What a difference a year makes. In 2017, Stephen Pearcy released one of my favourite albums of the year with the still amazing album Smash. One year later, we have the follow-up. View To A Thrill is a good and enjoyable album, even if it isn’t quite on Smash‘s level.
There has been a LOT of hoopla surrounding ‘that other band’ Pearcy sings for. Which? You know, the one that sold tens of millions of albums in the 1980s and made Pearcy quite a rich man for a while. Lately, the various founding members of RATT have been filing lawsuits back and forth, battling for ownership of the band name and organization.
Pearcy and bass player Jean Croucier are the current original members playing shows with the RATT logo behind them. The situation seems settled, but we’ll see what happens in 2019 – and that’s all that needs to be said about that for now.
The fact that Pearcy managed to record a full album amongst all the RATT-related turmoil, court cases and touring/activities is noteworthy, especially as it isn’t too long since his previous album. The set-up was however in place, and it was always the plan to do two albums pretty much back-to-back with the same team in place for both of them, even before all the RATT stuff happened.
This means Pearcy has been utilizing more or less the same set-up as for “Smash,” with the same processes, co-writers, and players as last time. This makes a ton of sense, as everything fell together so perfectly on the previous album.
The players on View To A Thrill remains guitarist Erik Ferentinos and bassist Matt Thorne, as well as new drummer Scot Coogan (fresh out of Ace Frehley’s band).
View To A Thrill is not a concept album, but may feel that way as it is sprinkled with James Bond references. Look no further than the title, which is a pun of a Bond movie title which we should all recognise.
In album opener U Only Live Twice the movie title reference is not even slightly hidden, and Sky Falling should be equally obvious. Lots of lines and references are sprinkled throughout almost every song, like in Double Shot (which contains the lyric “I keep sayin’ that the world is not enough, how many times must I die another day?”) ends with a female voice asking “Oh Mr. Pearcy, is that shaken not stirred?” You get the picture.
Ultimately, all of this is spice. It gives the album a certain flavour, and a nice flavour at that, but I have a feeling the songs would be pretty much the same if you took those elements away. These elements actually work in giving the album a certain flair. They are also very cool, and Stephen Pearcy does like to embrace the cool.
Album opener U Only Live Twice was a pre-album single, giving an early taste of what was coming. It’s a very typical Pearcy/RATT riff, dishing out the familiar lush melody and bouncy rhythm that originally put Pearcy on the map. This style, in various forms, is pretty consistent through the first half of the album, with Sky Falling, Malibu, One In A Million, and Double Shot all being straight up catchy 1980s-style rockers. The riffs are sharp, the groove is excellent, and the guitar solos offer a great mixture of sting and melody. These tunes are simply Pearcy at his three minute concise best.
After this, something happens. Secrets To Tell is a little more melodramatic, with a slower, more bluesy riff laying the foundation for a more melodic song. This is the first throwback to the previous album Smash which musically stretched a lot more than View To A Thrill has done up until this point.
Not Killing Me continues in this vein. It is again a slower track, more atmospheric, with an interesting layering of instruments that the first part of the album didn’t have.
Dangerous Thing is a more steady rocker similar to the first part of the album. The most interesting thing about this song is that Pearcy is ripping off his own earlier works. Specifically, if you play this song back-to-back with RATT’s Loving You Is A Dirty Job you will hear that they are identical. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – we already know from the court case of John Fogerty vs. John Fogerty that plagiarising yourself isn’t illegal, so we’ll just nod in recognition and move on.
I’m A Ratt is a self-referencing and potent song which will make the 1980s aficionados smile. From The Inside is moody and uses thick riffs and a deep bass line to good effect, with Pearcy stretching a bit into a non-standard song again.
The final track is the formidable but far-too-short Violator, which mixes heaviness with subtle lightness to good effect. It has the album’s raunchiest riff and a cryptic theme unlike anything listeners might expect.
And that is View To A Thrill – half an album of straight ahead rockers, the other half pulling slightly more from other types of influences.
In summarizing this album, it is natural to look at how it compares to the previous album Smash. Both of them are enjoyable, but View To A Thrill offers up more of the straight-ahead hard rock that Pearcy is known for, even though the latter half-of-the-album attempts to diversify the material a bit. I adore that style and think all who have followed Pearcy are probably thrilled that he went more back to that style.
Smash is ultimately the braver record, and better for it, with Pearcy stretching further outside of his core style of RATT rock’n’roll. It is more experimental, with ideas and musical passages brought into the songs that I wouldn’t have associated with him. The amazing thing is how well they work. At the same time, when he went back to the pure RATT moments on that album, it produced some of the best songs in that classic vein that he has ever done (I Can’t Take It and Ten Miles Wide). Smash is simply a triumph of creative and brilliant songwriting and performing.
View To A Thrill is an excellent companion piece. It has its own feel and that is important. I would have liked a touch more diversity, and the album is just those 1 or 2 killer tracks away from making it truly special.
Smash signalled innovation, and View To A Thrill signals a bit of ‘back to the roots.’ Obviously those are damn fine roots, but it’s almost a shame to go back to making “just” another great hard rock album with mainly 1980s inspirations after scaling such innovative peaks on the previous effort. Still, the quality is there. The album is great. Why complain? The last two Pearcy albums are his best solo efforts ever.
I don’t know if RATT have plans to release any more new music. Things seem very complicated right now in that particular setting, but I am more than satisfied with the quality of the albums Pearcy have been producing lately. They contain quality music in the RATT vein, and I am not sure an actual RATT album would be better. I am also not sure who would be playing on a RATT album these days.
The players Pearcy have been utilizing are gelling nicely, and with the quality being on an established high level I would hope Pearcy keeps tapping into his solo career as a creative outlet, while possibly performing with RATT to pay the bills.
Facebook Comments