Audio CD review:
John Waite - Ignition/No Brakes

John Waite - Ignition/No Brakes

Band: John Waite Title: Ignition/No Brakes Rating: Release Date: 2001-08-14 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: White Heat - John Waite, Waite 2: Change - John Waite, Knight 3: Mr. Wonderful - John Waite, Kral 4: Going to the Top - John Waite, Pierce 5: Desperate Love - John Waite, Kral 6: Tempation - John Waite, Sandford 7: Be My Baby Tonight - John Waite, Kral 8: Make It Happen - John Waite, Brody 9: Im Still in Love - John Waite, Sabu 10: Wild Life - John Waite, Kral 11: Saturday Night - John Waite, Myrick, Gary 12: Missing You - John Waite, Waite 13: Dark Side of the Sun - John Waite, Beauvoir, Jean 14: Restless Heart - John Waite, Waite 15: Tears - John Waite, Cusano, Vinnie 16: Euroshima - John Waite, Myrick, Gary 17: Dreamtime/Shake It Up - John Waite, Kral 18: For You Love - John Waite, Waite 19: Love Collision - John Waite, Waite

Two of the Greatest CD's Ever in One The guitarist on both of these CDS is almost as good as John Waite's lyrics. No matter who you are or what you like,this CD is amazing. And the vocals the melodic classic voice of John Waite will never find you in a bad mood. If you like the classic vocalists of rock and the talent of the 80's when you could listen to every single song and not be disappointed you will love this CD. Great Vocals,music and lyrics with the right amount of Romance,Keyboards,Rock Guitar and imagination. It might even be the soundtrack to your life. Vinnie Vin www. vinnievin. com . Combination of an '80s obscurity with an '80s classic, pt. 2 For his second album NO BRAKES (1984), he finally decided to create a single that would break him wide open, as well as perfect his performance on uptempo rockers which were pretty stiff on IGNITION. After a solid, but not too mind-blowing solo debut with 1982's IGNITION, former Babys lead singer John Waite needed to take another tack if he wanted to be taken seriously as a solo artist. Granted, there are still some moments of unease on NO BRAKES, but overall, John seems to come up more successful on an album that helped make him one of the 1980s' fondest memories of pop music. Of course, the main reason one would get NO BRAKES is for "Missing You", which topped Billboard's Hot 100 in late 1984, knocking out Tina Turner's "What's Love Got To Do With It" from its 3-week reign. Tina would later cover "Missing You" & very well, I might add. But John's version is still a classic, another equally rough-yet-smooth tune that boasted great lyrics along with its memorable instrumentation. Most of all, there's the voice, that wrenching instrument that rivaled Foreigner's Lou Gramm & Journey's Steve Perry for its anguish. NO BRAKES also had a lot more success to speak of than IGNITION (whose main single "Change" finally reached the charts shortly after "Missing You"), and had two more hits with "Tears" & "Restless Heart". The former is another downhearted rocker that's still fun to listen to, especially its closing "I'm gonna cry you a river" coda. The latter is an acoustic-guitar-driven number that only peaked in the lower half of the Hot 100, but that is certainly no measure on its overall worth, especially since it's a song Waite wrote alone. Most of his best material had & still often comes from outside sources. The album starts out somewhat inauspiciously with the rock-revved "Saturday Night". Perhaps John wanted a song to kick off the album in grand "beat you over the head with a guitar" style, but it sounds like it was recorded in one take without any room for improvement. Luckily, it lasts less than 3 minutes. "For Your Love" & "Love Collision" work somewhat better, but even they have their moments of stumbling. NO BRAKES' other rockers are certainly steps up from that of IGNITION's. "Dark Side Of The Sun", "Euroshima" & "Dreamtime/Shake It Up" have John feeling a little more comfortable as gravel-voiced rocker, even if they do still have traces of the new wave polish that IGNITION had. "Euroshima", in particular, is a standout simply for being a rare stab at political commentary from a usually-just-entertaining artist like John Waite. The song was perfect for the political landscape of the 1980s, especially in John's homeland of Thatcher-era England. In fact, I can't think of one musician who was ever pro-Thatcher in the 1980s, which is strange considering her rather long tenure as PM. Like it or not, NO BRAKES would prove to be John Waite's most successful album as a solo artist. The next time he would see the top of the singles charts would be as frontman for the supergroup Bad English, but while he would never see such heights again on his own, that's not to say he wouldn't see more artistically satisfying moments. In fact, record company politics would be the cause for most of John's commercial woes in the future. Before all that happened, NO BRAKES showed that John had a lot going for him, and even now, he could still have another such masterstroke within him. Combination of an '80s obscurity with an '80s classic, pt. 1 So of course, "Missing You" is one I vividly remember from its first appearance, especially its video that was both cutting edge & cliched for its time. John Waite was one of those artists I remembered even back in his heyday in the mid-80s when I was no more than in preschool (I do have memories back that far). However, that was all I heard from Waite & didn't even know that he was the voice of Bad English's #1 hit "When I See You Smile", but I still knew that he was one of the most distinctive & best vocalists of the 1980s. Having become a musical consumer more bent on buying albums than singles, most of Waite's albums were inexplicably out of print or with the case of recent ones like TEMPLE BAR (1995) & WHEN YOU WERE MINE (1997), record company shake-ups hindered their success & have been taken out of print long before their time. To see Waite's first two LPs IGNITION (1982) & NO BRAKES (1984) on CD for probably the first time was nothing short of a miracle for yours truly. After the breakup of John's band the Babys in 1980, he seemed ready for a long, healthy solo career just from hearing his moderately-successful & overlooked work with the band. While power ballads & slick hard rock may have John's name all over it (therefore, easily dating it), you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone singing it better than Waite. His debut IGNITION was, as the liner notes state, not really a bad album, but it didn't have any standout tracks. In fact, "Change", which didn't even chart on its initial release (but peaked at #54 when it was re-issued after "Missing You" made him a star), is the closest thing to something memorable on IGNITION. It's a great song of course & the video was in constant rotation in the early days of MTV, but perhaps it wasn't the catch-all that would have made John a star right away. But that's not to say he didn't try his best. Contrary to his days in the Babys when proto-power ballads were their forte, hard rockers are the focus of IGNITION & while that's all fine & good, they seem to lack a little variety. "White Heat", "Desperate Love", "Be My Baby Tonight" & "Wild Life" sound rather good individually, but in the context of the album, they sound too identical to really combine well. "Mr. Wonderful" showed a lot of promise with its music-hall-inspired piano, but its tongue seems to be too firmly in cheek to really go off well. The fact that John wrote most of these songs may be the reason why, for even with the Babys & later with Bad English, outside material was what he did his best work on. The few ballads on IGNITION linger in the mind more after the album ends. "Going To The Top" & "I'm Still In Love" are alternately smooth enough to win over soft rock fans & still appeal to the volume-fascinated members of the rock crowd. This being 1982 & new wave's influence still being felt, synthesizers are on equal level with guitars on these & most of the other songs on IGNITION, which makes it a mystery why the album failed to find an audience on its release. While his first attempt at going solo didn't have a lot of success to speak of, John Waite still showed even without the Babys he had potential & his voice would become one of the most recognizable of the entire decade. Yes, IGNITION was more than a little scattered & too samey to really produce a major hit, but its highlights like "Change" really deserved to make a better impression especially with MTV becoming the surefire way for a new artist to get on the charts. The commercial silence that greeted IGNITION initially caused John Waite's solo career to sputter before it had a chance to take off. Next time out, John would finally break through & that album comes next in part 2 of this review. Review For Ignition Only This particular album sounds so eighties it seems almost to be a joke, but it was most definitely real includes the radio anthem 'Change', if you don't remember it, fear not, you ain't missin nuthin. Whether with the Babies, Bad English or solo, Waite pretty much made the same indistinguishable corporate pabulum. GOING TO THE TOP If I were rating this set as individual releases I would give IGNITION 5 stars and NO BRAKES 4 stars. I remember my disapointment when the Babys split up and I was so happy to see IGNITION come out, along with a tour. Waite's first solo was full of passion and very reminiscent of the Babys, while NO BRAKES was a much more polished work. The difference in ratings on the two is solely based on the number of songs I really enjoyed from each. I have to admit NO BRAKES had the biggest hit and airplay on radio and MTV, but that doesn't make it better, at least to me. I would love for every Waite album to sound like IGNITION, but then even that would probably become redundant. I don't have the disc here in front of me, so, I will edit this a bit later, but IGNITION is full of great songs like "White Heat", "Change", "Going to the Top", and "Mr. Wonderful". Looking at NO BRAKES, I can only think of the huge single "Missing You". I really wish I could remember more titles, so, let me just say that IGNITION is electric, in my opinion, and combined with NO BRAKES is an excellent bargain at this price. Since it seems as though Waite's releases and the Baby's releases come and go, it might be smart to pick this up while it is available. You can see a complete list of all John Waite discography, or go back to the John Waite tabs