Former Babys singer John Waite hit the big time with his second solo LP ‘No Brakes’. John took a two year hiatus from his ‘Ignition’ debut, and hooked on with a new label EMI America in the process.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: John Waite
ALBUM: No Brakes
LABEL: EMI America
SERIAL: ST-17124 (LP), CDP 7 46078 2 (CD)
YEAR: 1984
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: John Waite – vocals * Gary Myrick – guitars * Bruce Brody – keyboards * Donnie Nossov – bass * Curly Smith – drums * Steve Scales – percussion
TRACK LISTING: 01 Saturday Night * 02 Missing You * 03 Dark Side Of The Sun * 04 Restless Heart * 05 Tears * 06 Euroshima * 07 Shake It Up Dreamtime * 08 For Your Love * 09 Love Collision
WEBLINK: Site Link
Background
Former Babys singer John Waite hit the big time with his second solo LP ‘No Brakes’. John took a two year hiatus from his ‘Ignition’ debut, and hooked on with a new label EMI America in the process.
The time was taken preparing this RECORD. Joining him were noted guitarist Gary Myrick (from The Figures) and Pat Benetar‘s bassist Donnie Nozzov. I tend to find much of Waite’s material to be listenable, but not altogether consistent, which is probably why we don’t have a lot of his albums reviewed on GDM.
The Songs
‘Saturday Night’ gets things going. An unusual opening track, a cranky rocker with an uptempo back-beat. It certainly wasn’t the entree required for Waite’s timeless 80’s hit ‘Missing You’ which was all over the charts and airwaves during 1984. The two songs couldn’t be more different.
‘Dark Side Of The Sun’ (a Jean Beauvoir co-write) lives in AOR territory and contains some nice touches throughput, including some great keyboard WORK. ‘Restless Heart’ is more of a straight-ahead track in the mould of Bob Seger.
Of interest to Kiss followers is the track ‘Tears’ which was written by Adam Mitchell who we wrote about on our forum last year, along with Vinnie Cusano/Vincent though the track isn’t all that unfortunately. Much better is ‘Euroshima’, with chugging guitar parts and a tougher delivery.
And from this point through to the end the album picks up markedly. ‘Shake It Up Dreamtime’ and ‘For Your Love’ are especially raucous, ‘Love Collision’ also has its moments, the plinky-plonk keyboards are an unusual feature.
In Summary
The album would do well after its initial June 1984 release. It eventually made it into the Billboard top 10 album charts in September of that year, achieving Gold status at the same time.
‘Missing You’ went to #1 on the singles charts, with ‘Tears’ being the second single. Waite’s third album ‘Mask Of Smiles’ would be released a year later, looking to cash in on the success of this album.
John Waite on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
