For those who like 1980’s radio friendly AOR through to 1990’s modern pop you can’t go past Arizona based band Innuendo.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Innuendo
ALBUM: Three
LABEL: XLR8R
SERIAL: IN4-299
YEAR: 1999
CD INFO: Discogs Info
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Andy Watts – vocals * Brett Richey – guitars, keyboards * Aubrey Ridgeway – bass * Rodney Krentz – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Hard To Believe * 02 Second Guess Myself To Death * 03 Does Anybody Care * 04 Twist My Arm * 05 Fly Away * 06 Million Miles Apart * 07 Love Has Found You * 08 Angel * 09 Serenade * 10 Understand Me * 11 You Have My Heart * 12 Blind In The Eye Of The Storm * 13 Perpetual Motion * 14 Til’ The End Of Time * 15 Sing * 16 Say What You Mean * 17 Song On The Radio
WEBLINKS: NA
Background
Innuendo are a four piece melodic rock/modern pop band out of Phoenix AZ. They’ve been around for a few years now, previously going under the monicker Impact. It’s pretty obvious that this is their third album going by the album title, their other two releases being ‘Let Me Out’ and ‘Ain’t Like It Used To Be’. Their music is a hybrid of styles, quite varied actually.
Their sound has a lot of modern pop influences, and is quite 60’s ‘trippy’ in places, but there is enough here to tickle the interest of your typical AOR’ster and melodic rocker. As this is more of an AOR web site, it will be those AOR type influences which readers would want to compare Innuendo to. For instance Cheap Trick, Enuff Znuff, and Nelson, but in reality, there are heaps of other contemporaries in there too.
You get to hear each band members distinctive style coming through on the songs. None more so than vocalist Andy Watts who comes across like a modern pop version of the great Freddy Curci (Sheriff, Alias) mixed in with Tracy White (Shotgun Symphony and latterly Intruder), while Brett Riley provides the impetus of the bands creativeness, lyrics and musical structure.
The Songs
On to the album. Well firstly, interesting cover guys. What’s with the one horned cow? (ha ha). Seriously, you get good value for money here, 17 tracks clocking in at 62 minutes plus. Can’t complain about that now can we? The music weaves itself through different stages as we progress track by track. As there are so many tracks I’ll point the ones which impressed me.
‘Angel’ is probably the most AOR track onboard, with similar acoustic/electric guitar qualities to White Lion‘s #1 hit ‘Wait’. Following closely on it’s heels is ‘Million Miles Apart’ which has a near symphonic rock feel to it. ‘Fly Away’ though a change down in gear has interesting melodic passages throughout. The instrumental ‘Serenade’ is Journey revisited circa ‘Evolution’/’Departure’.
The acoustic workout ‘You Have My Heart’ is lovely, as is the piano based ballad ‘Til The End Of Time’. I can imagine the Nelson Brothers doing something like these two. Other notable moments include the infectious ‘Hard To Believe’, the band’s potential single ‘Second Guess Myself To Death’ (interesting song title.) and the very Enuff Znuff flavoured and groove driven ‘Twist My Arm’.
In Summary
All in all, Innuendo have great crossover appeal, and my only hope is that they get picked up by a major label where they can zero in on their obvious talent. For those wanting to pick up on band with influences ranging from 1980’s radio friendly AOR through to 1990’s modern pop you can’t go past Innuendo. All power to ya guys.
