Skid Row – Revolutions Per Minute
Posted by AlMachine on Friday, October 13, 2006


So far the word on the street says that this is a great album – that is from Skid Row fans however, so I will hold the judgement for a bit.

This is the second album featuring Johnny Solinger, who stepped into Sebastian Bach's technicolour dream coat in 2000. For many people Seb Bach's vocals defined Skid Row, so it was a hard act to follow, but one by all accounts Mr Solinger has done well. Arguably their greatest album was “Slave to the Grind” with its mix of metal and rock in the title track, “Riot Act” and “Get the Fuck Out” and the epic balladry of “Quicksand Jesus”, “In a Darkened Room” and “Wasted Time”.

Here we have a more straight forward Rock n' Roll album, It doesn't have the immediate stand out tracks like “18 and Life”, “Youth Gone Wild” and “I Remember You” which helped to define Skid Row Mk 1. This incarnation can still can be recognised as Skid Row, but the distinctiveness seems watered down, some of the identity has been lost. Listening to this album today it could be any one of many rock bands heard over the years.

That's not to say its a bad album, the tracks are pretty good even if they get a bit too country on “When God Can't Wait”, and repeated on the first half of “You Lie” both of which are actually pretty poor. “Strength” is one of the better tracks, sufficiently rocking with a catchy chorus, and mirrored by “Nothing”. The closer “Let it Ride” is suitably fast rock n' roll in a pretty even paced album.

I think this is a patchy effort. It's certainly not the great one I was promised. I think in a bid to distance themselves from their previous singer, they have lost something. It doesn't have the oh my God factor of “Slave to the Grind” or the raw attitude of their first, and in an age where attitude is on every street corner, I think they are struggling to make themselves stand out from the pack. This gets filed under could do better I think.

Kris

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