A review for fans of Deep Purple, Rainbow, and similar bands...
Hit: 2 Stars
I recently bought "Rescue You" and was extremely disappointed with it, so when I read all the rave reviews here on Amazon I was compelled to write a review of my own.
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First off let me say that I'm only 26 and was not a fan of JLT in the '80s, I only started listening to him in the mid-1990s when I discovered Rainbow. Once I got into Rainbow I went out and bought everything else I could find that JLT sang on. I love Odyssey, Slaves & Masters, HTP, and most of Joe's recent solo albums. I thought Holy Man was particularly strong, and really enjoyed JLT and The Usual Suspects as well. Based on all this, I decided I had to have Rescue You. Of course it was out of print until only recently, so I waited a long time before getting to hear Rescue You.
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Once I found out that Wounded Bird had reissued Rescue You I ordered my copy right away. I was really looking forward to hearing this album. Chronologically this album is sandwiched right between BENT OUT OF SHAPE and ODYSSEY, two albums that I really enjoy, so I was expecting RESCUE YOU to be a good album, if not great. I can't even begin to tell you how disappointed I was when I finally heard this album. It's not terrible, but let me tell you that RESCUE YOU does not hold a candle to any other album that Joe has done as a solo artist or as a full fledged band member(the only exceptions being Fandango, which I have not heard, and the many one-off and guest appearances Joe has done, ie. Brazen Abbot, etc, which I have also not heard for the most part). Here is a breakdown of what I liked and disliked about this album; you'll notice that the bad far outweighs the good!
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The Prosecution: When you play this album, right off the bat you will notice how terrible and dated the production is. The drum sound is attrocious, with that horrible '80s big snare-drum sound. The rhythym guitars are absolutely buried in the mix, to the point that you can barely hear whatever riffs the guitarist might be playing. Worst of all are the cheesy '80s sythesizers which are positively dripping off of this album. I thought I was trapped in an episode of Miami Vice! Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike '80s rock or synths when they're used tastefully, like Don Airey or David Rosenthal's work in Rainbow, but the synths on RESCUE YOU are completely out of control. We're not just talking about holding down chords here either; almost every song features synth "stabs" that are mixed so jarringly loud and are so cliched that any good elements of the song are wasted. The songwriting is not terrible, but is definitely sub-par. "Losing You", "Rescue You" and maybe one or two others could have been solid deep album tracks if they'd been produced properly, but this album is missing the one or two great songs that quite often save an otherwise sub-par album. "The Race Is On" is decent as well, but it really strikes me as a weak attempt at a fast Rainbow number; I'd rather go listen to "Spotlight Kid" again, thanks. Finally, the lyrics on this album are pretty bad, even for JLT who has not always been the most creative lyricist; just because "rough" and "tough" rhyme with eachother doesn't mean they should ever actually be used in a song!
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The Defense: The only real saving grace of this album is that Joe's voice sounds great. Somehow Joe's voice is able to rise above all the poorly produced instruments(well maybe not the synths) and show of his great tone and delivery. Don't get me wrong, Joe's voice is not enough to save an album this bad, but hearing his voice sounding so good at least reminds me why I bought RESCUE YOU in the first place, and makes me feel like less of an idiot for wasting my money on it!
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The Verdict: Given the many strong albums Joe has sung on, and the handful of downright classics, RESCUE YOU is shockingly bad in comparison. If you are a casual fan, don't waste your money. If you are a completist like me, you are going to buy this album no matter what I say, so just don't get your hopes up. To anyone who has already bought this album and was turned off by it, don't give up on JLT, because pretty much everything else he's ever done is better than RESCUE YOU. Go out and buy THE USUAL SUSPECTS and rock out to "The Power of Love". If your collection is missing RESCUE YOU, you're not missing much!
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Finally, look closely at the reviews below. One of the reviews states (paraphrased): "if you are a fan of Bon Jovi, Foreigner, etc, you will like RESCUE YOU." Well, I don't know anybody who got into JLT because they like Bon Jovi. Everyone I know who has ever even heard of JLT is coming from a hard-rock/classic-metal background. I'd imagine most people who like JLT were first into Deep Purple, then Rainbow, and then JLT. I don't think anyone who comes from that kind of musical background will enjoy this CD, not because it's not "heavy enough", but because it's not original enough, not timeless enough, and just plain not good enough. If you enjoyed DIFFICULT TO CURE, ODYSSEY, or SLAVES & MASTERS, you would probably enjoy a lot of JLT's more recent work; however you will probably find RESCUE YOU utterly cheesy and unlistenable.