Wednesday, September 12, 2012

38 Special- Tour de force

 Tour De Force




This is the album where 38 special veered away from southern rock to more mainstream 80's rock.
.38 Special is a six-men band featuring twin bass guitars and twin drums often what southern rockers are like. Their sixth album in 1983 may be a bit too defined to be southern rock but is one of the finest albums during that time. Despite the lack of songwriting genius Jim Peterik of Survivor, they could make the greatest song collections with also great songwriting pair Don Barnes and Jeff Carlisi. This album produced two top 20 hits IF I'D BEEN THE ONE and BACK WHERE YOU BELONG. Actually these songs were the very reason why I became a 38 Special fan. These hits were well received by Japanese yogaku (western music) fans during the winter of 1983/84. I just started listening to yogaku program and I instantly liked these songs. The rest of the album is also great with Don Barnes' melody-driven mellow vocal. ONE OF THE LONELY ONES, TWENTY CENTURY FOX and ONE TIME FOR OLD TIME are also the highlights of this album.  .38 Special scored another direct shot with TOUR DE FORCE. The first side is excellent, with "One Time For Old Times" displaying a sensitivity rare in this style of music, while the second side has three great songs- "Twentieth Century Fox", "Long Distance Affair", and "One Of The Lonely Ones." There are a couple of filler cuts on side two, but overall, this is agreat album that most fans of 70s and 80s rock will want

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