Vain is BACK!!! - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

ShaniFaye · 07-04-2005, 04:12 PM

ok, so a lot of you wont care....but I remember from some previous threads there were a FEW Vain fans here.....evidently the original line up has a new cd out....I HAVE to HAVE to HAVE to ahold of a copy of this. Their CD No Respect still plays in constant rotation in my cd player....yes I even resorted to paying 50 bucks for an original on ebay once. So I thought I'd pass this along to the few here that might be interested and not know about it

Quote:

Vain - ON THE LINE

Vain
ON THE LINE

Alright, so maybe the release of this CD doesn't excite you the way it does me. That's ok. As long as you take notice and discover what is, arguably, the best band that didn't make it from the 80s. Vain's NO RESPECT rocked my CD player in the 80s more than Guns N' Roses, Queensryche, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, Poison, Warrant and Slaughter combined did. The song "Who's Watching You" blipped onto radio for 1/2 a second, and just like that, most people forgot them. The few and the loyal, such as myself, stayed with the band and picked up other great albums like FADE and MOVE ON IT, and even the less spectacular ALL THOSE STRANGERS. Hell, I even grabbed up Davy's solo release of 2000, IN FROM OUT OF NOWHERE. So while many may not have been excited to hear that Vain were releasing a new album, I was.

Even more exciting - the return of guitarist Danny West to the Vain fold. With his return, Vain seem to have stepped back into the time machine and created an album that falls somewhere between NO RESPECT and FADE. ON THE LINE clearly shows that Davy and company have a lot left in the tank when they get together to get creative. For his part, Davy sounds just like he always has. His clear, somewhat nasal and upper octave voice is as crisp as ever. Songs like "So Free Now" find him in top form. Even after all these years, Vain can still sing his ass off.

While Davy is good on this, the best part of this release is the playing of West. This guy has always been a "big sound" guitarist that mixed contemporary riffs with clean, fat guitar tones. He's really exceptional on songs like "On The Line" and "Last Sin". The band as a whole really bring some solid performances to the table.

But, ultimately, any band making a comeback will either sink or swim on the strength of the music they are creating when compared to their past. This is where this release is most interesting. For me, a total fan of the moodiness of this band's catalog, ON THE LINE fits right in with all the previous stuff. It's even better in a lot of cases due to the lack of limitation they've put on the songs to "sound" like anything specific from their past. There are songs, like "Drag Me" that could easily have fit on any album they did, while other songs like "Turn To Sand" offer a new wrinkle to what this band does. Fans of NO RESPECT only might not like this album as much as people that are aware of songs like "Shooting Star" or "Looking Glass".

PITRIFF RATING - 8/10 - A reunion that doesn't disappoint. While many of you are probably going, "who"; I am celebrating that Davy Vain is still creating music long after the original demise of this band that should have made it long ahead of bands that did have success, like Faster Pussycat, for instance. One of the best unknown bands of the era comes back with a cool reunion album here.

Added: Thursday, June 09, 2005

Review