World Goes Round
(Viper Records)
7/10
By Decibel Report - Jan 23, 2021

Originally put together by a group of highly successful music business veterans who individually worked with just about every big name during the heady 1980s, all ten tracks burst with bold bass lines, snappy snare drums, horny blasts of brass, and toppy funk guitar motifs reminding of a Prince, Jellyfish, and Chic inspired hybrid. In fact, it’s a mystery why this time capsule bunch of commercially savvy songs had to wait for more than thirty years to finally be released.

In essence, this pop-rock band of talented session musicians/songwriters, who got together in 1989 to record an album with an unmistakable gaudy palette of studio effects and sounds, firmly places this more than decent effort retrospectively amongst the classic contenders of its time. And it’s still as listenable as any of the top-grade pop, funk, blue-eyed soulful rock releases from that pre-grunge decade.

Produced by the multi-Grammy award-winning Tommy Vicari, of Prince, Billy Idol, and Starcastle fame, these taut, snappy multi-layered portals of wistful pop strike a mighty radio-friendly chord; especially in the current woke climate with its socially conscious lyrical messages that still resonate today.

Listening to Joy & Pain, Put It On The Line, and Puttin' Down Roots, the arrangements in themselves are proof enough of the consummate standard of honed skill from these storied players.

As the saying goes, “what goes around, comes around” and this album’s long-overdue release will find many spins in the collections of those who like this era's classic pop tones.