Twisted Sister
Love Is for Suckers

More criticized than Manowar and Kiss combined, in 1987 Twisted Sister, exhausted from the tour promoting "Come Out And Play", an album that attempted to capture a larger audience at the behest of their label "Atlantic Records", a move that ultimately did not work, found themselves at a standstill.

The options were twofold, either change record labels and return to the sound of their beginnings, like albums such as "Under The Blade" to be understood, or follow "Atlantic's" advice and attempt another commercial move in favor of a greater purchase by the youth of the twisted sisters' albums. It must also be said that the departure of historical drummer A.J. Pero, who would return to his old band "Cities", certainly did not help. Snider and his associates had to recruit Joey Franco, who, while a great drummer, lacked the energy that characterized A.J. The rules are the same as "Come Out And Play," but rendered, if possible, even more commercial: catchy choruses, beautiful melodies, and a sound that veers as much as possible towards the AOR genre.

The result is "Love Is For Suckers", completely recorded and produced solely at the "Atlantic" studios, and which came to light in the early days of August 1987. If songs like "Wake Up (The Sleeping Giant)," or "Yeah, Right!" and especially the title track have strong allusions to the early albums, other songs instead touch obscenity. I refer to "Hot Love", "I Want This Night (Last Forever)," or "I'm So Hot For You", so predictable, corny, and useless that at a certain point during the listen I stopped and thought, "Am I listening to post-1983 Mötley Crüe, or a Twisted Sister album?" Even before starting the listen, the titles themselves did not inspire much hope. Songs like "Tonight" and "Me And The Boys" pass without arousing particular attention, although equally predictable, but at least played with a little more class.

Dee Snider, however, soon realizes the mistake made. These are no longer Twisted Sister. They've just become another of the already countless (at the time) glam metal bands, and their original, sharp, and direct sound has gone down the drain. Two months after the release, the blond leader decided to leave the band. The actual band would reconsider the reunion only in '97, but from that year to today, no shadow of new TS albums has been seen, except for that Christmas compilation "A Twisted Christmas", which I do not consider part of their discography. This lack of post-reunion albums, some might call it "lack of ideas," or "zero desire to satisfy the fans." I call it consistency. Consistency in not making fans spend money on another album, perhaps hastily written with poor songwriting, which would only feel like a consolation prize, as some bands did after reuniting (did someone say Kiss?).

This "Love Is For Suckers" thus remains the end of Twisted Sister in every way, and although it doesn't remotely measure up to the other albums of the group, I don't feel like discouraging it. Surely if someone wants to start listening to TS, they should start with the debut or the better-known and equally excellent "Stay Hungry", but "Love Is For Suckers" is perhaps a work that can convince, even almost 30 years after its release.

"You can't sing about anger and rebellion when you have two Porsches in your garage, a villa with a pool, and three Harley-Davidsons parked on the driveway." - Dee Snider