Pink Cream 69
Games People Play

Every time I listen to this album, I always wonder why Andi Deris wanted to leave: just when he was finally beginning to sing instead of screech like a hysterical woman, Boom, he leaves... really clever, the guy!

"Games People Play" dated August 1993 is one of the most beautiful albums of that era as well as one of the best episodes of these early Pink Cream 69. But it will also be the last one (thank God!) with Deris on vocals, although I must admit that here he manages to express himself much better compared to the first two.

The album is very introspective and presents rhythmic solutions never hinted at in the previous albums. Pink Cream gives more space to classy hard rock rather than the former power surges. The result is a complete album with various facets, very varied and extremely powerful. Obviously, no one paid attention to it, as usual!

The threatening arpeggio, which almost immediately erupts into a very refined hard rock explosion, characterizes the opening track "Face In The Mirror", from which a video will be extracted. Koffler's solo is beautiful, with a Deris that sings more modulated and less forced this time. The album seems very structured, and Pink Cream has now acquired a unique chemistry in the genre. Not surprisingly, it is followed by another little masterpiece that is "Way Down", a song in which the initial part features the wonderful solo by Koffler, repeated throughout the beginning of the song, all supported by Zafiriou's drums and Ward's bass. The central part is great, where the arpeggios create an atmosphere of anticipation, only to return once again with great choirs and a classy hard rock: sublime! A whirlwind bass line opens one of their highlights, always present in live shows, namely "Keep Your Eye On The Twisted": again, pure hard rock, with a great Dennis Ward who had not yet shown his skill on bass before. It is followed by the immense ballad "Somedays I Sail", and I bet you would say: "Oh come on, it sounds too much like "Silent Lucidity" by Queensryche!!!!"... then I just tell you one thing: find me a single band that would be able to recreate a similar song (even as a clone!) of Queensryche! It means that if they managed to do so, they created the same magic and the same class, a characteristic belonging to a few. A hit in the guts arrives with "Shattered", another thrilling hard rock, where Koffler shows what he's made of! "Monday Again" is in the style of "One Size Fits All": indeed, we find a touch of power here and there that is entirely pleasant, with some very peculiar guitar and bass lines. One of the best tracks of the album is the varied "Dyin' Century" which starts very slowly but stands out for the change of tempo halfway through the song, worthy of the best Rush! "Till You're Mine" is instead a more relaxed song, played on excellent arpeggios, effective bass rhythms, and consistently good choirs. The worst of the record is undoubtedly "Still Alive", which despite a violin intro, is the only (insignificant) weak point of the album. We are nearing the end, and another gem from PC69 arrives, namely "Down On Your Luck", which after a beautiful semi-atmospheric start, gives full space to Ward's 24-carat bass and incisive choirs (thanks again to a wonderful solo!). The instrumental "Backflash" introduces the final blow named "Condemnation", where our guys give it their all, especially Zafiriou. It's not a banal power song anyway, as halfway through the song, we find an excellent change of tempo as had happened on "Dyin' Century", testifying to the now acquired versatility. The album closes with the acoustic ballad, a pure lighter-in-the-air piece, "Don't Let It All Come Down", where Deris expresses himself best compared to the fast songs or the rockier ones. 

If you happen to come across the Japanese version, don't miss it, because it contains the sunny "A Good Waste Of Time", another song worth framing.

In conclusion, I would say that this album is a bomb for me... unexploded but still a bomb it is! And indeed, it is the best of the Deris period who will leave Pink Cream 69 to join Helloween. In his place will come David Readman, with whom we will become acquainted not with the disappointing "Change", but from "Food For Thought" onwards.