In 1979 the two Currie Sisters released an LP titled 'Messin' with the boys' on Capitol Record after Cherie Currie left the all-girl KISS orientated rockband THE RUNAWAYS. Lita Ford and Joan Jett went solo, but Cherie Currie decided to work with her sister Marie and released an album which now has been re-issued on CD for the first time by the American re-issue/re-release based recordlabel Renaissance Records.

The CD does not only contain the 10 original tracks, but there are also seven bonustracks included that were unreleased before this CD release. In other words, also very interesting if you liked that only release of the two Currie Sisters, because a lot of these bonustracks are very good and as good as the tracks of the original album.

Before the original LP, Cherie Currie released a solo-album titled 'Beauty's only skin deep' in 1978, but that solo-album may be forgotten because it contained average 70s pop/rock material. I can't say that about this 'Messin' with the boys' release of the Currie Sisters, because this album is filled with excellent female fronted melodic (hard) rock with AOR influences.

Very impressive is the list of musicians that appeared on the album. The whole TOTO line-up is present, who also do some contributions in songwriting. Besides Steve Lukather (guitars), Mike Porcaro (bass), Steve Porcaro (programming), Bobby Kimball (vocals) and David Paich (keyboards), also other famous session musicians make their appearance on this album.

On drums we can hear Mike Baird (Van Stephenson, Airborne), on keyboards appears Jai Winding and on backing vocals we can hear Tom Kelly, Bill Champlin and Tom Funderburk. With such a guestlist, the album can only be a wonderful album. Well, I don't say that this is a classic album, but it is a very good album that is a must for the fans of female fronted Melodic Rock/AOR.

The CD starts with "Messin' with the boys", the titletrack of the album. A nice midtempo melodic rocker like TANTRUM. Next up is "Since you've been gone", the RAINBOW cover. Of course this is also a great version of the classic AOR rocksong. Bobby Kimball and Cherie Currie wrote the following track together. The song is called "I just love the feeling". It's a duet between Bobby, Marie and Cherie and it sounds very much like TOTO. In fact, it could have been an original TOTO song.

Then follows the second cover. This time it is a cover of the old Batdorf & Rodney's hit "All I want". I never heard the original version, but I can say that this version is pretty good and very much in the AOR style with some great harmonyvocals of the two sisters. The following track is another cover, namely the RASPBERRIES song "Overnight sensation". RASPBERRIES was the band of Eric Carmen in the early 70s playing sugar sweet poprock. The version of the Currie Sisters is of course much heavier and better.

Uptempo AOR can be heard on the following two tracks. "Elaine" and "This time" (later covered by TONE NORUM). These songs belong to the best tracks of the CD. The first one, "Elaine", was written by David Paich and is a hookladen TOTO based AOR rocker with the female vocals of the Currie Sisters. "This time" is really wonderful AOR with this time only Cherie handling the lead vocals. The liner notes mention Tom Werman (later a famous producer for MOTLEY CRUE, DOKKEN, LITA FORD) playing tambourines on this song.

Anyway, then comes another cover, namely the FREE song "Wishing well". Next track "Secrets" is a soft piano/keyboard ballad. Last track of the original album release is "We're through", a nice slowtempo TOTO influenced rocker. Then we have reached the 7 bonustracks of the CD. Very notable is that all these 7 newly added tracks feature only Cherie on vocals. Marie only sings on one track the backing vocals. Strange because the songs were recorded around the same period as the 'Messin' with the boys' album was released.

Anyway, the first bonustrack is "Kamakazee lover", a strong uptempo Hardrocksong like the band 1994. Next track "I surrender" is the RUSS BALLARD song and features David Paich on keyboards. At the start you can hear some beautiful AOR keys by David where he tries to make it sound like "Hold the line". Of course the version of Cherie Currie sounds also very good and is similar in level as the RAINBOW version.

David Paich co-wrote the following track "Prisoner", a great calmer semi AOR-Ballad that was also recorded by a couple of other female fronted AOR acts in the 80s, but I can't think of anyone right now. "You're a baby" and "Tough break" are both heavier uptempo melodic (hard) rockers that sound quite ahead of their time, because let's say around 1988 these kind of songs were made by acts like BETSY.

The best bonustrack is "Always the last one", a great uptempo AOR/Melodic rocker. The last bonustrack as well as the final song of this whole CD is the RUNAWAYS cover "Cherry bomb". This CD should be in the collection of every female-fronted AOR/Melodic Rockfan.

Even TOTO fans should have a listen to this great record. A couple of tracks are very close to what TOTO did back in the late 70s/early 80s. You can get a copy of this re-issue through Renaissance Records by visiting their website at: http://skymarshall.com/renaissance

E-mail the record company at: renaissancerecs@mindspring.com or write to their postal address at: Renaissance Records, PO Box 681786, Franklin, Tennessee 37068-1786, USA.