Lost/Forgotten Album #246

[Jon]

This week's selection is Peter Frampton's 1982 release "The Art Of Control" which is the followup to the awesome "Breaking All The Rules".

Supposedly, A&M forced Peter into making a more "radio-friendly" album and this was the result. Now, when I hear "radio-friendly", I expect an album full of ballads and/or an album that sounds like a product of the time. Therefore, this album should be new-wavey and synth heavy. But it's not.

There's plenty of geetar here and the album definitely rocks. "Back To Eden" is quite the catchy song and there's really no duds on the album. Maybe I'm missing something since Peter doesn't like this album and it has never been released on CD in the U.S. 

The one thing that does look like it's from the early 80's is the album cover. I remember seeing this in a record store and the cover does kinda scream "I'm a synth album!". Well, maybe just to me. But I do like the album cover. It's busy, but it's quite colorful.

Now it's your turn to decide. Is this a bad album?

The Art Of Control

1. I Read The News
2. Sleepwalk
3. Save Me
4. Back To Eden
5. An Eye For An Eye
6. Don't Think About Me
7. Heart In The Fire
8. Here Come Caroline
9. Barbara's Vacation

Availability: The only version available on CD is an OOP import and it runs around $95. The version I have includes the bonus track "Theme From Nivram" (not included here).

[RJhog (Admin)]

I Read The News gets this off to a good start.  Frampton's voice sounds great and classic.  And the guitar tone is amazing. The only slight drawback with it is the chorus, but not enough of a drawback to bother me.  Very nice start.  Oh, and you are correct regarding the album cover, very 80's looking.

Sleepwalk immediately sounds like a stab at conforming to what music was back then.  Luckily, it's not drenched in keybords.  Frampton's playing is dynamite.  Not crazy about the talking style of vocals, but otherwise I like it.  Although Save Me has more of a classic Frampton sound, I'm afraid it ventures into filler land.  

Back To Eden picks up the goodness though.  What a great tone on that guitar solo.  An Eye For An Eye has a pretty good groove to it.  I see it features the lyric that the album title came from.  The first half of the guitar solo sounds country, but not the second half.  The following track doesn't do much for me.

Heart In The Fire sounds extremely dated back to the early 80's, but that's not at all a turn off for me.  I like the edge that the song has.  I'm wondering if it was released as a single.  If I would have heard it back then, I certainly would have liked it.  Best song so far.  

Unfortunately, the last two tracks do nothing to add to the album.  But overall, I'd say it's definitely not a bad album.  I enjoyed listening to it.  I don't think it's anything I'm dying to add to my collection, but I wouldn't hesitate to pick it up for the right price at a yard sale.

[Scott]

Own this on vinyl and love it, its on high on my list of albums I need to find on CD.  Apparently that's gonna happen anytime soon!

The geetar production/sound is a bit different on this one, it does have that bit of New Waviness of the times about it.  Though the lead guitar is all Frampton!  At the time of its release it was different sounding.  But it holds up well, IMO!  I always liked side 2 better than side 1 for some reason.  But this listen has tightened that up a bit!  I'm flashing back all over the place on this one!  This is great.  Best LAOTW so far and you've had some good ones so far this year.