In 1989 Blonde on Blonde released the album ‘Labyrinth of Love’ and the following year followed it up with their second, but for some reason decided to change the name of the band to Perfect Crime and called the album ‘Blonde on Blonde’. I have no idea why they did it but it’s probably fair to say that it didn’t do them a lot of favours as this is the first time I have come across it. Now, these guys are marked down as being a Norwegian band with a female singer (Bente H. Smaavik) but a closer look at the personnel reveals a certain Bernie Marsden on guitars and Don Airey on keyboards. Now I know these guys have been around, and I think I’ve seen Don in concert more times in different bands than any other keyboard player (Rainbow, Gary Moore, Jethro Tull, Company of Snakes plus more), but this is the first time I have come across them as being in this band.
But, knowing that they were in the band actually didn’t impact on what I thought of this album the first time I played it as I hadn’t actually read the press release at that time, knowing that they were involved may go some way to explaining as to why this is just so damn good. If you enjoy Pat Benatar then this is an album that you need to discover as this is definitely influenced by what was coming out of American radio in 1990. Strong hooks, good musicianship and great vocals from Bente I am something of a loss to understand why this didn’t make a bigger impact at the time. If you enjoy female fronted AOR (with some distinctive Marsden bluesy guitar) then this is definitely worth investigating and all power to Yesterrock for picking this up.
www.yesterrock.com
