Craaft-Craaft

Yesterrock
2012

Where to begin with Craaft's debut album? Maybe it's best to start of by saying that I rather did enjoy their 1988 sophomore-release, "Second Honeymoon", as it was a nice mixture of hard rock and AOR. On their 1986 self-titled debut album (which Yesterrock has remastered and tacked on numerous bonus tracks) Craaft seems more interested in mimicking the sound/style of Air Supply then playing actual "rock". That, in a nutshell, is what is wrong with this release. It would be one thing is the band were capable (at that time) of writing material as strong as Air Supply did (yes, even as I love bands like Slayer, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, etc. I like Air Supply so I know what I am drawing from for said argument), but instead (more often then not) it just sounds kind of silly. Yes, I know all too well that a lot of the eighties was lost in pop-rock silliness. The eighties (for as good as it was) also offered a very distinct "sound" and Craaft's debut sounds so "eighties". It's telling that the keyboards come off as powerful as the guitar solos and that the drums were originally programmed-Sandy Gennaro (Cindy Lauper) did step in (per the promo) and handle the drums, but having the drummer from Lauper's band (again, I love Lauper so that isn't the point) does not make you into a rock band! Both of those are a sure sign that this was/is an eighties release. Please don't think I'm dogging on eighties rock or pop-rock as I happen to have a lot of both in my personal collection. My gripe is that this sounds like everything that was wrong about the eighties. It just sounds "artificial" and, as a result, does nothing to stand out. My personal preference would still be "Second Honeymoon" where the band started to craft (no pun intended) their own sound. "Craaft" is simply too much of too many other eighties acts (not just Air Supply, but I could rattle off so many other similar acts that were better and that Craaft seem to try to emulate here-The Outfield, The Babys, Hall & Oates, Mr. Mister, etc.) and not done in a way to improve upon that.

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