This Time Through (1978)
Straight On (1979)
AMG EXPERT REVIEW: Bluesy Southern rock that was ahead of its time. Bil
Carpenter
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Stella This Aint Hollywood (1980)
No Turning Back Live (1982)
AMG EXPERT REVIEW: A good sampler of the band's early sound, typified by
Kansas/Emerson, Lake & Palmer-type guitar/keyboard interplay, before the band ventured
into poppier waters. Thom Granger
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Mission of Mercy (1983)
Communication (1984)
Commander Sozo & The Charge of The Light Brigade (1985)
AMG EXPERT REVIEW: While the albums that preceded and followed it were mostly
hard rock or pop/rock efforts, tried their hands at new wave music on the release. As
with much of new wave, synthesizers tend to dominate the album while the guitars are
mostly pushed back in the mix. The album opener, "Activate," is reminiscent of "I Ran
(So Far Away)" with synthesized keyboards and drums creating a driving rhythm as
frenetic guitar riffs occasionally punctuate the melody line. And "Competition" melds
swirling keyboards with thundering tribal percussion, a la , to create a pleasantly ambient
composition. As on virtually all of their albums, employ a straightforward lyrical approach
on this release to tackle fairly familiar religious themes such as spiritual apathy ("Charge of
the Light Brigade"), heaven ("No More Goodbyes") and Christ's return ("Jesus is
Coming"). While such direct lyrics serve to make the duo's points unmistakably enough,
they nonetheless lack the sense of creativity that characterized the work of a good number
of other Christian artists during the mid-'80s.
All said and done, the release does stand as a fairly solid addition to the catalog of new
wave music despite its being released about two years after the effective demise of that
genre. But, the album's main shortcoming is that the new wave experiment fails by playing
too lightly on the group's main strengths, those being eminently capable guitar work and
blistering solos and soulful keyboard stylings. Dedicated fans probably already own the
album, but those looking for a more representative introduction to the group's bluesy,
Southern rock sound will be best served by picking up the group's first and final albums or
the greatest-hits package. Bert Gangl
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Streetlight (1986)
AMG EXPERT REVIEW: DeGarmo & Key were one of the more polished pop/rock acts
on the Christian Contemporary Music scene in the '80s. Unlike many CCM bands at that
time, the quality of their production was not far below that of their secular counterparts --
artists like Genesis and Hall & Oates. Like everybody else, they spent the decade making
extensive use of keyboards and synthesizers. But while Street Light is quite clearly an '80s
album (as demonstrated by the record jacket, which pictures Eddie DeGarmo in one of
those knee-length hot pink overcoats that, in centuries of sartorial history, have been worn
exclusively by '80s-era rock stars), it is not quite as enthusiastic in its immolation upon the
altar of the electronic as were most of its contemporaries. Key's fine electric guitar work
plays a significant role on the record, particularly in the opening "Every Moment," which
is a competent ripoff of Born in the U.S.A.-era Bruce Springsteen. The fact that the lyrics
are explicitly religious does not mean that they are any more substantive or probing than
anything on Top 40 radio in that period. Indeed, they are often egregiously underwritten,
as on the puerile "Video Action": "Hey that's my pastor in the corner/he's wearing shades
like James Dean/rent or buy/they've got {#Chariots of Fire}/and every flick I've ever
seen." But palatable lyrics were not a prerequisite for a recording contract with any label
in 1986, and Street Light is able to hold its own when ranked among its contemporaries. -
Evan Cater
http://www.getmusic.com/artists/amg/Album/174/A125174.html
Streetrock (1987)
D&K (1987)
AMG EXPERT REVIEW: 1978 debut, This Time Thru, and the albums in the late '70s
and early '80s that followed it, established the group's trademark classic rock sound,
combining the progressive art-rock of early with the classic Southern stylings of and .
Given the fact that, by the mid-'80s, the group had essentially abandoned its bluesy rock
sound for the keyboard-dominated synth-pop of artists like and , the album in 1987 was a
return to form of sorts for the Memphis-based group. able guitar work is once again
pushed to the front of the mix, and his solos are particularly impressive, alternating easily
between quick and swaggering ("Out of the Danger Zone") and slow and languishing
("Teenage Suicide"). And keyboards are equally admirable, adding a subdued, soulful
framework for the songs to build upon, rather than actually carrying the melody lines, as
they did on the mid-'80s releases.
While the musical texture on the album may have been a return to the band's late-'70s
sound, the word crafting was a virtual template for late-'80s contemporary Christian rock
music. Song titles, such as "Brother Against Brother (It Ain't Right)" and "War with the
World," pretty much summarized their respective themes, and the lyrics themselves were
nearly always bold evangelistic statements to the world at large a stark contrast to the
majority of '90s Christian rock music, which tends toward clever song titles and mostly
introspective lyrics. But, even though the song titles and lyrics seem decidedly dated
eleven years after the album's release, it was nonetheless a solid addition to the fledgling
CCM genre at the time of its release. To be sure, the album rocks harder than anything
else the group did in the '80s and was a welcome return to the gutsy, well-executed
Southern rock that made the group's first few releases so compelling. Bert Gangl
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Rock Solid Absolutely Live (1988)
The Pledge (1989)
AMG EXPERT REVIEW: Competent, keyboard-dominated arena rock. Upside: "Aliens
and Strangers," an insightful (and amusing) U2 knock-off. Downside: the labor dispute
metaphors of "Boycott Hell." Brian Mansfield
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Go to the Top (1991)
AMG EXPERT REVIEW: A good example of D&K's pop side, it has compact, catchy
(if somewhat cliched) tunes with enough hooks to land the band a larger following.
Thom Granger
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Destined to Win (1992)
Heat it Up (1993)
AMG EXPERT REVIEW: The duo celebrates its 15th year together by producing a
well-rounded example of everything it does: pop songs, rockers, ballads are all here.
Thom Granger
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To Extremes (1994)
AMG EXPERT REVIEW: Mid-age crises cause to churn out its hardest rocking effort
in years, highlighted by some stellar guitar soloing by Key. Thom Granger
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Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (1994)
AMG EXPERT REVIEW: A greatest-hits collection, it features most of the radio
favorites and an acoustic medley of earlier material. Thom Granger
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Please e-mail me
if you have any additions or suggestions.
