Thursday, 23 August 2018
L A RAY And The SHADES Wild Weekend 1985
L A RAY And The SHADES Wild Weekend 1985
Requested in "REQUEST & FILL CORNER" section...
L.A. RAY And The SHADES is a funny name for your band. It does not a reference to sunglasses or the Californian city, in fact, this band hails from Colorado, and in their only (?) album "Wild Weekend" they deliver some darn fine 80s Pomp / Melodic Rock.
Opener "Do It All Night" is driven by biting guitars, a very strong melody and vocals which remind me Mervyn Spence from ORyan. "City Lights" adds some Pomp to the mix with some late Angel (Giuffria) but its mostly a melodic rocker with a sharp six-string work and a killer solo.
A Pomp AOR infusion explodes in track 3 "So Glad" starting with analog keys developing into something Styx could have produced in the first half of the 80s, however the chorus is quite poppy and extremely catchy. Excellent harmony vocal arrangements here too.
"Lady Ice" is that kind of mid-tempo Pomp tune we all love, again with an Angel / New England feel - love these stabbing keys in the background. The elaborated middle part has some Queen reference as well.
More quality pompy stuff comes with "Why Dont You" (akin Le Roux), the catchy "Victim Of Love", the harder "Rockin In Time" and the sweet and melodic "It Only Takes A Minute" (perhaps a bit of REO Speedwagon?).
"Dont Want To Be Lonely" is more mid-Eighties radio-oriented AOR, while the LP ends with the ballad "No Goodbyes", pompy with certain Roadmaster cadence in the vocals.
"Wild Weekend" is a rare private vinyl release requested many times on this blog, so here it is, ripped from vinyl (not mine) but cleaned.
Theres almost no information available about L.A. RAY And The SHADES, even I do not have the names of personnel involved. But who cares when the music is so good.
As a friend habitually says: Pomp Rules!
01 - Do It All Night
02 - City Lights
03 - So Glad
04 - Lady Ice
05 - Why Dont You
06 - Victim Of Love
07 - Rockin In Time
08 - Dont Want To Be Lonely
09 - It Only Takes A Minute
10 - No Goodbyes
L.A. RAY And The SHADES - Wild Weekend (1985)
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