
he
post 9/11 world desperately needed
the cartoon toughness of PAT BENATAR. After the collapse of the World
Trade Center, American society had become stifled. It was no time for
jokes and it was the beginning of much of the political divisiveness
that has taken hold of our cultural landscape today and in the
aftermath of the terror attacks by Al-Qaeda forces entrenched in
Afghanistan, the country went to war...with Iraq. In a strange way it
all sounds like a piece of cake now given the fact that we are in the
rows of a global pandemic. We may not have had to wear masks and we
may have been able to move freely, but culturally, the years that
followed 9/11 were bereft. There was a sanitization that
took place in music with artists like DIDO, NORAH JONES, JOHN MAYER
and DAMIEN RICE putting out material that was heavy on wistfulness
and pop psychological heartache, but nothing terribly punchy. Hell,
even a punchy, alternative rock band like NO DOUBT went pop that year
with that HEY BABY shit. This clean cut approach to pop was
irritating. Thank god for PINK. Oh and there was that band
EVANESCENCE with that breakthrough hit of theirs, but that got on my
nerves quickly. The musical landscape of the time could've used
BENATAR's pyrotechnic vocals and fighting spirit.
Ever
since she came onto the scene in
1979 with her platinum selling debut album IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT,
BENATAR's tough girl approach has always been a source of contention
with music critics. I find it hard to believe that no one could find
the pint-sized rock chick's stiff upper lip pretty damned sexy.
Clearly millions did. And let's not even talk about that four octave
range of hers. For much of the REAGAN era, BENATAR filled the
airwaves with rock anthems such as HEARTBREAKER, HIT ME WITH YOUR
BEST SHOT, FIRE AND ICE, SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT and INVINCIBLE. On
deeper cuts she took the time to address social ills such as child
abuse on the chilling HELL IS FOR CHILDREN. Yet for all of her hard
rock histrionics, she knew how to get into the groove as she did with
the dance rock classic LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD and embraced marital
bliss and pending motherhood on the thunderous power ballad WE
BELONG. She could play both tough and tender but make no mistake that
the battlefield was where BENATAR belonged and her bellicosity earned
her seven platinum albums and four GRAMMY wins.
When
the nineties came along, things
were different. BENATAR and husband/guitarist NEIL GIRALDO took a
chance at expanding there repertoire into big band blues music with
the 1991 album TRUE LOVE. The unexpected shift from hard rock to
blues was panned by critics and despite reasonable returns for a
blues album, TRUE LOVE signaled the end of BENATAR's days as a rock n
roll force to be reckoned with. The GIRALDOs would return to rock n
roll form on 1993's GRAVITY's RAINBOW and the album earned BENATAR
something she had never received before – critical acclaim. However
critical acclaim didn't mean that sales were through the roof which
is too bad considering that GRAVITY'S RAINBOW is BENATAR's strongest
album. You can read more about that album here.
After
parting with CHRYSALIS RECORDS,
the label that had been their home for almost twenty years at that
point, PAT and NEIL began touring the country with their fiery
catalog of songs for every summer since 1995 with the exception of of
2020 due to the current pandemic. In 1997 they released the album
INNAMORATA on the now defunct independent label CMC INTERNATIONAL. It
was clear upon the album's release that CMC didn't have the pull of a
major label like CHRYSALIS and the rootsier acoustic guitar and
fiddle drive INNAMORATA made little impact and its single STRAWBERRY
WINE (which bore a strong resemblance to TONIC's IF YOU COULD ONLY
SEE from that same year) never found a home on rock radio. However,
critics were quick to applaud the woman for abandoning her tough girl
persona for a more adult perspective on love and romance.
But
wasn't the "tough girl persona" the
whole point? Wasn't that BENATAR's allure in the first place? It was
her practically trademarked toughness that made her brand of rock n
roll the punchy affair that it was. No one ever dreams of telling a
band like KISS to grow the hell up. And imagine what would happen if
AC/DC had embraced a gentler approach to their albums. It wouldn't
happen. Rock n roll is all about energy and people forget that in a
musical climate where hip hop and the creation of beats - as opposed to
a natural kinetic energy among musicians - is favored.
***
ix
years after the release of the
plaintive and quaint INNAMORATA, the GIRALDOS self-financed and
self-released their thirteenth album GO on their own label BEL
CHIASSO ENTERTAINMENT and the album was a curious edition to the
woman's length discography. A quick scan of the album's
striking cover showcasing BENATAR's manic vampiric visage gives you an
indication that the listener is in for the kind of hellraising that had
been sorely lacking from BENATAR on her previous release. Rootsy
gentility has been cast aside in favor of the rip roaring sounds of
nu metal on GO's opening title cut. I WON'T continues the melodrama
established by the title track and leaves a sting it's tail with the
chorus "I'd rather die than love you" and HAVE IT ALL is a
mid tempo rocker with the kind of chorus that only BENATAR could turn
into an anthem. Of course, the GIRALDOS' bag of tricks isn't limited
to heavy metal power chords. Their pop smarts come through on the
Latin-influenced pop rock of SORRY and their singer-songwriter-y
instincts across on the moody TELL ME. Gooey sentiment shouldn't have
a place on this album but it shows up in the banal CASIO-powered trip
hop ballad PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME and the ghost track - the
horrid 9/11 tribute CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA. This self-released album
deserved a bigger push than it got. So far, it is the only
album to be released by BENATAR in this century.
GO
The
thirteenth album from BENATAR delivers on the bombastic rock n roll
that people expect from the singer, but the nu metal approach of the
album's jarring opening title track is a double edged sword. On one
hand BENATAR's attempt to stay current with the times should be
applauded. There was no reason, other than finances, for why the
track didn't become a modest mainstream rock radio hit. However, a
long time fan might be wishing the GIRALDOS had taken the nostalgic
path. GIRALDO's power chords are meaner and slicker than ever and
BENATAR is issuing the kind of venom we haven't heard issued in quite
a while. And the nu metal flourish just makes it all sound more
venomous. The queen of hard rock is angry and betrayed again, but
instead of worrying about the GIRALDOS' married life, a listener
should feel right at home.
I
WON'T
Oh the
drama! But would we have it any other way? Marital bliss is all well
and good, but BENATAR putting that primo voice of hers to expressing
betrayed is the kind of spectacle that we all want to see and hear.
"I'd rather die than love you!" goes the chorus and it is pitch perfect
for the the burgeoning reality TV culture. I WON'T is another track
that could've done a little something on mainstream rock radio and in
the age of LINKIN PARK and INCUBUS and that bit of praise is really
saying something about the GIRALDO's pop music instincts.
HAVE IT ALL
BENATAR's
career has heavily depended on a series of sturdy choruses. That
being said, HAVE IT ALL boasts one clunkily worded chorus ("Have it all/Take it all/Use it with no
stake at all...Lead it just like sheep it all") that looks silly
on the liner notes but when PAT sinks her fangs into it, not only does
it work, the mid tempo rocker comes alive. There is nothing new here
thematically and that's alright.
SORRY
Sometimes the betrayed heroine is able to accept responsibility for her
part in the unravelling of a relationship. And she does so with an
infectious Latin-rhythm and GIRALDO's strumming and fingerpicking on an
acoustic guitar. The auto-tuning of BENATAR's purring vocals is
unnecessary and sounds like a production decision designed to make the
already mordern sounding album sound more modern. It's an enjoyable and
welcome pop moment and doesn't take a colossal effort of the
imagination to hear its potential on pop radio at that time.
GIRL
Its too late to mention that all of the songs on GO were written by the
GIRALDOS save for GIRL, which was the proposed title for the album
prior to release. Songwriter HOLLY KNIGHT, who penned such hits for
BENATAR as LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD and INVINCIBLE, returns to camp
BENATAR with this mid tempo rocker. The song made its premiere on
BENATAR's live album SUMMER VACATION 2001. With backing from a live
band and BENATAR's growl, GIRL was a BAD COMPANY-esque rocker that
could've been a live single a'la FLEETWOOD MAC's SILVER SPRINGS.
Unfortunately on GO, the effort feels like mere filler and the lack of
a live feel is to blame.
IN MY DREAMS
The irony of a couple married for decades releasing an album full of
romantic discord isn't lost on anyone so it's nice to hear the couple
chill and act like beach bum teens in love on IN MY DREAMS. Strangely,
BENATAR's coo on this track recalls the late CHRISTINA AMPHLETT of THE
DIVINYLS but it is GIRALDO's electrifying surf guitar that steals the
show here. The album could've used more moments of him cutting loose.
TELL ME
The GIRALDOS' songwriter-y instincts from their previous album
INNAMORATA kick in on TELL ME, a moody tale of a couple choosing to
stick it out no matter what harm they've done to each other in the
past. Balanced between gentle acoustic verses, rock out choruses and a
fiery bridge , TELL ME is a return to the pop rock formula that the
GIRALDOS' established on their 1981 album PRECIOUS TIME.
THE BROKENHEARTED
Heartbreak proves to be the bookend for BENATAR's discography.
HEARTBREAKER was the opening track on IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT in 1979
and closing out GO in 2003 (I won't mention the awful ghost track
CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA) is THE BROKENHEARTED, a haunting elegy for the
disenfranchised. Instead of romantic disillusionment, the trembly
ballad showcases BENATAR's big juicy heart when it comes to social
issues and this moving moment does so without coming off as preachy or
righteous.
***
round
the time GO was released, a funny thing happened to the LP. It became a
dying art thanks to the internet and file sharing. For an artist like
BENATAR that was unfortunate given that the long play album was the
medium where she truly shined as an artist. There is also the matter of
the GIRALDO's releasing the album themselves on their own dime, a feat
that absolutely no music consumer out there truly appreciates. Fans may
have complained about the lack of promotion for the album or the
absence of any of it's fine songs from rock radio, but that is why you
need a record company to do the heavy lifting. Despite such obstacles,
GO did manage to perform well in the BILLBOARD INDEPENDENT ALBUMS chart
by placing at #9. If sales for the album were lackluster, at least the
GIRALDOS had their lucrative annual touring to fall back on.
RICHIE UNTERBERGER
of ALL MUSIC GUIDE had this to say about GO:
"For her first
studio album in half a dozen years, Benatar returned with a fairly
characteristic and varied set of mainstream rock, longtime cohort Neil
Giraldo in the producer and co-songwriter chair (in addition to playing
much of the music). While her voice is in fine shape, capable of hard
rockers and more measured ballads, there isn't anything all that
memorable tune-wise. Most of the songs are preoccupied with romantic
disillusionment, which might be an odd state of affairs given the long
Benatar-Giraldo personal and professional partnership, but maybe
they're just doing what comes naturally to them as commercial
music-makers. Hard, arena-styled rock is perhaps the element most to
the fore here, particularly in the title track, with its waves of
distorted guitars. But the pair seem to be wanting to cover several
bases, with MOR balladry ("Brave" and "Please Don't Leave Me"), more
acoustic singer/songwriter-shaded stuff ("Sorry" and "Tell Me"), and
anthemic pop present as well. The CD also includes an unlisted bonus
track, the awful post-9/11 2001 tribute single "Christmas in
America."
JOSH TYRANGIEL of
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY took a similar tone in his summation of GO in his
C- review:
"Benatar seems well positioned for a comeback. You can almost see her
dueting with Gwen Stefani — Benatar 2.0 — and making an encore leap
into the top 10. But she won’t get there with the tunes from
â€Go.†Neil
Giraldo — Benatar’s husband, guitarist, and producer — cowrote
all 11
tracks, and you get what he was thinking. His wife has always been at
her best mining a slender emotional vein: anger at being betrayed. (See
â€Love Is a Battlefield,†â€Heartbreaker,†â€You Better Run,â€
etc.) So
Giraldo gives her a bunch of songs about that exact feeling. The most
successful of them — â€Go,†â€Brave,†â€Please Don’t Leave
Me†— allow
Benatar to show off her wonderfully elastic voice, and it’s fun to
hear
her stretch out on the choruses until she gets that familiar gravelly
purr at the bottom of each breath. The problem is the production.
â€Goâ€
is so full of slick power chords and bloated guitar solos that it
sounds like Benatar wandered into a Steve Vai session. This is a
particularly weird flaw. You might expect Benatar to make a nostalgia
album, but you’d think the nostalgia would be for her own era, not
the
days of Mötley Crüe and Poison. The few tracks that don’t build
toward
cheesy guitar moments have frantic pace changes, as if to cover for
their absence of a melody."
GO remains BENATAR's
only album to be released so far in this century and is not available
on any online music platform. In articles such as this I often include
YOUTUBE videos of the tracks discussed. I couldn't do that for this
article. It was even mentioned casually by BENATAR in her 2010
autobiography BETWEEN A HEART AND A ROCK PLACE that GO isn't exactly
NEIL's favorite album due largely to the fact that the album was
recorded digitally - a first for the GIRALDOS. In her autobiography
BENATAR has also expressed disinterest in wanting to make another album
and that is really too bad but understandable in the age of the .99
download.
Despite not
releasing a follow up album to GO, BENATAR did release two singles in
2017. The first was SHINE, a plaintive anthem written for the Women's
March that resulted after the election of DONALD TRUMP and the equally
anthemic DANCING THROUGH THE WRECKAGE which was the theme song for the
documentary film on homeless female veterans called SERVED LIKE A GIRL.
The latter song became a top 20 Adult Contemporary hit, her first on
that chart singe WE BELONG. Both songs were produced by LINDA PERRY and
perhaps an outside producer is what is needed for future success.