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Great White: Back to the Rhythm

With all the drama and tragedy that has surrounded the Great White camp the last few years, the best thing they could have done is get themselves into the studio and come up with an album like Back to the Rhythm. Getting back to their roots, which was always 70's inspired hard rock along the lines of Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie, Mountain, Aerosmith, and The Rolling Stones (not the 80's hair metal scene that they were wrongly lumped in with), Back to the Rhythm is an enjoyable hour's worth of rockin' material that's not going to set the world in fire for originality, but is certainly a return to form for this underrated band. The dynamic duo of singer Jack Russell and guitarist Mark Kendall are at it again, delivering plenty of husky vocals and smokin' guitar licks on such rockers as "Take Me Down", "Still Hungry", "Neighborhood", and the searing title track, which has some killer lead guitar work from Kendall. Elsewhere, expect plenty of bluesy rockers and soulful ballads, with the catchy "Cold World" being a song that could easily find some radio airplay in a perfect world. Back to the Rhythm shows that Great White, along with Tesla, have much more to offer than many of the 80's bands who can only come out and play their nostalgia set to get attention these days.


Track Listing
1. BACK TO THE RHYTHM
2. HERE GOES MY HEAD AGAIN
3. TAKE ME DOWN
4. PLAY ON
5. WAS IT THE NIGHT
6. I'M ALIVE
7. STILL HUNGRY
8. STANDIN' ON THE EDGE
9. HOW FAR IS HEAVEN
10. NEIGHBORHOOD
11. COLD WORLD
12. JUST YESTERDAY

Added: September 27th 2007
Reviewer: Pete Pardo
Score:
Related Link: Great White Website
Hits: 2984
Language: english

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Great White: Back to the Rhythm
Posted by Michael Popke, SoT Staff Writer on 2007-09-27 09:01:21
My Score:

The cynic will listen to Great White's new studio CD -- its first since 100 people were killed at a Rhode Island club when a pyro display went horrifically awry -- searching for references to the tragedy, waiting to hear lyrics laced with sympathy or remorse. (Remember, Great White lost one of its own in the blaze, guitarist Ty Longley.) Instead, the band reunited its best-known lineup and opted to make a record that sounds like it could have been released in 1989, almost 15 years before they were branded pariahs by people who haven't even heard their music.

Back to the Rhythm marks Great White's 25th anniversary and finds lead vocalist Jack Russell singing with as much passion as ever (and sounding good doing so). Originality was never this band's strong suit, but the dozen songs here are steeped in good-time blues 'n' roll that many of the band's peers on the nostalgia circuit would be proud to call their own. Standouts include the chugging title-track opener, "Here Goes My Head Again" (propelled by Mark Kendall's soaring lead guitar) and "Was It the Night?" ("Save Your Love," turned sideways). Sure, a couple of songs could possibly be considered loosely connected to the infamous inferno to which the band will forever be linked ("Play On," "Just Us") — and in that context, titling a track "I'm Alive" comes off as crass. But it's actually one of Back to the Rythm's strongest songs.

I still have mixed emotions when I listen to this disc, but taken in the context of an album by a band way past its sell-by date, it works better than most.




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