THE SWEET
Reincarnation
Metalville Records

As time marches ever onward and the people and family members in your life sadly pass on, so do the movie stars, athletes and your musical icons that held a special place in your heart. That especially holds true for the ‘Classic Rock’ bands that I grew up on. Let’s call them Legacy Bands. And as I’ve given thought to the argument of Legacy Bands and members living or no longer I guess I’m starting to have a change of heart. It’s a very fluid dynamic and one that’s very polarizing. In fact I have seen it almost come to blows over the subject. And there’s so many bands now that are touring with ZERO original members: MOLLY HATCHET, RIOT, KANSAS, FOREIGNER and LYNYRD SKYNYRD are the biggest out there. Because there are no OG members does that mean they should stop? Does the legacy of the music deserve to go on to new generations who weren’t around to hear it originally? Are they then just a glorified cover band? All these are sticking points to that question and are fully dependent on what side of that fence you stand upon.

I bring this up as today’s review is a Legacy Band that actually still has 1 OG member, but of course I’ve heard the same convo about 1 member as opposed to 0 original members which is why I brought it up in the first place. And that band is THE SWEET or just SWEET depending on how far back you go. I’ve always called them THE SWEET since that’s what they were originally called when they first came out. In my massive Vinyl collection I have about 10 singles from all over the world, and they are called both names depending on the country and year. So sue me.

I count myself as a huge THE SWEET fan, so the news about the release of the album ‘Reincarnation’ was quite the shock, as I’d never heard of, nor seen it in any discography of the band. Add to that the band roster for the album, and I was 100% all in!! For starters, you actually have not one, but 2 OG members of THE SWEET on this record! Joining Andy Scott (the only remaining living member) was drummer Mick Tucker! And it’s very evident by the vocal harmonies on the album. If you’ve never heard the OG version of THE SWEET harmonize, I submit to you it’s every bit as good as QUEEN. Try “The Lies In Your Eyes” (FYI: it’s not on this record) as proof of what I’m saying. Then thank me later. To finish this particular version of the band, you had Phil Lanzon from URIAH HEEP on keys and backing vocals, Mal McNulty from SLADE on bass and backing vocals, and then the one person that REALLY caught my eye, Paul Mario Day. For those who don’t know, Paul was a legend in the NWoBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal). He was lead singer on one of my favorite NWoBHM albums of ALL time, the band MORE and their debut album ‘Warhead’! He also sang for a couple more NWoBHM bands: WILDFIRE , which also featured guitarist Jeff Summers, ex-WEAPON UK, Martin Bushell ex-STATETROOPER, and drummer Bruce Bisland and bassist Jeff Brown, both who went on to play in a different of THE SWEET with Andy Scott. Ohh, and Paul was also the OG singer for some little ol’ English band called IRON MAIDEN.

So quite the pedigree eh? In my mind, I got excited but then my mind went back to the mid-to-late 80’s and I remembered how the landscape of music had started to change. Before that wretched hair rock abortion took over and everyone starting dressing like drag queens, AOR was the name of the game and heavy bands like SAXON, JAGUAR & TYGERS OF PAN TANG had completely changed their style, and heavyweights like IRON MAIDEN & JUDAS PRIEST had added guitar synthesizers and watered down their music so much I almost drowned listening to it (see what I did there?) STYX, LOVERBOY AND REO SPEEDWAGON were top of the charts and selling out arenas, VAN HALEN had added synths before DLR left and The Red Rocker came aboard and VAN HAGAR was born. And I won’t even mention DEF LEPPARD because we all know that story ad nauseum. I went to all that trouble to bring you back to that time to refresh your memory and to give you an idea of musically what ‘Reincarnation’ sounds like. I’ll tell you I’d take AOR anyday over the crap that currently constitutes ‘popular music’. Let’s talk about the album itself. Album opener was a bit surprising as it’s a cover of a popular hit from 1966, The Four Tops “Reach Out…I’ll Be There”. I guess it shouldn’t be THAT surprising as VAN HALEN had covered ROY ORBISON’s “Oh Pretty Woman”, LEGS DIAMOND had covered THE EVERLY BROTHERS “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” and KISS had covered THE DAVE CLARK FIVE’s “Any Way You Want It”, so 60’s covers weren’t that much of a novelty. And it’s a fairly faithful rendition. They didn’t go overboard with it, and the song itself will stick in your mind like an earworm. Besides “Reach Out”, there’s 6 more tracks on here. The 12″ version of said cover (the opener is more the single version, and the ending version is more of an album version). There’s a couple of studio demos “Gunner of Love” and “Fire In My Heart” which that cut musically sounds dead-on late 80’s BOSTON. Of the 3 other tracks (“Over My Head”, “Jump the Fence” & “Shot Down in Flames”), the latter sounds like “The Final Countdown” era EUROPE, with a memorable harmonized chorus. All 3 have that polished 80’s AOR sound that dominated that era of music. It sounds great, played exceptionally well, and shoulda made it big back then. Why didn’t it? That’s a question I cannot answer. No more than I can answer why are LEMMY, OZZY & DIO dead and fucking MARILYN MANSON still alive. Another of the great mysteries of life.

The ‘Reincarnation’ album is a trip back in time that if you were around back then you either look back on it fondly or with utter disdain depending on how heavy you like your Rock. I’ll choose the former. Now it’s not something I’m gonna spin 24/7, but on the same token I won’t fast-forward my iPod when it pops up either. Old age and nostalgia go hand-in-hand, and I’m part of both now so might as well “Jump the Fence” and embrace it. See what I did there?

And for the Wax, no idea as there’s not much info on this release anywhere. Stay tuned.

3.8 Outta 5.0 Skulls