Baton Rouge
Shake Your Soul

"Excuse me, for success?".

"That way".

"Well, then we'll go the other way".

There are those who choose the more difficult path right from the start. It happens when the lineup becomes a puzzle and when, to get exactly what one wants, a band is repeatedly built and destroyed starting from 1986, only to debut in 1990. One might say that the worst humiliation for geniuses is to be understood. But one has to do a bit of critical work and note that, even though our Louisianans have gone practically unnoticed in the 80s/90s hard rock scene (with "Shake Your Soul", only 160th place in the American charts), the album I'm about to discuss is the clam that contains the pearl for compositional intelligence and for the incredible calibration of certain musical influences, which even become modular and thus can be composed at will, much like the famous Swedish furniture.

Ugly on the outside, enchanting on the inside. Born in Louisiana (and in my opinion, that's already saying something because the band's music is remarkably warm and not shocking at all) in 1987 the Baton Rouge moved to Los Angeles and began the long gestation of this album, going through numerous and avoidable problems. Despite this, their live shows earned them a contract with Atlantic and, under the major's aegis, they had the opportunity to work with high-caliber people for the writing and production of their debut.

What's it about. Despite the release date (I repeat, 1990), "Shake Your Soul" is a decidedly 80s album of what one might define as big rock. The hot, spicy, and decidedly inviting dish that the five studio members (led by the spectacular Kelly Keeling, voice and guitar) prepared is rigorously composed of three simple ingredients, different but united to deliver a big surprise result. In practice, the rhythmic base proposed by bass, drums, and guitar is markedly street, the vocals are clearly set to hard rock tones, while bridge and chorus, chiseled by steaming keyboards, reach high pop/AOR levels for a complex of sounds that inevitably transforms into an arena rock where nothing grows in its path. As happens with all those works that get re-evaluated after quite some time, in this case, too, a bit of historical and artistic revisionism is due. Surely the times aren't ripe yet, but I put my hands and disc forward, trying to pay homage to a work that anyone interested in listening to something different should obtain immediately.

The desire to be in the front row is all there, and it starts with a low blow to the bands that, in one way or another, practiced melodic hard rock in those years: the album's opener is "Doctor", a self-evident demonstration of the theorem expressed in the last part of the text written in bold. The band's geographical origin is already entirely evident. The compositional distance and the genuinely human warmth that our folks can express are remarkable compared to the north-Atlantic and Canadian area bands, technically emancipated like few, but brutally cold. Among music games and acrobatics, the first is a point-blank track that, between propulsion and winks, manifests optimism in waves. The songwriting, for this musical level, is surely banal but doesn't matter. At least for those who aren't native speakers.

The journey continues, making the trail of great rock with "Walks Like A Woman", once again maximally engaging, once again impossible not to sing it at the top of your lungs. "Big Trouble" is 80s rock from start to finish. And whoever knows or listens to it will surely agree. With "It's About Time", the grand path of AOR is practiced, venturing into territories where it is uncommon but finding an interpretation that knows homage to the genre. On "Bad Time Comin’ Down", there's the certainty of listening to a phenomenal album that gifts stadium anthems and thumbs up in rapid succession. The arpeggio at the minute of "The Midge" marks the melancholic end of the first half.

But it resumes immediately with the unbridled fun of the celebrating rock in "Baby’s So Cool", highly recommended for those organizing house chaos. From here on, out of 12 tracks, many groups faltered, offering rather bland songs to fill the jar. With Baton Rouge, logically, none of this happens, and the debut album reaches its peak offering three memorable successes like "Young Hearts", indelible ink under the skin, "Melenie", luxury AOR polished by a professional shoeshine boy, and "There Was A Time (The Storm)" that strikes fatally at the heart, marking a furrow of epicity in the tracks of this astonishing album. To close, there are "Hot Blood Movin’" and "Spread Like Fire", rockers reminiscent of a papal bull for the solemn closure of a masterpiece with the flavor of an oxymoron. An unforgettable forgettable.

Unlucky, in short, for being released late in an overcrowded period of bands, and for having witnessed the last clear success year of a rock that died immediately after due to estrogenic factors. The writer's advice is to: listen without prejudice.