Category: 1980

Oak - Set The Night On Fire

Oak – Set The Night On Fire 2 (1)

Oak were the New Hampshire band that released two major label albums but unfortunately did not live up to their…

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Van Halen - Women And Children First

Van Halen – Women And Children First 4 (1)

Van Halen’s ‘Women And Children First’ came between the impact of a stunning debut and a tepid follow up, and…

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Couchois - Nasty Hardware

Couchois – Nasty Hardware 4 (1)

Couchois remind us of what an amazing time it was to be an AOR fan, with such classics as this…

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Trillion - Clear Approach

Trillion – Clear Approach 0 (0)

‘Clear Approach’ is Trillion’s second album, and if you’re looking for an AOR album of sheer class, where pomp rock…

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Fandango - Cadillac

Fandango – Cadillac 0 (0)

Fandango’s ‘Cadillac’ is great hard edged radio rock, though it’s not AOR in the purest sense.

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Face Dancer - About Face

Face Dancer – About Face 3 (1)

Face Dancer’s second album ‘About Face’ isn’t as bombastic as ‘This World’. The material veering to a harder form of…

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Black Sabbath - Heaven And Hell

Black Sabbath – Heaven And Hell 4 (1)

Obviously inspired, ‘Heaven And Hell’ was perhaps one of Black Sabbath’s greatest works, if not the best.

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Roadmaster - Fortress

Roadmaster – Fortress 3.5 (2)

The fourth Roadmaster album ‘Fortress’, would see the band shed their pomp tendencies and focus on a crisp radio rock…

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Exile - Don'T Leave Me This Way

Exile – Don’t Leave Me This Way 4 (3)

We do have a few Exile album reviews on GDM, but I think we’ve overlooked the best of the lot…

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Angel - Live Without A Net

Angel – Live Without A Net 3 (1)

Recorded during the 1979 ‘White Hot’ tour, this live Angel album was finally released in January 1980.

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Speedway Blvd - Speedway Blvd

Speedway BLVD – Speedway BLVD 3.5 (2)

Speedway BLVD – Speedway BLVD This is an incredibly different style of melodic rock from Speedway BLVD and for music…

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Hotel - Half Moon Silver

Hotel – Half Moon Silver 4 (3)

Hotel’s best record by far. You can definitely place a reservation in your record collection under ‘AOR’ for this particular…

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Touch - Touch

Touch – Touch 4.3 (4)

Long considered an AOR/pomp classic is this effort from New York based outfit Touch, formed from the ashes of the…

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Head East - Us1

Head East – U.S.1 2.5 (2)

This would be Head East’s last album for A&M, though this line-up would continue on for 1982’s ‘Onward And Upward’.

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Styx - Paradise Theatre

Styx – Paradise Theatre 4.3 (3)

For Styx, the more radio friendly style of ‘Cornerstone’ continued on ‘Paradise Theatre’ albeit laced with theatrics.

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Shooting Star - Shooting Star

Shooting Star – Shooting Star 5 (3)

My first exposure to Shooting Star goes back to my school years, January 1980 was when this album first appeared,…

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The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta

The Police – Zenyatta Mondatta 3 (2)

We pick up where we left off, covering the first three albums from British pop trio The Police, here’s 1980’s…

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