Downtown Dreamers

"The HOTTEST rock guitar find of 1987 returns with a brand new band;" screams the front-cover shrink wrap promo sticker in front of an out-of-focus, posterized model leaning up against a street lamp. As if to further forward a visually dubious proposition, Hit Parader's blurb just below states: "If you like the hottest new guitar sounds, check this band out." Alas, digging into album #2, one finds yet again hype stickers are a dicey business, especially with the business of Italian guitar hero Alex Masi.

The first track God Promised a Paradise, while not the strongest offering here, did get the band some much-needed MTV exposure, also introducing us to this month's Masi band vocalist David Felolt, who brings a Klaus Meine vibe to his performance. Thunder and Lightning has a nice set of riffs to go with a more mid-paced strut and Felolt's Meine-isms. It sounds like it could have come off of the Scorps' Savage Amusement, which wouldn't be an issue if that album wasn't already made and largely derided. Elsewhere Foggy Day In Hollywood, another of Masi's quirky, episodic instrumentals, is a welcome increase of sophistication here and completely wigged out. The instrumental is followed by double-bass speedster Hellraiser which as per the faster cream-your-pants moments on Fire In The Rain sounds like some of the better moments from Steeler's debut, Masi employing pitch shifting to good effect during the frenetically-tapped solo.

Unfortunately once again the lyrics weigh down the fun, the worst detritus of the 80's glam scene proudly on display here, personified by the the cover model stripping to her underwear and striking a suggestive pose on the lyric insert. Wading through a deluge of double entendres so obvious they barely qualify the "double" prefix, the listener is subjected to a metric pantload of "gypsy livin'" on "backstreets" to the "alleys of love." The obligatory "Fire/Desire" rhyme contractually mandated by most metal albums made in 1988, is found here in a track entitled Undercover (Rock and Roll Lover), though it admittedly is one of the better songs on the album. Elsewhere State of Rock informs us that "I'm in a state, state of rock/Gettin' ready to give it a shot" a rhyme so meaningless and forced it wouldn't sound out of place on a Loudness album. Given the stylistic trappings of the day, one would be inclined to give Masi a pass, that is until the final track I Hear You Callin' which ends the album with the verse "Would it be legal to say? I like to rape when I play." Apart from being completely appalling, it literally sounds like the result of a boardroom compromise between Enigma A&R and legal ("About the rape thing Howard, the board feels we just can't go all the way here..BUT - and i'm just shooting from the hip here - WHAT IF we word it like a hypothetical proposition...")

Superficially Downtown Dreamers sports a notable step up in production values and hair care budgets, producer and co-arranger Howard Benson (who later in his career would go on to produce such hard-rock luminaries as Hoobastank, Seether and Flyleaf) focusing the band a little more towards the hit single trends of the day. This means a liberal sprinkling of the top-shelf 80's glam keyboard tones with the rest of the latest tech and tricks, including that awful, reverb-drenched techy snare sound. Dated production aside, these compositions are actually beginning to function as complete songs, with better choruses and craftier arrangements. While Masi can still play circles around most mortals, and the overall tighter songs prevents this from being just embarrassing, it is clear that the personality of the player was buried too deeply by the trappings of the band and the industry, and so the guitarist would next go solo, effectively signalling the end of his flirtation with glam rock with 1989's much more nuanced followup Attack of the Neon Shark.

This album is the second Masi album from 1988. What is offered here is 11 tracks of catchy hook oriented AOR/80's metal, made even more intense my Alex Masi's bombastic and energetic guitarwork...and of course his shredderiffic soloing. Most of the album is mid paced in nature, with only one track (Hellraiser) that is all out speed metal mayhem that sounds kinda like the Ozzy song "Secret Loser" (from his "Ultimate Sin" album, which consequntly sounds similar to a few songs here at points). The rest of the album (barring a song or two that are more bombastic) is slower, occasionally bluesy, metal that sounds similar to Testament's album "The Ritual". The vocals of David Fefolt are of the mid range style, (thats right, no high pitched cheese at all!) he kinda sounds like a cross between David Coverdale and Jeff Scott Soto.
The production here is in the 80's metal format. A "big" sounding snaredrum, and the in-your-face guitar bombast is in the forefront. Combine with that excellent songwriting and driving basswork and what we have is an output that is really very good. "God Promised a Paradise" is probably the best song here (and the reason I purchased this record after seeing the video for this song) and is one that gets stuck in your head the easiest. This is due to the (over) repeating of the chorus, in a sentence..Alex's unique and very cool way of playing drives the song while the chorus pulls you in.
"Thunder And Lightning"..oh my..here we move on to a slower bluesier track that sounds like it could be used as a song for a stripper to dance to. No kidding. Its not overtly cheesy like a Whitesnake song, it actually has more crunchy and metallic moments and especially contains some great leads similar sounding to that of Testament's Alex Skolnick (in particular on the song "Return to Serenity" )(If you've heard that song...you know what this songs sounds like)
"Movin' On" is an energetic "arena" sounding number. It *doesn't* have a "hair" metal feel though ; ) A simple bass line and dazzling guitar harmonics drive the song while the infectious chorus makes it the most interesting. "Undercover (Rock N Roll Lover)"..dont let the name fool you, this song's not bad at all. Granted, if you take out this song's catchy as hell chrous then all you'd have is Alex Masi shredding and wailing like the bad mo-fo that he is! Eh, ..guitar effects are here in big way here.
"Hangin' On" is the obligitory power ballad. It starts with clean guitar and some great singing and most of all transcendental guitarwork.. Here is where we make our Yngwie Malmsteen comparisons, kiddies! Take any Yngwie ballad and add more masculine vocals and you have this! Oh yeah, and make the soloing more intense and listenable to! Other than that this song isn't far removed from sounding like an Ozzy ballad either...(heard Time After Time or Road to Nowhere?) "Foggy Day In Hollywood"...guitar virtouso worshippers rejoice!!! This is an instrumental of shredderific proportions with the breakdown of INTENSE (and downright passionate and "sexy" sounding) slower guitar wailing. Then it speeds back up....to 200 MPH!!!!
I wont go into the rest of the songs....I'll leave that up to interested parties!

In conclusion, if you are into guitar virtuosos (like George Lynch, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen) then this album would make you quite the happy camper. Other than that, soundwise on a whole, if you like bands like Ozzy Osbourne or Dokken, or even Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force, then I think you'd enjoy this. Thats right, this is pure 80's metal with better than good songwriting!