We found ‘White Hot’ missing from our Angel reviews collection, hence now backwriting an article for it.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Angel
ALBUM: White Hot
LABEL: Casablanca
SERIAL: NBLP 7085
YEAR: 1978
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Frank DiMino – vocals * Punky Meadows – guitars * Gregg Giuffria – keyboards, moog, synthesizer * Felix Robinson – bass * Barry Brandt – drums
<TRACK LISTING: 01 Don’t Leave Me Lonely * 02 Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore * 03 Hold Me Squeeze Me * 04 Over And Over * 05 Under Suspicion * 06 Got Love If You Want It * 07 Stick Like Glue * 08 Flying With Broken Wings (Without You) * 09 You Could Lose Me * 10 The Winter Song
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
Quite how this album remained unlisted on this website up until now is a mystery. As part of an exercise to fill some obvious gaps among our discography, we found ‘White Hot’ missing from the Angel collection, hence now backwriting an article for it.
As history reveals, 1977 featured the ‘On Earth As It Is In Heaven’ album, released in May of that year. Bassist Mickey Jones departed the band at this point, with Felix Robinson joining for his first appearance on ‘White Hot’, which was released just after the Yuletide season of 1977 and into January 1978.
The band’s pomp and bombast sound along with their image were still evident, though in a changing musical climate with new wave, skinny tie and punk just around the corner, it was unclear how Angel were going to face the last part of the 70’s decade trying to stay relevant.
The Songs
Radio was still a pre-requisite for many bands in the genre, and in Angel’s case, it was appropriate that songs such as ‘Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore’ and ‘The Winter Song’ did reasonably well. The former making it into the Billboard top 50 singles, while ‘The Winter Song’ was a strong contender on radio outside of the USA. In fact, it was well played on radio in New Zealand during 1978!
Elsewhere, songs such as ‘Hold Me Squeeze Me’ and ‘Got Love If You Want It’ proved that guitarist Punky Meadows could rattle off some tough guitar lines when required, though the latter song was preluded by an extended Gregg Giuffria keyboard intro.. woah!
The pairing of ‘Don’t Leave Me Lonely’ and ‘Stick Like Glue’ hark back to an early 70’s power-pop sound, which is a bit of a contrast to Angel’s image at the time, though the purists would say that Angel’s origins were probably spawned from this genre anyway.
The pairing of ‘Flying With Broken Wings’ and ‘The Winter Song’ show Angel spreading their ballad like wings. The latter song is quite beautiful with its singalong and choir elements making this (for this writer at least) one of their more memorable songs. I gather this may have been a Christmas song for the 1977/1978 season.. that’s my guess.
In Summary
‘White Hot’ didn’t do that great on the charts in 1978, and would go largely unrecognised which was a bit unfair really, as this album contained some useful songs. Mercury did release this on CD in 1994 and more recently in Japan during 2010, but it was not part of the Angel package put together by Rock Candy Records, where only the first three albums were bundled together as part of an LP collectors series.
Perhaps one day ‘White Hot’ and ‘Sinful’ might get some extended reissue treatment, though I’m guessing the versions out there already are more than suitable.
Video
Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore
The Winter Song
