Vixen
Rev It Up

Do you know what it was like to light a Marlboro Red in a soft pack right there about twenty years ago, in the middle of Nevada driving a relentless Cadillac on a highway looking for who knows what in the middle of the desert, compared to lighting the same cigarette today here in Milan?

'Rev It Up' is an album that evokes the unrealizable desire to have a time machine at your disposal and head straight to 1990, on the release day of this very album. Because it would have been absolutely wonderful that morning to dress up and wear spurred crocodile boots, ripped jeans, a ragtag Motley Crue t-shirt, and then tease your hair until it was ridiculously big, fix it with hairspray to the max, put on a long earring with a cross, and head to the first little record shop to rummage through to buy this album and then head off to a place away from everything, that smelled of the U.S.A., the one of rock, the one that really changed something in the world.

'Rev It Up' is (or rather, should be considered) a piece of the history of American radio hard rock, rich in significant glamorous baroque elements, adorned with redundant pompousness, and crafted as brilliantly as few other albums in the genre. The Vixen, an all-girl band with Roxxy Petrucci (Petrucci Petrucci!) on drums, were four big girls of not overwhelming beauty but endowed with a great sense of musicality, harmony, orchestration between instruments, and the craftsmanship inherent in the hands and vocal cords of those who were making rock in America at that time. They had started with an eponymous album of moderate success a couple of years earlier. 'Vixen' was a raw album, not very well produced, but worthy of the Californian scene of the early days when the heavy verve of Lee Aaron-style guitar riffs was emerging forcefully, mixed with that typical east-coast/bonjovian desire to make melody a winning weapon. Just two years later, they came out with 'Rev It Up', and here the music changes. Well-supported by their record label, they produce this rock dream on four wheels (even though there's a motorcycle on the cover) that invites you to hop in and take a ride through the synthesis of ten years of hairspray and lipstick in grand style. Nostalgia for the years when I was there, but couldn't understand!

'Rev It Up' is the second release (there would be more, but with significant and not very pleasant changes in style and lineup) from the Vixen, who were simply unlucky to be born too late (this is said for many bands, like, for example, Bad English, but in this case, it was unfortunate for our ears, really) and unintentionally stood out in a genre that was disintegrating against something rough and full of a desire for distance. But it is a work that should be highly valued for all the personality it expresses, very feminine and masculine at the same time, and for its ability to encapsulate in just two steps what still needed to be said and given to the rock of those years. And so off for one last trip to the heart of the States, off with a tightly wound engine, off and away on the drum roll of the opener/title track Rev It Up that oozes keyboard melody and excellent guitar riffs. The pre-chorus bridges are bonjovian, while the chorus is of typical Vixen craftsmanship. What tickles the skin on your back, listening to this track, is the immediate sensation of transcending into something utterly free. A great desire not to have any worries, perhaps to have a story to live at a hundred miles an hour, to frame life in a little picture made of bubble gum and beer mugs held by spectacularly jeweled hands. Without forgetting that underlying riff that keeps the listener grounded, but with their head in a little club on Sunset Boulevard. The same descriptions apply to other songs like the succeeding How Much Love, built on the same line but laid down with impressive creativity. Someone might say, "here's the hand of Bon Jovi." I say, theoretically yes, but practically no... the Vixen stamp is too strong.

The third track deserves some separate words. "Love Is A Killer" elevates this album to the rank of genre masterpiece. A poignant, angry, airy ballad, sad at its core, full of melancholy. It's as if a highly passionate girl had her life partner taken away. It's as if this girl summoned all the pride within her to reclaim her independence and scream to the world that love sucks... while still dreaming of it deep down. The piano accompaniment to the singer's splendid voice and the progression of the instruments is very fitting and captivating. I consider it a must-listen.

Then, with "Not A Minute Too Soon", you return to a pompous and brilliant rock, a typical song for after sex following a performance to be framed. Great work from everyone, especially those handling guitar and keyboards, while by now there is no doubt about the grandeur of a fleshy and jarring voice, full of body, capable of reaching praiseworthy highs and bluesy lows. "Streets In Paradise" is a full-sail song as you've heard so many times, a typical battle rock 'n' roll filled with melodies that touch the soul and a refrain that makes you want to be at a mega stadium concert to sing it all together and send it out to the entire world. "Hard 16" winks at the previous work, showing a cleanliness that wasn't there before and unusual attention to sound quality. A small anthem for teenagers, enriching the musical offering of Rev It Up. "Bad Reputation" is sleazy and street-smart, it seems like the lyrics and music were stolen from some urban graffiti. "Fallen Hero" pushes the listener and puts them against the wall, always producing exquisite vibrations of grating rock, and deserves manes flowing in the wind as a backdrop. " Only A Heartbeat Away" is as pleasing as the first two songs, while "It Wouldn't Be Love" is the positive ballad, all honey, that would suit the end of a live show to greet the audience and reconfirm the same attendance for next time in that place. "Wrecking Ball" closes the work of the Vixen and moves on a theme that could roughly be this: "now start making some good healthy mess because we'll make you shake your booty" .

'Revit Up' is stuff I've been listening to for years and that always keeps my interest and curiosity alive towards the golden times of hard rock. It has everything inside, especially that class that only stylish women have who know how to assert themselves with elegance, without screaming clichéd and violent anthems as many, though skilled, other performers of that era did.