Produced by John Anthony
Original line-up:
David Kent
- Lead vocals, keyboards
Howie Kates 3
- Bass, vocaLs
Jeff Steele
- Guitars, vocals
Michael Peter Starmer
- Drums, vocals
Tracklisting:
What they say
Nothing but trouble
Playing it cool
Split personality
Jealousy
Willing to fight
I'm hers, she's mine
The way I do
Again and again
This town
Musicstyle:
A mixture of Classic 80s AOR, Pomprock and Radiorock. Some songs sound like ROADMASTER and PRISM, while others are more sounding like a mix between BERNIE LABARGE and MARTIN BRILEY (including the quirky songwriting)
This DAVID KENT album is very much underground and unknown by most AOR fans, although it was released on the major recordlabel CBS/EPIC. David Kent himself is also not really unknown, because he sang vocals and also played keyboards with Hall & Oates along with Steve Lukather on the 'Along The Red Edge' album from 1978. He also appeared on their 'Live Time' album from the same year. He also sang vocals with Daryl Hall on his 1980 release 'Sacred Songs'. So, this DAVID KENT had already achieved some success before he released this solo-album.
The LP contains the usual 10 tracks and it is quite a variety of music styles, although mostly it is AOR sounding. The opener "What they say" is a fantastic way to start an album. This is classy early 80s midtempo AOR/Pomprock like a mix between ROADMASTER (circa 'Hey world') and SHELTER ('First stop'). Next track "Nothing but trouble" is early 80s midtempo AOR again, only this is sounding like SURVIVOR with BERNIE LABARGE handling the lead vocals.
It gets different on the following track "Playing it cool", this is a nice aor/poprocker that is vocally and musically very much like BERNIE LABARGE. Same goes for the song "Split personality". This is a pure early 80s quirky poprocker that captures the sound and songwriting of guys like BERNIE LABARGE, DONNIE IRIS, MARTIN BRILEY and some RICK SPRINGFIELD.
The final track of side-A is "Jealousy" and this is again a hookladen midtempo AOR/Pomprocker like PRISM/CHARLIE with the addition of great keyboardsolos of David himself. This song is a pure early 80s AOR/Pomptrack and one of the best tracks on the LP.
Side-B starts with an average AOR/Poprocker titled "Willing to fight". This song has heavy keys/synths and comes pretty close to MARTIN BRILEY and ALEX CALL. Next track "I'm hers she's mine" is more the classic early 80s AOR/Radiorock a la CHRIS MANCINI and a bit Poprock a la MICHAEL ZEE. Following track "The way I do" takes the level down. This is an average radio based soft AOR ballad close to MARTIN BRILEY.
"Again and again" is a good uptempo AOR/Poprocker with a very melodic guitarsound and a great (short) singable chorus. Sounds like a mix between STAN MEISSNER and BERNIE LABARGE. Final track "This town" is a nice midtempo AOR/Radiorocker, again like BERNIE LABARGE with some slight Pomp influences (a la SHELTER) thrown in for good measure.
DAVID KENT's album has very
much a Canadian AOR Rock feeling and I would very much recommend it to
fans of BERNIE LABARGE, although side-A of the LP also contains 3 wonderful
AOR/Pomprocktracks that would not be out of place on a ROADMASTER album.
A good LP, but I rather had heard some more songs like on side-A. Side-B
was a bit more leaning towards Poprock instead of AOR. Still, a recommendable
LP, but very hard to find like many obscure AOR LPs from the 80s.
P.S. I'll upload soundbytes
of DAVID KENT when someone out there asks me via e-mail
or posts a message on our messageboard.
