Lita Ford-Wicked wonderland

JLRG
2009




Almost every hard rock/metal artist from the 80's seems to have made a return of some sorts . When it was first announced that Lita Ford was going to play at this year's Rocklahoma I figured she would be doing an album soon enough. It's been 15 years since since "Black" her last album. Plus the albums she recorded during the 11 years of her solo career were varied in style and quality so I really didn't have any idea of what she would sound like now. My expectations were not that high, because I liked her in the Runaways and enjoyed her first two solo albums, but after that my interest began to fade. About the time she started doing formula hard rock I lost interest. Enough on the past let's take a look at what we get after a long absence. Well, surprisingly enough the majority of this album is light industrial music with subdued vocals from Lita and growling vocals from her hubbie Jim Gillette. Yes, the same Jim Gillette of Nitro fame who was once known for high hair and even higher vocals. Plus most of the songs have some kind of semi-kinky lyrics that didn't really work for me. The sound is heavier than I was expecting, but it's more loud and generic as opposed to having actual heavy hooks. It wasn't exactly annoying, but it was certainly dull and too often the songs began to blend together because they lacked personality. Even in the late 80's and early 90's when Lita was knocking sugary radio friendly rock at least her voice was decent. I always felt she was a good enough vocalist and that at least warranted giving her music a chance. That doesn't happen this time around as there is only a song or two where there are not layers of effects muting any power that may have been in the vocal tracks. I guess she is doing what she wants and that might be important if this was a better album, but unfortunately it's not. I am also not sure who this will appeal to. I doubt her older fans will be impressed and it's not real heavy or memorable enough for fans of that kind of metal. This is an album that will likely soon be forgotten.