Benjamin Orr
The Lace

If the '80s were a musical instrument? Perhaps they would be a synthesizer. And if they were a food? A cheeseburger, maybe? If they were a piece of clothing? A fuchsia jacket with shoulder pads, one full of rhinestones, a preppy jacket, a pair of Ray-Bans, what? But if they were a piece of furniture, they could only be those. Those what? Why, those on the cover of this record (and many others, including the first one by Adam And The Ants, so still the '80s, which I have already reviewed)! You saw correctly: there's the platinum blonde, the chiaroscuro on her beautiful face, the illuminated gaze, and then there is nothing else but them: the shutters! If the '80s were something you keep at home and that serves the house, well, they would be shutters, no doubt about it.

It's 1986, Benji's voice is famous around the world thanks to the super-ballad "Drive" from two years earlier. His solo work really starts from that keyboard-laden pop-rock sound of "Heartbeat City," a level of excellence that many will try to reach. The opening "Too Hot To Stop" is quintessentially the Cars. Even the following "In Circles," more laid-back and very catchy in the chorus, belongs to the same family. In the big ballad "Stay The Night", Ben Orr of "Drive" returns, ready to tell you how in the '80s you fall in love with a different stranger each night without ever stepping out of these hallucinatory apartments filled with shutters on the 200th floor of a New York skyscraper... Those six notes of piano (ta-da-dà dadàda) encapsulate all American '80s in three seconds.

With the very sweet "Skyline", the new wave returns... Now you understand what the soul of this beautiful romantic is: it's Roxy Music, those of "My Little Girl", those of "More Than This". Another mention for the dark and subdued "When You're Gone", which may have a bit too many keyboards, but it's worth saying that these numerous keyboards all sound crystalline and (almost) always pleasant. "Spinning" is a cross between a specimen of new wave updated to 1986 sound and a Cars toy-song.

"Hold On" is perhaps the best of the group, again with those "spanning" keyboards. But above all, with its long, engaging choruses. And the verses, more precisely the backing vocals in the verses, those "Come on - Hold on to me - It's all I need", should we talk about them? The title track has a "symphonic" start that is anything but graceful, for a well-played but somewhat monotonous traditional ballad (especially given it lasts over four minutes). The airy vocals at the end are splendid. "That's The Way" is a playful hard rock piece that's very tight. Pretend this handsome blonde was kidnapped by aliens to teach those with three fingers how to play the guitar (or his bass). All this rhythm and joy to allow Benjamin to gather the final applause with "This Time Around", all melody, which if Ramazzotti had written it twenty-one years later, girls would have sung it by heart, word for word.

In 1986, while Ramazzotti was winning Sanremo, this truly handsome man (and truly worthy of fans and fan clubs) was writing, in collaboration with Diane Grey Page, a pop-rock and light music album that Ramazzotti and company can dream about all their lives, with melodies that you can't shake off. Which maybe, due to identical arrangements track by track, and for certain crystalline keyboards (and therefore tend to "crystallize" the sound), at first listen it might sound a bit flat, but then, if you wish, you'll listen to it again in small doses, and eventually like it entirely, even all in one go.

Recommended for those nostalgic for the Eighties, and for those not afraid of melody. I'm tearing down the curtains and going to buy some shutters. But first, I'll leave you the samples.