Shy
Welcome To The Madhouse

After a very-very-very long time of being absent (not that it matters much, because nobody noticed!), I return to Debaser.

Debaser is like the perfect lover: you can call it whenever you want, and it will make love to you at any moment! Is this why I love this site? No, not at all, it's not for this reason, but simply because... I didn't feel like writing reviews, that's all!

Enough small talk, where was I? Ah yes, with Shy, which I should have reviewed a long time ago.

Can I be honest? I never could stand Shy, and they always rubbed me the wrong way, especially when Tony Mills was around. He's a bastard, and everyone knows it. Besides the fact that, in my opinion, he can't even be called a singer! Anyway, even if it's my personal (and perhaps unpopular) opinion, when I heard "Welcome To The Madhouse" from 1994 (right in the grunge era)... well? I had to put my personal opinions aside, I forgot (even if just for a moment...) Tony Mills and I listened to this album... and what a blast! 

At the time, Shy was at odds with themselves, and after Mills' departure, the choice for the new singer fell on Wardi, certainly rougher but who managed to give a contribution and a clearly more "streetwise" and incisive tone to the sound (by the way, we will later see him with a poor copy of Saxon). So, even the mere decision to head towards a fuller sound was another equally bold choice for the period, given that mama grunge was embracing even the most traditional hard rock groups that were trying to mimic the Seattle trend. Shy, famous for their classic (and irritating) AOR sound decided on a solution that was harder but not towards a darker sound, rather towards...party metal! Wow, what a choice, you might say, but the problem is another: the album is truly something successful, rousing songs that could make even a priest and a nun shake together, guitars thoroughly dusted off that the "shy" Shy would have never dared, yet there's a time for everything and, despite being an isolated incident (alas!), few will remember it.

The initial "Parasite" with a rising intro, makes things clear right away: big hard rock guitars for a compact and compelling sound, that only the best Danger Danger manage to create. The same lesson is imparted with "What Would Your Daddy Do" or with the fun cover of the Rolling Stones' "It's Only Rock'N'Roll" (also enjoy the hilarious extracted video). More subdued episodes are not missing, showing Wardi's more intimate side, such as in the dreamy "Tonight" or in the British-style "Don't Know Why", then returning to hit hard (but very hard) in the case of the final "Somebody" or in the party metal-oriented "Crazy Crazy" and "Something For The Weekend", to mention just a few examples.

However, there are some lackluster episodes that do not make it a perfect album, and this happens in the central part of the record, although "Angel" is an enjoyable song, but despite these flaws, there's no real reason to complain. 

In the years that followed, after this album, Wardi returned to anonymity, and Shy broke up, only to reunite in 2002 with Tony Mills for about 5 years before he "left them again" (I'm not surprised!) to join the now deflated TNT (which without Tony Harnell cannot exist in my opinion, but again: choices are choices!).

What remains for me from Shy is this truly excellent album, with a truly exceptional production by the good Neil Kernon and with a batch of songs that surely didn't make history but thankfully entered my (perverse!) mind.