38 Special-Strength in numbers

Strength in Numbers

Strength in Numbers is probably the commercial high point for 38 Special featuring the hits Somebody Like You and Like No Other Night. The latter was my first exposure to the band. The band never really charted here. The whole album is strong track for track. My personal favs apart from the singles are Has There Ever Been a Good Goodbye (smooth and harmonic) and the gritty closer Never Give An Inch. If anything, Stength In Numbers probably marks the beginning of the end of their best work. As the other reviews point out, the subsequent departure of Don Barnes from the lineup robbed the band of the smooth sound and catchy hooks that they had perfected on this and previous albums. If anything this album almost crosses from rock into 80s rock pop at times. Its predecessor Tour De Force (the first actual album I owned from this band) still had that southern flavour. The band's best work ends with this album but their biggest hit (Second Chance) was still some years away. By then they were a different band.When you listen to this album and you start thinking, Wow, there is not one bad song on this entire disc, you know it is a five star album. This CD never lets up. None of the tunes are absolute killer (like Back to Paradise), which may explain why a lot are not in their greatest hits collections but they are ALL very good and will have you bouncing, bobbing and rocking your head to smooth guitar melodies and vocals.