Eurogliders - Absolutely

Name: Eurogliders
Album: Absolutely
Year: 1986
Style: Light Rock, Adult Contemporary
Similar Bands: Bangles, Animotion, Shakespears Sister, Boom Crash Opera,
"One-Word" Review:
Based Out Of: Perth, Australia
Label: Columbia, CBS

Cover, Record

Record, Back

Absolutely (1986)

1. Can't Wait to See You 4:13 (single)
2. The City of Soul 4:49 (single)
3. What Kind of Fool 3:49
4. So Tough 3:41
5. We Will Together 4:32 (single) /
6. Absolutely 4:37 (single)
7. Jesse 4:30
8. Moving Away 4:08
9. Enough Love 3:57

Album Rating (1-10): 5.0

Members & Other Bands:

• Bernie Lynch - Vox, Guitar, Keys, Producer (the Stockings, Living Single, Kam Sha)
• Grace Knight - Vox (Living Single, Australian Olympians, Kam Sha, Oz Art for Ozone, Olivia Newton-John)
• John Bennetts - Drums, Percussion, Programming (Eartha Kitt, Dangerzone)
• Ron Francois - Bass (Strutters, Lene Lovich, Teardrop Explodes, James Reyne, Wendy Matthews, Sinceros, Absent Friends, Kaylan, Ganggajand, Fingerprintz, Nick Plytas, Valerie Lagrange, Julian Cope, Cabo Frio, Aleesha Rome)
• Amanda Vincent - Keys (Living Single, Thompson Twins, Boy George, Tim Finn, QED, Renee Geyer, Mondo Rock, Jenny Morris, Billy Bragg, Moodswings, Camelle Hinds)
• Crispin Akerman - Guitar (Living Single)
• Bill Scheniman - Producer. Recording & Mixing
• David Quinn - Additional Engineering
• Peter Cobbin - Additional Engineering
• Tim Kramer - Additional Engineering
• Chris Porter - Producer, Engineer
• Brian Peacock - Mgmt
• Chris Gunn - Mgmt
• Adrienne Overall - Photo Painting

Unknown-ness: Never heard of this band, and i'll be honest: the year 1986 made me quite hesitant to buy this, as much of this has the production styling of dead drums and one-dimensional synth smoothness. But i do like a good female fronted band, so i wanted to give this band a try. I'm still expecting adult contemporary pop with the bad late 80's production sound.

Album Review: And the sound is spot on...i still can't imagine what people were thinking when these studio albums came back and sounded like they were created entirely digitally without a soul. The band started in 1981, and enjoyed success with many singles, their biggest was Heaven (top 5 hit). Grace Knight and Bernie Lynch (he asked her, his then girlfriend, eventually short-lived wife, to be in his band Living Single as it was before a words-out-of-a-hat name change, (there was another Living Single)) still perform together as the Eurogliders as of 2018.

Stand Out Track: Can't Wait to See You

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Classics IV - Traces

Name: Classics IV
Album: Traces
Year: 1969
Style: Folk, Light Pop, Easy Listening
Similar Bands: Bachelors, We Five, Roy Orbison, Association
"One-Word" Review: Loungey pop vocals
Based Out Of: Jacksonville, FL
Label: Imperial, Liberty

 cover, record

record, back

Traces (1969)

1. Everyday With You Girl  2:34 (single)
2. Mr. Blue 2:31
3. Sunny 2:40
4. Free 2:27
5. Traces 2:45 (single) /
6. Something I'll Remember 2:30
7. Our Day Will Come 2:12
8. Rainy Day 2:37
9. Traffic Jam 2:18
10. Sentimental Lady 2:24
11. Nobody Loves You But Me 3:11

Album Rating (1-10): 6.0

Members & Other Bands:

• Dennis Yost - Vox (Echoes, Leroy and the Moments)
• Emory Gordy - Arrangement, Composer (Here Today, Kommotions, St John & the Cardinals, Hot Bandm, TCB Band)
• Bill Lowery - Producer
• Buddy Buie - Producer
• Lew Bradley - Engineer
• Woody Woodward - Art Direction
• Gabor Halmos - Design
• Howard Risk - Photographer
• J.R. Cobb - guitar (Atlanta Rhythm Section)
• DeWayne Blackwell - Composer
• Mac Davis - Composer (Zots)
• Mort Garson - Composer
• Bobby Hebb - Composer
• Bob Hillard - Composer
• Tommy Roe - Composer

Unknown-ness: Never heard of Traces. Hoping they sound like some fun oldies pop like Herman's Herrmits, Monkees or Box Tops. But I never heard of them, so, probably not.

Album Review: I had the band mislabeled as Traces, but their name is actually Classics IV. It changed from Classics, as there was another band with that name from Brooklyn, and they experienced early set backs because the Four Seasons felt their music sounded too close to their style and had the song Pollyanna's NY airplay cut back. They still tour & play out, with a back up vocalist for Yost, (hand picked after he went through throat surgery and passed away in Dec'08). "Traffic Jam" sounds like a Colin Moulding song, and some of the tracks have a mid-period Elvis Costello (Mighty Like A Rose) sound. But most of the songs are easy listening light, with some smooth jazz sax solos and basic pop melodies.

Stand Out Track: Traffic Jam

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Max Gronenthal - Max

Name: Max (Carl) Gronenthal
Album: Max
Year: 1980
Style: Light "West Coast" Rock, Easy Listening
Similar Bands: Don Henley, Richard Marx, Steve Winwood. Toto, Kansas, Michael Bolton, Hall & Oates
"One-Word" Review: Motown Musak
Based Out Of: Nebraska
Label: Chrysalis

Cover & Record

 Record & Back

Max (1980)

1. I've Got Something Here For You 3:20
2. Rockin' Chair 3:33
3. Shana 6:23
4. Have A Good Time 3:50 (Paul Simon cover) / 
5. Where Do You Go 2:50
6. Say It Again 3:09
7. Here We Go Again 2:39
8. Near to You 3:20
9. Love Shows 3:24
10. Roll Home 2:35

Album Rating (1-10): 5.0

Members & Other Bands:

• Rob Fraboni - Producer
• Max Gronenthal - Vox, Piano, Organ, Synth (New Breed Blues Band, Chancellors, Fabulous Flippers, Gangbusters, Energy, DFK Band, Dan Fogelberg, Don Henley, Elton John, Kenny Loggins, Molly Hatchet, Bonnie Raitt, Bette Midler, Jack Mack & the Heart Attack, 38 Speical, Joe Cocker, Bad Company, Charlie Daniels, Wynonna Judd, Richard Marx, Tower of Power, Grand Funk Railroad, Rod Stewart, Dusty Springfield)
• Ricky Fataar - Drums, Percussion, Backing Vox, Guitar (Beach Boys, Flames, Hard Regulators, Monitors, Rutles, Upsetters)
• Jerry Wilson - Bass, Backing Vox (Seth)
• Rick Beilke - Guitar, Backing Vox, Sitar (Cheryl Dilcher, Persuuasions, Tractors, Mary Kay Place)
• Marty Grebb - Organ, Synth, Guitar, Sax (HP Lovecraft, Buckinghams, Exceptions, Fabulous Rhinestones, Weight Band, Taj Mahal)
• John McFee - Guitar, Violin (Clover, Southern Pacific, Tartan Horde, Doobie Brothers, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison)
• Mark Goldenberg - Guitar, Lyrics (Cretones, Eddie Boy Band, Jackie DeShannon, Linda Ronstadt, William Shatner)
• Marcy Levy - Backing Vox, Harmony Vox (Eric Clapton, George Duke Band, Nasty Housewives)
• Renee Geyer - Backing Vox (Australia Too, Australian Olympians, Easy Pieces, Sun, Phil Manning, Jimmy Barnes)
• Mike Finnigan - Harmony Vox, Lyrics (Black Rose, Dudek Finnigan Krueger band, Jerry Hahn Brother hood, Phantom Blues Band, Serfs, Dave Mason, Marc Tanner, Ringo Starr, Rod Stewart)
• Cornelius Bumpus - Soprano Sax (Doobie Brothers, NY Rock & Soul Revue, Moby Grape, Eikichi Yazawa, Donald Fagen)
• Rusty Anderson - Guitar, Effects (Ednaswap, Paul McCartney's band, Living Gaylights
• Ian Lafresnais - Lyrics
• Tim Kramer - Engineer
• Larry Nichols - Asst Engineer
• Ken Perry - Mastering
• Marty Wolff - Direction & Mgmt
• Bill Murphy - Album Design
• Rod Dyer - Album Design
• Andy Katz - Photos

Unknown-ness: I've never heard of Max, and don't know it its a band name or just one person. I like the color scheme and artwork with bold pockets of color, but it really does not shed light on what is to come on this record. Assuming it's one guy, i imagine singer songwritery stuff, and i don't see much new wave or power pop influence from the album art, but I could be wrong.

Album Review: Max, or Max Carl, or Max Gronenthal has been a singer & songwriter for his whole life, bouncing around Nebraska and Midwest bands, landing in some bigger bands like 32 Special and more recently Grand Funk Railroad. He is also responsible for scoring and writing songs for some films. He has worked on Spring Break and Police Academy, and his song plays over the closing credits of Short Circuit. Musically, this album is quite light. Despite having an R&B background, this breezy set of songs, West Coast AOR, lacks any memorable trait. At times, the R&B soes try to come out, but the production is so Easy Listening, that you could easily miss it.

Stand Out Track: Where Do You Go

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