Lost/Forgotten Album #280

[Jon]

A new year means a brand new series that will probably go on forever like the previous series!

Oh, who am I kidding?

This week's selection is the ninth in a series I thought up all by myself and features One Way Home, the 1987 release from the Hooters. This is the followup to the 2X Platinum Nervous Night, released in 1985.

When the Hooters hit it big with "And We Danced", the first single released from NN, I hated them. I hated the song, I hated the band name and I hated the video. To me, back then, it was just stupid pop. What didn't help was that the song was played A LOT on MTV, so that didn't help.

Things changed with the release of One Way Home. I believe it was the song "Satellite" that made me sit up and take notice. This wasn't really pop, this was more rock and I liked it. "Johnny B." was another song I heard that I also liked so I went ahead and picked up this album. I l have to admit, I listened to it A LOT.

I liked this album so much that I went ahead and picked up NN and enjoyed it, especially "All You Zombies", not because it had "'zombies" in the title, but because it was so epic. It was almost six minutes long, fer cryin' out loud.

One Way Home did not come close to the sales of Nervous Night but did reach gold certification. Maybe it was the darker themes, but NN had dark themes. Maybe it rocked too much, but NN actually did rock. So, who really knows.

Allmusic.com doesn't know. They don't even have a review of this album, but give it three stars. On Amazon, 70% give this five stars and 20% give it four stars. So, there are people out there that really like this album.

Now it's your turn to decide.

One Way Home

1. Satellite
2. Karla with a K
3. Johnny B
4. Graveyard Waltz
5. Fightin' on the Same Side
6. One Way Home
7. Washington's Day
8. Hard Rockin Summer
9. Engine 999

Availability: Can be found for around $4 used or you can get the BGO remaster that includes Nervous Night, One Way Home and Zig Zag for around $15 used or new.

[TageRyche]

You hated "And We Danced"? Wow, I loved that song and album.

[Scott]

I wasn't a fan of it either, but I think that had more to do with the video than the song...

[RJhog (Admin)]

I never bought Nervous Night, but I certainly remember how big And We Danced was. And I definitely liked that song. I've never looked at them as a rock band or not, but I just always kind of considered them a one hit wonder type of band.

But this album is thoroughly enjoyable.  Karla With A K is terrific.  It has tons of melody and a great singing song for a car trip.  I like the Medieval sound that the band has, especially in a song like Johnny B.  I'm not sure if I've heard this song or not, but it is flat out killer.  They have a terrific guitar player, and he shines on this song.  Then they can do a blues type song like Graveyard Waltz.  Almost something like you may have heard from The Animals back in the day.  And that guitar solo, they are most definitely a rock band.  And they change it up again, sounding something like Men At Work on Fightin' On The Same Side.  "You say blue and I say gray, but we know love ain't love if it fades away", that's a very good lyric.

This was a really good listen.  The band seems to be very versatile.  Heck, they even cover reggae.  Sometimes, when you wear too many hats, an album can sound quite disjointed.  This album doesn't sound that way at all.  Even with all of the different styles used, it sounds quite cohesive.  The vocalist is good, but the guitarist is the hidden gem here. He plays some terrific lead guitar.

[RJhog (Admin)]

Found this vinyl in excellent shape for a buck at the record store today...

[Scott]

Had this queued up Saturday morning but the wife and I started watching "Making a Murderer" on Netflix and next thing we knew the weekend was over!

And We Danced was a fairly decent song (IMO) but the performance video of the band didn't really connect with me.  Enjoyed when it came on but never sought it out or knew anyone that owned/played it.

Its very melodic and that's always a good thing in my book, or wheelhouse... These first two opening tracks are pure melodic ooey-gooey goodness!  Musically this is far stronger than I expected, lyrically not earth shattering and the choruses have a flatness to them that takes away form the music.

Graveyard Waltz is the first miscue even with the nice geetar work it didn't hold up, but Fightin' On The Same Side gets it right back on in the nice musical groove it started with.  Everything's got that Mellencampy feel to it with that recorder horn thing or whatever it is.

I didn't care for the reggae tinged One Way Home, Washingtons Day, or Hard Rockin Summer.  Though I did like Engine 999.  I would say this is better than I thought it would be but not sure its a band that intrigues me beyind this listening experience.  Still I'm entrenched in this series!  Very cool topic!