VINCE NEIL
EXPOSED
Track Listing 1. Look In Her Eyes 2. Sister of Pain 3. Can't Have Your Cake 4. Fine, Fine Wine 5. The Edge 6. Can't Change Me 7. Set Me Free 8. Livin' Is A Luxury 9. You're Invited (But Your Friend Can't Come) 10. Gettin' Hard 11. Forever Warner Bros. 1993 |
Motley Crue: Music to Crash Your Car To (2003) [4 disc comp] Dr. Feelgood (1989) Girls, Girls, Girls (1987) |
Vince Neil: Exposed (1993) Carved in Stone (1995) Live at the Whiskey: One Night Only (2003) |
I don't even know why I'm
reviewing this. Joseph White wrote a perfectly respectable review of it back many years
ago which can be read *here*,
but yet it seems like we should revisit it now that time has passed. Time has a way of
doing that and while I recall very clearly the day this was discovered by my young
impressionable metal loving heart, it feels completely impossible that this cd should be
nearly *eleven* years old now. I found it in 1994 during the height of my Motley Crue
fascination (which bordered upon obsession) in cassette tape form for a mere $4.99. It was
one of those discounted "cut out" tapes that had a chunk of plastic ripped out
of the plastic spine which seemed popular at the time for tapes that were going nowhere in
a hurry. Popping it into the tape player in the car lead me on a journey that the Crue
never bothered to take me on, but Vince with Steve Stevens was up to the task. Sleaze with
class, crunchy guitars with sizzling straight-from-the-80s solos, wickedly cunning hooks
that string you out for days... it seemed like the trip would never end. While tapes and
cds came and went, including high priced imports that I would scoff at these days now that
rent, car payments and other aspects of reality have factored into life,
"Exposed" was never entirely covered up. It fell to the wayside for awhile until
I stumbled across a CD of it in Books-A-Million for less than half of what I originally
paid for the cassette. At $1.99 it was a ridiculous steal and earns the award for the
cheapest disc ever bought by me! Another fall from grace ensued as I reveled in the
decadence once again, but the cd left my possession temporarily but not my mind. It was only a few days ago, less than a week perhaps when I was sitting at work (not an unusual occurance at all, the norm actually) and suddenly this lyric popped into my head out of nowhere. Shes got the red light district in her brain, I tried to help her but its driving me insane. Or it was at the very least, something close to that effect. Not every album has such genius lyrics so just hearing it pound in my head over and over was enough to almost induce insanity, and the mind tracked it down to Gettin Hard, which kick started my love affair with Exposed all over again. Admittedly its not the greatest album in the world, some of these songs have stuck with me just due to the massive amounts of time that I spent listening to the tape (and then disc) of the cd repeatedly. The lyrics are nasty and nice, dripping with sticky sweet naughtiness and huge hooks, some (if not all) most definitely courtesy of Vinces superb sidekick team of songwriters that includes Jack Blades from Night Ranger among others. Credit has to be given to these guys because it was obvious a few years later that the mostly Neil written Carved in Stone was very different - and extremely inferior to this initial solo outing. Neils glorious ex-wife, the mind numbingly beautiful Heidi Mark (check her out at www.heidimarkland.com |
01.] Look
In Her Eyes |
Eleven songs,
only two of which I consider to be filler material. Not bad indeed. Its
a shame that Vince Neils career took a swirl into the shitter after this fine first
solo outing. He really outdid himself in the vocal area, surpassing all of his past
performances and really shining brightly. Of course in 1993 Nirvana was on top of the
world along with all the angsty punk wannabes waving their alternative banners and off key
attempting to sing their own anthem metal is dead. With the music industry in
a state of disarray and no longer welcoming anything that was in key and had the spirit of
real rock n roll alive and well inside, Exposed rotted on
the shelf along with many other great releases from the same year. It was in the bargain
bins faster than one could blink twice. If this had been dropped, say two years prior, it
probably would have been big, but alas, fate took a dump on it and people like myself only
discovered it after it was floating at a reduced price in the toilets of the music stores.
The putrid Carved in Stone was thrown out the door by Neil a few years
afterward, in a sad bid to gain some radio exposure, but the flirting with industrial
sounds and the muddy overall depressing vibe was too out there for his fans
and again he was left with nothing. Ratings and Wrap Up: |