Tampa outfit Autodrive formed as far back as the early 80’s. I compare Autodrive to bands like Biloxi, Shotgun Symphony and Tradia, no doubt due to the keyboard work of Paul Prator.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Autodrive
ALBUM: Autodrive
LABEL: Long Island Records
SERIAL: LIR 00075
YEAR: 1995
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Jimmy Murdock – lead vocals, bass * Wes Dearth (a.k.a John Wesley Dearth, III) – guitars * Paul Prator – keyboards * Mark Prator – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Turn Me On * 02 Borderline * 03 You’ve Changed * 04 Take Care My Love * 05 Keep Us Out Of Danger * 06 If There Was A Way * 07 Stay With Me * 08 She’s A Little Selfish * 09 Move On * 10 Foreign Force * 11 New World Machine (Bonus Track) * 12 Best In You (Bonus Track) * 13 Going Down The Hard Way (Bonus Track)
Background
Tampa outfit Autodrive formed as far back as the early 80’s. The founding members were guitarist Wes Dearth and drummer Mark Prator. They hovered around the Florida scene for a decade before jacking it in during 1990. A shame that they couldn’t break through for a record deal during the 80’s.
However, they did leave a gem behind; a selection of their music assembled in 1991 but recorded back in 1985. It may have released locally in the early 90’s but eventually found its way to European label Long Island Records who reissued the ‘Autodrive’ album in 1995. I compare Autodrive to bands like Biloxi, Shotgun Symphony and Tradia, no doubt due to the keyboard work of Paul Prator.
The Songs
Kicking off with ‘Turn Me On’, the band head out of the garage with a tune that is keyboard friendly, and very 80’s oriented. ‘Borderline’ takes us deeper into the 80’s AOR with gorgeous work and big harmony vocals, kinda like early Bon Jovi and Surgin. ‘You’ve Changed’ retains a restrained and softened style, not quite hitting their straps yet. ‘Take Care My Love’ is a soaring affair, with more keyboard and vocal goodness.
‘If There Was A Way’ and ‘She’s A Little Selfish’ lift the guitar quotient up slightly, and on these two, the delivery method lifts to racy levels. ‘Stay With Me’ on the other hand drops the speed but is no less appealing, and with ‘Move On’ touches the styles from all those band mentioned earlier in this article. ‘Foreign Force’ is a different sounding track altogether. Mostly pomp with a flair for the dramatic. The album contains three bonus tracks, one of which ‘New World Machine’ is featured as a video below.
In Summary
Though the band are long gone from the scene, both Dearth (real name John Wesley) click here and drummer Mark Prator click here are highly active in the music scene. both as recording engineers and live/studio musicians. Like many releases here, it would’ve been good if we highlighted this album much sooner than we have, however, it’s better to be late than never. A pretty rare find on CD these days, good luck in your search.
Autodrive on Videos
New World Machine
