Van Halen is credited for creating hair metal, and since 1976, many more bands have come and gone. Poison, Mötley Crüe, Warrant, White Lion, Bon Jovi, Winger, Ratt, this list goes on and on, and includes today's Retro Spin, Autograph!
Autograph is typically labeled a one hit wonder for their tune, Turn Up The Radio, which was featured as the lead single from their 1984 debut album, Sign In Please. Though they continued to release albums throughout the 80's, and through the new millennium, they've never been able to recapture that moment in time that was their biggest hit. It's because of this, while many would probably say they know Turn Up The Radio, they probably don't remember who the band was behind it.
As the album cranked up, I found myself intrigued with that classic 80's hair band sound. Hard rock, but not what I'd call metal. Picture heavy guitar licks, backed by gravely vocals, and a keyboard. AKA typical hair metal sound. It's familiar, comfortable, and agreeable for an 80's guy like myself.
While it was enjoyable to sit through the album, it was also somewhat forgettable. While Turn Up The Radio stood out among the ten tracks, nothing else really stood out as noteworthy. This in and of itself if the most disappointing aspect of the whole thing. Autograph have a good sound. They're just not able to use this to craft "hits". Again, it's not a bad album. It's just okay. Nothing to get excited about, but also not something that was painful to listen to.
I imagine this album would have made a great soundtrack to an 80's skiing or skateboarding movie. Something to go well with the young teens and their shenanigans, but also suitable to correlate with each scene, and / or respective character.
I don't know. I guess I really don't have much more of an opinion on this one. It certainly didn't leave me wanting to hear more from Autograph, but I also didn't want to turn it off. Especially after I started picturing a generic movie in my head for it to correlate to. It's an average album, and was worth the few bucks I paid for it.
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