Unlike other such albums, this is also boosted by the fact that Mr.
On the other hand, that's true of virtually every album that I categorise as "music to strut to", so it's probably safe to say that that's a criticism of the entire genre, rather than of Two Steps From The Move in particular. While Two Steps From The Move isn't anywhere near as guilty of this as albums by similar artists ( AC/DC spring to mind), if you don't like two or three songs from this album then it's a pretty safe bet to say that you're not going to like any of them. Of course, the biggest downside to the album is that while it's very consistent, it's consistent to the point of being formulaic at times. And yet, as any of you who have been to a football match can tell you, singing like that can be remarkably enjoyable for all involved. Just to be clear, we're not talking about Beach Boys style layered vocals here, but rather the equivalent of football fans following the loud guy without a shirt on at the front of the stands. Although High School is the best example of this feature of the band's music, The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams has the backing vocals providing more of a support to frontman Michael Monroe. Although vocal harmonies aren't going to be what first comes to mind when asked for defining characteristics of Hanoi Rocks, their use during the chorus here raises the song up to the level of being another one of the album highlights. High School is more of a punk song than any other song on the album, albeit one that prominently features one of the album's hidden weapons. Blasted along by vocals that are as cheesy as you can get without being written by a man wielding an axe and singing about Vikings soaring through unknown galaxies, it also constantly sounds like it's within seconds of turning into Rockin' All Over the World by Status Quo (pretty much the highest form of praise for a band like Hanoi Rocks). Up Around The Bend is one of the two shortest songs on the album, and serves as the perfect opening track for an album like this. That's not to say that there aren't highlights though. Although the album is something of a one-trick pony with most songs being characterised by a loud, endearingly stupid guitar riff that makes Angus Young looks like a musician well schooled in the art of nuanced use of the guitar, there are no songs here that clearly let the album down. The consistency of the album is perhaps its major strength for that matter. Compared to Self Destruction Blues and Oriental Beat, the songwriting has improved beyond recognition, and it's undoubtedly a far more coherent listen than anything which they'd ever released before. Since I'm a great believer in needing to understand the context of albums, I've now listened to several Hanoi Rocks albums in full, and this belief that Two Steps From The Move is set in glam history as being an album that reveals what Hanoi Rocks could have done is completely correct.
HANOI ROCKS DON T NEVER LEAVE ME SERIES
This series of events has given the album a renewed significance among fans of the band, with it being regarded by some as an album that spoke clearly of what the band could have gone on to do.Īs a brief aside, I must confess that I'd never sat through a whole Hanoi Rocks album before I issued a general plea for people to send me albums with the guarantee that I would review anything that people sent me. The death of the band's drummer, Razzle, shortly after the album's release led to the band struggling and failing to replace him, directly causing their period on hiatus until 2002, when Hanoi Rocks was reformed. Tragically, this would be Hanoi Rocks' last full-length studio album for nearly twenty years, in spite of the fact that Two Steps From The Move would see them achieving a level of commercial success for the first time in their career, thanks in part to the presence of Pink Floyd and Alice Cooper producer Bob Ezrin. As an album, it's about as subtle as you might expect from a group that featured the improbably monikered "Nasty Suicide" on guitar, and yet there's still something profoundly enjoyable about the album, in a way that's ever so slightly disconcerting if (like me) you have a deeply-rooted scepticism about anything claiming to be "glam" that doesn't involve Lou Reed or David Bowie. While it is referred to as "theatrical, rowdy, brash, boisterous, outrageous, rambunctious, sleazy and raucous", there's one adjective that sums up Two Steps From The Move better than any other, and that one word is "fun". In spite of the fact that is undoubtedly one of the premier music resources on the wonderful creation that is the Internet, it's hard not to feel that they've missed a trick when it comes to this album.
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