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Wow. What a freakin' great album THIS is!
"Don't Say No" was Billy Squier's breakout album, led by the hit single, "The Stroke." But if that's all you know about this record, you are sorely misinformed. Top to bottom, this is a classic example of "all killer, no filler." If you were paying any attention to rock music at the beginning of the 80's, half of these songs will be immediately recognized. The opening threesome, "In The Dark", "The Stroke" and "My Kinda Lover" you will know. I'm telling you, even if you don't think you know these songs...you KNOW these songs.
And they are the perfect examples of radio-friendly early 80's rock, after the Styx/REO/Foreigner wave but before the hair-band/pop metal wave (and paralleling the New Wave time-wise). Crunchy guitars, towering drums, hummable melodies, memorable lyrics...this is so much better than you remember. Heck, this is way better than what I remember!
Back when there was side one and side two, side one continued with two more uptempo tunes, but flipping this sucker over rewarded you with an all-time classic tune, one that should be on every 80's lover's iPod playlist, "Lonely Is The Night". Here you have a killer melody, stop-start tempo changes, anthemic guitars, whip-cracking drums...it's a one-song distillation of this time and genre in American music.
The acoustic flavored tunes that follow are not as mind-blowing, but the Lennon tribute, "Nobody Knows" has grown on me over the years.
Finally, the album closer and title song, for me, was an undiscovered gem. I guess I kept replaying "Lonely" back in the day, and never let the album play out. I LOVE this song for the same reasons as "Lonely"...it's got all the same dynamics...maybe a bit more "drama" in the changes between the quiet segments and the rock blowouts. THIS is the song I kept replaying when I first got this CD.
And this is one awesome remastering! Compared to the previous ancient, original release, this is a revelation, with crystalline sound, expansive range and definitive sound-staging...all the instruments sound like they're in the right spots.
The two live add-ons don't add much...basically they just prove he's alive, and still performing somewhere. They're not exactly revelatory...
...but this remastering sure is. Buy this now. It's a bargain at twice the price...
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